PATRICK DURKIN OUTDOORS

Everyone who visits, passes through or lives in Alaska likes quoting a statistic about Mt. Denali, North America’s tallest mountain. The oft-quoted stat isn’t Denali’s height — 20,310 feet, or 6,770 yards — above sea level. No, the oft-repeated statistic folks love but few verify is that only 30% of visitors trying to see Denali actually do, given the persistent clouds often blocking their view. The region’s humidity is typically high, and Denali is so massive it create

Someday — no time soon, I hope — one of my grandkids will inspect the contents of our backyard shed and say to their grandmother, “I never knew the grumpy ol’ coot was such a serious waterfowler.” “He wasn’t,” Penny will respond. “At least not for long. Maybe 18 months? He spent the summers of 1982 and ’83 making all these duck and goose decoys. He even built a duck skiff in the summer of ’83 and tied 32 feet of wire-grass blinds that fall. Through it all, he spent the 198

While hunting turkeys on public lands not far from Eau Claire in mid-May, I noticed a unique property-boundary sign nailed to a red oak. The old yellow sign read: “WILDLIFE SAFETY ZONE” in bold, black letters on the top two lines. The details followed: “NO HUNTING, FISHING, TRAPPING, OR MOTORIZED VEHICLES. HIKING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND NATURE STUDY PERMITTED.” The landowners’ names were at the bottom, but my onX Maps app listed a different name for the owner. Apparently, the

If I didn't view wild turkeys as nature’s most fickle, frustrating and fascinating bird, I might have felt guilty for shooting a gobbler May 8 as it stood confused while its buddy flapped its last among my decoys. I suspect that Emily Krumenauer, my hunting buddy and family-friend, frazzled my gobbler’s composure when she shot its running mate seconds earlier with her late father's Model 12 Winchester shotgun. The two big gobblers had spent the previous minute in a murdero