Mosquito Lake

Many moons ago, we were hav'n breakfast at the Hungry Bear. In the booth next to us was Joe Wilhelm and wife. We struck up a conversation 'bout cutt'n timber in Alaska.

Joe asked if I'd heard of a place called the Kelsaw? Yes, it was near Mosquito Lake, North of Haines. Joe sez he was there once. Didn't say if he cut there or just looked it over. The years I knew Joe he worked at the Rustics log yard. If ya didn't like Joe, there was something wrong with yer gene pool.

When pard and I went there a bushler lived near the lake. He kept some saw parts to sell. My pard was extra hard on bar tips. Pull'n up to the place we could see why they called it Mosquito Lake.

The pickup was mobbed by clouds of the blood suckers!!

The ol' boy was sorta homestead'n. Just him and wife. He looked rugged enough to handle it. They had a little one-cylinder diesel generator he ran 12 hours a day fer freezer and such. They seemed to be somewhat immune to the pests. Maybe had some secret bug dope. I concluded his wife took her marriage vows serious. If they had children they'd grown and skedaddled. Probably to somewhere there weren't no bugs.

Anyway, we took off to check on this up and come'n cutt'n job at the Kelsaw. This was June and patches of snow still lingered in the timber. It was steep--steep country, the road had slid shut - stumps and rock. They wanted to start cutt'n ahead of the yarder. The ol' bushler told us a bushler got killed the fall before. It was a dangersome place all right. That didn't bother us so much as the thought of finish'n the strip of timber the man got killed at. Something about cutt'n the strip where the man drew his last breath.

We decided to leave Mosquito Lake to the tough ol' bushler and wife and head on down to Sullivan River to work. The boat ride was bad on rip tide but such was southeast Alaska.