Chapter 18

With so much going on, Tracy and Sam decided to give themselves a little more time to move everything out to Walker Lake for the wedding and arrange things more to her liking. Thus the date was set for Saturday, January 1. 2005. This was to celebrate not only the New Year, but also the symbolic new life Tracy and Sam were to begin together. Their friend Gary Owens who had married Grif and Tara would perform the ceremony, but wished to visit with the couple beforehand. He and Gina planned to visit the Walker Lake Lodge on the 18^th when they came to Fairbanks, weather permitting.

Sam was amused that Gary's folks would name their son after a song. Grif explained that Gary's parents were big western movie fans, and his father's favorite movie had been "They Died with Their Boots On." They named Gary after both the Actor Gary Cooper and the 7^th Cavalry song. It was easier to live down than his brother's name, John Wayne Owens, after his mother's favorite actor. Grif vouched that one would never meet a nicer couple than the Owens.

"Besides," noted Grif, "the name of the song comes from a place in Ireland that has two 'R's' in it."

With Christmas approaching, Grif was awaiting the arrival of the new winter clothing he'd ordered for Tara, and the new avionics system with the Weather scope that he was having Jeff Owens install in her Maule. Tara meanwhile was up to her own shenanigans, that would involve a small craft stick cabin, and the mount of a twenty-eight inch Arctic Char, like the ones they caught up on the Colville River. Grif cut a spruce tree and they decorated it in the den of the main lodge at Walker Lake. It was rather plain compared to the elaborate artificial ones at the two restaurants and the Chena River Lodge. It was theirs however.

Tara and Grif spent some time every couple of days ice fishing from the 8' x 8' shanty they pulled out on the lake with the snowmobiles. The twelve-inch auger quickly re-bored the holes in the three feet of ice, and two propane lanterns provided light, and a kerosene stove provided heat and a means to fix a hot cup of coffee or bowl of soup. The fish were attracted to the light, and one could warm their cold fingers by holding them a few inches from the glass lens.

Mostly they caught char and whitefish with the char most often being released, and the whitefish being dinner one night a week. Sometimes they caught a Northern Pike but usually lost them due to not having a wire leader on to keep the thousands of needle-sharp teeth from cutting the line. If they used the leader, they wouldn't catch the more wary char and Lake Trout. The pike were too bony to eat as far as Grif was concerned. It was, however, a way to stave off boredom during the twenty-hour long nights of mid-winter.

The biggest fish caught was a 45-inch pike, followed by a 43-inch Laker. Both were released after retrieving three previously lost jigs from the pike's mouth. Tara actually lost a Lake Trout that wouldn't fit through the hole. Grif peeled off his coveralls, removed his shirt after taking a digital photo of the big head at the bottom of the hole, and reached down into the icy water with his forceps to unhook it. He debated on breaking it off, but didn't want to take the chance of the magnificent fish getting the hooks through both jaws and starving to death. Tara quickly dried him off afterwards and helped him back into his coveralls.

On the way back to the lodge, they marveled at the magnificent Aurora display that lit the winter night sky, and hummed to them like power lines. Soon they would be having guests that came just to see these even though that was one of the attractions at the Chena River Lodge. Of course, there had to be some other activities, like cross-country skiing or even downhill skiing, but putting a ski lift on the side of the mountain would ruin the aesthetics of the area. Tara thought about dogsled rides, but the dogs would be an added distraction, and added the liability problem if one of the high-strung animals bit a guest.

Chris suggested installing a cable and pulley system where skiers could be pulled back uphill on their skis and just having a beginner level ski slope. He and Marty had done some skiing in New Mexico, and one of the lodges had something like that on one of the smaller slopes. It was small enough that the entire thing could be taken down and stored in a shed over the summer. Chris also suggested a toboggan and sled slope and a place for snowboarding.

Grif asked him to draw it out, and he would submit the idea to the Park Ranger in Bettles. Of course, the application for the permit to bring in the horses in was still on the Ranger's desk. Sometime in November, Kelsey Langford, the new President of the Animals First Foundation, had gotten wind of the Walker Lake operation from a former employee of the Chena River Inn. He had been unable to halt the issuance of the original permit in late August, because that was done before he took over the AFF, and in fact just before the anonymous former employee alerted him to the fact that the Gates of the Arctic N.P. was being developed.

By the time Langford learned of the Walker Lake Lodge, the lodge, cabins, airstrip, hangar and Ranger Headquarters were already finished. Using his influence with a park volunteer, he was able to effectively stall the horse and barn permits. The National Park Service uses volunteer workers, many, if not most, are supporters of a strong anti-hunting and fishing agenda.

Tracy and Sheila had lost most of their political clout when they sold the AFF and the remainder when they refused to contribute further to the party's campaigns. Langford on the other hand, was quick to establish his contacts and let his ultra-liberal candidates know that he was buying influence, if they were selling. The election had come and gone, and there was still, as there always will be, corruption in all levels of the government. Langford, and others like him, guaranteed its perpetuity.

Grif went to the Ranger's office in Bettles. When he came up to the counter, a bespectacled volunteer with a distasteful scowl on his face got up from a desk and came over to him. Reading the name from the nametag pin on his pocket, Grif greeted him, "Hi Bruce, is Darren around?"

"No," he replied, "He had to go to Fairbanks and left me in charge. He won't be back until tomorrow. Is there something I can do you for?"

"Maybe," Grif answered (not at all receptive of Bruce's implication of 'doing him'), "one of our assistants has come up with an 'environmentally friendly' system to get skiers back up the mountain, and I wanted to submit the plans and application for Darren to review and hopefully approve."

"Now you're going to bring in skiers?" Bruce gasped. "Haven't you done enough damage to the wilderness already. I am surprised you haven't fished the lake out by now. Are there even any animals left with all of the airplanes going in and out?"

"Whoa, Bruce," Grif cautioned., "since when is your job to confront people about permitted activities? For your information, now that the construction is done, there are three planes that go in and out of that place, and one comes about every two or three weeks. The other two belong to my wife and I and we normally travel together once or twice a week. And further more, if it is any of your business, we release 99% of the fish we catch, alive and unharmed."

"It still hurts them," Bruce protested. "They cry in pain, but we can't hear them."

"I am not even going to ask you about the horses," Grif grumbled. "You wouldn't know anything about it anyway."

"More than you think," smirked Bruce. "The horses are never going to happen. I alerted the President of the Animals First Foundation, and he has assured me that you will never build so much as an outhouse beyond what you already have."

"Where is our application?" Grif demanded to know.

"Gee, I have no idea!" Bruce yawned, as his friend came in the door with his lunch.

"Oh, Bruce, it is absolutely brutal out there. When are we going back to Yosemite? I do miss California so," Lance complained. "I am so unhappy here."

"We have very important work to do here, Lance," replied Bruce. "We need to stop Mr. Walker here from turning our wilderness into a resort for starters. What's for lunch?"

"Oh, Honey," Lance beamed, "I have fixed the most exquisite soufflé."

Grif turned in disgust and left, vowing to return later to discuss the whereabouts of his application for the horses with Darren. He wasn't so much appalled by the volunteer's sexual orientation, as he was by the knowledge that he was going to be stonewalled politically. Grif hated those that stonewalled for the sake of doing so, in the name of protecting the environment. He really wondered if Darren had any idea what was going on behind his back.

"If I was running a resort exclusively for homosexuals," Grid reasoned, "they would not just let me, but insist that I put in spas, condominiums, and a whole amusement park." Then he thought, "That and a petting zoo. Maybe with those bears that killed Dick and Barry! That will work!"

Grif then felt some regret at the last thought, but would attempt to find out from the DFG whether or not those bears were destroyed. If not, then they were still living near the lodge and would cause problems. Now he wondered just whom would cause the most trouble, Bruce and the AFF, or the bears protected by being in the park.

Well, the confrontation would have to wait until after Christmas, New Years' and Tracy and Sam's wedding. Grif called Gary the night before he was to come and visit with Tracy and Sam, and asked to speak to him privately when he arrived. Gary agreed when he heard what the chat was to be about.

Grif was having foreboding thoughts about the lodge or cabins being sabotaged, and wanted a discreet alarm system for fire and burglary installed in and around the hangar, and lodge. The system was to include surveillance cameras disguised as part of the trees they would be mounted in, and have no telltale wires or lights to give them away. He wanted some in key positions to operate with nighttime capabilities. There would definitely be no permit applied for with the Park Service.

On the morning of the 18^th Gary and Gina Owens came out to inspect the Walker Lake Lodge, and to talk to Sam and Tracy about their commitment to each other. Once the service arrangements were settled, Gary gave a short talk about giving their lives to the Lord as he and Gina had, almost four years before. Gary explained that they would need a lot of help if their marriage were to endure the perils and temptations of the world.

Afterwards, Gary met with Grif, and showed him two each of the cameras and sensors he picked up in Anchorage. Each was enclosed in a camouflaged case that fastened around it with Velcro. The sensors would transmit to a computer by means of a tiny antenna. Under the pretense of a final inspection, Gary made notes of the various structures and the trees and cover that could hide sensors, or cameras, and those an intruder might use for cover to approach the buildings.

When Grif confided in Gary just what he was nervous about, Gary suggested removing five of the deluxe cabins, and replacing them with less expensive ones made almost entirely of fiberglass. Once those were erected, they were there to stay unless they were cut apart with a saw. To the casual observer, they would look just like the other five, but they would also be cheaper and fire resistant.

Grif at first thought about housing the backpackers in those, but it was the radicals like the AFF and ELF that he feared would burn out the sportsmen. Grif and Tara agreed to replace all of the cabins with the other ones before spring. Grif thought he saw an interaction between Tara and Gina, but he shrugged it off as his imagination.

(December 19, 2004 7:15 p.m., Chena Too, Anchorage)

Dennis hadn't been in for several days, and Sheila would have shrugged it off, had it not been for the roses and chocolates being delivered every day, along with a note, saying, "I will see you Sunday at 7:30, (signed Dennis)." Sheila had baked a new pie called "Heavenly Berry Pie", and was going to have Dennis do the taste test. Also, she had prepared Calamari for them in three different ways, one with a special sauce over pasta.

At 7:25 Dennis came in, and stomped the snow off of his boots before handing his coat to the coat check attendant. The greeter led him to a small meeting room where Sheila met him by the door and thanked him for the flowers and chocolates with a kiss on the cheek.

"I was in Nome Tuesday through Thursday, and went from there to Barrow," Dennis explained. "We had two people get mauled by Polar Bears. The one in Nome was from Wales, up on the Bering Strait. He lost an eye, and will need to have reconstructive surgery on his face and head. The one in Barrow we nearly lost, but he is in Fairbanks now and doing much better."