Tales of the Trapline

Sylvia will you go out on the trapline with me this fall? Vernon asked. Well don't you think we should get married first? she asked not wanting him to think that she was that kind of girl. His reply was quick in coming I already asked you to do that. That hasn't changed. Well in that case she blushed the answer is Yes.Yes I'll go out to the creek with you. Vernon wanted to get married right away but there was one difficulty. . . . They were both young adventuresome and accustomed to hard work hardships and depending on their own resources as they made their plans that summer of 1937. Two months later they began their trip to an isolated trapline cabin on Alexander Creek 40 miles from Anchorage which was to be their new home. But would they be able to face the challenges of traveling up a swift winding stream in a 14-foot rowboat of spending the winter alone without seeing another human being for weeks at a time of making a living by trapping raising mink and fishing out of the stream in front of the cabin of cutting trees and building a log cabin for their growing family? Would they escape the dangers of breaking through the ice during freezing weather of crossing the frequently stormy Cook Inlet in an open dory of accidents and illnesses with no way to call for medical help? Then there were the frustations of having four children in five years while living in a tiny one-room cabin the tensions of the war years when all of Alaska was a war zone the pain of losing Sylvia's younger sister to cancer. . . .