And they are about five feet away, just outside the cabin window. First time I've seen that. Would have been nice to have one of those cell phone thingie. Now she is just sitting hugging the the little one. Would not know there were two porcupines, the little one is same exact same color as her underside and she has her arms around the little one.

Still see them occasionally around here. Saw one ran over on the road to the Ranch a few days ago.

You ever hear them mating? Wow do they make noise!

All those stickers!

One year long-long ago I shot 67 porcupines. They were everywhere. I was living up on the Windy Creek off the Denali Haul Road, and they would come through in waves, like a migration, all heading in the same direction.

I know the Denali Hwy, and I know the Haul Road, but where is the Denali Haul Road?

The reason that road was built was to haul equipment into and out of that mining district. Originally it was a "Skid-trail". in 1956'ish a road was started generally along the existing trail. It reached and crossed the Susitna River (from Cantwell) late summer of 1958. Denny Thompson and Tex Greathouse started building the Susitna Lodge two years before the road reached the lodge. So it was the Denali skid-trail and then the Denali Haul Road and then The Denali Road, and now The Denali Highway.

My wild guess is the name changes likely had to do with the fact that Roads and Highways are "Funded" differently and with different funding priorities. I actually think I have some maps on which it is called Denali "Winter" Road.

Also remember the Parks Highway was not pushed through to Fairbanks till about 1972'ish.

Thanks for the history.

Ditto.

Back in the day, I was USFS trail crew (best job ever!) on Resurection Trail. Helicopter lost a sling load including personal gear somewhere between Hope and Wolf Creek. We spent 3 days looking for it without finding.

What we did find was hundreds of porky skins turned belly up, on the bench above/ west of the creek obviously eaten. I called it fisher, but there wasn’t supposed to be fishers in the area, so we went with lynx or Wolverine.

Recently I discovered( Sitka Deer) there were , quite likely introduced fishers in the area.

Also, on RCT work, we stayed mostly in “tent- cabins,” with framed floors, 4’ plywood walls, and tent above. On occasion, in the FS cabins, but rarely. We spent more than one night under emergency vis-queen, when our scheduled cabin stay was rented out.

One such night, Flopsy Fatstone ( a half Great Dane/ mutt) saw a “ghost” as I came up the trail to our emergency camp on Fox Creek with viisqueen over my head. Didn’t come to new camp for a couple hours!

Communication and “ checking the book” is wonderful, no?

Anyway, them porkys loved to chew on cabins and tent- framing. And would not cease and desist, no matter how many times you ran them off between midnight and light. Hard physical labor needs sleep!


A pre- 64 M70 in 375 was the answer! Makes a helluva quill shower from up in the tree!

One should not post in the cabin log that one has killed 20 something porkies in the last 8 days tho.

Eco- Karen’s get upset. My bad, but I was young then

When I was a pre- teen back in ND , my older brother brought home, then successfully returned a baby porkty to it’s mother. Strong mother/ baby bond, apparently.

. What that thing was doing in central ND out on the prairie I have no idea

We were a good mile west of treed river bottom lands, but they do like grass.

A few years ago I was up behind Tustemena Lake, far above timberline, I spotted a “bear - griz maybe”. Spotting scope showed the biggest dang porky I have ever seen!

Nowhere near bear size, but alpine perspectives can be deceiving.. same thing happened to a fishing buddy on the Little Chena out of Fairbanks, at low light dusk.

He called it Griz. When I finally saw it at far less called distance, I called it beaver.

I heard of someone who shot a griz at failing light here on the Kenai. Could not find it in the search that night. Found it next day - a porky at Well under the 150!yard called griz of the night before. Dead tho.

I think that does it for my porky stories.

A family friend lost his canoe yoke to salt-craving porkies. Made his life miserable for days. Thereafter he carried plenty of salt to soak sticks in. They did a great job propping up random logs, rocks, and other dense objects.

I am sure glad I have never mistaken porkies for bears...

Laughing!

You just ain’t been around, Art.

Trivial fact of the day:

A baby porcupine is a porcupette.

Can't get more trivial than that!

John

I came across some porkies running my wheeler trail ...whole famdamly...they all stopped an went to round ball mode ... I rolled a couple of the little balls around with my tennis shoes ..never found head nor feet ...lol..... I go home and kick my shoes off an go to bed ...next day ..I'm up and I go to put my shoes on and see that they are covered in a 1000 tiny azz quills..kinda like a brush....that was no fun pulling all them out

pourquoi?

Sure glad I never made a stalk on one at least.

For the betterment of the thread.

I'll try to find a story about a porcupine culling project that ended with a charging bear.

A good example of how fast it can happen even when I was ready and had the rifle in both hands (cartridge in chamber), on full alert. I still did not have time to raise the rifle and shot from the hip.


1970' HOPE ROAD CHARGING Bear recount.
______________________________________________


Some of you must know Lance T. former head of Habitat at Alaska F&G. In late May 1970' three of us were engaged in unofficial Porcupine control. Back then there were thousands of porcupines, I don't know why.

So we were shooting porky-pines between Los Anchorage and lovely Hope, Alaska. It was about 10:45 night and the last, or nearly last light. We were on the rough "Dirt" road that was the Hope Road. Roughly mile 9'ish. We saw a large'ish Black Bear cross the road, and we pulled up and stopped at the spot.

Now Lance and the other guy both had .22 LR pistols only, for executing Porky-pines. I had a Winchester model 100 in .308 Win. w/ a tip-off scope. (Those tip-off mounts were popular back fifty years ago)

So we are all on the passenger's side of the truck, and we are listening to this God awful crying and thrashing just fifteen or twenty feet away. It went on and on, and we figured that it was a sow spanking and driving cubs up a tree.

It was almost "full" dark, then suddenly we could hear the crashing coming towards us, In one heart beat a bear busted out of the dark woods/alders/willows from about six or eight feet, coming straight a Lance T. With out a split second for thinking, from the hip I shot the bear as it was with-in a foot or two of Lance T.

The muzzle of the rifle was an inch or two from the bears chest. The bear turned and went 180* the way it had come, back into the dark woods.

Now all Hell broke-out 15 feet away, crying and thrashing, and crashing, and it is now dark-dark. The story is getting long, so I'll wrap it up. I tipped off the scope, went in after the wounded bear (Which was hit center behind the shoulder). I skillfully missed the badly wounded bear three times form 12 feet with iron sights. The bear was just thrashing around NOT coming at me. I eventually flipped the scope back up, and could clearly see the bear through the scope and finished it.

OK, This is what is educational. There were NO bear cubs. The first thing I encountered on entering the woods was a day old moose calf that had a bite in the small of the back and still very alive but paralyzed. Next at about 10 feet was the wounded bear thrashing around, and a P!zzed'off cow that was about 12 feet away and lurching at the bear. The calf was crying, the cow was exhaling hard, and the bear was flopping around and crying also.

We figured that what happened is that we had not seen the cow and calf cross the road, only the bear right behind. And after the bear bit the calf in the small of the back, the cow charged the bear, and the bear retreating from the cow ran straight at Lance T. The bear was trapped between the truck and the cow.

You guys ever eat a porky? I’ve heard mixed reviews. Some claim it is outstanding, others, not fit for a dog (if only dogs new this before getting a face full of quills).

Know a spot that is lousy with them. Often think about taking a bow and sticking one. Roast it up.

Well, once.

It depends on how deep you are into the booze and how charcoaled the porky is.

I suppose, but my memory maybe ain't that good, so I hesitate to give you a definitive answer ....

Yes, it is excellent, or at least the one I ate was. Im sure they vary wildly by diet.

They scream when hit. More fun to kill than clean, but I guess most things are.