Tag: Misadventures

At Bellingham High School, the stereotypical gender pathway in the 70s was always the same; enter the school through the main doors, pass the main office following the hallway down between the auditorium and counselor’s offices. Upon reaching the next crossing hallway, the girls turn left walking north. The guys turn right or continue straight out the east end of the building. The girls were going to Home Economics and the boys to Industrial Arts.

It was a panoramic view which I am sure most people have never witnessed. The whole of Abbotsford, B.C. and further up the Fraser Valley to Harrison Lake, south to Bellingham, Washington and west to the San Juan Islands. There I sat in the morning sun; the wind was at my back — about 80 miles per hour of wind.

In a small cabin at the Fisherman’s Cove Resort on Curlew Lake, eight men prepared for a week of deer hunting on Vulcan Mountain. This was the opening weekend.  This was the final weekend of the World Series and this was the year we witnessed “The Phantom.”

“I once sucked down a whole can of sardines — heads, guts and all, while only taking one breath.”

“Ok,’ I said. ‘You’re a liar.”

My friend Rex removed a can of sardines from his backpack, peeled back the lid, took one deep breath, and proceeded to slurp down the whole can — head, guts, and all.

It started as any of our other hunting trips — with high hopes and low expectations.  Sturgis Fenton and I were going to spend three days hunting the hills of northeast Washington.