At the radar site, we could check-out various items for recreational use. I didn’t requisition many items this way, but did borrow a couple of rifles and some camping equipment on different occasions. One weekend, not long after arriving from the lower forty-eight, I checked-out a pack-board, sleeping bag and its cover. A group of us had decided to go backpacking on the mountain. To get to our destination, we started by driving to the town of Cold Bay. From there, we took a jeep trail up onto the side of Frosty. All together, that was a two and one-half hour ride to go maybe fifteen or twenty miles. When we reached a point where the two 4x4 trucks could not make it any farther, we packed our stuff on our backs and headed westward and upward. The weather turned nasty (duh!), and we proceeded on. It eventually started getting dark. The rain did not let up. It just kept coming down in a steady drizzle. After following a bear trail for a considerable distance (that felt like miles to this novice), we decided that it was time to camp for the night. When I looked around, I saw no sign of shelter of any kind...in any direction. I remember thinking that this was going to be one miserable night! We had not brought tents with us, or even tarps. After briefly giving it some thought, and being tired, wet and cold, I unrolled the sleeping bag. Then I slipped it into the cover, threw it down into the middle of the bear trail we had been following, and crawled in for the night. Some of the others were doing the same. The rest of the group were at least making a feeble attempt to bed down away from the trail. Myself, I calculated that any bear that came along would know I was there anyway, and would either sidestep me or eat me. It wouldn’t make any difference if I was in the trail or not. Besides, the trail was at least not as lumpy as the tundra off-trail. The sleeping bag and cover kept me nice and dry, and yes, I lay there listening intently for heavy footsteps and breathing! However, I was so tired that I fell fast asleep, and slept like a baby! When I awakened the next morning, my first thought was, “I’m alive!” The rest of that trip was so uneventful that I don’t remember anything after that. However, I do relish being able to tell family and friends that I have slept in the middle of a bear trail and survived!
P.S. Sometime in or about 1974, when I was living in South Carolina, I read in an Alaska magazine about someone in their sleeping bag being eaten by a bear on the side of Frosty. I guess I truly was lucky! This is a scene I later captured on Frosty, but this looks like the Garden of Eden compared to where we were that night!