Trail Mix is Alaska Public Media’s reporters’ inside look at covering the 2016 Iditarod
Near the first Iditarod checkpoint on the Yukon River, the Ruby Bible Church was selling a soup and sandwich lunch special for $5. When I arrived, there were three options to pick from, and I went with the “Seven Bean and Black Bear” offering.
The bear was tender but a bit salty, which pastor John Tramm attributed to a strong brining the meat went through. Tramm shot the small black bear while he and a few others were out looking for moose. It was the first bear he’d taken. A lot of bears in Alaska are hunted as trophies, with the pelt as a prize for a rug or mount.
But Tramm and his party left the fur after they’d salvaged the meat. He told me the black bear hunt isn’t too restrictive in this game management unit, demands no special permit nor are hunters required to bring the hide in for sealing. You’re capped at three bear takes, though.
Tramm came to Ruby after Fairbanks to minister. Two of his children got menus taped to their backs by their mother, who sent them out towards the checkpoint like mobile billboards to draw more hungry lunch customers towards the church. Tramm said the family came to Ruby two years ago, but now calls it home. Before that they lived in Minnesota.
I never got around to the sandwich portion of the meal, I was filled up on the soup.
Full coverage of the 2016 Iditarod is at alaskapublic.org/iditarod.
Zachariah Hughes reports on city & state politics, arts & culture, drugs, and military affairs in Anchorage and South Central Alaska.
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