Backcasts archive: Through Dec. 28, 2007
By Brett PaulyBlog calendar: Dec. 28 | Dec. 27 | Dec. 26
Uplifting elk hunting story puts appropriate cap on great year in the outdoors
Maybe it was his reputation as a jokester, but when Pierre Savkranz phoned home to brag about the moose he bagged there was skepticism on the receiving end of the call.
He had telephoned after previous hunting campaigns and say he'd downed a moose, when he hadn't, the Post-Register newspaper reports from Rigby, Idaho. So you could understand when Kym Savkranz elected not to believe her father this time around.
Her disbelief had nothing to do with the accident 11 years ago that left her dad without the use of his body from the chest down. It had nothing to do with her dad's confinement to a motorized wheelchair or the struggle he would endure to lift and aim a rifle.
It had everything to do with dad's teasing nature.
But something – the excitement in his voice – told 14-year-old Kym that Dad wasn't kidding this time.
Indeed, the Idaho tag Savkranz applied for in March and later received for a bull elk near Mesa Falls had paid off.
On that day in mid-October, an orange tag dangled from the rearview mirror of his van (converted to include hand controls and a wheelchair lift) indicating that, because of Savkranz's condition, he was allowed to hunt and fire from his vehicle.
After driving around the designated hunting unit near Ashton, Idaho, most of the afternoon, Savkranz and a hunting partner began to give up. A light snow covered the ground, and the rutted dirt roads were giving Savkranz's van all it could handle. They thought about calling it a day.
But things turned around quickly after that, according to the Post-Register.
"Right there, out of the windshield at 80 yards, stood a moose in some sagebrush," Savkranz said.
The moose soon crossed the road, lumbered around a bit and stopped just inside his arc.
Boom. The moose hit the ground 83 paces from the muzzle of Savkranz's rifle.
After the callers were finally convinced the deed had finally be done after four failed attempts, his family joined Savkranz and his hunting buddy at the moose. Then 10 adults toiled until 11:30 p.m. to dress the animal, cool the meat and ready it for transport back to Rigby.
It was the culmination of a long, difficult process.
Savkranz, who was born in Sweden but moved to the United States at 3, has enjoyed hunting and the outdoors his entire life, according to the Post-Register.
Coming back from a hunting trip in 1996, Savkranz fell asleep while riding in the passenger seat. At some point after that the driver fell asleep, too. The truck rolled once; Savkranz banged his head and broke his neck. He lost all use of his limbs and spent six months in hospitals in Idaho and Colorado.
"My health hasn't been the greatest," Savkranz said last week, the 11th anniversary of his accident. "But I'd always wanted to do this, to get back sooner."
It wasn't easy for the Rigby rancher. Waking, pulling his body from bed, showering inside his custom bathroom, slipping into his clothes and climbing into his motorized wheelchair can take three hours.
But you did it, Pierre, and we salute you.
And we thank the Associated Press for picking up such a compelling story from the Idaho Falls paper. What an incredibly uplifting tale to end the great outdoors year of 2007.
Hat's off to you, Mr. Savkranz, and here's to hoping for more of the same in 2008.
And happy new year to all our Backcasts readers, as well.
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Huckabee shoots for votes in Iowa pheasant fields
Regardless of how one views his politics, hunters certainly can understand Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's message:
"The truth is hunters are the ones who preserve the species," Huckabee said yesterday after bagging a Hawkeye State pheasant, the Associated Press reports from Osceola, Iowa.
The former Arkansas governor speaks the truth by reiterating that hunters are our great wildlife preservationists and that their license fees pay for conservation efforts.
"In many cases extinction comes from not having some level of hunting," Huckabee said. "It's the hunters who actually keep the wildlife alive. A lot of people think that when you hunt you're destroying the wildlife."
While the timing of the outing – just days before Iowa's leadoff nominating caucuses – was questioned by some, the campaigner told reporters in the field his bird hunt wasn't merely a publicity stunt.
"Maybe it will show that I certainly understand the culture of being outdoors," Huckabee said. "It's not something we had to go out and get a primer in. It's very much ordinary to me."
Duck hunting would have been on his agenda the day after Christmas back home, he said, but ringnecks (he employed a 12-gauge shotgun yesterday to harvest one of the three felled by his party) provided a suitable alternative.
Gotta like the man's sense of humor, too.
"See that's what happens if you get in my way," he said while proudly displaying the shooters' pheasants.
He also jested about Vice President Dick Cheney's quail hunting accident in February 2006, during which a fellow hunter was shot, according to the AP. Asked why Cheney hadn't been invited, Huckabee chuckled, "Because I want to survive all the way through this."
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Putin makes no bones about wanting Russia's satellites to track his black Lab
Russia's President Vladimir Putin got an earful this week on the ins and outs of his country's fledgling satellite positioning system, the Associated Press reports out of Moscow.
But he made it very clear he wants the developing technology for important personal use … including tracking the whereabouts of his black Lab.
"When will I be able to buy the necessary equipment for my dog Koni so that she doesn't run too far?" Putin inquired after listening to First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov brief the cabinet on the development of GLONASS, the acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System.
Ivanov responded that collars for dogs and cats with satellite-guided positioning equipment will be available for private consumers in the middle of next year.
Heck, there isn't anything more important Putin could think of for employing the new bells and whistles than finding lost pets, is there?
Some may fear Putin's request is a smoke shield for something more, er, sinister, ah, oops, more critical … hmmm, like tracking lost satellites, perhaps.
But, either way, we like the gumption and candor and humor of Time's Person of the Year, who apparently has made his last year in office his most successful and improved his political influence at home and abroad.
The AP story finishes up by briefing us that GLONASS was developed during the Soviet era as a response to the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS. The system originally had 24 satellites, but their number dwindled after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Thanks to Russia's booming oil revenues, the government has earmarked funds to revive the system to its full strength and offer it to global consumers.
Ivanov said a Russian booster rocket was set to put another three GLONASS satellites into orbit yesterday, bringing their total number to 18 – the number necessary to provide navigation services over the entire Russian territory – a vast expanse spanning, what, 11 time zones?
The system would be available worldwide by 2010, the First Deputy Prime Minister explained.
Then even you can track your Labs should they get lost on your next duck-hunting adventure outside Omsk.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S., we have nothing better to use GPS for than keeping tabs on baby Jesus … ah, more precisely, a statue of the divine infant.
The statue, part of a nativity scene, was to be equipped with the device after the previous figure went missing, even though it had been bolted down, the Associated Press reports from Bal Harbour, Fla.
"I don't anticipate this will ever happen again," said Dina Cellini, who oversees the display, "but we may need to rely on technology to save our savior."
The Mary and Joseph statues also were to be fitted with Global Positioning System units, she said.
The devices were bought using residents' contributions and Cellini's own money. As an additional precaution against theft, Cellini had also installed a Plexiglas screen in front of the display.
About the author: Brett Pauly spent nearly six years editing and publishing ESPNOutdoors.com before moving on to produce the ESPN.com Sports Travel site. He is a national award-winning writer and editor with 14 years of experience in the newspaper trade, including stints at the Los Angeles Daily News and Seattle Times. The Evergreen State is where he now makes his home. Click here to email him.
