Wild Northerner Magazine Fall 2016 | Page 76

adventures with her and how everything I do without her, isn’t nearly as fun. When you have someone to share all the beauty and countless moments together with, it’s that much more special of a feeling.”

Harbin has had countless experiences and encounters in the North in his time. One fall work trip stands out in particular. It left Harbin’s heart nearly pounding out of his chest.

Harbin was canoeing a river with a good friend, Paddy. They came across a big moose which came crashing through the trees and onto the other side of the river they were paddling. It got intense from there.

“The moose walked a couple more steps and shook the dew off his back and we felt the rumble across the river,” Harbin said. “I told Paddy this wasn’t a good idea because we were in the bush during the rut. The moose was walking into the river and swimming directly across to us. We kind of panicked, but once the moose got a smell of two guys on a river trip for 10 days, he ran the second he caught a whiff of us. To make this trip even more crazy, when we got close to the end of our trip, there was a tree that had fallen right over the river, so we had to pull the canoe up and over the tree. I was in the front, so I got out and stood on the tree that was over the water. As I look around after stepping on the tree trunk, I could see a hunter had his rifle bead directly on me and proceeded to ask me how’s it going. I responded with ‘Put your gun down’. He gave me and my buddy a couple beers after my heart was placed back into my chest, and we went on our merry way.”