Top 10 things I learned while in Thorne Bay

1. If you see a porcupine, beware! Prince of Wales Island has no porcupines and what you're looking at is a bear cub who's pissed off mother is not far away.
2. As with almost every other place in Alaska I've been, there is a place named Sandy Beach and a bar named Pioneer Bar.
3. Running a liquor store is not as glamourous as one would think ... it is ~a lot~ of work hauling, moving and throwing around cases of beer and wine.
4. Camp meat is meat obtained that is not subject to hunting rules and regulations (although you won't find anyone admitting to such a practice around law enforcement...I hear fawn is really quite tender and really falls off the bone).
5. There are virtually no road signs on the island and if there are, they are probably not correct. For example, in one 20-yard stretch of road, one sign posted mileage to Hollis as 90 miles, another as 74 miles and a third as 94 miles.
6. You can still buy gasoline on the honor system. Simple write down who you are, the total gallons of fuel you pumped and leave the slip of paper in the 5-quart ice cream bucket.
7. You can use firearms in a residential area, but a sign requests that you "use caution".
8. If salmon fishing is out of season, nothing says you can't "hunt" them (which means shooting them while they jump out of the water on their way upstream).
9. If done properly, you can emulate a bleating fawn by blowing through blades of grass and attract a deer (or bear) to within 10 feet of you.
10. Driving sideways, getting too close to the shoulder, catching air or meeting an oncoming vehicle while driving down the road is a slam-dunk way to make Karen P. scream and cover her eyes.