Posted by Lou Coatney on July 31, 2026:

I was a plebe determined to leave after my first academic semester in 1964. My father had told me not to come home, so I decided to go homestead on Aristazabal Island off British Columbia Canada's northern coast ... having absolutely no wilderness experience. (I did order a W.D. Randall Made Smithsonian Bowie knife.) Like most of the upperclassmen, Mr. Connor was concerned about me ... and going to Canada, before that became a fashion ... and stopped by my room to talk with me - to talk me out of it. He did so kindly, finally making a humorous reference to me and my Bowie knife, and I have always appreciated it. (A no-nonsense SeaBee veteran, my Uncle Homer got Dad and me to finally agree to me going home instead.) After my later draftee service and then nearly not survived adventure on Aristazabal in 1969, the Bowie finally arrived from Randall, and it weighed a TON and would have been left there at the start of my last, desperate hike over the mountains to my pickup point.

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