Hunting Adventures

This was a hunt to remember!   It started out as a solo scouting expedition, where I hiked in over 8 miles and up over 4000 feet to see if there were any goats in an area that looked good on a topo map.   Well, guess what I found... a small band of goats about a half mile away.  So, I decided to get a closer look (which quickly turned into a stalk).  After a while, I ran out of cover and had to make one of the longest shots I've ever made in the field.   When the goat fell, he fell into a ravine.  A ravine so nasty that I had to hike down several hundred feet to find a safe way to get into the ravine.  Then I had to climb back up through the narrow ravine through water falls!  After I got to the goat I had to lower him back down on a rope to the point I entered the ravine.  I quickly gutted the goat, climbed out of the ravine and bivouacked in the trees; remember this was a quick scouting trip so I didn't need a tent.  

The next morning, I climbed backed down the ravine, butchered the goat, climbed out of the ravine and hiked back down 4000 feet and 8 miles.  When I finally got to my car a State Trooper was waiting for me since I was kind-of overdue.

Talk about a contrast; notice the buck is in velvet lying against the snow.   This was an interesting hunt high in the alpine of Douglas Island one August.   The clouds were low on the mountain, and I still-hunted through the passing clouds.   I first caught a glimpse of this buck through the clouds, just on the edge of visibility.  I planned an intercept path and waited for the buck to arrive, but he didn't.  So, I backed-tracked and found the buck sneaking away (apparently he saw or winded me).  I often used the snow in the high country to keep the meat cool until it was time to hike back down the mountain, sometimes days later.

This is my brother Joe with his first deer!  He flew to Juneau all the way from Key West Florida.  He quickly learned to hike, shoot, and camp.   After his crash course in Rick's boot camp, we headed up into the alpine of Douglas Island.  Joe endured a miserable first night in the tent with high winds, blowing rain and low clouds.  By the next day Joe had "earned" his first deer the hard way, through determination and effort.

Here's a caribou that I got near King Salmon while on a fly-in hunt with my friend Bob.  We saw thousands of caribou that hunt, but getting a shot on a big bull was tough.  The bulls would hole-up right in the middle of small herds of cows and the cows would act as perimeter sentinels.  I made a several hundred yard stalk on my belly towards a small heard of caribou and couldn't go any further, because I was within 25 yards of a cow (I crawled a few feet every time she put her head down to eat).  When I got within about 250 yards of this bull the whole heard spooked (they saw some other hunters in the distance).  This bull ran right past me at about 40 yards when I popped up to my knees to make a shot.  That's when he really got spooked, but I was able to drop him on the run.  Unfortunately, he fell into one of the few depressions in the spongy ground, which made getting him out for field dressing very difficult.

No easy way to pack this caribou out.  This was about a mile from base camp.   The tundra was like walking on a water bed, which made the several trips to pack out the meat challenging. 

14 May 1988: This is my brown bear that I got on a hunt with my friend Dave.  We originally took Dave's 19 foot Bayliner on a black bear trip north of Juneau.  When it became evident that the black bears weren't out yet, we decided to head to Tenakee Springs to hunt brown bear.  We had an exciting (i.e. very rough) trip down Chatham Strait and pulled into Tenakee Springs running on gas fumes.  The bear squared 9 foot 6 inches and the B&C skull measurement was 25.5.

7:30 PM: On the evening of the last day before we had to head back to Juneau, we were anchored in Crab Bay glassing the shoreline.  We had basically given up on the hunt, when I saw this monster come walking out of the woods onto the shoreline.  We quickly launched the dingy and rowed to shore.  

Dave and I crawled to this log and waited for the bear to round the corner.  The shot was at about 95 yards.  We then nervously skinned out the bear as darkness approached and we wondered where the two other bears we had seen earlier in the same vicinity were hiding at.  If you look closely at the beach in the background, you'll see a small brown spot which is where the bear dropped.

This is a view of the alpine of Douglas Island.  Due to the hazards of navigating the terrible forest deadfall in the lower elevations, I would usually hike up an established trail until I hit the alpine.  Once in the alpine, I'd ridge-run and glass for deer.

Here's a moose (what else looks so weird?).  No, I wasn't hunting, but was actually on a road trip to Cordova and was out sight-seeing.  Now, if I'd actually had a gun in my hand...

Gotcha; one of those great views in the high country.

This was taken during a deer hunting trip with my friends Steve & Greg.  We had spotted some tracks in the snow and were following them when we happened across this feller.  He obviously knew that none of us had a goat permit, as he let me get close enough to take his picture with a 110 camera; I was so close, I could have hit him with the butt of my rifle!

While in Juneau, I often had to make road trips to Kodiak (poor me).  If I remember correctly, this was on a fly in hunt to Raspberry Island with my friend Jerry.   We had an interesting base camp fire situation.  Lesson learned, never make a campfire on top of peat moss...

Typical Juneau weather; yeah right.  Here I am enjoying one of the occasional nice days in Juneau.  This was during a hunt on Douglas Island with my friend Paul.