The second hunt was around Kenai Lake in an attempt to fill our friend Shawn's grizzly bear tag. This hunt consisted of both me and Danielle and Shawn and Erin (and the dogs) driving down for the weekend and camping out of the camper. The plan was to cruise the massive lake in our boat scouting the shore and mountains. We would scout during the day, and drink and be jolly at night. The first day of scouting, we cruised the lake with some mediocre weather... partly cloudy with some drizzles here and there. We didn't see a single grizzly bear all day. We did however see a little over 40 different black bears. Danielle has yet to shoot a bear, so we were trying to talk her into putting a stock on one of the bears. Unfortunately, she forgot her hiking boots and was only wearing rubberboots. In addition, these black bears were all on the tops of the mountains eating berries, so shooting one would require hiking up a very steep mountain, from ground level, without a path to follow. Needless to say, she didn't fall to our peer pressure. We were kind of bummed that we didn't see a single grizzly that day and it kind of lingered over into the next day. We weren't going to take the boat out until I convinced everyone that I needed to in order to get it ready for the winter. So we all jumped in the boat and did the same thing as the day before. We didn't see as many black bears, but we saw some massive ones. There was one bear in particular that appeared to be at the top of a hikable mountain, so once again, we nagged Danielle to try and go after it. Sick of the nagging, she said YES, LETS GO. This caught Shawn and I by surprise as we were now committed to the stalk now. She borrowed Erin's hiking boots and we were off. To make a long story short, we tied up to shore by some trees, left the dogs with Erin, hiked 3 hours up to the top of the mountain with very questionable places that some people probably should not go, fighting the worst swarm of flies I have ever seen in my life (you seriously could not breath without inhaling a couple... and they bit... and laid eggs on you), got to the top only to find our bear was gone, returned back to the boat 5 hours after leaving, and left empty handed. The things we gained were: great pictures, a great workout, many bug bites that actually swelled with infection, Danielle craving to drop a black bear (which WILL happen next spring), a place to go if we ever want to hunt fall black bear (or any guests that visit), and a good since of where not to hunt Grizzly bears. In addition to the blackbears, we saw so many Dall Sheep that I know exactly which tag I will be putting in for for next year :)
The most recent hunt was a weekend hunt with Shawn again looking to fill his Griz tag. We decided to head South again to his hunting unit and hike back deep into a lake. The hike wasn't too bad except my GPS was not accurately portraying the path. We actually took a wrong trail and wound up talking to trail construction workers that actually told us we were not headed in the right direction. Regardless, I could have sworn my GPS was telling me the trails met, despite what the workers said. Anyway, we decided to back track and jump back on the trail where we diverged resulting in 4 additional miles of walking. Turns out, toward the end of this trail there was a fork in path that had a sign that was was pointing at the original path we were on! Oh well... walking with a heavy pack is good for me :) The weather wasn't the best being cloudy and rainy, but we made due. We pitched our tent and scouted the mountain sides. Once again, we saw plenty of black bear, but no griz. We also saw a bunch of mountain goat which answered the question of which goat hunt will I apply for next year too! Shawn will continue to hunt every weekend to fill his draw tag until the bears den up for the winter. His tag is actually good in the Spring too when they wake back up. He has a better chance at filling the tag then and I have a good contact who might be able to put us on a bear then.
So basically the fall hunting season is coming to a close. I was not able to hunt very much at all... or plan much of a hunt because of things going on at work right now. Our hospital is in the process of implementing a new electronic health record system hospital wide and low and behold, I have a huge role in the pharmacy part of it. Because this is such a huge task, no one in the pharmacy was allowed to take vacation from August to the end of October (HUNTING SEASON!) I already have some prime time confirmed off for next year, so I EXPECT to be dropping some kind of animal then.
There is still one hunt that I will likely attempt. It is a special registration hunt that you basically have to wait in line for 5 hours before 8AM to be the first 100 to get a tag. This hunt is for any bull moose and it is actually on the other side of the mountain of the valley that we live in. The success rate for this hunt is only 5% (and less than 1% without a horse). Who knows, I could be that 1%! Anyway, it's convenient, I can do it daily if I have time to scout, and my last bit of hope for the season. I did this hunt last year too. I saw many cows, but not a single bull.
Oh ya... we can see black bear up in the mountains every night now from our front window!
That's it for now!
I HATE HOW BLOGGER ADDS PICTURES OUT OF THE ORDER THAT YOU SELECTED OR UPLOADED THEM. So they are out of order, but I don't have time to organize it :(
Sunrise at Ptarmigan Lake trying to drop a Griz with Shawn
Danielle's battle wound from climbing the mountain. She fell at one point and gashed her leg open good. She said she didn't even know she did this. We were half way up the mountain and looked down and noticed her pants were ripped. She looked further and her hiking pants underneath were also ripped. She looked further and noticed her under armor was ripped. She looked further and noticed her skin was ripped. She had no idea about this until she saw her pants. Weirdo... it was a pretty clean cut too. It looked as if someone took a knife to her; all layers and her skin were so finely cut in the same place.
Hiking back down the mountain after an unsuccessful stock all the way to the top.
Shawn overlooking the world... aka Cooper Lake in the distance, Kenai lake below us, and the Kenai Mountain range.
Ptarmagin Lake as we arrived. There were the mountains we were glassing looking for a weekend grizzly.
Since it just drizzled after we got to the top of the mountain, we decided the faster way to get down the mountain would be on our asses! This was good until we got the rocky parts... OUCH!
View from the top of the mountain. Silly bears are roaming up here feasting on berries... it makes it hard to get to them.
Shawn and I walking on the mountain ridge. After we realized the bear had already left, Shawn and I decided that since we were so close, we would peak over and see what we saw. There was another valley and two rams over looking it.
This is Danielle's patented poop poke. She HAS to know if it is fresh or not. This one was definitely fresh and still hot. It was from the bear we stalked. We must have scared the crap out of it since he was no longer there :(
An eagle soaring above us as we rested atop the mountain.
Almost at the top of the mountain and Danielle is wonder what the hell we got ourselves into.
A view of how high the bears were. Easily above tree line and right where the clouds were.
The best friends were along for the ride as well. This picture was actually taken right after Tundra fell off the boat. He was roughing around with Chena as we were cruising pretty fast and then all of a sudden he lost his balance and toppled over the side. We had to turn around and pull the booger out of the water. We let them run around when were driving because they really can't get too hurt if they fell in. Since I have a jet boat, if a dog were to accidentally fall off the bow, yes, we would run them over, however, it would only push them down in the water for a second and they would pop back up. A jet doesn't have a prop that would chew them up... in only sucks and spits water and a dog under the boat would not get sucked into the jet. Not the prettiest picture, but reality.
Taking a little scouting break by playing in a drying up creek drainage.
This was probably one of the most dangerous parts of the hike. This does not look steep in the picture, but trust me, it was NASTY!
A lake off the Denali Hwy from my solo moose hunt.
McLaren Glacier... also part of my moose hunting area. A man actually just got attacked by a grizzly bear near that glacier while hunting. He was very close to dying.
My consilation prize to not dropping a moose. I found about 10 different caribou sheds. Unfortunately I had to leave 5 in the field, because they were so damn heavy. My pack was probably well over 110 pounds when I packed out due to these things!
This is a lake in my hunting area. I was hoping it would be the local watering hole, but it just proved to be water in a hole.
The scouting break continue with a walk up the drying out creek. This will also be my highway if I get a sheep draw tag for this area some year.
Blue berries were everyone during my moose hunt. I ate so many that my bowels didn't like it!!
A view of my daily scouting area for moose.
The camp site.
Another glacier in the distance on my way to the hunt area. This is acutally Susitna glacier... it results in a massive river throughout Alaska... which houses many good fishing opportunities. On the banks of this river is where I shot my black bear this spring.
More blue berries... just a few I guess.
