I was lucky enough to draw a moose tag this year, DM773. I have drawn this tag before two years ago, but Danielle also drew a moose tag that year as well; so her tag trumped mine (and we only hunt when we need the meat). DM773 is a tag that allows me to shoot any bull and since I'm a meat hunter, my goal for this hunt was to harvest the first bull I came across. This hunt is fairly tricky and requires a lot of logistical planning. The hunt area has no roads to or in it. The east boarder is a very wide, braided river of varying depth with unpredictable rise and drop levels; the south boarder is a mountain range; the northern boarder is a very dirty, deep, and extremely fast river; and the west boarder is a shallow creek. The closest you can get to this hunt area in a car is the highway that follows the east side of the very wide, braided river. The options to get in to this area are 1) Fly in, 2) Take some sort of off road vehicle (monster truck style) across the braided river, or 3) Boat in on the dirty, deep, and extremely fast river. Before I applied for the hunt, I had a good idea of how I would hunt the area if I happened to get drawn... I would load my ATV on my boat, and then boat it to a landing place, and then hunt off the ATV. I have never done this before, and I didn't know anyone that has done this before either, but I knew it could be done... and that is exactly what we did.
As you know, I typically hunt solo. This was a hunt that possibly could have been done solo, but my chances of success, safety, and efficiency would be significantly higher with a second hunter. Well a friend at work, Carlo, has been asking about hunting for quite some time. I figured this would be a perfect hunt to introduce him to big game hunting. He could get the needed time off and would be dependable, the first requirements of a good hunting partner.
Prior to the hunt, I removed the seats from my boat and built a ramp and docking area for the ATV. Carlo and I then practiced loading and unloading on a local river, and it actually worked out better than I imagined :) Danielle and I also drove up to the hunt area with the boat in late July to confirm water depths, launching, unloading, ATV access, and property lines. I cannot stress enough the importance of planning and scouting out a hunting area prior to hunting it. This has resulted in significantly higher success rates for us, and we will continue to scout every new hunt we do before we actually hunt it (I also like to take Danielle on these scouting trips so she knows where I will be).
Now for the hunt - Hunt day minus one
We decided to plan a 10 day hunt (with driving on either end). On Saturday morning, we met up at my house and got everything packed and arranged. We hit the road a little after noon and started the six hour drive toward Delta Junction. We drove separate vehicles... Carlo towing my boat, and me towing the ATVs and meat wagons full of our gear. (By the way, Carlo suggested we use hand held radios to communicate while on the road... and that was the best idea ever!! Cell phone reception on that drive is horrible and instant push talking was awesome!) As we always do, we stopped in Glen Allen to fill up with gas and eat Tok Thai (a food truck with various Asian cuisine that is oddly amazing tasting for being out in the middle of nowhere). Carlo was skeptical at first, but after he dove in to his chicken curry, I think he quickly realized how big of a treat this food truck is being in the boonies. I got cashew chicken, a first for me. I later regretted that decision for a couple days, and I won't go in to details.
After downing our Tok Thai, we hit the road for the remaining three hours of our drive. To our surprise, we actually hit some fairly bad weather consisting of snow and very slippery roads. That was short lived tho. We arrived at the boat landing around 8PM. The parking lot was STUFFED with about 50 vehicles/trailers. We had a difficult time finding a place to park. We later found out that this is a very busy weekend launch because when we pulled out mid week, our vehicles were the only ones in the lot. The plan was to sleep in our vehicles that night and get an early start the next day. We got a couple things ready for the next morning, but ended up retreating to our own vehicles as the sun set due to colder weather rolling in. I watched a movie on my phone and hit the sack. And just so you know, a 6'8" guy trying to sleep in the cab of a truck results in a very uncomfortable night of sleeping!
Hunt Day One
We woke up to good weather. It was clear and brisk, probably around 30 degrees and puddles were freezing over. The forecast called for late morning showers, so our goal was to get everything transported and starting our ATV riding before then.
Overall, we had to shuttle four loads between where we launched the boat, and where we started our ATV ride. One load for each ATV, and one load for each meat wagon. This ended up taking us about three hours to complete and get everything to our hunt area. It wasn't easy loading and unloading those heavy loads on the boat! As for the distance the boat had to travel to unload, it wasn't very far, probably less than a half mile.
In order to do this hunt, we would have to leave our vehicles and boat unattended for 10 days. This made me nervous as there are always reports of vandalism, especially those done by other hunters who feel you are on "their" hunting land. This turned out to be an unneeded worry after all.
After tying the boat up and bidding it farewell for a while, we headed down the ATV trail that parallels the river and avoids private property. Private property is not common in the Alaska wilderness, however, at this this corner of the hunt area, there is a huge parcel of land that is not publicly accessible. A while ago, it was homesteaded and has since grown and turned in to a self sustaining commune (about 200 people). The commune is very religious and they live off the land, sharing resources. They do not appreciate outsiders, so we honored their privacy and found a way around their land. Oh how I wish I was friends with them tho, because short-cutting through their land on their nice trails would have made the start of the hunt so much easier and quicker. Unfortunately, the ATV trail that avoids their land was extremely overgrown, had downed trees all over, and was impassable. Luckily, we took a detour toward the braided river and found that the braids on this side of the river were not too deep to cross (lucky us for the low water conditions). We rode upstream, around beaver dams, in knee deep flow most of the time. During this beginning ride along the braids, we spooked up about 15 grouse. *SIDE STORY* (Carlo is a big bird hunter. He really loves to hunt grouse. He asked me if he could bring a gun to shoot grouse and cook them over the camp fire. I told him that in the interest of not scaring any close-by moose, I wanted him to wait until we bagged a moose before he shot grouse. I also let him know that I have a sling shot and we can use that for silent grouse harvesting. Well it turns out, Carlo decided to not bring his .22 since I rained on his grouse shooting parade. To make a long story short, we both wish he would have brought that rifle now. Grouse were plentiful and they were very large!)
After about an hour of riding the braids for two miles (due to constantly changing our path and evaluating water depths), we finally made it to the winter access path. From this path, we had a straight line shot in to the heart of the hunt area. The trails in this area were exceptional! You can tell they were fairly maintained by the commune residents, but they weren't over ridden due to the inability for the general public to access them. The land was amazing moose terrain too. A huge majority of the area was open. There was a couple huge fires back in this area about 5+ years ago. As a result, most of the large trees were burnt and toppled. Furthermore, this results in new growth... growth that moose absolutely love to munch on. Combine that with multiple swamps and a few high spots to look out and over the openings/swamps, and that is a formula for a good moose hunting area!
During my research of the area, everyone suggested to ride to a lake called Rainbow Lake. It actually is the only thing that is labeled in the hunt area when looking at it from Google Maps. I even spoke to a commune resident prior to our hunt and he said the same thing. Well, having so many different people and resources recommending Rainbow Lake, as well as a commune resident, made me think that Rainbow Lake may be over-hunted in this area, and that I don't want to be like everyone else and head to that lake. As a result, we decided to ride as much as we could for the day and avoid Rainbow Lake altogether. Our day of riding resulted in many detours, studying the GPS, planning alternative routes, finding dead ends, and retracing our steps. As it was starting to get late, we were in need of finding a camp site. A temporary camp site was out of the question due to the amount of gear we had and how much unpacking/packing it would take to setup and tear down the next morning. As a result, wherever we set up camp that night would be the place we camp for the entirety of the hunt. As it was getting later in the evening, we got lucky. We stumbled across a great wooded area overlooking a swampy clearing. Unfortunately at this point, I wasn't too thrilled about this hunt area because we did not see a single moose during our entire day of riding. Naturally, I was skeptical about this particular camping spot, because I had yet to see a moose. Regardless, the spot looked promising and it was getting late, so we unpacked and set up camp. We got our camp set up and organized just before darkness fell. Immediately before dark, we looked out and over the clearing through our binoculars below our camp. In about 10 minutes, we spotted seven different moose, talk about a good bed time story! We went to bed dreaming about those moose and hoping one of them was a bull.
**Before we went to bed, I asked Carlo if he snores... to which he replies, "Not really. My girlfriend says I do sometimes if I'm really tired." Well Carlo must have been really tired that night! I didn't sleep the best because somehow his snoring sounds EXACTLY like a bear sniffing and grunting. This continued every night of the hunt. Multiple times I woke up startled thinking a bear was just outside our tent, only to find out it was Carlo snoring. He didn't really believe me that he snores that much. I ended up recording his snoring and proving to him that it took three to four times of me saying "CARLO" before he woke up and stopped snoring. I wont include that recording here :) This was the only con to hunting with a partner... but the pros far outweighed this single con!
Day Two
We didn't have a routine yet or know exactly when it became light enough to see. As a result, we woke up a little later than we wanted. It was already starting to get light enough to see (and if you didn't know, moose move the most right at dawn and at dusk). It was brisk out again, but the skies were clear. We spent the morning at camp, familiarizing ourselves with our surroundings and glassing (a term meaning to look at stuff through binoculars or a spotting scope) the open area below camp. We attempted to find the moose we put to bed the night before. Well, we found moose, but there was no way to tell if they were the same moose that we saw last night. In the hour that we spent glassing, we saw a total of 12 moose. Only one of those moose was a bull, and that bull was about five miles away with a difficult hike to get to it. We didn't attempt to go after that bull. Instead, we decided to jump on our ATVs and familiarize ourselves with the area.
The overlook area appeared to be ride-able in any direction. Once we got down to it, it was in fact navigable off of trail, however, it was not worth the rough ride and slow going to attempt it without a clear destination in mind. Furthermore, the fires left stumps EVERYWHERE and the twigs close to the ground felt as sharp as an arrow point, making a flat tire a very real possibility. After failing to go anywhere in those conditions and realizing the trail would be better to stay on, we turned around and jumped back on the trail that outlined the overlook area. After about an hour of slow trail riding (we were investigating our surroundings closely), we stumbled across a paired bull and cow. The bull was a legal moose to shoot on a general harvest ticket (Carlo's permit) as well as my any-bull tag. He just stood there and looked at us at a little over 100 yards for a long time. Carlo and I talked about who should shoot it. I wanted him to shoot it and then I could shoot any bull that we see in the coming days. He wanted me to shoot it in case we didn't see another bull. We settled on me shooting it and I got my rifle out. Unfortunately, the terrain in this area was flat and brushy, a big change from my normal mountain hunting. That makes for difficult shooting situations. In this case, there was a handful of leafless brush between me and the bull. I could see through the scope well enough to tell where the appropriate shot placement should be, however, shooting through brush often results in a deflected bullet and hitting an animal in an unintended area. I am not a person to shoot first and ask questions later. I was not about to shoot a moose and potentially injure it. Furthermore, I'm a believer in shooting/ taking the same shot on the first day that I would also take on the last day.... meaning, not having variable expectations or conditions to harvest. This was not a risk I would take, ever (although it did haunt me a couple days after passing on the shot). Instead, I decided to walk closer to see if I could get a better line and clear shot. Well the cow that was with the bull didn't like me walking closer to them and she took off. The bull was content with us, however, his lady was leaving the party, so he was forced to leave as well. By the time I had a clear shot set up, the bull was about 200 yards away and all I could see was his butt... again, a bad shot to take on an animal you plan to kill quickly and consume. As a result, the bull disappeared out of sight tailing his cow. Slightly bummed, we reflected on the situation, and then jumped back on the ATVs to further explore the area.
The terrain quickly changed from burnt up, open areas to fully grown trees, ponds, mud, and swamps. We spent the remainder of the day riding through the forest and getting stuck/ unstuck. We were seeing really good moose terrain, however, this type of moose terrain was very obstructed and not conducive to a spot and stalk method of hunting. Somewhere along the multiple mud crossings and winching to get unstuck, I opened my pack and my lunch fell out. I realized this after we decided to park the ATVs and hike through the trees to a nearby lake. We sat down on the bank to eat, and my lunch was missing. Lucky for me, I pack snacks... energy snacks for the period between lunch and dinner, and energy snacks for filed dressing breaks. I ate all of those snacks and nibbled on some jerky that Carlo shared with me.
After our bromantic lunch break on the lake, we returned to the ATVs and retraced our trail back to camp. Out of a day of riding, we saw zero moose except for the first two toward the beginning. Needless to say, we decided that ride would not be beneficial to do again.
We got back to camp at a descent time. There was still day light to explore. We ended up walking the hills near our camp. During our exploration, we discovered two different camp sites, both relatively close to us, but neither one with people actively camping there (more like tents and equipment set up to reserve the spot). Both campsites were in amazing locations!
As it was getting dark, we began to notice what we thought was thunder. In the Anchorage area, thunder is very rare, however, in central Alaska, thunder is relatively common. However, the sounds we were hearing was not thunder. We later concluded that what we were hearing every night was jets breaking the sound barrier and sending sonic booms for miles. It was cool sounding until I realized it wasn't natural :(
We didn't do much glassing that night because it started to rain and get pretty crappy out. I retreated to the tent to get dinner ready and Carlo gathered wood and stoked the fire to quench his pyro thirst. While I was prepping dinner, we heard ATVs in the distance. Before I knew it, they were right next to us. It turns out there was about five ATVs and six hunters coming in to occupy one of those reserved hunting spots. The leader of the group was out in front of everyone and stopped by our camp to chat for a while. The conversation was a little comical and reassuring at the same time. This gentleman was shocked to see us there. He portrayed that this area was a huge secret and that nobody knew about it. He asked about 20 times how we found it and who told us about it. He could not believe that we just stumbled across it without anyone directing us right to it. He would not believe us and kept asking how we got our intel. I told him the reason we found the place... everyone told us to go to Rainbow Lake, so we avoided that area and just rode as far away from the boat as possible. Well it turns out that this gentleman was actually a resident of the commune, and when he told us that, we immediately knew that we stumbled across a honey hole and the locals hunting ground!! Carlo and I later had a good laugh at how upset he was that we found "their" hunting area and how he let the cat out of the bag inadvertently about how good this hunting spot was.
It continued to dump on us that night so we finished dinner and went to bed. The rain just barely drained out Carlo's snoring that night :)
Day Three
We woke before it was light out. It rained all night but it lightened up as we were getting out of bed. We decided that for this day, we were going to hang out around camp and just glass from the high area over the clearing below. It was difficult to see much at first due to low clouds. As it got lighter, the clouds started to fade as well. Right when then it was light enough to see across the clear area below, the neighboring camp of commune locals fired up their ATVs and took off down in to the same area. This wasn't a big deal as that area is huge and they wouldn't spoke anything... but at least we had the camp and surrounding area to ourselves now.
Upon glassing the area below, we immediately saw five moose, and one was a bull! He was about 3 miles off, but he was slowly walking about a half of a mile parallel to the ATV trail. When I saw him I yelled at Carlo (working on the fire) and told him that I'm taking off after him. I zeroed the spotting scope on he moose and told Carlo to watch the bull in case I lose him and need to be guided to him. I quickly planned out my route, jumped on my ATV, and I was off.
I got to where I thought needed to start hiking and I headed into the trees and brush. After about a half mile of hiking, I realized that the bull was in a huge clearing and I was too far behind him... and he was walking away from me. I quickly backed out behind some brush and paralleled the trail and his path in an attempt to get ahead of him without being to obvious that I was there. This type of maneuver lasted a good hour and I finally came to a patch of thick trees between me and him. On the other side of the trees directly in his path was a clearing, meaning, there would be no more obstructed view between me and the moose's paralleled walking. I knew that was where I had to take the shot if it was going to occur. I dropped all my gear and got set up for a shot. As the bull came out into the clearing, he presented a broadside shot at 200 yards for half a second. I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger yet at that point, and it's almost like the bull knew that. He then spun and put his butt to me and looked over his shoulder at me. He stood there like that for a few minutes. Again, I did not have a good shot from that angle. He then proceeded to walk completely away from me out further into the clearing. He got out to 300 yards (my max comfortable shooting range) and still did not present a good shooting opportunity. I watched him walk out of shooting range and slowly mosey on his course paralleling the ATV trail. It was at that point that I realized if I want to harvest this bull, I would have to get in front of him and intercept his path. To do this, I would have to retrieve my ATV and drive far enough up the trail to allow me to hike in about where he was going to cross. Alright... well I counted my steps out to the ATV trail (650 steps). I then had to retrieve my ATV which was about a mile down the trail from where I parked it and started hiking. I decided I had no time to waste so I dropped my pack and gun and I ran the whole way to my ATV. I then picked up my stashed gear and rode up past where I thought the bull was heading. I parked the ATV and walked 650 steps back in the field and brush. I set up on a a little outcrop of trees and told myself that I would sit here for an hour and then head back to camp if I don't see anything. Well I didn't see the bull, but I did see two cows and hundreds of sand hill cranes. So after an hour I called the stalk off, retreated to the ATV, and drove back to camp to meet up with Carlo.
After lunch we sat and watched the clearing area for the remainder of the day. At one point, I spotted a beautiful, light brown grizzly with twin cub about 10 miles away. We weren't sure about bears in the area since he didn't see any bear sign yet, but that sighting confirmed there were bears in the area. Around 5PM two of the ATV hunters from the commune returned the their camp. They soon departed and headed back out to the clearing area. I decided I would watch them to see where they went (although there was only one ATV trail to take anyway). When they got about 8 miles away, I noticed two moose near the trail they were riding on. This was next to the same spot we saw the bull the day prior. I was shocked when they drove right by them without stopping. I could see there was a bunch of brush that may have hid the moose at that flat spot but made them viewable from above where we were at. It took zooming in all the way and squinting while looking through the spotting scope to barely make out a small antler on one of the moose. BULL!! We quickly gathered up our stuff and set off for that location.
We pulled up to where we thought the moose were at, but we couldn't see them. It took me standing on top of my ATV in order to see over the brush and locate the two moose. They were about a quarter mile off the trail, in the middle of thick brush, feeding. We parked the ATVs and got ready to put the stalk on. I feel bad now, but I told Carlo that I needed him to stay put again and not accompany me (I bet he was upset that he didn't get to participate on either stalk that day). The brush in this area was so thick and walking in it was loud. The less twigs and brush sounds would make for an easier and more successful stalk.
I set off toward the moose but quickly realized the impossible task I was attempting. There was no way I could have got close enough to those moose without them knowing I was there. I had to tip toe over downed tries, on marshy ground, through thick and spindly brush that would snap and rustle with the slightest touch. The moose knew I was there as soon as I stepped in that brush. Even if I could get close enough for a shot, I would have to magically have myself and them both in a clearing with no brush around to shoot through. Basically, that was the third failed stalk of the hunt... and I was not happy!
It was getting dark, cold, and rainy again at this time so we retreated back to camp for dinner and a fire. We saw a couple more cow and calf moose that evening bringing our daily total to 11. The neighboring commune hunters did not return to their camp that night, and that worried me a little. I guess they may have headed back home since home for them is only a short ATV ride away. We hit the hay full, warm, and hopeful for more opportunities the next day.
Day Four
We woke up to cold weather and rain again. We debated early what we would do. We didn't have a solid plan for the day. It was between staying and glassing at camp again all day, or riding early to another look out point and glassing from there all day. I didn't have much of a preference, so I asked Carlo what he wanted to do hoping he would decide. He didn't want to answer and said we should do whatever my hunting intuition says we should do. Well most hardcore hunters know that riding an ATV is not the most efficient way of hunting, and spotting them from afar and then stalking them results in better success. Since we spent the whole day yesterday based out of camp, I made the decision to pack up and head out on the ATVs to glass from a different spot.
We hit the trail around 7AM. It was still very foggy and we could not see very far into the clearing below us. Once on the trail in the clearing area, three moose (a cow and two calves) were slowly wondering close to the trail. We passed them and drove about a half mile more when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a brown silhouette... with antlers! It was big bull moose!! I stopped the ATV and signalled the antler signal with my two hands on my head toward Carlo. We learned from our first failed stalk to leave the ATVs running in the presence of moose. They seem to be content with ATVs but once the motor is turned off and they see movement, they become skiddish. The bull didn't seem to mind us at all. He proceeded on his course which was crossing the ATV trail in front of us about 200 yards away. I quickly got out the range finder and finalized the distance (250 yards). I set up the rifle on the front bag of the ATV and looked down the scope, centering the cross-air on the bull's front shoulder. He was perfectly broadside and presented an ideal shot. I slowly squeezed the trigger... BOOM. The bull startled and spun around facing back toward the ATV trail, broadside again. Did I miss? There's no way! I quickly reloaded and fired off another shot.... BOOM. This time the moose staggered and immediately fell in place. Carlo and I let out a victory yell, "YEEESSS!" and began gathering our items to clean the moose. We turned around to look at it, and to our surprise, it was standing up looking at us! I thought to myself, how in the heck is that possible after two rounds? Having an animal in pain is the last thing I want when harvesting it. Unfortunately, it laid back down, but not on its side this time. Some people would just leave the moose to eventually bleed out, but I can't do that. I have to finish the job as quickly as possible.
I decided to walk up to it with the intent to shoot it one more time, all the while yelling at it to get up (so I could get another shot in). As I got about 50 yards from it, he stood up and slowly walked toward me. I then fired one more shot, and five seconds later, he stumbled and fell hard... the final blow. I then walked back to Carlo and we rode our ATVs up the trail closer to where the moose was. I asked him to please give me a moment with the moose, and I proceeded to approach him by myself. I confirmed he was dead. I put my hand on his head and thanked him for giving his life to help feed my family and friends (a ritual that I practice with every kill). I apologized for not ending his life as quick as I had wanted. This got me more emotional than I normally get when thanking an animal because this moose took longer to expire than other animals I have harvested. Again, I do not enjoy killing anything, but it is a necessary component of hunting. I then took the next couple minutes to pray and thank the Lord for my successful harvest and hunting opportunity.
After this, I called to Carlo to come join me. We then proceeded to take pictures and get the area ready to field dress the moose. This is when the hard work begins! The weather was not very good for dressing out a moose. It was raining and very foggy. It was going to be difficult to keep the meat dry. We took our time dressing the meat. It was a good learning opportunity for Carlo since it was his first time seeing and helping field dress a big game animal. He was a good learner and huge help; he did everything asked of him and undoubtedly absorbed much of what he saw.
The dressing part was rather uneventful. All in all, it took us about 6 hours to get the moose cut up and ready to take back to camp. Lucky for us, I was able to drive my ATV right next to the kill site and load the meat directly into the meat wagon without having to pack it very far (we were definitely spoiled by this).
We returned to camp and started preparing a meat storage area. We had to erect a meat pole for the meat to hang from, remain cool from the breeze, stay clean, and dry off. We cut down a couple trees and put up a horizontal meat pole and a leaning meat pole. I accidentally made the horizontal meat pole a little too tall and it made it difficult for Carlo to help tie the bags without a step stool (as it would for any normal height person). After the meat was hung up and covered, we washed up, changed, and hung out by a nice warm fire.
We then decided on the plan for more hunting and heading home. It was now the afternoon of the fourth day. We had ridden our ATVs quite a bit and were getting low on gas. Before we shot the bull, the plan was on day five to ride the ATVs all day. We needed to check on the boat in case it was filled with water or vandalized, and we needed to refill gas. We would ride out, jump on the boat, and go fill up the tanks with gas. Upon returning with the gas, we would explore other trails and areas we skipped on the way in and end up at camp for the evening moose movement. Well, now that we bagged a moose, we decided that we could wait a couple days and try to get Carlo a legal moose as well. Unfortunately, that fifth day plan was not flexible and executing it with the intent to leave on day six did not seem worth it. As a result, we decided to hunt the rest of that evening, the next morning of day five, and then on the way out.
We only saw three other moose the rest of the day, all cows too. We weren't really trying too hard since we had a moose hanging and we were high on the successful harvest earlier that day. We sat around the fire most of the evening, stuffing our faces and drinking our celebration beers I brought just for that occasion. As it was getting dark, Carlo heard a crazy call in the distance. I didn't believe him at first, but then it called again. I wasn't sure it was a moose at first, but as it got closer, it became more obvious that it was a bull moose calling and walking by. We couldn't see the moose due to the darkness, but it was cool to hear a bull calling in the night.
We stayed up later than normal enjoying the fire (I cut a lot of firewood earlier that day). After we retreated to the tent, I took the time to be nice to my hands. Carlo was smart and wore gloves most of the time; but I am stubborn and think my hands can handle more than they really can. As a result, my hands had many cuts and deep bleeding gauges, most of them packed with mud and/or moose blood. I doctored up the cuts, put antibiotic ointment on them, and bandaged them all (you should see my first aid kit, it's small, but loaded with good stuff). We fell asleep reminiscing on the day's excitement.
Day Five
We woke up at the normal time to prepare for glassing the clearing below camp. We later found out that there was a dense fog advisory for the area. That resulted in difficult glassing conditions again. Until the fog cleared off, Carlo built and tended to another amazing fire and I spent time removing unneeded parts from the moose head for a Euro mount. I ended up spending the entire morning cleaning up the skull and didn't get much glassing in.
Around noon, we decided it was time to pack up camp. It was still wet so we had to put everything away soaked. We allocated items and began ensuring everything was in dry bags that couldn't get wet. I would take the larger meat wagon with all meat (and a few extra items), and Carlo would take the smaller wagon with pretty much everything else. Carlo is a self proclaimed expert packer... and boy did he live up to his name! Everything fit on the ATVs and in the meat wagons perfectly.
It was overcast, but not rainy, which makes for good riding conditions. The ride out was slow. We had very heavy loads which were more top heavy than normal. We had to take turns slowly and uneven terrain cautiously. Luckily, neither of us got stuck on the way out and both trailers remained upright.
We were driving along a long stretch of nice trail toward the end of our ride back to the boat when we noticed a moose off to the south. I could not believe it... the moose was a bull, and it was a big boy. It was a 4x4 brow tine bull. I didn't get to look at it long before Carlo jumped off his ATV, grabbed his rifle, and aimed at the bull. He looked at it for a couple seconds, aimed in the moose's direction, and and released the trigger... not pulling it. He decided not to shoot. We didn't need the meat and we were content with our harvest. He showed incredible control for a first time moose hunter with a big, legal bull in front of him. He evaluated the situation as a whole and did not fall victim to antler envy or trophy hunting. Kudos to him for that!
We arrived back at the boat to find it in one piece and in the same condition it was left in. A quick bilge activation drained the water and we were set to load the boat. This proved to be a lot trickier with the very heavy loads in the meat wagons. We planned to use the winch to load and unload the trailers, so we shuttled one ATV across, then one meat wagon, then the other meat wagon, and then the remaining ATV. Boating upstream with those heavy loads was a little scary. The front of the of the boat was extremely weighed down and we were moving about 3-4 miles per hour... but we made it back to our vehicles!
It took us a while to load everything up in the vehicles and secure it for travel. I had to unload everything from the back of my truck and set up the meat to stay cool and dry for the ride home. It was getting late at this point and we had developed a mean appetite. We decided to stop in Delta Junction and grab a bite to eat at the bar before we made the long drive home. That food was exactly what I needed to fuel my drive.
With full bellies, we set off toward home. Moose were everywhere that night. There was moose after moose along the side of the road, and Carlo even had to come to a complete stop for three triplet calves hanging out in the middle of the highway. Crazy moose!
We had to pull over a couple times to tighten straps and re-secure loads. One of the times we noticed a car drive by us with a moose rack strapped to the top of it. We didn't pay too much attention at the time, but we later got to take a closer look at the car when it pulled up next to us at the gas station in Glen Allen. It turns out, these two guys decided to take their old, two-door Volkswagen on a hunt for moose. They hiked in a long ways and bagged a bruiser. Well unfortunately for them, they were not prepared to bring a moose home. There was no room inside the car due to it being so small and their gear already taking up all the free room. Instead, they decided to strap all the meat and moose rack ON TOP of their car that did not even have a roof rack. They used string that went through their doors and the back hatch to secure the meat and antlers to the top of the car. Even worse, they didn't have the meat in meat bags. It was tied up their exposed to the elements... and it was raining that night. I asked them if they were planning on bagging a moose, which I think offended them because they said yes... and then asked me if I was planning on getting our moose. Well, I wasn't trying to make friends, but good for them on getting a big bull, but shame on them for not being properly prepared. I really wish I took a picture of the car.
On the drive home, we experienced all kinds of weather from clear skies, to rain, to dense fog, and snow. We even saw the northern lights at once point. We had the road pretty much to ourselves at 3AM.
When we got home we quickly unloaded the truck, cleaned up the garage a little bit, and hung the quarters/ribs. Carlo then headed home and I finished laying out the meat. Danielle and I would then spend the next two days processing.
After the meat was boned out and packaged in to steaks, roasts, ribs, and burger, we weighed everything and we managed to put 480lbs of meat in the freezer! Both freezers were STUFFED. I don't know how I fit everything in there, but I'm glad it all fit! We also set aside 40lbs (included in the 480 total) to take to Pioneer Meats for summer sausage and jalapenos cheddar wieners. We are now set for a long time for meat. We likely wont hunt next year as we will have no need for meat in the freezer and that is our intent when hunting. I will probably tag along on a hunt with somebody to help them fill their freezer tho.
** A special thanks to Danielle Harris! She's my rock and without her support, I could not do these hunts. I know she worries about me, but she takes one for the team to allow me to go hunt. She really contributed to this hunt too by cooking a majority of our dinners ahead of time! Carlo was super impressed and thrilled to have halibut, moose, caribou, sheep, and bear as part of the awesome meals! Also a special thanks to Carlo. He may think that I'm the one to thank for taking him with and the amazing experience, but the truth is I would not have had as much fun without him or been able to do most of the things we accomplished by myself.
Here's the crazy snowstorm we drove through on our way to our hunt.
This is where we tied the boat up. I don't usually worry, but I'll admit that I was a little anxious leaving my floating friend behind for so long... vulnerable to vandals, capable of getting beached or swamped from a rising or dropping river, and the possibility of sinking from a leak/weather.
The pipeline in Delta Junction
All loaded up and ready to ride! The road above us is the private drive to the commune.
Here is my setup I rode in on. You can see the burn terrain in the background.
The Alaskan Range in the background overlooking the hunting area.
We took a break on the ride in to check out this platform someone erected to allow for easier moose viewing over the large, open valley below. (there were three moose skulls in the grass here.
Our campsite for the trip... again, among the left overs from a forest fire.
The view from our campsite
We saw waaaaaay too many of these... cows with calves.
This bull was within 115 yards, but you can see the number of branches between us. I would have harvested him if I had a clear shot, but the number of potential deflections prior to the bullet reaching the moose was not a sacrifice I was willing to take. That is a recipe for injuring and animal and that is something I will avoid at all costs.
This ATV rarely gets stuck, but there were some serious mud holes the closer we got to the swampy lakes. I got stuck good here. I got the winch (a good friend on this hunt) out and hooked up to a flimsy tree.
The winch worked! Riding on.
We took a side tour through the woods and hiked to this lake for a destination lunch.
A rainbow peaks through in the distance... also overlooking the area we are scouting. Pot of [moose] gold?
Again with the Alaska Range back drop
More moose we couldn't shoot.We saw a cow and twin calves every day of the hunt, and I don't believe it was the same group ever.
SCORE! 3X2 with a 46" spread
I was super lucky and able to drive the ATV right next to the moose
Our meat hanging area
Carlo and I after finishing our meat hanging area.
The ATVs loaded with our pack out items.
I love my hood ornament :)
This is just one of the approximately 50 grouse that we saw on this trip. This particular grouse spooked while we were riding and he decided to fly up and land on the very top of a spruce tree, almost like a Christmas tree topper.
Carlo took this opportunity to try out the sling shot. He hurled a couple rounds at the grouse but never hit it. A sling shot is harder than you think to shoot accurately.
After using up his sling shot ammo, he decided to try and knock it down with his bear gun. No luck there either. This is a long shot for a 2" barrel hand gun.
This is the 4x4 bull Carlo trigger released on. Maybe we will see you again someday Mr. Moose.
The last load of the trip back to the vehicles.
And the very busy work begins... but it is so worth it!
This is Carlo crossing a stream on our way out. He was an expert ATV rider by the end of the trip.
I was calling from our camp spot a little bit and Carlo decided to record it. He then made this funny video from it.
