Hiya! Happy June!! First up- pictures from my phone.............
Hiking to Mount Gordon Lyon with the neighbors--- this view has been
posted once before, last fall! The valley to Symphany and Eagle Lakes.
My trusty hiking buddy!
You think you are at the top (where Sam is standing in the middle of the photo) and then you have to go down and back up to a little mini peak where I took the picture from.
Sleeping lady in the background
Just spooning with the pup in the back of the truck! Cot hog! Bear hunting.
Adam's black bear. 5'6"- meat in the freezer! We drove down on a Friday night, planning to stay until Wednesday if necessary. Friday night we hiked in more supplies for the bait stand to get more food and scent in there. We sat until it started getting dark without seeing anything. Saturday we took Tundy to the lake to swim and waited until the afternoon to hike in. After we got settled in the tree stand, 5 minutes later this guy showed up. After assessing the situation- it was one shot, which passed the bear quickly, and then thanking the bear and God for the opportunity to harvest meat for our table all year long. 2 hours later we were hiking out and drove home the same night to hang the meat. Unlike what most people think- It is bittersweet- tears of sadness for the animal, yet excitement for success after hard work and for the meat. This is why we are patient to assess the situation and so thankful for being blessed with the animal. We get people who give us a hard time for hunting, to which the reply is..... Do you know how your meat got to your table? Do you know the life that animal lived? Do you know what the animal was fed? Do you know how humanely it was taken? Do you know what you are consuming? So unless you are the farmer or know the farmer and the process-- ya better think before you try to shame a hunter. We are not out there for trophy animals, we make sure it is one shot or another shot is ready(example-brown bear) so the animal passes quickly and does not suffer, and the meat does not get wasted. Okay--- I could go on an on and even take this into other topics, but I shall move on!
Took care of the meat ourselves---more rewarding and more peace of mind versus dropping it off at the butcher and trusting them to keep ours separate from other's and to handle it as if it were going in their freezer and on their table. People also ask how we can eat all the meat we harvest, with just the
two of us. We have two freezers, I cook a meal every night with meat
from those freezers---and I mean every! We will get Subway if we leave
town on a Friday after work and will go out to eat MAYBE once a month,
but otherwise I am cooking or Adam is grilling and we eat the leftovers
for lunch the next day. We take meat back to our family in Iowa each time we go and
give some to friends, neighbors, coworkers. Adam has even made a
spreadsheet that says how many of each type of meat are left in the
freezers, which we mark off each time we take something out, so we know
what needs to be eaten first. Speaking of black bear meat--- I have a bear stroganoff in the crockpot right now that is smelling delicious! .....more pics to come later in the blog
A hike up one of my favorites-- McHugh Creek. Jordan and I are hoping to do once a week hikes/fishing/adventures this summer! She is from Kentucky and here for the summer! Unfortunately, this was the first time I haven't seen any wildlife on this trail.
Handsome pup on McHugh/Rabbit Lakes trail
On to King/Chinook Salmon fishing! Erin with her very FIRST King!!! After the boys and I caught our 1 daily king on the Deshka river within 1.5 hours of the 6a.m. drop time, we switched out Erin for Shawn (Ellie was with us and at the campground- toddler duty!) and she caught hers within an hour. AMAZING day---or morning on the Deshka!
Day 1 catches for Adam and Shawn. Shawn has two, if you catch one smaller than 19 inches, you can keep it as a "freebie".
Tundra kisses!
Adam's day 1
The very unusual 47pounder that I brought in on day 1! It was fun bringing it in and then giving a, "What do ya think of that boys?!?!?!" to all of the guys on the other boats who were giving me a hard time for taking so long to get it in. I don't think anyone expected this monster, especially on the Deshka!
We are thinking of getting a mount made-- probably the biggest King we will ever catch..... but who knows!
Tundra and Chena-- scratching their backs at the same time!
Our table--- smoked salmon quesadillas over the campfire!
Silly pup!.....more to come later in the blog for Kings
....continue black bear---- Tundy and I at the lake, getting him some exercise and waiting until the evening to hit the bear stand.
Another picture of Adam and his spring bear.
On to scouting for my sheep hunt. Since Adam had a few days off during the week for black bear hunting and we had returned early- we decided to check out my sheep area during those couple days. Scouting has always been and will always be helpful-we get a headstart on where to go/not to go for the actual hunt. This hunt was a LUCKY draw from entering for draw tags back in December 2014, an any ram hunt! So unlike Adam and his sheep hunt- I won't have to be concerned about age rings or the curl of the horns for it to be a legal animal this fall. This is an area close to our home, so we will be able to do some weekend and 3day hunts since it starts when I will already be in school in August. We start by 4 wheeler! (glacier in the background)
The hunt area!
First sign of sheep (little white dots!)-- on the wrong side of the mountain for my hunt area
Glassing a valley and how about that- 18 rams in this picture! Tired pup from our 3,000 ft elevation climb- by foot. (we started to climb my ATV trail but it got a tad too steep for our comfort!) Either way we were going to have to hike.
Part of our climb included the dreaded- alders and devil's club! Every hiker/hunter's nightmare! We actually got pretty lucky, there were a ton of game paths (mostly moose) going up the side of this mountain!
some rams-- and there was actually a black bear not too far to the left of them!
another couple further up the ridge
beautiful evening! just lounging in my backpacker's chair- eating mountain house!
My boys!
Our porch view!
We didn't realize how cold it was overnight until we got out of the tent the next morning and saw that our water hole had a thin layer of ice on it!
Ptarmigan everywhere!
We were walking on a ridge and were busted by this ram! We planned out scenarios of how we would get to the sheep if it were time for the hunt, it will be fun and challenging sneaking around this fall!
Should be interesting hiking up here in September- during rut, after seeing all of the moose signs!
Rubbings and chewed off bark everywhere!
So nice of the moose to leave a path for us!
Looking back at where we were the night before!
Looking back again from the 4wheeler path
And again-- hunt area and glacier in the pic!
The hubs-- leading the way!
On our way to halibut fishing in Seward! Nice bull just munching in the marsh!
6:30 am take off from the docks
Glacier in the background. The water doesn't look too bad, but oh my goodness were we in for a miserable ride! The captain took us and 8 other people out 3 hours to the first halibut hole, which supposedly is where any halibut fisherman/woman would want to go(according to Adam). If I remember correctly, only 3 halibut were caught, 2 of them released. I was hurling over the edge of the boat at this point..... and so was Adam!
I ONLY caught a dog shark that day, with 11 hours on the water! I have never been so sick in my life- not even with the flu! I threw up 14 times, to the point I had thrown up all breakfast from that morning, bile, and then foam! Adam had one big one and was then nauseous. Another woman who had been on a charter every year for 15 years said she had never taken medicine and never been sick, but she too was throwing up! Ugh- so miserable, but some humpback whales put on a show for us which made it a little better. I didn't get the best pics because of the rocking of the boat and the puking, but there is a whale breaching in the distance in this photo.
Adam caught a small halibut and two rock bass (something is better than nothing!)
Cute puffin showing off and waiting for scraps!
Sea lions!
Only 2 of the 10 people caught their halibut limit that day. We paid a lot of money for a couple meals of fish and a miserable day on the water, but hey-- you gotta have bad days to appreciate the good, right? I just kept telling myself, "Suck it up, you are halibut fishing in Alaska! Be thankful for the opportunity--- you can eat tomorrow!"
Gotta have bad days to appreciate the good right? Well King fishing has never been soooooo good, and who knows if it will ever be again! Tundy loves to lick the fish!
1 immature eagle munching on fish scraps!
And then there were 3
And then 4!
The Naber's new camper, our tent, and the campground neighbor's dog who hung out with us most of the weekend! Tundra and Remington had a great time playing!
Sunrise- getting out there for the 6a.m. drop of the lines!
You may remember last year (or maybe it was the year before) Tundra was so excited that he jumped in after my king! We were lucky we didn't loose the fish from it being scared and taking off or Tundra getting tangled in the line. WELL-- he didn't jump in this year, but he leaned so far forward that he fell in, when Adam had his second day's king on! Again we were lucky, we got Tundra AND the fish in the boat! Thank goodness for this life jacket and the handle on top!
Shawn on day 2--- boats galore and a float plane in the air! Beautiful morning
Day 2, our 2nd and last king off the Deshka for 2015. Again- by 7:30 a.m. we had all 3!
This king is bigger than what we usually catch off the Deshka-- we saw a lot brought in about this size! There were some hogs in there this year!
Tundra, Chena, and our weekend friend- Remington!
Well, sorry again for the mixed up photos. I upload my phone pics and then my camera and usually don't have time to organize them.
This weekend was planned for king fishing, but since we have our limit, we will actually be sleeping in our own beds this weekend! Day adventures this weekend!
Next Friday we leave for SANIBEL!!! Island off of Fort Meyers in Florida that Adam's family grew up going to and now my family has joined in on. My parents, Brandon/Deanna and their kids, Adam's parents, Jessi/Grant, and Emma will be going this year to celebrate Kucera parent's 40th anniversary and Harris parent's 35th anniversary. We will miss Adam/Heidi/Annie and Kati/Scott/twins! It will be a week of sun, water, shells, drinks, and food! We are of course taking our special cooler with meat from our freezer for the meals! :)
Happy Summer! Hope you are all enjoying the great outdoors this summer!
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