The epitome of bear hunting is a Kodiak brown bear hunt. Bears on this island can stand on their hind legs and measure 12 feet tall and weigh up to 1,500 pounds. There are stories of gunshots not scaring bears on this island as they hear them as dinner bells and not threats. While this may scare many people, it excites a handful. Shawn and I are one of those that it excites. We were fortunate enough to draw a Kodiak hunt and have the opportunity to hunt there this spring.
Our adventure actually begins December of 2014. That is when we decided to apply for this hunt. In February of 2015, we found out that we were awarded the Kiluda Bay Kodiak Brown Bear hunt for the Spring 2016 season. We immediately began planning over a year in advance.
The season is open from April 1 to May 15. It is a large time frame with success influenced by many factors. Because we wouldn't have the flexibility of heading down there exactly when the conditions were right, we had to decide ahead of time when we would hunt the area. While being a school teacher in Alaska has the perks of getting the summer off, it makes it extremely difficult to get time off during the school year. That was the case with Shawn for this hunt. Typically, hunters choose 14 days to hunt their areas; unfortunately, we could only hunt for 8 days before Shawn drained all of his leave. No worries tho, that would give us a week in the field, which is more than zero!
To decide which days we would hunt, I got in contact with the Kodiak biologist and requested kill dates for every bear shot in that area for the last ten years. I then calculated the average kill date and we decided to put that date smack dab in the middle of our hunting window. We would later find out that the prime time for shooting a bear this year was a week or two earlier, due to Kodiak experiencing the earliest spring in recent history.
Although we planned, purchased gear, and packed the entire year prior to the hunt, most of our activity occurred the month prior to our departure. I took up an entire room for about a month packing and organizing my gear. I was ordering miscellaneous things from Amazon, weighing gear, and of course recording everything in Excel. One thing I always do for Danielle and my mom is create a hunting plan so they know what to possibly expect and do if something goes wrong. Here is the hunting plan for this hunt in case you are curious: 2016 Kodiak Hunting Plan
We had reservations to fly in on a Beaver which would allow 1200 pounds of flying weight (including our body weight). Since we had the weight allowance, we decided we would take a raft and motor with us for added flexibility in hunting areas. We also opted to take a very heavy tent and stove for added comfort. We actually packed so much that we had to start cutting back and leaving gear behind. Of course, commercial airlines won't really allow that much luggage on a plane (and they don't allow anything over 100lbs). As a result, we had to ship the heaviest stuff on a cargo plane about a week prior.
Hunting Day minus 2:
I had to work the morning of our departure day. Shawn had to work too and was not able to get out as early as me. As a result, we took different planes to Kodiak. Luckily, because of my military benefits, I got to fly with 5 bags up to 75 pounds each for free. Hands down, Alaska Airlines is the best airline around. They always impress me. They also didn't charge me for the sixth bag that weighed 95lbs :)
When I landed in Kodiak, I immediately looked outside to check out the terrain and vegetation. It was similar to the Alaska I am familiar with, but it was different in the fact that there were significantly less trees. From the airport, the mountain sides looked fairly easy to climb with no obvious sign of obstacles. I can tell you that I later learned how poorly I underestimated the hiking terrain.
I arrived in Kodiak about two hours before Shawn did. It was interesting watching the people in the airport during that time. There were obviously three groups of people. One group were hunters and this composed about half of everyone I saw (wearing hunting gear or camo... talking about the hunt they just completed or were about to embark on). The other group were workers which composed a quarter of people there (wearing rugged gear ready to bust some butt or looking beat up from the long hours they just put in from the time they were there). The other group were residents who made up the remaining quarter of people (people of all ages happy and sad depending on who was coming or going, dressed in everyday clothing).
Shawn arrived and we gathered our gear. We assumed there were going to be cabs there to pick up arriving people, but we assumed incorrectly. We also needed a very large vehicle in order to hold all of our luggage. Luckily a cab was there responding to a request for a ride, who could not find the person who requested them. It worked perfectly because we ended up stealing that cab :)
We arrived at our hotel too late in the night to really gather the rest of our items from stores in town. Because of this, we decided just relax and slightly prepare for the next day. We headed to a local restaurant and enjoyed a couple beers and a burger. We returned to the hotel and hit the hay early in order to get up early the next day.
Hunting Day Minus 1:
This is the day we flew in to our hunt area. You may be wondering why it's called Hunting Day Minus 1. That is because hunters are not allowed to hunt on the same day they fly in. Knowing that, there is no real reason to get in to the area too early. Besides, we had plenty of errands to run and complete prior to flying in to Kiluda Bay.
We were true to our word and got up super early. You know you are up early when you arrive at a diner right when it opens :) King's Diner was a great place to have our last meal before the trip in. After breakfast, we headed to Cost-Savers to pick up 100 lbs of salt (50 lbs for each of our potential bears). We actually had to literally run to Cost-Savers because it was pouring rain and we didn't have our rain jackets. Of course, right when we got there it stopped raining. After buying our salt, we needed to buy a couple one pound canisters of fuel. We headed over to Big Ray's Sporting Goods and picked those up fairly easy. The timing actually worked out perfectly for Andrews Airway to meet us at the hotel when we finished our morning errands.
We quickly checked out of our hotel and loaded the shuttle van with our gear. On our way to Andrews Airway, we had to stop and fill up our gas tanks, as well as check in to our hunting area with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. At ADFG, we signed our hunting permits and picked our allotted two week hunting period (although we would not hunt the entire time). We noticed that everyone else in our hunting area had already signed in... we were a little late to the party :(
Once at Andrews Airway, we unloaded and weighed everything. We were never told the total weight, however, I'm pretty sure we were a little bit north of 1200 pounds! Apparently it's not a huge deal as we weren't told to reduce the weight any. We weighed in at 10AM. Our departure time was scheduled for noon. We sat around and waited anxiously for the next two hours.
Noon finally arrived and we were told to make our way to the plane. It was already loaded with our gear and only had us and the pilot left to get in. I tell you one thing... they do not make these planes for tall people. I had to climb in through the back and over the rear seat to get to the shotgun seat, hitting my head multiple times in the process. It didn't matter that I ended up scrunched in and uncomfortable in my seat... our hunt was almost here! The water was calm with a few sprinkles falling. The wind was barely noticeable making the flying conditions nearly ideal. The takeoff was uneventful and it actually took the plane longer to get off the water than I originally thought (must have been that big breakfast at King's Diner). The view above the Gulf of Alaska overlooking the Kodiak scenery was amazing.
It was a short 30 minute flight before we got to Kiluda Bay. On our way in, we saw three bears hanging out in a snow shoot, as well as too many goats to count. We got to fly around the bay a couple times to check it out from the air and see where people were camped. We only noticed one camp and it wasn't in our Plan A or Plan B spots, so we opted to land at our Plan A spot. Unfortunately, the tide was fairly low at the time we were landing, so we had to unload a little further away from our Plan A camping spot then we intended.
While we were unloading, something terrible happened. I was handed my hunting pack and as soon as I grabbed it to carry it to the shore, the shoulder strap frayed and snapped. It could no longer support any weight or even function as a hunting pack! I didn't worry about it too much at that time, and decided to address it later after we had everything unpacked.
After we unloaded everything, the plane took off and headed back to Kodiak City. It was a little eerie knowing we had no immediate form of transportation out of our hunting area and that we were totally dependent on someone else for getting us. This was the first time either of us experienced this feeling since it was the first time either of us flew into a hunt. That feeling was short lived and replaced with the need to find a camping spot for the next 10 days. Ideally, camping spots on Kodiak are tucked in around brush and trees to block the wind. The place we were dropped off actually had a large distance between the shore and tree line. It also did not have a fresh water stream nearby for us to drink. We walked the shoreline in both directions looking for a place to camp. We then decided to blow up the raft and move all of our gear to our Plan A spot. It took two trips. After the first load, I was left to find a camping spot and shuttle all gear between the shore to our tent area while Shawn headed back by himself to grab the rest of the second load.
We got all our gear moved back into the trees. It was a HUGE pain in the butt moving all 1200 pounds about 300 yards through deep grass and brush... but it was worth it since we didn't feel much wind at all back there. While we were shuttling our gear to our camp spot. The boat from the nearby lodge came into our cove and dropped off hunters. This was interesting because it was very close to where we were camping, but that's okay because we couldn't hunt that evening anyway.
During this whole time we were moving all of our gear, it was raining fairly well. I wouldn't expect anything less from Kodiak. Somehow, the rain stopped at the exact time we were setting up our tent. That was such a blessing because we got to keep the inside of our tent dry (our luxurious tent). And as soon as the tent was erected, the rain resumed. I could not have timed it better myself.
We were settled in to our camping area so we decided to head to the beach and glass the mountains (for those not familiar with the term "glass", it means looking through either binoculars or a spotting scope for something... bears in our case). We saw about 8 deer immediately to the west of us. Unfortunately, the rain was too thick and the clouds were too low to see much, so we didn't glass for too long. It actually sleeted on us a little bit too. Once the wind picked up, we decided to call it a night and head in to the tent.
We were soaked and needed to dry everything out. We fired up the stove and hung our wet gear...everything was dry in no time. During this time, I turned my attention to my broken pack strap. I did not bring a sewing kit, but lucky for me, I carry an emergency kit with me every time I head out into the back country. I knew I had a couple needles and fishing line in there so I broke it open. One of the needles had a rusted out eyelet and was not usable. The other needle worked perfectly! I had the pack sewed up pretty good with three or four different thread lines in it. I was going to do quite a bit more for insurance but the needle ended up breaking on me from the repeated force, pulling, and slight bending through the thick material. Oh well, at least I got enough passes through it to be confident in its performance before it broke. Of note – Kifaru stands behind their gear and they already have a replacement pack at no charge being sent to me in the mail.
The weather stayed pretty crappy through the night. The wind was howling often and the rain was pounding hard. The wind was interesting from our camping spot though. There were times that you could tell it was very windy outside because it sounded like a fighter jet flying overhead, even though sometimes you could not feel it that strongly from being buried in the trees. We went to bed hoping it would clear before the morning.
The plane docks behind Andrews Airway.
More docks and the cove the planes take off from.
Our plane being loaded up with our gear.
A starfish in the water by the walkway down to the plane dock.
Shawn and the pilot heading toward our plane.
Looking back at Andrews Airway from our plane.
The plane cockpit.
Aerial views are the best!
More flying scenery.
Shawn looking for adventure :)
A handful of the many goats we saw flying in to Kiluda Bay.
Kiluda Bay!
More Kiluda.
Curb side drop off
Our first resident to welcome us to Kiluda Bay
Searching for a place to camp.
The lodge across the Bay
Getting ready to transport our gear to our new camping spot
The many goats on the mountain directly across from our cove. They did not move from that spot the entirety of our hunt.
A panoramic view of our shore from the treeline.
Shawn on his second trip moving our gear.
Home sweet home for 10 days. Notice the bear fence surrounding our tent. Smart idea or false sense of security!?
Cove view from the tent.
Cove view (other end) from the tent.
This is what my emergency survival tin looks like.
Here are some of the contents of the tin.
What my broken pack looked like.
What it's supposed to look like.
Fixing my pack.
The end result! Don't tell Danielle I know how to hand sew... she will make me do all the sewing now!
Landing in the plane.
Taking off in the plane.
Hunting
Day 1:
Today was Shawn’s shooting day. We decided to
alternate between available hunting days. This gave us each four days of
possible hunting if the weather cooperated. Of course, if one of us didn’t want
to take a shot at a bear for whatever reason, the other could do so even though
it wasn’t their technical shooting day. This seemed like a realistic
possibility as I already had a big grizzly bear hanging on my wall at home and
Shawn did not. I was in Kodiak to shoot a very large boar and would not bring
home something other than a giant. Shawn was looking to score his first bear
kill so he was not going to be as picky as me (but he would not shoot anything
small).
We set our alarm and woke up early for the first day
of hunting. The weather didn’t change much from the night before. It was still
raining fairly hard and gusting heavily. That didn’t stop us though… it was the
first day we could hunt in Kodiak… a blizzard likely would not have stopped us
at that point.
There was a ridge line a short distance away that on
paper, looked a lot smaller. We originally thought that ridge would be a
perfect place to glass from, but after seeing it in person, we quickly realized
the steep climb was not worth the view. Instead, we opted to head for the front
part of the ridge where it descends into sea level. On our way, we had to cross
a huge swamp with many creeks, floating grass beds, and beaver ponds. It wasn’t
a hard hike, especially since we had our hip boots on, however, for whatever
reason, I decided to not pull my hip boots up at the start of this hike. With
my hip boots up to my hips, breathability is compromised and I overheat
quickly; leaving them down when unneeded prevents this. Well, I thought I could
jump across a wide creek without needing to pull the hippers up… I was sorely
wrong. (one thing about some of these creeks in the swamp… they weren’t very
wide, but they were oddly deep! It was common to see a one foot wide stream
that was three feet deep). I had the distance to clear the creek, however, my
landing foot slipped once it reached the other side. Both feet and boots took a
quick bath in the water and thus, I had soaked feet within an hour of our first
day hunting! I mentally prepared myself for nasty blisters, cold feet, and very
stinky socks for the remainder of the hunt.
It didn’t take too long to cross the swampy terrain.
We made our way toward the ridge and eventually found a place to climb it that
wasn’t too steep to make it to the top. This was our first dose of off trail
hiking in Kodiak. It was not fun! The hillsides LOOK clear, but they are
deceiving. They are mostly covered in brush that have no leaves, are about
three to five feet tall, have thorns at most of their bases (most thorns not
being too sharp), and love the company of millions of other brush friends.
These things were no joke. The sheer number of upright twigs from this brush
made it extremely difficult to move up a hill (going down wasn’t too bad as
gravity trumped the brush interference and resulted in laying the brush flat
after forcing your way through it). To make matters worse, all the brush was
holding water. So on top of it raining on us, we got to pick up water from the
brush as well J
We made it to our new ridge line spot, soaked, cold,
and tired. We planned to sit there and glass for the entire day. The rain and
low clouds made it difficult, but the weather started to improve once we got
settled in and we even saw the sun for about 10 minutes. We were glassing for
about three hours when we noticed our first bear across the river valley. At
that exact moment, we also noticed the boat from the lodge tugging down our
cove. We stood up on our ridge, waiving for the boat to see that we were
already hunting in that drainage in hopes that it would result in them hunting
a different area of the Bay that day. We were clearly visible, but the boat did
not stop. It continued down the cove and dropped off the two hunters on the
shore line.
The hunters were going to walk right into the middle
of the area we were glassing. Shawn and I quickly discussed our possibilities.
We decided that the best thing to do would be to intercept the hunters and
discuss options. We quickly packed up our things and booked it down the ridge
toward the hunters. We had a little over a mile and a couple river crossings in
front of us to close the gap. We made excellent time even with stopping to pick
up a deer shed that was somewhat out of our way. When we were in the river
basin and had one more small creek to pass before meeting the hunters, we
noticed that the single bear on the mountain side turned in to a second bear,
likely a sow and cub pair. I left Shawn behind to study the bears and decide if
either were legal as I proceeded to head toward the hunters.
I ended up popping out directly in front of the
hunters’ path. We made eye contact and walked toward each other. It was an
awkward meeting to say the least. Imagine being in a supposedly remote part of
Alaska, expecting little to no human interaction, and then you are face to face
with individuals that are hunting for the exact same thing you are hunting with
all hunters thinking, “what are you doing in MY hunt area?” This hunting pair
was the father/daughter party draw that we knew about because all draw tag
results are posted for public viewing. That means that four of the possible
five resident hunters for this huge bay were in the same small finger. The
conversation started off cordially and quickly turned ugly.
Apparently, they knew we were in that river valley
but still decided to be dropped off and hunt it. According to the hunters, they
have been going to the exact same spot in that drainage for the past eight days
and planned to continue to go there for the last six days of their hunt. Unfortunately,
that drainage was also our Plan A hunting area. We talked about the fact that
no place in the bay is it considered any one person’s hunt area, however,
camping at the place you intend to hunt is a recognized sign of calling “dibs”
on a hunt area and respectful hunters would find an alternative place to hunt.
We had no idea that this party planned to hunt this drainage every day because
they did not set up camp at the head of the drainage like we did (they opted
for luxury and full accommodations). If we knew that prior, we would have
proceeded to Plan B. Since we committed to Plan A, and we did not have a big
ocean worthy boat (although we had a small raft), we were stuck with hunting
this drainage when the raft could not get us elsewhere. Telling the other
hunting party this did not make them happy. They insisted that they would
continue to hunt this area and that there will be competition among hunters
now. Shawn and I found the acknowledgement of competition silly because we were
both young, in shape, and full of energy… compared to this father/daughter
combination, we would have easily beat them to any bear if we both decided to
pursue the same animal. The ironic thing is I attempted to avoid this by making
contact with every hunter and the lodge in the hunt area prior to the hunt
starting. No individual hunter returned my calls or messages and the lodge
simply stated, “It’s a big bay, don’t worry about hunting the same area as we
can go anywhere.” I informed the party of my contact attempts and they acted as
if they did not know what I was talking about (although they appeared surprised
that I knew who they were and caught off guard when I was mentioning things
that appeared familiar to them).
They ended the conversation and marched forward to
their glassing spot. Shawn and I discussed what we should do as we watched them
set up on a hill for the day. We knew what was and wasn’t in the drainage close
to their glassing hill so we decided to push further into the drainage in front
of them. They saw us walk past them and disappear somewhere beyond their sight.
We know this bothered them because we would be closer to any new bear that was
venturing into the drainage.
We set up on a good hill side that gave us a great
view of a neighboring valley as well as the side hills next to where the other
hunting party setup. We could not see the other hunting party, so that made it
nice as well. Once we got here, I realized that I no longer had my deer shed I
found and that I dropped it when we were talking to the other hunting party L
Unfortunately, the spot we chose wasn’t too productive though. We did see a sow
and two cubs, but that was it for the remainder of the day.
As it got late, we calculated what time we needed to
head back. Daylight isn’t a requirement for hiking, but it is a requirement for
hunting. Every night, we had to figure out what time we were going to stop
hunting. Typically, this was two hours before sunset. The reason we chose two
hours is because we allowed one hour for a stalk (which was extremely hopeful)
and one hour for recovering a shot bear. We would not shoot a bear if we had
less than an hour of sunlight remaining (the sun set at 10PM). If we knew we
were hiking in good bear territory on our way out, we would fudge a little on the
one hour stalk rule. Because our current place was not promising to see a bear
on the way out, we stopped hunting at eight.
We made our way out of the drainage only to see the
lodge boat picking up the other party and taking them back to the lodge about
an hour before we would reach the shoreline (early quitters). We had the plan
of taking a different route back to camp to avoid the swamps we crossed on the
way in. To do this, we decided to follow the North side of the river to the
shore and then walk the shore back to camp. Unfortunately, we failed to realize
that the rivers/creeks would get wider and deeper as they met up with the coast
and become impossible to cross. Because of this, we ended up walking upstream
of many of these until we found a place shallow enough to cross. It didn’t help
that the outlets were tidally influenced by high tide at this time too. This
ate up a significant amount of time (never doing that again) and it got dark
before we made it back to camp.
We got back to our camp safely. The tent and everything
appeared to be left alone while we were gone. Shawn proceeded to gather water
from the nearby creek and I prepared dinner (these would be our roles every
night of the hunt too). We got ourselves fed and hydrated before we hung up
everything to dry (I literarily poured water out of my boots). I then spent the
next two hours trying to fix our water filtration system which broke during our
nightly duties. Apparently I ruined it on our last sheep hunting trip trying to
squeeze water out of mud. I ended up drilling a hole in the first porcelain
filtration part, boiling and cleaning all parts, drying out everything, and
resealing the pump. The combination of all that ended up “fixing” the pump for
the remainder of the trip. We then got ready for bed, and hit the hay with no
wind or rain in sight!
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - We ended up walking a
little over 10 miles that day. The hand sewn repair of the pack held up
surprisingly well and I didn’t even notice it as an issue. We also realized
this day that we will likely never put on our hunting boots. There is too much
water to cross to take off the hip boots. The down side to that is hiking
mountains in less supportive and poorly breathing boots.
The five bears we spotted throughout the day put our
total bear count to eight. We saw a surprising number of ducks EVERYWHERE. I
would love to return someday to hunt ducks in the fall. We also saw a
surprising number of dead ducks. It appears this is where the ducks come to die
as well. We came across 30 different deer too, mostly in the last couple hours
of daylight. Countless goats were seen on just about every mountain top as well.
Somethings I wasn’t expecting to see were Devil’s Club and beavers.
This
sea plant is awesome! I'm not sure what it's called but it was found
everywhere. It's completely hollow and spanned up to 20 feet (I'm sure
they get bigger). The fun part was jabbing the bulb part of the washed
up plant because it would pop under the pressure and shoot water
everywhere.
The view from the front side of the ridge we initially glassed from (and the poor weather around us).
This
little fella sat to our left about 200 yards away for the majority of
the time we were on the ridge. He wasn't scared of us at all.
This a view up the drainage from our glassing spot we found after our discussion with the other party hunters.
The river bed of our drainage.
Shawn looking off in the distance during our hike out of the drainage.
Shawn walking the shoreline after our long detour to find cross-able creeks getting back to camp.
What the inside of the tent looked like on a nightly basis (front).
What the inside of the tent looked like on a nightly basis (rear).
Hunting
Day 2:
My alarm didn’t go off this morning for some reason,
but luckily an annoying woodpecker was going to town on the tree above our
tent. All of our clothes had dried overnight with the exception of the insides
of my boots. I hate putting on wet boots… but I hate hunting on top of other hunters
even more.
It was a really nice day with relatively calm water.
We decided to head back to and hunt the drainage we were camped in since we
just learned the lay of the land. We also wanted to see what the other hunting
party was going to do. Instead of hiking around the cove and through the swamp
this time, we decided to take a very short raft ride to the head of the river.
On our way, we decided to put up a large, yellow flag on the shoreline to let other
hunters know we were in there (this was the very reason we took the flag).
We then hiked a couple miles in to a spot on a small
hill in the middle of the drainage very close to where we saw the other hunters
go the day before. It was a very warm hike and we were sweating pretty good by
the time we were done hiking. As a small bonus, I found the dropped deer shed I
lost the day before!
We quickly found the same five bears we spotted the
day before. They didn’t move too far and were just napping and grazing. After
about three hours of glassing and only seeing the same five bears, we turned
around to find the two party hunters sitting about 20 feet directly behind us…
I could not believe my eyes! Not only did they ignore the flag, they decided to
sit right on top of us. This was soooo weird to me. Why would anyone want to
come to Kodiak and purposely hunt like this? We then spent the next two hours
sitting this far apart and not speaking to each other. It was interesting to
watch them during this time (I wouldn’t look directly at them because that
would be obvious, so I held up my binoculars and peaked through my peripheral
often). They were not a fan of the rain because every time it started to rain,
they would climb down the side of the hill and take cover. This showed me that
they weren’t the most hardcore hunters, but what do you expect when paying for
the lodge accommodations?
We were tired of being so close to this pair of
hunters and decided to move somewhere else. Before we left, we decided to talk
to them since they did not say anything since sitting behind us. Shawn did most
of the talking this time since he wasn’t there the last time. The pair blamed
the lodge and said the lodge did not want to drop them anywhere else. We asked
them if they saw the flag and they said that they did and were expecting to see
us. Basically, the result of the conversation was the same… no compromise in
sight. Again, this was frustrating but it didn’t bother us too much because we
know it would not affect our success any.
We decided to move further into drainage this time,
to see if we could get a good view of the furthest valley feeding the drainage.
It was a hard hike which included a bunch of alder busting. It rained a bunch
on us and it was humid and hot… which makes for very uncomfortable hiking
conditions.
It turned out that the long hike was fairly
unproductive. We saw zero bears after many hours of glassing. All we saw was
lots of rain, many goats, and a handful of deer. Not seeing a single bear was
very disheartening because that area looked so promising and was rumored to
hold some very large bears. At least we learned to not go back there.
We hammered out the long hike back to the raft
rather quickly. The other hunters were already gone by the time we passed by
their glassing area. We went to retrieve the flag we placed to tell people we
were in the drainage, but it was no longer there. We thought the wind may have
blown it over, but we soon realized that the lodge had stolen the flag. I don’t
understand some people sometimes. How immature is that? We were going to use
that flag daily as a way to show people where we were. If they thought they
were hurting us by stealing it, they were wrong… they now had no way to tell
where we were when we were out hunting.
We returned to camp and assumed our nightly duties.
This night’s repairs consisted of fixing the broken plastic hangers which broke
the night before. Nothing a little duct tape can’t fix! It was a nice night and
we went to bed thinking the next day was also going to be nice.
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - Our bear count didn’t
increase this day. We did notice a bunch of seals in the bay and continued to
watch them play for the rest of our trip. Of course we saw more goat, 40 some
deer, and a playful river otter. We also saw two different grey fox; that was the
first time we have seen those before. Lastly, herring and crabbing ships were
starting to arrive in the bay this day… but more on those later.
First trip in the raft... just a quick hop across our cove.
The flag we took to let people know which area we were hunting in.
A view of the terrain where we were camped. Our tent is in the middle.
A group of three... Momma and two cubs.
Here is a sow and cub up in the snow. This is a zoomed in picture.
And this is a zoomed out picture. The two bears are at the snowline in the middle of the picture.
This is a view down the drainage from our glassing spot all the way into the drainage at the bend of the furthest valley.
This is the same glassing spot, but viewing into the furthest valley.
Hunting
Day 3:
It was a rough night for me. I wasn’t sleeping well
the past couple nights because I continue to sweat from overheating in my
sleeping bag. Shawn on the other hand was sleeping like a baby. My poor
sleeping resulted in me waking up later then we wanted. When we did get up, we
noticed it was a beautiful day today. It was Shawn’s day to shoot, so he made
the final decisions on today’s hunting plans. It was decided to utilize the
raft on this gorgeous day and access some new areas.
We shot East through the bay and picked a hill on
the South side to set up for the day. It was a nice finger that shot outward
into the bay and allowed plenty of shoreline to glass for wondering bears and
mountain side for climbers. The lookout spot was beautiful. To the North was
ocean with whales, ducks, and seagulls everywhere, and to the South was
snowcapped mountains with eagles, goat, deer, and bears. No matter where you
looked or pointed your ears, you could see and hear nature in its finest.
Unfortunately, the serenity of the nature was interrupted by human interference
throughout the day.
No longer than 30 minutes after getting set up on
the knoll, two small bears came wondering out of the trees and walked the
shoreline. They definitely were not shooters, so we studied and watched them
closely. About 10 minutes after spotting the bears, a boat trolling for king
salmon came puttering by. The bears easily heard it coming and took off toward
the trees. Dang fisherman! Luckily we got to watch the bears for a little bit
and snap a couple pictures.
We spent many hours on that hill without seeing much
bear activity. We did see a single, lone bear on the furthest peak South of us,
way out of hiking distance. We also caught a glimpse of a sow with two cubs far
on the other side of the bay, also completely beyond hiking distance. Even with
no other bears being seen too close to shore, we did see a bunch of other cool
stuff! A close eagles nest, breaching whales, an eagle hunting sea gulls, and
swarms of herring balls.
We also noticed 3 other ships in the bay either
fishing or netting for herring. After seeing the two bears take off earlier, we
realized that it will be near impossible to see shore walking bears with all
this boating activity. Since that was the main type of bear activity we were trying
to intercept, we didn’t have too high of hopes to see much from the shore that
day. We also noticed a storm working its way toward us, so we didn’t really
have time change spots.
We timed our departure from that spot to stay just
ahead of the storm coming in. The clouds were dropping lower with the incoming
storm, so we knew we would likely have to call it an early night. The ride back
on the raft was a little rough, but luckily the wind and current direction was
pushing West, the same way we were headed. We arrived back in front of our camp
right before the rain hit. We decided to just hangout on our shoreline and
glass from there during the storm. Since we were so close to camp and a heat
source, it didn’t matter too much how cold or wet we got during the storm.
It wasn’t until this moment that I realized how much
garbage was spread out over the bay. This is one thing that people may not
realize when they think about a beautiful place like Kodiak… but there was
literally junk all along the shore and washed up into the tree line. I don’t
want to assume, but it looked like trash that came from ships and boats . It
wasn’t thickly lining the shores, but enough to disappoint a Kodiak rookie who
hoped for pristine and untouched (or low touched) beauty.
As we were sitting there, we noticed a red fox in
the distance digging for clams and dead sea creatures. We were fixated on the
fox when I gazed to my right at Shawn and immediately noticed three brown
outlines a couple hundred yards behind him. I whispered to him, “Shawn, don’t
move.” In an attempt to keep him still. The bears were so close that if he
moved, they would have seen him and ran off. The bears soon dropped their heads
to graze and I gave Shawn the OK to take cover behind the log we were sitting
on. A sow and two cubs comprised the group of bears. It was cool to see them up
close, but it was a little eerie knowing our tent and campsite was so close
nearby.
We watched the three bears as best as we could, but
after our initial viewing, they mostly stayed low in the grass fields, which
obstructed a full view from our current spot. Like dejavu, 30 minutes after
spotting these bears, a ship comes around the corner and into our cove. This
spooked the bears instantly and they took off for cover into the woods. Yet
again, close bears were scared off! Although these bears were not legal, I
would have been FURIOUS if this was a large, solo boar that had our stalk
interrupted by someone in a boat. Luckily that wasn’t the case, although it was
disappointing not to get to watch them for long.
The ship was obviously a commercial ship. It had many
pots loaded on the back but we could not tell if it was a crabbing or shrimping
boat. The ship then proceeded to stay in our cove for the remainder of the day.
They prepared the pots and dropped them all over the cove. This was no quiet
task either! The captain was on a load speaker yelling orders to his deckhands
the entire time. When he wanted to drop a pot, he would sound a loud, high
pitched horn. Basically, they ruined any chance of us seeing a bear from our
shoreline that evening. Because of that, we gave up and headed to the tent
early.
The rest of the evening was rather uneventful. We
spent it repairing my boot laces, relaxing, pigging out, and getting dry. The
clouds lifted and the weather cleared up about two hours before sunset. This
made sitting in the tent all the more difficult seeing the beautiful weather
that was currently out there, but knowing no bears were nearby and there was no
time to venture out further. Instead, we decided to sleep so we didn’t have to
torture ourselves.
The nine bears that we spotted on this day increased
our bear total to 14.
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - The nine bears that we
spotted on this day increased our bear total to 14. In an attempt to cover our
scent up better, we decided to change our clothes for the first time this
night. We also realized today that the tide chart I printed off was completely
inaccurate, so I calculated out a new tide chart to use for the rest of the
trip. Full hunt details disclosure… this night was the first time either of us
took a poop… it was a welcomed event.
We had a handful of eagle soaring over us the entire day. This lady was flying real close to us for a while.
The sow and two cubs that appeared out of nowhere right next to us as we sat on the shore and glassed.
THE SUN! Our view from the front of our tent.
Looking at our Plan A drainage from the shore in front of our tent site.
This is the inflatable canoe we used. It worked great! This is a must have mode of transportation for hunting Kodiak bays!
The view from our landing spot, bay-side.
The view from our landing spot, land-side.
Some
of the many shells found on the beaches. My mom is going to be so mad
at me because I should have brought her home some of these :(
We then realized it was flying close to us because we were close to its nest.
Watching the shoreline from our glassing hill.
These two fellas came out to explore the shoreline.
After the boat spooked them off, the bigger of the two bears walked through the tree line on the side of our hill.
Shawn sits on the glassing hill watching the bear. (the bear is middle left of this picture)
This is the salmon fishing boat that kept trolling right in front of us.
A herring fishing boat anchored on the other side of the bay.
I
found a small bullet under my feet while glassing from our hill.
Apparently, someone else also used this hill as a lookout spot for deer.
The crabbing/shrimping boat that ruined our evening hunt and scared the near by bears off.
The view out of our tent after we retreated for the night.... nice weather begging us to hunt it!
Watching whales will never get old.
Just watching bears from a close range.
Hunting
Day 4:
Tired of sweating, I decided to sleep UNDER my sleeping bag for a night instead of in it (my bag does not have zippers down the side like a typical sleeping bag). This had the opposite affect on me and I got a little cold that night. In a half sleeping daze, I turned up the heater. I thought I turned it up just a smidge, but unbeknownst to me, I turned the heater up to full blast! I was comfortable for a little while, but I eventually woke up REALLY sweating. I ripped off my clothes and almost freaked out at how hot it was in the tent! I immediately unzipped the tent and ran out to cool off. I opened up the tent to cool it off because there was no way I would be able to sleep in a sauna. Shawn on the other hand did not budge. He loves the heat and has been known to sleep comfortably in cabins so hot that they almost catch on fire. Unfortunately, we would later find out that this heater mishap ate up most of our gas, leaving us with only fumes for the rest of the trip. This was also horrible timing since this day was coldest and wettest hunting day to date.
We woke up to very poor weather. It was very rainy and foggy, but the wind wasn't too bad. Today was my day to take a shot and the plan was to venture to the North finger and explore that drainage. Unfortunately, the weather would not allow leaving our cove. We sat for a couple hours waiting for the weather to clear and clouds to lift, but the weather did not cooperate. Knowing that the ships likely scared any close bears off, we knew that staying put and watching the shore line was not an option. We decided to head back in to our drainage and hunt that area again.
We found our way to the lookout hill in the middle of the drainage. We sat there looking at the familiar terrain wondering if/when we would see the other hunting party. To our surprise, we didn't see them that day!
There were no bear to be seen for a couple hours. We then spotted a lone bear a short distance beyond where we set up in that valley two days prior. We thought about going after the bear, but decided against it. Although it was located within a walkable distance, it was too high up the mountain, through steep and thick terrain that it would have been impossible to stalk and take successfully. As a result, we just watched it feed.
A short while later, we spotted a sow and two cubs coming up and over a ridge line on the South face of a mountain. This was a similar area to where we saw a group of three just days before, so we were not sure if it was the same bears or not. It must have been the right time of day, because at that exact same time, another sow and cub peaked over a different ridge line to the East and started feeding. We watched both groups intently hoping a boar would catch their wind and come check them out. However, that never happened :(
We did have one eventful sighting... We noticed a group brown blobs walking along a mountain peak through the snow. At first, we were excited because it appeared to be five smaller bears being chased by a larger sixth bear. This was confusing though because that many bears are not usually seen together. After putting the spotting scope on them, we realized that the blobs were actually extremely dirty and large mountain goats. This was surprising but it made sense since the behavior of the blobs didn't match bear behavior. We then watched the goats scale a steep, snow covered terrain that we swear was going to result in an avalanche. It did not, and the goats went up and over a rocky peak. On a side note - from what I have learned about avalanches through classes and field experience, and then watching traveling goats during this hunting trip, mountain goats must cause avalanches often and be a main cause of death among them.
Throughout the day of glassing, there were many times we had to duck our heads and bundle up tight to stay dry from the downpours. It was noticeably wetter and colder that day. Many times we couldn’t see well enough to glass or we were staring hard through our binoculars to combat the distorted images resulting from the rain in the air. It also made it more difficult to gaze through our binoculars when we were shaking from the cold.
Although we were extremely wet and cold, we still stuck out the day until the very end. We got back to camp and were excited to warm up and dry off. That is when we discovered our short supply of gas for the heater. Regardless, we fired up the heater for a very short period to take the bite off. We turned it off after warming up to conserve fuel in case something was to happen where we would really need it.
We went to bed warm and dry. We knew our gear would not dry out this night though because we didn't have available gas to run the stove through the night.
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - The six bears that we spotted on this day increased our bear total to 20. A common nightly theme seemed to be me fixing something. This night, I had to repair the hangers again, this time, I really reinforced them.
Low tide and low clouds :(
The group of "bears" that turned out to be really dirty goats.
Mamma sow and two cubs.
Waterfall pic.
This is the amount of terrain we could see from our glassing hill.
It turned out to be the worst night to not have a stove running. It was super wet and extremely cold. It got below freezing overnight and there was fresh snow on the mountains in the morning. Nothing dried out and we woke up chilled. Luckily it stopped raining at the exact time we were getting up. We were also fortunate that this day was going to be polar opposite from the day prior... from the coldest and wettest day to the hottest and driest day.
We decided to try out the North finger. The water was calm on the ride in which made for an enjoyable and scenic ride. We arrived at the head of the drainage to find that pots had been dropped in that area too. That meant an unlikely chance of seeing bears close to the shore. No problem though, we were planning on hiking in anyways.
We motored up a creek quite a ways until we found a good place to tie the raft. From there, we followed the creek and river in with the intention of finding a good look out place to view most of the drainage. We stayed right of the creek and spotted a good hill to check out; however, it required a small amount of alder whacking to get to. By the time we peaked the hill, we were hot and soaked with sweat.
The first thing we noticed was the direction of the wind. The wind was blowing into the drainage. Bears have a ridiculously good sense of smell and the wind blowing in the direction we were hoping to see bears was very undesirable. If a bear caught wind of our scent, they would leave in a heartbeat. Because of that, we didn't stay on that hill for very long, maybe 15 minutes.
During that time, we caught sight of a sow and three cubs on the mountain side we just passed. The wind was not blowing at lower elevations in the river bed valley so we dropped back down and walked further into the drainage staying low, below the wind.
We spotted a couple options that we would consider our destination and glassing spot for the day. We decided on a bald knoll about 1000 feet above the river approximately 2 miles away. Getting to this knoll turned out to be miserable! The sun and weather was even hotter now, the brush was thicker, and the terrain was steeper. After reaching the top of the knoll, any dry clothes we had left from the first hill hike were no longer dry. Today was a bad day to wear base layers! The good thing about the weather was that we were able to lay everything out to dry while we were glassing on the knoll.
This spot gave us a beautiful view of a multitude of terrain. The ocean was behind us with the river emptying into it. The drainage mountainsides were on either side of us with a clear view from top to bottom, and a flat basin at the head of four different valleys was directly in front of us. It looked very promising and we could see for miles in every direction. Although we had a lot to look at, we found very little of what we were looking for.
We only saw one bear from this knoll, but that bear was HUGE! We spotted him in the flat area at the head of the four valleys, only a mile and a half away. He was slowly grazing on the grass. We contemplated pursuing the bear, but after many discussions, we decided against it. The wind was still blowing in the absolute worst direction and the bear was walking away from us. Both conditions alone typically result in an unsuccessful stalk; combined makes it near impossible. Besides, we wanted to hunt this area again and didn't want to risk spreading our scent all over for a near impossible chance of bagging a bear. Instead, we sat and studied the brute. We got to watch him for a couple hours before he traversed up and over a ridge into the neighboring valley. (Where the bear disappeared separated our hunt area with the one adjacent to ours. I had a buddy draw this adjacent tag, but he didn't hunt it. I later told him about the monster we saw venture into his hunt area and he quickly regretted not hunting the tag).
About an hour after the bear disappeared marked the time we needed to head back to the raft. On our way out, we spotted a red fox feeding on a gravel bar. That silly thing was too busy feeding that he didn't see us until we were nearly on top of him. The rest of the hike out was uneventful. When we finally got to our raft, the tide had dropped so much that we barely had enough water to float the creek out on. I had to row us a little bit until we got to the open bay water, at which point Shawn fired up the motor. The water was still calm, making the smooth ride back enjoyable. The part that wasn't enjoyable was when it started to sleet on us about mid way to our campsite. The weather wasn't bad, it just decided to drop some ice on us to make sure we weren't having too easy of a return trip :)
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - The five bears that we spotted on this day increased our bear total to 25.
Low tide and high clouds :)
Fresh snow on the mountain!
A low tide view out the bay with the sun making an appearance.
A look up the drainage of the North finger.
A look down the bay from the North finger.
A sow and three cubs... good job mamma!
Walking the river bottom in.
A panoramic picture from our glassing spot.
Shawn studying the land intently up the drainage.
We had a great view of the drainage and bay from our glassing spot.
Here is another picture of our awesome view.
I
took this picture for Shawn. We were amazed at how the snow was staying
on this peak. It was bubbled like pimples and not smooth. I'm not sure
the snow prevented sliding.
Waterfall
Mr. Red Fox turning over rocks.
This is camp kitchen.
The bear fence power source (four C batteries)
Here is our camp water fountain.
Hunting Day 6:
The morning weather was terrible. We could hear the "jets" overhead from the gusts of wind in the bay. The rain was dumping as well. We knew the weather was not huntable so we slept in. We stayed in the tent all morning and didn't get out until after lunch. Just when we were starting to get cabin fever from being cooped up in the tent, the rain and wind lighten up a little, allowing us to make an attempt at hunting this day.
We decided to venture out in the weather to see if we could see anything. We were hoping to glass the shoreline since the clouds were low and the ships were absent for a couple days now. Our plan was to walk out the bay a little bit to a nearby point, and then glass from there.
As we began to walk toward the point, we started to hear a faint buzz of a motor. The closer we got to the point, the louder the buzz got. We soon realized the buzz was coming from a ship headed in our direction. The ship soon showed itself by beating us to the point and coming around the corner. At first, we thought this ship was the same ship that dropped their pots in our cove earlier in the week. But after close inspection, it was just a look alike and they were actually there to drop more pots and scare off more wildlife. At this point, we knew that looking for bears along the shoreline was no longer a possibility, so we turned around and headed back toward camp.
So at this moment, the only available strategy to hunt in these conditions was to find shoreline to watch that was not affected by the ship. The water in our cove was a little choppy, but not unnavigable for the raft. So we decided to jump on the raft and try to get to the same spot we glassed from near the shore a couple days prior. Once we motored outside of our cove, into the bigger bay, the waves became significantly larger. The waves were breaking over the front of the raft and the swells were pounding the underside. After enduring the weather and the pounding of the ride, we got within a few hundred yards to our glassing spot and we decided to turn around. The waves were gradually getting bigger and a new storm front was blowing in.
When we turned around, the raft started acting a little funny. The motor was cavitating. This means that the propeller was spinning in air and not fully underwater. The combination of low air in the raft and current/waves made it difficult for the motor to catch traction in the water and prevent air from getting under the boat. Because of this, we had to slowly motor back to our cove at a speed slightly above idle. Needless to say, it took a little while to return at that speed in those big waves.
We finally returned to our camp sight knowing the day was a bust. We sat and watched the ship in our cove dropping their pots. We were then surprised to hear/see another ship entering our cove. This second ship was actually the owner of the first set of pots. They were there to pick up and reset the first set of pots. I'm not sure if the two ships knew each other, but I swear I could feel the competitive tension from where I was sitting... competition for shrimp/crab.
We pumped up the raft and headed for the tent for the night. We listened to the ships motor around our bay all night, so we knew there wouldn't be any bears close by the next day. Like the last time we surrendered to the tent early, the weather appeared to clear about two hours prior to sunset. It was so hard to sit in the tent with huntable weather outside.... although there was next to zero possibility of shooting a bear in that short time.
Hunting Day 7:
It was a gorgeous morning to wake up to... no rain or clouds in sight. This was going to be my last day to hunt. Yesterday was my hunting day, but it got pushed back to today since we didn't get to hunt then. For my last day of hunting, I wanted to go back to the North finger where we saw that very large bear. We haven't seen solo and large bears in easy to access places, except for this one large bear we saw a few days prior. My plan was to hike all the way up the river drainage and overlook the flat, grassy area at the head of the four valleys. I suspected that the large boars were traveling to find sows and this would be a great opportunity for us to intercept one. I knew the spot didn't offer much land to glass, but if a bear were to pass through there, we would be setup to take it down easily.
The tide in the AM was getting lower and lower. This morning, the tide was so low that a pot was also exposed. We sat and waited for a bit to see if the tide would recede. We watched three grey fox and two red fox scavenge in the flats. We finally got tired of waiting and decided to drag the raft over the flats rocks, shells, mud, twigs, and seaweed and toward deep enough water (it was quite the haul).
As we were cruising toward the North finger, we had a whale come up and exhale next to us. (I don’t think I could ever get tired of that sight; I would take a whale as a wing man anytime.) Once we got to the cove, the low tide gave us a peak at the thousands of muscles that lined the bottom of the bay. Shawn debated taking some to cook, but later decided against it in case they made us sick. We also found a couple jellyfish and flounder exposed from the low tide as well.
We chose a different place to tie the boat up this time since low tide had most of the water drained from the creek we tied up in last time. This new spot was result in about a quarter mile more hiking. The first thing we noticed after tying up was how perfect the wind and weather was for hunting this area. We then proceeded to hike five miles in to our new spot overlooking the grass flat area.
It was a long day of seeing absolutely nothing. We knew we had less of a chance to see anything, but we accepted that risk for an increased chance of bagging a large, traveling boar. We almost gave up hope for seeing any bears when we noticed something moving at the very top of the mountain peak across from where we were sitting. It was so high up, we thought it may be a mountain goat again. Upon closer inspection, it was confirmed to be a bear... a big bear too!
The odd thing about this bear is that it was moving extremely fast. He was running full speed across the mountain. I'm not sure what he was running from or toward, but he was certainly in a hurry. You could tell his strides were getting slower and he was really getting buried in deep snow. His path across the mountain was headed in a direction away from us. We thought we were watching a bear that would be impossible to get to. That is, until he decided to abruptly turn 90 degrees and head directly down the mountain, in a B-line straight at us.
We could not believe our eyes. He continued down the mountain in our direction. The only thing standing between the bear and us watching him come all the way to us was a small dip where the mountain starts to level out before the flat. He hit this area and we waited for him to reappear after he hit the dip. We waited and we waited until the realization set in that we weren't going to see the bear reappear. He hit the area where he wasn't descending anymore and then changed direction again. We aren't quite sure which direction he went, but we know it wasn't toward us.
We had quite the return hike ahead of us so we started our hike out shortly after giving up on seeing the big bear again. It was a peaceful, long hike with many river crossings once again. We also lucked out and had beautiful boating conditions as well (we were always concerned with boating to a place to hunt and then coming back to our raft only to find rough seas ahead). We almost got to our cove when we noticed a loan bear at the top of a mountain moving rather quickly towards another mountain. He was completely out of hunting range, so once again, we just sat and studied him until he wondered out of sight. This was our second to last night hunting and seeing these bears today frustrated us. It seemed to be the story of our hunt... all big bears were easy to spot, but completely unobtainable.
We returned to camp during low tide and had to drag the raft quite a ways to secure it (that thing isn't light either). We sat by the raft for a bit and glassed the hillsides nearby. We noticed a sow and two cubs during this short glassing session before we put the binoculars away. We then secured the raft for the night, and ventured toward camp. The first thing we noticed was a bent over fence pole. I thought to myself... it wasn't like that when we left. This is when we realized that something had hit the electric fence while we were gone. At first, I panicked a little thinking a bear hit the fence and got into our camping stuff. A quick glance at our tent and gear disproved that thought. At closer inspection, the fence was actually broken and the electric wire was ripped off the fence and pulled into the woods. We could see small hoof prints by the stray wire. It appeared as if a deer hit the fence and then got the ride of its life... getting tangled in the fence and likely shocked multiple times in the process. Man that would have been a sight to see!
The night was very calm and peaceful. This next day would be the last day of hunting and we went to bed with anticipation for a buzzer beater hunt.
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - The five bears that we spotted on this day increased our bear total to 30.
Super low tide morning.
A couple grey fox feeding at low tide.
Three grey fox feeding at low tide.
Muscles EVERYWHERE!
A view of the grassy flat area at the head of four valleys.
One of many creek crossings we had to do on a daily basis, multiple times.
Our broken electrical fence after a deer decided to shock themselves.
Hunting Day 8:
This was our very last day of hunting. Lucky for us, it was beautiful once again. We woke up early to head out and again found the tide too low to do much. We contemplated waiting for the tide to rise, but like yesterday, we couldn't stick to that plan for long. Tired of watching the pair of fox in the cove, we decided to just grind it out and carry the raft the needed distance to get it to navigable water. We couldn’t wait any longer to get this epic day started.
Shawn wanted to try glassing from the South side of the bay again, near the place we sat the first time we tried this strategy. We took off toward our destination and to our surprise, there were whales in our shallow cove. They came up for air as we passed them and we bid them farewell. The cool thing is we were also greeted again by whales at our new spot too.
We picked out a new place very close to where our Plan B spot was. The view from this spot was amazing! We could see nearly the entire bay and on into a handful of valleys. Unfortunately, no bears were interested in coming out for low tide today. On top of that, there was a sport fishing boat trolling for salmon nearby. Instead, we focused our attention on the mountains. The mountains in the bay are interesting. The ones on the South side of the bay are completely covered in brush and trees, making it a near impossible place to traverse. On the other hand, the mountains on the North side of the bay had many open grassy and green spots allowing for an "easier" climb. Because of this, we focused our attention completely across the bay to the mountains North of the bay, about five miles away. To our surprise, we found ten bears right away spread out on the same mountain face! We even thought we could see one bear at the very top eating a cub from another group.
Shawn and I discussed our options for the day. We decided that the South side of the bay was a waste of time since nothing is coming to browse the shore and hiking into the mountains there was near impossible. We had on our hip boots and decided that we should speed back to the tent and grab our mountain climbing boots before proceeding to the mountains North of the bay and getting after the "cub eater".
We made really good time on the calm water and we were at the base of the North mountains before we knew it. However, we ventured a little too far East in the bay and we were now exposed to the Gulf of Alaska and her breaking ocean waves along the shoreline. We realized after a wave crashed over our raft while we were landing on shore that we should not be there. We quickly decided that we should get back into the water before the "calm" ocean got any worse and we were unable to get past the surf. It wasn’t a fun experience getting past the surf as we had waves crashing over our boat a couple times before we could get the motor started and move out to deeper water. (I couldn’t help but think to myself that my gun and all other metal items were going to take a rusting punishment because of that mistake)
Instead of landing directly below the bears in the breaking surf, we decided to head back toward the calm area of the bay and approach from the side. It was at this time that we noticed the "eaten cub" was moving and in fact was still alive. We then landed and abandoned the plan of going after the "cub eater". We decided that the valley we landed in would be where we would hunt. This valley actually had a camp set up on it the first day we flew in, but they had since left. It was an interesting valley. Typical valleys have mountains on both sides and are open pretty much in a straight line all the way out until they meet the ocean or whatever they are emptying into. This valley was curved, and where it was supposed to be open at the mouth, it actually had a small ridge that connected both sides of the valley (almost like a bowl, protecting the valley from the outside). The only opening was a small canyon the creek/river flowed through.
We decided to hike up to the enclosing ridge in hopes of getting a good look and view of both sides of the valley. Shawn put on his mountain boots and I kept my waders on. We got to the ridge top and quickly saw another ridge in front of us blocking the view of the valley. We climbed to the top of that ridge only to find the same thing. This repeated a handful of times until we finally found a good viewing spot of the entire valley.
We immediately spotted bears. There was a sow and cub on the other side of the valley from us, probably 1000 feet away. They were headed down the valley and quickly disappeared out of sight. I then saw a smaller bear on the other side of the valley, in the flat bottom area. It was walking rather fast away from us and it kept looking behind it. We soon saw why it was looking behind it, because a massive bear was slowly following it. This massive bear was exactly what we were looking for! Regrettably, it was walking away and it would have been impossible to catch up to it.
As these bears were walking away from us, another bear halfway up the mountain side on their same side appeared. The small bear started heading toward this new bear, and the big bear followed suit. Both the small bear and the large bear got close for a brief moment and then they both turned around and headed back down the mountain. This is where Shawn and I's theories divert (but we would later find out the truth).
Shawn believed that the bear sitting halfway up the
mountain was the mother of this smaller bear the larger bear was following. He
thought this large bear was trying to scare off the cub since it was obviously
large enough to fend on its own now. Once the larger bear successfully detached
the cub from depending on its mother, the sow would have nothing to distract
her from mating with the large boar. He would then be able to court the sow.
I believed that the small bear the large boar was
following was a cub, but I didn’t think it belonged to the bear we spotted half
way up the mountain side. I thought the small bear was a potential meal for the
large boar. No matter where the small bear went, the large bear followed… at
the exact same, nonchalant pace. I thought this was a stalking tactic by large
boars where they pace themselves and the cub eventually tires out and the boar
catches them without a huge burst of energy or effort.
We watched the large bear follow the smaller bear
down and through the entire valley, zig zagging back and forth. It seemed as if
they wanted us to watch them because every possible open area to walk through,
they did… until they traversed the valley so deep that the bend took them out
of sight.
After they disappeared, the bear halfway up the
mountain side decided to come down to the flat valley area. The bear was
smelling intently and acting as if it was lost. It dropped down in the river
canyon and back up on our side of the valley, still miles away. The bear slowly
crept up the valley toward the direction of the other bears. It made its way to
the middle of a grassy flat area, and decided to lie down. This again was odd.
It purposely found an open grassy area at the bottom of the valley and laid
there in plain sight. As it lay there, we turned our attention to other bears
in area.
We spotted another very large boar at the top of the
mountain ridge on the same side of the valley that we were on. This guy was
super lazy. We spotted him before this moment, but didn’t know it was a bear
because it looked like a rock from how still he was while sleeping. He finally
decided to stand up and stretch and that is when we recognized him. He was
standing for about ten minutes before he decided to lie back down and sleep for
the rest of that day. We thought about trying to go after him, but the wind and
timing would not cooperate by the time we recognized his presence. We also spotted a sow and cub in the most
bizarre place… the peak of the highest, steepest, and snowiest mountain around.
I have no idea what they were doing there, but it looked dangerous. At one
point, you could tell they were trying to side hill some nasty terrain but
shortly after they started, they stopped and attempted to return. At that
point, they went too far and were stuck. They could not get back over the ledge
they descended and were desperately trying to climb back up and out. This
desperate climbing occurred for about an hour and the bears did not gain any
ground during that time. I thought we were going to watch two bears die from a
fall/avalanche. Somehow, they decided to go down the steep face and take a
sharp turn left in order to find a new snow path that eventually led them up
and over the ledge.
The “lost” bear was laying in the grass for a good
two hours when out of nowhere, another small bear appeared at the end of the
valley on the other side. Upon closer inspection, we determined that it was the
small bear the large bear was pursuing! It looked like this small bear somehow
escaped and slipped the large bear and then doubled back. Excited to have more
action in the valley, we watched the small bear closely. It quickly picked up
the scent trail of the other bear laying in the grass flats. Once on the scent
trail, the small bear followed and then located the other bear. This is when
the bear behaviors began to make sense.
The smaller bear met up with the bear lying in the
open. To our complete amazement, the bear lying down got up, smelled the
smaller bear, and then proceeded to mount the smaller bear and mate! Holy
smokes!!! We were wrong about how the bears were acting this entire time! They
were only trying to get busy J We now knew that the large boar
following this small bear was in mating mode, but the small bear was not having
it. For some reason, this small sow wanted to mate with the bear that appeared
halfway up the other mountain side in the valley, so she returned and presented
herself to this other boar. Once we saw this, we were kicking ourselves for not
pursuing this boar that was lying in an open grass field for a couple hours
that would have been easily hunted. By this time, it was too late in the day to
make a move for that boar, even with them not going anywhere. We had a little
less than two hours of hunting time left so we decided to sit there and study
this new observed behavior.
It was very interesting to watch. There were many
breaks and small naps between sessions. If I had to venture a guess (and this
trip proved how good I was at guessing), I would say that these two were
rookies at mating. They were smaller bears and they just looked awkward.
At this point, we basically lost hope of bagging a
bear. We were rejoicing in the awesome experience we had over the last week and
glad we were able to see so many bears displaying different behaviors on the
last day. Although the hope of bringing home a bear had faded, something kept
telling us to “look right”. Since bear activity was concentrated up the valley,
we didn’t really focus on the land between us and the ocean or us and the river
bottom. All of a sudden, we spotted movement out of the corner of our eyes in
the brush just below us toward the river. It turned out to be the cub of the
pair we saw right when we got to this glassing spot and were setting up for the
day that disappeared down into the river canyon area (confirmed by comparing
pictures we took earlier). After a few minutes, the sow showed herself too.
They slowly made their way up the hillside we were on and into an open area
directly below us about 500 yards away. I had my camera out and was getting
some good pictures and video while Shawn stared at them through the spotting
scope. I was taking a video, when Shawn whispered to me, “He’s got a dick!”
I didn’t believe him at first because sows can
sometimes have a deep rear teat that is often confused with a penis. I never
saw the penis, but after studying the body features, I definitely agreed that
it was a boar. Reality sunk in that we were viewing the bears incorrectly this
entire time. “Sows with cubs” very well could have been a boar and sow. I know
that multiple times we both thought, “Geez that’s a huge mama.” How many pairs
did we pass up assuming they were sows and cubs!? Was that “cub eater” really a
“sow mater”?
Enough dwelling on how wrong we were… it was time to
spring in to action! We quickly debated to leave our packs or take them. We
opted to pack everything and take it with. Meanwhile, the two bears decided to
start their mating ritual right in front of us. We stood on our hill watching
them get busy and planned our stalk. Unfortunately, the hill we were on had
absolutely no cover between us and the bears. They were directly downhill with
a cross wind between us. We decided to head straight at them since they were a
little preoccupied. We knew they wouldn’t catch wind of us, and we were close
enough to see where they were looking, so we timed our descent when they were
mounted facing the opposite direction.
We were about halfway down the hillside when the
bears broke apart and turned toward us. We immediately dropped in place,
completely in sight. Imagine a bare hill side with nothing but brown grass on
it, and two people with large packs in the very middle. We were very obviously
out of place, however, we were dead still and the bears were distracted… so we
weren’t detected. Unfortunately, we had no time to get comfortable or find a
good place to stop since we had to drop instantly. We were now stuck on the
side of the mountain in a very uncomfortable position, trying to keep ourselves
from moving and sliding down the mountain at the same time.
The bears decided to take a break and short nap. At
this point, we were about 400 yards away and no place to go. After about 15
minutes, the sow got up and luckily started walking directly toward us. The
boar followed shortly after. We realized that this was going to be our shooting
position, on the side of a hill, with no rest, in an uncomfortable position. We
grabbed our guns and got them ready when the bears weren’t looking in our
direction. The bears stopped at about 200 yards and started to mate once again.
At this point, Shawn whispered to me, “Once he gets off her and is clear, I’m
shooting.” (We agreed prior that after the person who is hunting shoots the
first round, we both unload until the bear is dead) This was my cue to put a
round in chamber. As I was chambering a round, the boar dismounted the sow and
Shawn fired his gun before I was completely ready. I quickly finished loading
my gun and fired off a shot as well. The first shot did not send the bears
running (they were confused where it came from), but after the second and
subsequent shots, the bears took off. We both unloaded our clips as the boar
ran for cover.
We gathered our stuff and ran down the hill. We got to
the site where we shot at the bear and we saw the sow quite a ways off along
some brush. She was looking back, not at us, but at something else. We
suspected it was the boar hiding in the alders. She then took off for good. We
dropped our packs in preparation for a long stalk and we approached the area
she was looking at. We found the boar in the alders and shot him again from a
safe distance. He sprung out of the alders in a full sprint in the opposite
direction of us. I had a really good view of the direction he went though. I
went left, and Shawn went right. We lost sight of each other (but stayed within
an earshot) as we attempted to find the injured boar. THIS was one of the most
intense moments of the hunt, tracking down an injured bear in the thick alders
and brush!
We then met up along a small water drainage that we
believed the bear took to escape. He in fact took that drainage which was
confirmed by a lot of bright red blood left behind (definitely the result of a
double lung shot). Since it was Shawn’s bear, he followed the blood trail and I
took a high ground, overview approach of his path. The bear’s blood trail made it
easy to track. Shawn followed the trail toward the river canyon. At one point,
it bent around a corner at the edge of the canyon. Shawn told me to stay put
while he went to check it out. If he couldn’t see anything around the corner,
we would head back to grab our packs. I stayed put for about 10 minutes at
which point I heard a gunshot. Instead of staying put, I took off in a sprint
to find Shawn and see why he shot his gun. I found him just around the corner
at the top of the canyon, peering down at the river below. In the river, we
could see the bear stumbling and having a difficult time standing up. Shawn did
not shoot the bear; it was his attempt to scare the bear out of the water before
it died in it. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the happened to the bear.
The bear eventually perished and he no longer could
fight the current or stay standing. The current swept him down stream about ten
yards where he hung up, T-boned on a rock. We knew he was not going anywhere so
we back tracked to find our packs. Luckily, I kept the GPS on me during the
stalk so we had no problem busting through the brush to find our gear.
We gathered our stuff and headed for the bear. It
was a very steep cliff to descend, but not so steep where you don’t tell your
wife about it ;) The cliff was only about 100 yards deep and we made it down
safely. Once at the bear, we contemplated our options. We couldn’t drag it out
of the water because it was too heavy on dry land, let alone soaked. We
couldn’t cut it up there due to the current being too strong. We decided that
we would attempt to push the bear out to the ocean which was about 2 miles
away… assuming it would float. It turns out, the bear in fact did float despite
being shot through both lungs. However, getting it to the ocean was not as easy
as we thought. The “river” was only about ten feet wide, and three feet deep at
its deepest. It had many rocks exposed and shallow areas for the bear to get
hung up in. And that is exactly what happened; the bear got stuck often.
Because it was Shawn’s bear, he earned the privilege
of getting the bear unstuck as it floated down the river. About every 50 yards,
the bear would hang up on rocks, and Shawn would have to get in to push it free
(remember, he only had on his mountain hiking boots so he was soaked instantly…
and this water was snow and glacier melt water!). After about a quarter mile,
we recognized that it would be near impossible to push it all the way to the
ocean. We then found a large, calm eddy protected from the current and a little
more than a foot deep to dock the bear in preparation for skinning. We took
pictures and then got our gear organized.
This area actually worked out better than we
imagined. There were no alders to work around and we could easily maneuver the
bear whenever we wanted because it was still floating. I knew it would happened
at some point in my Alaska hunting career, but I’m actually glad that I got to
experience an animal dying in the water on Kodiak as opposed to a moose or
other animal I planned to eat.
It took approximately two and a half hours to cut up
the bear. Since I have cut up many bears and this was Shawn’s first, I took the
lead and demonstrated how to skin it and remove the skull. It would have been
faster but my back was killing me from hunching over the entire time
(#tallmanproblems). I had to take multiple breaks to relieve it, and those
breaks slowed us down. I also spent a good amount of time admiring the small
fish that were gathering to eat the bear flesh as we were cutting.
It was well into dark before we finished up. To
divide the weight, I took all of the hunting gear from both of our packs as
well as the bear skull. Shawn took the hide. Believe it or not, I got the better
end of the deal since a wet hide is no joke for weight! It was about 1AM when
we packed up and left. We decided to hike the river out until we could find a
clear path back to the raft. We had our headlamps on and were being extremely
loud yelling things like, “Heeeey Bear” or “Stay Away Bear”. Of course we got
creative and started making up goofy things to scream out loud to make each
other laugh. The interesting thing about the start of our hike out was the cut
up bear we found on the river bank about 500 yards after we started our hike
out. It looked like the hunting group before us had a near similar hunting
experience only a few days earlier.
We didn’t know at the time, but the river flowed at
angle away from our raft instead of directly straight out to the ocean. We
crossed the river multiple times at shallow spots to avoid having to bush whack
along the shore. Further down the river, we tried a couple times to bust thick
brush along the outside of the river in hopes of breaking through to the swamp
opening that would eventually separate the river and our raft. The brush was
just too thick and these attempts failed every time and even resulted in us
somehow making a complete circle while busting brush (I’m still confused how
that happened). We eventually decided to abandon the hopes of finding an
opening to the swamp and just follow the river until it met up with the bay.
The wind eventually got stronger and the waves of
the ocean more audible. We finally made the shoreline. At this point, we were
on the East side of the river and our raft was about a mile away directly West.
We could follow the shoreline to our boat at this point, but it would be a
significantly longer hike since the she line to the boat was rounded like a
half circle. We decided to cross the river and take a direct route. The only
problem at this point was the depth of the river. The river was about three
feet deep here. The flow wasn’t a problem because it was high tide and the
emptying into the ocean had slowed considerably. Shawn’s legs were already
soaked from guiding the bear down the river, however, I was still dry at this
point. I didn’t want to get wet, but knew it was inevitable. Besides, Shawn
needed a partner in misery.
We crossed the river and soaked ourselves up to our
wastes. We then proceeded to hike across the grassy swamp toward our raft. To
our left a couple hundred yards was the ocean and to our right a few hundred
yards was the ridge that cut off the outlet of the drainage valley. It was easy
hiking and the ocean breeze was a welcomed element to carry our scent and
hopefully scare off any unwanted animals. We were nearly back to the raft when
we noticed a pair of eyes staring at us from atop the ridge to our right. The
eyes glowed when we shined our headlights in their direction. Although it was
likely a fox or deer, it was still creepy to see it watch us while we were out
in the middle of a swampy field below.
After an easy hike through the grassy swamp, we
finally made it back to the raft! It was now a little after 3AM. The water was
extremely rough due to the strong winds and high tide. If the water was calm,
we could have possibly navigated the bay in the dark, but the combination of
extremely rough waters in the pitch dark using a small raft was not safe. The
sun would rise around 6AM. That left a few hours before day break. Luckily we
had a tent in the raft for this very reason. We set up the tent in the swamp,
somewhat out of the wind. We put all of our clothes on and prepared for a very
cold night. I slept with my wet boots on and my feet hanging out the door to
keep the inside of the tent dry. I had an emergency blanket that I wrapped
myself in and Shawn had a contractor bag he crawled in. We both actually fell
asleep relatively quickly, but were awaken by our shivers about an hour later
after our bodies cooled off. We then uncomfortably shivered until dawn.
OTHER HUNTING DAY DETAILS - The 18 bears that we
spotted on this day increased our bear total to 48.
Beautiful view from our glassing spot.
A mountain across the bay with a fishing boat in the lower left.
Shawn glassing the rolling hills to the South.
Another view from our glassing hill.
The sow and cub we saw across the valley as soon we found a good place to sit for the day.
A closer look at the sow across the valley.
The BIG bear slowly stalking a smaller bear ;)
A look up the drainage from our newly found vantage point.
Bear mating!
More bear mating!
Looking out into the bay and gulf from our glassing spot.
The sow and cob we spotted earlier across the mounting... now on our side.
Cute kisses between mom and cub.
WAIT! That's not a sow and cub!! That's a boar and sow.
The end resting place of the bear.
Here
is what the canyon and river look like here. This is looking down the
canyon with Shawn way up in front keeping up with the bear he just
pushed in the water
.
Looking up the river with Shawn on the right and the bear stuck on the left.
Shawn posing with the bear. Look at that huge smile!
Me posing with the bear.
Claw pic
Second claw pic.
This is the little backwater we were able to cut the bear up in. It worked perfectly!
Emergency tent selfie!
The bears were walking near by. Listen closely to Shawn's realization that the sow is really a boar.
This is how Shawn had to get the bear down the river :)
Hunting
Day 8 plus 1:
The three hours in the tent was sufficient enough to
calm the weather down. The wind died substantially and the waves got
significantly smaller. The conditions were not ideal, but were perfectly fine for
rafting back to our campsite. We loaded up the raft and sped back to our tent.
Only after we set foot in our campsite did we exchange high-fives and really
let the success of the hunt sink in. We knew that the hardest part of the hunt
was behind us and the rest was just relaxing, busy work.
Our first priority was the bear hide. We set up our
large tarp and laid out the bear hide under it in preparation to flesh. We then
got in the tent and put on dry clothes. The stove was fired up and luckily ran
on fumes for us. The heat was exactly what we needed to kick the chill. Our
next priority was food. I cooked us a huge brunch and we pigged out knowing we
didn’t need to conserve food any longer. Warm, full, and tired, we decided to
take a quick nap. We only slept for about an hour because we had a lot of work
to do still. We had to completely flesh the bear and pack up camp for a 3PM
pick up time.
We then worked on the bear for the remainder of the
day. We decided to stop fleshing the bear at 1PM and allow two hours for
packing up camp. We needed more time to effectively flesh the bear but we got a
very good start before we applied a layer of salt. It was a good thing we
stopped fleshing when we did because we needed every single minute to pack up
camp. The float plane arrived right when we were moving the last load of camp
to the shore.
We were happy to see the plane. There are many times
in Kodiak that weather prevents planes from flying and hunters are sometimes
left for days waiting for good enough weather that a plane can get in an pick
them up (we had 3+ days of extra food just in case). We loaded up the plane
with our wet gear and took off without a problem. It was smooth flight back to
Kodiak City.
The crew at Andrews Airway was waiting to unload our
plane and welcome us back. Upon telling them of our success, they promptly
contacted a biologist for us and scheduled a meeting time at the Alaska
Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) offices to have the bear sealed. This was
surprising to us because ADFG offices are not open on weekends, however, it
appears that often times, biologists will cater to hunter needs and come in on
weekends if called personally. After everything was unloaded, we were taken to
the ADFG offices where the biologist was already waiting for us.
The sealing process is necessary to collect
appropriate information for managing the bears on Kodiak. With each bear that
is harvested, the hide and skull must be brought in to the Kodiak ADFG offices
for data collection (aka “sealed”). Muscle samples from the skull are removed,
hair is taken, a tooth is pulled, and skull measurements are recorded. In
addition, information surrounding the successful harvest of the animal is
collected (exact location, transportation used, days hunted, date killed, etc).
Our bear had a 25 ½” skull, which measured just above average for Kodiak bears
being taken that year. It wasn’t a monster, but it was definitely a trophy! The
sealing process unofficially marks the end of a successful hunt.
After having the bear sealed, we were taken to the
hotel where we promptly showered (we stunk BAD) and then hit up a local
restaurant for a good greasy meal and beers. It was exactly what we needed to conclude
our last night in Kodiak.
The bear is laid out drying while the nifty shelter is being put up.
The rainbow we flew through on the way out.
Landing at Andrews Airways.
ADFG bear sealing location. Waiting for our ride.
THANKS FOR READING THIS SHORT NOVEL! If you have any
questions about the hunt, please feel free to post them in the comments below :)
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