Alaska - From the Midwest to the Far Northwest: 2019

In February 2019, I found out that I was lucky enough to draw the Kodiak road system goat tag for the second time. The first time I drew the tag, I went solo and my mom was extremely jealous of my Kodiak adventure. After that hunt, she begged me to do the hunt again so she could bum along and explore the island with me. Of course, there is no guarantee to draw a hunting tag, but you can imagine her excitement when I let her know that we were headed to Kodiak come fall time.

I didn’t have to research the hunting area too much; I had a great idea from the prior hunt on how to come out successful. My plans focused mostly on preparing to bring my mom along with me. I knew we would drive to Homer and take the ferry to Kodiak, but I wasn’t too sure how much room I would have in the truck for both of us to sleep under the topper in cots… and live out of the vehicle for a week. Prior to this, our family was needing to get a different truck to better fit our growing kids and gear. With that, I was also debating the purchase of a cab-over camper to also facilitate our many upcoming adventures as a family. All these reasons led me to eventually pull the trigger on a Ford F350 and cab-over camper.

The cool thing about the ferry is that you pay per foot of space you take up. No matter what is on top of the vehicle, it does not add any additional cost to the fee. Essentially, it would cost the same to ferry over my truck without the camper on it as it would with putting the camper on. That was a no brainer and would make our accommodations while on the island extremely comfortable. Comfort was important because while I was hunting in the mountains, I had the potential of not returning to the truck for many days. During that time, my mom would explore the island and hang out by herself (I would not let her attempt to hike the area and hunt with me).

Now that I had a plan to take the truck and camper, all I we had left to do was purchase the tickets. The plan was to hunt during the first week or two of October. Operational years for state funding go from October 1 to September 30. During a typical year, this means that the sailing times (and tickets associated with them) are not announced until the end of July and early August. Well of course, this was not a typical year. This was the year of budget cuts and vetos at the state level! Our governors and legislature have spent Alaska into the ground and part of the current plan to help us recover from that never ending spiral, was targeting the ferry system to save money. It was unknown for a long time if the ferry would even run anymore. Eventually, a reduced amount was allocated to the ferry system. With that reduced budget, many routes were cut and/or reduced. As you can imagine, my mom and I were worried the whole summer that our hunt would potentially be cancelled since the fate of the ferry system was in limbo. Luckily, October to December sailings to and from Kodiak remained intact… this was not the case for many port villages and areas that now will be cut off from the rest of Alaska.

Over the summer, my mom had many episodes of extreme fatigue and easy over-exhaustion; she was eventually diagnosed with anemia. She was put on iron and was being monitored for improvement. Unfortunately, the improvements didn’t come and she remained anemic with an unknown reason. In late August, she was experiencing extreme stomach pain. After a trip to the ER, she was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis and sent home. She then had another episode of pain and was admitted to the hospital for further testing. At this time, we discussed the upcoming hunt and need to get tickets as soon as the sailing schedule was released. We both agreed that at this current point in time, it would not be wise to purchase tickets since we didn’t know what was causing her issues. The plan would be to wait until we truly knew the cause of stomach issues before proceeding with Kodiak plans. I then left for a two week sheep hunt, with plans to touch base once I returned.

With the late decisions on when to offer sailings to Kodiak, tickets did not go on sale until September. I returned from my sheep hunt mid-September, and I called my mom to tell her the state finally made up their mind and that our hunt was still on. We now needed to coordinate her flight itinerary with the potential sailing/hunting dates, assuming her health issues were resolved. This is when I was slapped with a heavy dose of reality. During my sheep hunt, mom flew to North Carolina and was admitted to Duke University for further testing… which found a large tumor on her colon. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer. The immediate priority was removing all parts of her digestive track that contained the cancer, and the surgery was scheduled to occur in a couple days.

This news put an end to the question of whether mom would be able to accompany me to Kodiak. I know it broke her heart having to withdraw from the hunt, but that should have been the least of her worries. She now faced one of the biggest challenges of her life. She had a great attitude, amazing support system, and excellent medical team so I was very confident in the outcome. (To make a long story short… mom’s surgery was a complete success. It was so successful that she didn’t even need additional chemo or radiation.)

I was now partner-less. If you know me and my history with hunting partners, then you know that I have the absolute worst luck getting and keeping a solid hunting buddy. This was simply par for the course, albeit completely out of anyone’s control. Both my mom and Danielle were uneasy with the thought of me hunting Kodiak by myself, so I half-heartedly put a generic invite out to anyone that wanted to tag along on the hunt. Nobody bit, so I proceeded with plans to hunt Kodiak by myself.

My moose hunt was scheduled for the end of September. September 26 was the last day of the moose hunt. I would then work Friday the 27^th, have the weekend off, work Monday September 30, and leave October 1 for the goat hunt. If you didn’t read my last entry, I became extremely sick toward the end of my moose hunt. I went to the doctor on Friday the 27^th where I was diagnosed with Pneumonia. I was told to cancel my goat hunt; but being a typical hypocritical healthcare provider, I didn’t listen to my doctor… I was going on this hunt!

Day 1

This was one of the few times I didn’t need to pack the truck the night prior for an early AM departure to my hunting area. The ferry was leaving Homer in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to put the camper on the truck and pack it up after I woke up.

I ended up leaving shortly after lunch and romping with the kids for a couple hours. The Kenai Peninsula was devastated by fires this summer, and my drive to Homer meant I would drive right through the aftermath. Along the way, I decided to stop at a couple places I liked to hunt and explore to see if the burn zone impacted the area. About half of the places I checked out were devastated by the fires and would impact the area for years to come. Even though the risk for fires was essentially over, a few isolated pockets still existed along the highway. This meant fire crews were still active and stationed in the area, which also meant long lines for one-lane and road closures.

I eventually made it to Homer. I was a couple hours early despite the many exploration pit stops and road flaggers along the way. I grabbed a sandwich at a local shop and proceeded to park along the Spit and gaze out into the ocean and setting sun. As I ate my dinner, I was pleasantly surprised to watch a handful of whales surfacing in a couple places. A friendly sea lion was also passing by chasing fish in the shallow waters. I could not have asked for a better show with my dinner to start this adventure.

As soon as the sun disappeared, it was time to load into the ferry. I was first to be loaded since my truck length and camper on top meant I had a bigger load than most. They buried me behind a semi-trailer and subsequently stuffed the rest of the cars around my truck. I didn’t stick around to watch the rest of the items get loaded, so I headed up to the seating area.

I’m too cheap to pay for a room and bed. Although the boat ride would be about 10 hours overnight, I knew there were bench seats available to sprawl out on where I could get come sleep. There were many bench seats open when I got to the seating area, so I picked one and laid down. I put me bag and items on top of the table, plugged in my cell phone charger, blew up my pillow, popped in my ear buds, and proceeded to pass out.

Shortly after we departed, I was violently awaken by my fully-filled water bottle falling directly on my face off the table. My bag followed shortly after that. I came to my senses and realized we were traveling in some extremely rough seas. I opted to not get up and risk getting sea sick, so I just laid there, waiting for it to calm. Surprisingly, the waves smoothed out fairly quickly and I fell back to sleep to a gentle rocking.

Day 2

I didn’t expect to sleep so well on the boat. I didn’t wake up until it was well past sunrise and we were already approaching Kodiak. It was a beautifully clear day with very smooth seas. I was able to get outside and take a couple pictures before we docked. I tell you what… it must be difficult to drive that big of a boat. I was impressed with how well the pilot got us parallel to the dock and perfectly aligned the anchor ropes.

We eventually heard the overhead speaker give us the “all clear” to leave the boat and enter the cargo bay. Passengers filed off the ferry and those with vehicles headed downstairs toward the cargo area. I jumped in my truck and got comfortable because I knew since I was the first one on the boat, I was going to be the last one off. True to my thought, I brought up the caboose of the vehicles that were ferried… 1.5 hours later.

I drove off the boat and directly out of town. I knew exactly where I wanted to go and how to get there. I was on a mission to drop a goat as soon as I could. The weather was perfect and on Kodiak, you don’t know how long that will last. I didn’t stop until I got to where I wanted to hunt. As soon as I parked the truck, I could see white dots scattered across a couple peaks in the distance. This was a good sign seeing goats right where I was wanting to hunt!

It was go time! I parked the truck and started packing. I had two of everything with me (one for the mountain and one for the camper). Unlike last time I was on Kodiak, I didn’t forget my sleeping bag this time! Because of my pneumonia, I had to pack my inhaler, antibiotics, and sunscreen (the antibiotics I was taking made my skin even more susceptible to sunburn… if that was even possible!). I packed enough gear for two nights in the mountain, and I was off.

The one thing I hate about Kodiak is how hard it is to hike if you are not on a trail and you are below tree line. Starting a mountain hike from sea level is pretty much as far away from tree line as you can get. The brush there is THICK and a lot of the grass has small stickers in it that are often unpredictable if they are soft or solid enough to scratch you up. Plain and simple, bushwhacking in Kodiak is hell! Add a sunny, clear day to the mix (or dumping rain and wind) and it’s downright miserable. I got lucky a couple times and found a few short paths trampled by deer. The thing about deer and deer trails in this area is that deer aren’t as tall as me, and as a result, the trails aren’t visible due to the top of the grass on either side coming together and covering the trail. Because of this, if deer trails existed in the area, I couldn’t find them, let alone stay on them.

As I got closer to the goats, I counted 12 of them grouped on one face, and a solo goat grazing in separate area. It looked like the 12 goats on the rock face were mostly nannies and kids. This brought my attention to the solo goat to the side of them. I didn’t have a spotting scope on me, but the way it was singled out and its size made me think it was a billy. He would be my target when I eventually got closer to the animals.

I surveyed the terrain and got an idea of what my ideal approach would be. It would be impossible to get close to them from underneath due to the large bowl they were in, so I had to plan on getting above them. The only way to get above them was to scale the side of the bowl about a quarter mile away from them, and walk the ridge to where they were located. Unfortunately, the ONLY way to get to the base of this ridge area unseen was to drop down into an extremely steep gulley with water rushing through it and scale back out. When I got to the gulley, I was immediately intimidated because it looked more like a canyon with wall faces on each side. Needless to say, that approach was out of the question. My only option was to walk around the gulley to the headwaters near tree line, cross the creek in direct line of sight of the goats, and make a B-line for the ridge slope before my presence made them too uncomfortable. That is exactly what I did too, and to my surprise, the goats noticed me but didn’t really care or react! The deer I spooked while hurrying out of site seemed to be the only thing that cared I was there.

I was in such a hurry to get out of site, I didn’t even realize I lost my lucky Hawkeye camo hat during a brush busting session. That’s alright though, it was getting pretty beat up from the many hunts it has accompanied me on. I’m guessing the snap closure on the back finally broke off since it was beginning to crack anyway. I would have much rather thrown it away then to lose it in the backcountry though.

Once I disappeared out of the goats’ sight, I was finally above all bushes and trees. I sat down and a major coughing attack took over. I tried to quietly clear my throat and lungs, but we all know the harder you try to mute a cough, the worse it gets. I eventually threw all care to the wind and hacked for everything within five miles to hear. I was hurting at this point! I was in fairly good shape still from training all summer, but with this pneumonia, I was weak and quick to fatigue. I took many breaks climbing up the mountain but I couldn’t take a break in such an exposed spot where I was forced to hurry out of site. As I sat there, I felt the light around my eyes darken and narrow… until the darkness narrowed to the center and completely took over, at which point I passed out. JUST KIDDING… I didn’t really pass out… I put that in here to scare my wife and mom… love you two!

As I was recovering from that hurried trek, I recapped my plan. I would hike this face to the bowl ridge above. I would then be exposed to everything around the ridge since I would be on top of the mountain. The goats would be about a quarter mile away in the bowl below the ridge, so I would be out of site from them. This would only expose me to possible goats that would be on the other side I was staying on to keep out of site of the ones in the bowl. I figured since the 13 goats in the bowl were my destination, it didn’t really matter if I spooked other goats. I also convinced myself at this time that even if I saw other goats while I was scaling the ridge, I wouldn’t stalk or shoot them. Ideally I would drop one of the goats I already saw, it would stay in the bowl, and if I was lucky, it would gently roll down most of the hill. This would result in a safe retrieval, and easy pack out since everything was down hill from the potential kill site. If I would have shot a goat on the other side of the ridge, it would likely roll halfway down the mountain, into an area that would unsafe to retrieve, and then I would have to hike it up and over the ridge before heading all the way back down. All of this convinced me further to only shoot a goat from the bowl.

After a few minutes of attempting to leave a lung on the side of the mountain, I took a couple puffs on my inhaler and started my final ascent. I was pretty sure the goats wouldn’t know what was making the coughing sounds, nor would they care, but I wasn’t sure exactly if it would impact their behavior.

At first, I was cautious of exposing myself along the ridge line, but I soon realized it was futile and I had no way of staying hidden from both the bowl and the other side of the mountain. As I walked the ridge, I came across my first close goat encounter. The goat was laying along the face of a nole, jetting out between two small creek valleys to the right and below where I was scaling the ridge. It was sleeping and had no idea I was there. As I got closer, it remained sleeping. I got within 75 yards of it and the goat readjusted its position and was startled when it noticed me. He then got up, stared at me for a couple minutes, and hurried off in the other direction as I continued my hike. I then looked up ahead of me and noticed another goat at the very peak of the mountain in front of me about 200 yards away. It knew I was there, but it just stared at me without moving. I froze to see what it would do, but it seemed like we were in a game of chicken, daring the other to move first. I caved first and resumed my trek to the part of the ridge I thought the solo goat was under. The goat on top of the mountain ridge then dropped its head and grazed on grass, unphased with my presence… and likely happy as the victor of the ad-hoc game of mountain chicken. I could have shot either of these goats, but I was set on only dropping a goat in the bowl facing my route out of the mountains.

I peaked over the ridge in the area the solo goat was supposed to be. I was surprised to find that my visibility of the area was fairly poor. The rock spires at the top of the ridge were more drastic than I realized. Their steepness and girth ended up hiding a lot of area below them that I thought I would be able to see. The goat was likely up against the steep rocks and easily hidden from my view. I contemplated going to a different look out spot, or directly to the area it would likely walk if it decided to cross over. As I was debating what to do, I looked up at the goat on top of the mountain and saw a nannie and kid come into view. These two goats came from the direction of the bowl. Their movement meant that the others were likely to be moving soon too. While I was staring at the new goats on this side of the ridge, I looked below me and see a goat about 10 yards away coming from my right. This was likely the solo goat I was looking for inside the bowl. It’s crazy how timing works because moments earlier I was walking below the trail headed into the bowl, and now the goat crossed over on that exact trail while I was looking for it from the ridge above.

The goat was literally so close that I could have jumped off the rock I was on and tackled it. If I was a bow hunter, this would have been perfect, but now I was in a pickle. Do I stick to my plan of shooting the solo goat? If I’m going to shoot a goat on this side of the ridge, why not shoot the monster at the top of the mountain 200 yards away? Do I continue my quest to drop a goat in the bowl even though most of them were likely nannies with kids? I assessed my situation and where the goats would likely stop if I shot them on this side of the ridge. It wouldn’t be impossible, but with my pneumonia and lack of energy, it was not a smart decision. I decided to continue my pursuit to drop a goat in the bowl.

In order to do this now, I would have to walk directly up the ridge toward the solo goat, nanny, and kid. So that is what I did. As I started walking toward them, another pair of goats scaled the ridge from the bowl and joined the other visible goats. The closer I got to the goats, the more uncomfortable they got. All five of them eventually grew tired of my approach. Three of them scattered to the right, away from the bowl, while two busted back into the top of the bowl, likely spooking the other bowl goats into wondering why these guys were running away. I felt my chances of shooting a goat in the bowl slowly slipping away.

I got to the top of the mountain ridge and peaked into the bowl. Again, the visibility was horrible and I couldn’t see anything. I decided to try a different viewing angle and I dropped a little lower while I scaled a rock face to the side of an entry way into the bowl. I couldn’t see much more, but I did put my eyes on one goat about 50 yards away. I could only see a part of the body of the goat without exposing myself too much. There really was no way to get a better look at the goat without making my presence obvious. I could easily shoot the goat here, but the surrounding area was blocked off and since this was a nanny, it was unclear if a kid was nearby. This was an automatic pass without assurance of an absent kid.

I decided to head back up the ridge top to reevaluate my options. While up there, I took a look over into a neighboring bowl from the top of the ridge. To my surprise, there were goat everywhere! I wasn’t sure if these were the goat from the bowl, but there were likely 15-20 goats, all less than 200 yards away, spread out among gnarly spires and cliffs. They were in protected areas because getting to them would be absolutely impossible. My heart sank as I began to think the bowl goats spooked into this protected terrain. Deflated, I walked back to the top of the main bowl and sat down. I figured I would just sit here and see what happened. Luckily, it didn’t take long before a goat appeared on the opposite side of the bowl. It looked like it crossed a lower part of the bowl and was now climbing the other side to the top.

After watching the goat for a few minutes, it was clear he was alone. You could tell it wasn’t a monster goat, but I knew if I wanted to drop a goat in this bowl, I couldn’t be picky and needed to take advantage of this opportunity. I was in an awkward place for shooting. Being on the very top of a ridge, there really wasn’t a good spot to rest my rifle to shoot. I tried laying down on my stomach, but it was impossible to get a descent angle while my head and rifle were down hill and my feet were uphill above me. I decided to hurry down along the ridge until I found some rocks I could rest the rifle on. Once I was in a good spot, I settled in and went through my shooting routine… pop the scope covers, adjust the scope appropriately, load a round, zero in on vitals, deep breaths until calm, one deep breath in, hold for one second, very slowly breath out, and slowly squeeze the trigger. BOOM!

The goat stumbled for a second, and instantly collapsed. He expired quickly, and as he passed, he fell backwards down the steep hill he just climbed. This rock face was about 20 yards high and he fell/bounced hard off the bottom, then disappeared out of sight. I was extremely hopeful that the goat rolled all the way to the bottom of the bowl, but I wasn’t that lucky; the goat stopped exactly where it originally fell.

The goat was harder to get to then I realized. I thought I picked out a good route, but multiple times I had to turn around due to it being too steep or the rocks being too loose. I eventually settled on dropping low into the bowl and then climbing from the bottom up to where he dropped; this was actually a fairly easy approach. The goat was laying in a rocky valley along some semi-steep terrain near a slow trickling stream. It was a smallish billy, not yet a full-fledged giant. Unfortunately, he ended up breaking off a horn in the short fall. I was able to find the horn, but this surprised me because I have seen many animals shot by other hunters take seriously harder falls and/or tumble for hundreds of yards, and still come out unscathed. That’s alright though… you can’t eat the horns!

The typical routine of pictures, food and hydrate ensued prior to getting busy. The sun was just starting to set, so it was going to be a long and busy night. The darkness set in faster than I anticipated and before I knew it, I still had the entire goat to process under headlamp light.

I have cut up many animals during the night, but never on Kodiak. The close encounter with a brown bear during the last goat hunt was still on my mind, so it was a little spooky for me. I kept hearing animals all around. About every 30 minutes or so, I would hear rocks tumbling above me and I would look up and see goats running across the mountain while their eyes reflected my headlight. At one point, I looked down the mountain as part of my occasional routine, and I noticed two glowing, green eyes staring back at me. This instantly shot chills down my back. The eyes then moved closer and to the side, sporadically and quickly. This was startling but reassuring because I knew it wasn’t a bear with how fast it moved. I stood up and yelled at the animal, but that didn’t faze it. It continued its approach toward me. I finally caught a glimpse of it, and could tell it was a fox. Although I knew it was a fox, this was one of the biggest foxes I have ever seen. It made me question if it was a dog, coyote, or wolf for a second because of how big it was. Regardless, I didn’t want it around while I finished cleaning the goat.

I fired my gun into the mountain to try to scare it off, but the sound didn’t bother it. He kept coming even though I was yelling at it the entire time. He got within 15 yards and I decided to pick up a rock and toss it at him. I hit him lightly in the butt, and that got his attention. He sprinted right along the mountain, but didn’t leave. You could tell he was confused and conflicted… passing back and forth quickly as he decided between running away or trying to get some meat, and then changing his mind every two seconds. Seeing that he wasn’t in any hurry to leave, I decided to try and help him make up his mind, so I tossed another rock in his direction. The rock fell inches in front of his feet, and that was the last threat he needed to make the decision to retreat.

The rest of the field dressing was uneventful, although I constantly looked over my shoulder. My pack was full with camp gear, so I knew I was in for a very heavy load out. I was a good 6 hours away from the truck if I were to hike during the day; it would have been easily longer in the dark. The plan was to get to the base of the bowl to a flat area for a short night’s sleep.

It was slow hiking at first since I was still high in the bowl on the steepest part of the descent. After about an hour, I found flat enough ground to pitch the tent. I laid out the meat to further cool off and covered it to stay dry. I finally hit the hay around 2AM. I was exhausted but unable to sleep really. I was coughing all night and rolling around in pain.

Day 3

I pulled myself out of the tent around 8AM. I peaked out and across the bowl to see two large goats grazing the side of the low, opposite ridge… one of which was an obvious beast. I quickly downed my breakfast, collapsed the tent, and packed my bag with gear and meat. Since I already dropped my goat, I could now pay closer attention to the bowl area I was currently in without worry of being seen by goats. The first thing I noticed was deer poop and tracks everywhere! This was a good sign because I had plans to hunt deer as soon as I put away the goat… and I could mosey back up this direction.

As I got closer to the brush line, I soon realized that the hike out would also be miserable. Not only did I have a ton of awkward, heavy weight on my back, but all plants were soaked with dew. Dew soaked brush means dew soaked pants when hiking! This was cold and miserable for a couple hours, but once the sun peaked over the mountains, the conditions took a 180 turn to hot and miserable.

The bad thing about bush whacking into an area is that you can’t really follow that same path out and bush whacking out is also required. The steep areas made this dangerous for my ankles with the inability to really plant flat footed with so much shrubbery. I actually fell pretty hard four times on my way out from tripping. Luckily I never planted weird and rolled my ankle with full weight bearing down.

As I got to the bottom of the entire mountain, I saw a small buck sprint out into a clearing, running from my loud hiking. I made it in one piece though… without any major injury. I was cut up pretty good all over my hands and arms, even more so than a typical 10-day hunt. By the time I made it to the truck, it was about noon, which meant it took less than 24 hours between the time I left and returned. Starving, I devoured my lunch and junk food before I turned my attention to meat care.

The goal was to find a shady spot somewhere with a good breeze to keep the meat as cool as possible while processing it. Unluckily, this was probably the least windy day in Kodiak’s recent history. There was absolutely no breeze what so ever; the windmills weren’t even moving.

I knew I could create my own shade with the camper, so a covered area wasn’t too important. I drove as far south as I could looking for a breeze with no luck. I decided to retrace north and settle on a cove overlook, high above the water. There weren’t many good pull outs with enough area to make a protected butchering spot, but I found something similar close to town… with the added bonus of 3G service range. This meant instead of just beer and meat processing, I could add good tunes to the mix! I pulled the truck and camper directly parallel with the suns shade and path, and setup my portable butchering and meat packing setup.

It took me the rest of the day to get the meat put away. I cleaned it up, separated it into cuts, wrapped the roasts and steaks, and placed the burger meat in a bowl for grinding when I returned home. By the time I was done, it was dark and I was working under headlamp once again. I then turned my attention to the hide. It still had the skull in it and the head needed removed to keep the hide in the best shape possible. It only took about 30 minutes to remove the skull and I was done for the night. I quickly wiped and sanitized everything in the dark before I laid out the meat and hide to stay as cool as possible overnight.

Dinner and relaxing really hit the spot that night. It was the first night I was able to enjoy the camper and get a warm meal in me. I felt like a king because I never sleep in a camper, let alone have heat to add to the comfort. It won’t ruin my tent camping or drive to get off the beaten path, but I will never tent camp next to the truck again!

Day 4

I had no plans or itinerary the next day, so I slept in until I couldn’t lay there any longer. The meat and hide was left alone overnight. It didn’t get as cold as I wanted it to in order to cool the meat, but the meat was in no danger at all of spoiling. I packed everything up, sanitized it all again, and headed toward town to get the goat sealed and the meat frozen.

On the way to town, I crossed a river by a bay with a couple cars pulled over on the side of the road. I saw blob of something on the river shoreline about 300 yards out that vehicles were likely looking at. After I crossed the river, I thought to myself, “What was that?”, so I turned around to investigate further.

It turns out that blob was a bear sleeping on the rocks next to the river. I pulled over to take pictures and watch to see what it would do. Surprise surprise, it just laid there for a while. I was just about ready to leave when it decided to stand up. He turned around, pooped, and then went down the bank and out of sight. Thinking quickly, I realized I have the best possible seat in the house… on top of my camper. So I got out, climbed the ladder, and stood on the camper. Of the three cars on the side of the road, I was the only one able to see the bear over the grass and rocks.

The bear eventually came back out in the open. He spent a while sauntering around, drinking water, and eventually fishing. It was neat to watch him fish and catch a salmon in the shallow backwater. He made it look pretty easy too. After he devoured the salmon, the bear decided it was time to leave. He slowly walked into the field and ultimately disappeared out of sight.

My next destination was the Kodiak Alaska Department of Fish and Game office to turn in my hunt report and get my goat sealed (aka a certified and documented kill by a biologist after they take measurements). It was pretty bad timing. I got there a little after 11:30AM and I guess they close the office from 11:30AM to 12:30PM for lunch. I decided to sit and wait, but quickly grew tired of that. I poked my head through the steel gate and asked if anyone was in. A lady replied and asked what I needed. I told her I was needing to get my goat sealed. She let me know that no biologists were working today so it would not be possible… GREAT! I ended up leaving ADFG without sealing my goat. Needless to say, I was frustrated. Lucky for me, sealing was optional and I didn’t have to seal the goat at a later time.

I turned my attention to getting the meat frozen. Seahawk Air has a huge freezer where they keep items for hunters and rural residents. It worked out great to offload my cooler full of meat there last time, and I did it again this year with the understanding that I would swing by to pick up the cooler before I jumped on the ferry.

My next task was to decide what I wanted to do next :) It was mid afternoon on a Friday and I was scheduled to catch the ferry late on Thursday (6 days away). I had a ton of time to waste until then, but I was extremely home sick. For the last month and a half, I saw very little of my wife and kids. Not including this Kodiak hunt, I went on two different two-week hunts and before/between those I was busy packing and preparing for the next hunt. This resulted in very little family time. One of the many reasons I had so many hunts planned this year was because we had a baby last year and I only got a short sheep hunt in; this was carryover from last season. But all that hunting took me away from the family that I was blessed with having!

The home-sickness drove me to pursue an earlier return date on the ferry. Luckily, the next departing sailing was the next day, Saturday. I headed over to the ferry office and reserved my spot on the Saturday sailing. The Alaska Marine Highway System started charging $100 for itinerary changes on Oct 1, but I decided that was a small price to pay. This would mean no deer hunting, no exploring, and the conclusion to my 2019 hunting season… but it was well worth it. With my plans in place, I made my way over to the Coast Guard base to get cleaned up and sower.

After I left the base, I decided to check out a local park. The river that flowed through this park opened to fishing that morning since ADFG determined that a sufficient amount of salmon made its way into the river. The park was very peaceful and the river was beautiful. I watched a handful of zombie fish swimming and jumping around the river. I noticed a guy fishing down stream so I went up to him to chat a little and get intel about the river. He was really friendly and told me about a handful of holes in the area. I had my fishing gear with me, and he gave me the information I needed so I decided to try my luck!

I put on my hip waders and headed to a hole downstream. I didn’t have any roe, so I was only tossing Vibrax. It took me a while of figuring out how to best fish a pixie in shallow river water, but I soon got the hang of the current direction, speed, and depth. Once all of this clicked, I couldn’t keep the coho salmon off my line! It was one after another. I caught so many silver salmon that my wrist started to hurt and I lost count. We had plenty of salmon in our freezers, so I tossed each one back.

I didn’t see many other people on the river, but I did see quite a bit of wild life. The coolest thing I saw was a golden eagle. I was standing in the middle of the river, looking down a straight clearing 20 feet wide and about 300 yards long. All of a sudden, an eagle appeared at the end of the clearing, coming from a bend downriver. It was sailing low below the trees close to 10 feet off the water at a fairly slow speed, with his massive wing span that appeared to nearly touch the plants on either side of the river. He was traveling up river in my direction. He dwarfed the river as he gradually sailed my direction, turning the river black bank to bank from his shadow. I got nervous when it clicked that I was in his path and how close he would likely get to me. It was right when he was flying over top of me, close enough that my fishing pole could have reached out and touched it, that I realized I was in the presence of a Golden Eagle (often confused with an immature Bald Eagle). I wish I took a picture of the bird, but I was too busy fishing.

I ended up fishing out the hole I was in and decided to walk down the bank about 30 feet to try a different hole and strategy. As soon as I got to the new hole, a large bear huffed, and stepped out into the river EXACTLY where I was just fishing. Shortly after, a cub jumped into the river, followed by a second, and then a third! If this would have happened 5 minutes earlier, I would have been face to face with this family of brown bears on the river. I thought about what I would have done if I was in that situation… I had no where to go really. I couldn’t go down river or to the left because it was too deep to wade. I couldn’t go up river (where it was shallow and where I entered from) because that is where the bears appeared from. My only option would have been to head right toward the shore with thick trees everywhere. I would have then walked the shore down river as far as possible, ducking in and out of the trees. Even though that was the direction the bears were heading, hopefully they would have let me escape in that direction. Of course, my last option would have been to use my trusty .44 mag hanging on my hip. He hasn’t been unholstered too often, but that would have definitely called for an appearance.

The bears crossed the river and disappeared into the thick trees. I fished this new hole for about an hour and wanted to try one more spot before I left. I decided to retrace my steps, cross the river, and fish on the other side close to where the bears disappeared into the trees. From this angle, I could see massive salmon tightly hugging the bottom in groups of four to five. This got me excited and focused on finding a way to hook into them. I was too busy trying to perfect a strategy that I foolishly let my guard down too much. I didn’t realize that down river, about 15 feet, the bears were in a little cove fishing. I couldn’t hear or see them due to a downed tree between us and the rushing water muffling sounds. The only reason I ended up knowing they were there was because a photographer appeared on the other side of the river where I crossed and started yelling and waving at me. That’s when it clicked, and I hurried back to the other side of the river to thank my alerter.

I decided that I didn’t want to test my luck any further and called it a day. I packed up my fishing gear and headed to town. It was late evening now so I stopped at a diner for some dinner and to hook up to wi-fi. After that, I decided to tempt fate and return to the spot where I had a bear break into my truck the last time I was on Kodiak. It was a good, isolated camping spot and I was confident that lightening wouldn’t strike twice. Plus, this time I didn’t have the scent of goat blood freely floating in the air. It turns out I was right… I had another peaceful night in the camper with no bear issues.

Day 5

This was only my fourth day on the island and it was already time to leave. I was lazy for the morning and didn’t plan on doing anything adventurous since the ferry was departing around noon. The only thing I had to do was get to Seahawk air to pickup my meat prior to departing. Like always, everyone there was extremely friendly and a ton of help. The meat was partially frozen, but I wasn’t concerned. Even though I likely wouldn’t get to my house within 30 hours, everything would stay plenty cold, especially since I layered the bottom with 20 lbs of ice prior to putting the cooler in the freezer.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. I got on the ferry, assumed my same bench seat, dallied around on my phone, and relaxed as we headed toward homer. The return sailing would be a good four hours longer since it also included a couple port stops along the way. Add a delayed start due to mechanical issues and even worse seas on the way home, and the difference extended to 6 hours longer then the sailing to Kodiak.

Day 6

I slept pretty good overnight for the most part. I think there is one passage area where the seas get extremely rough because in the middle of the night, people were getting tossed all over the ship from crazy big waves. I learned from the trip in to not put anything on top of the table next to my bench, so I didn’t get pummeled in the face this time. The waves were so big a couple times that they were breaking overtop of the ship. The captain issued an order to hold on and absolutely no going outside or walking around. There was a highschool swim team on board, and many of them were scared and crying. I wasn’t too worried because I knew this ship has seen worse… and we made it out with only a handful of people getting hurt and hurling ;)

The ship pulled into Homer late in the morning. The same offboarding procedures took place, and I was on the road again headed home. I made it home in time for dinner and spent some good quality time with the family before bed.

It gets harder and harder to leave my family behind as I go off to hunt. Our bond gets stronger as the days go by and the kids comprehend life more. One day these hunts will expand to involve more family members. Once that happens, the home sickness will cease and even better memories will be made!

This is a whale coming up for breath.

Another whale getting ready to dive deep

Dinner and a view

First in line for the ferry

Here's my mobile home for the hunt, buried in the bowels of the ferry. Unfortunately they won't allow anyone access to their vehicles while the boat is moving. I would have loved to stay in the camper while the boat was moving.

Instead, this is where I got to sleep.

View of the top of the boat

I would call this a life raft, but that's not the right term. Is this a life submarine?

Pulling up to Kodiak

Port Kodiak ahead

Dry docked vessels

Crab pots

Crab pot close up

Old tires = boat bumpers

This was a sweet looking commercial boat!

Kodiak windmills

To the untrained eye, this is just a wasp. But to a knowing entomologist, this is Vespula... one of the least studied wasps in North America. A Vespula nest has never been discovered or studied.

The bowl with goats

Getting closer

Zoomed in look at some of the goats in the bowl

This is the solo goat

Hello black tailed deer! Don't mind me while I cough up a lung while I watch you.

This is the first goat I approached. He's fast asleep here.

Here is the goat at the top of the mountain ridge.

Same goat (I think)

The scenery on the top was beautiful.

The nanny and kid appear

This is the goat that I was originally targeting

Peak-a-boo

Goats on the other side of the bowl

The rock face on the left is what my goat fell off of. He is the small white dot in the middle of this picture in the rock slide area.

Billy down

A look up the bowl from my tent site the next morning

The large, grazing goat on the other side of the bowl the next morning

Bay view pics on the way out

The meat preparation and packing setup

My view

Sleeping bear

Big yawn

You looking at me?

Headed to water

A zoomed out view

Slurp slurp

Here fishy fishy

Gotcha

Nom nom

One of a few salmon seen in shallow water by the road... he doesn't look like he feels too well.

Spawn out, dead salmon on the river

Zombie salmon

This sign was spot on!

My view down the river from my fishing spot

Fish on!

It's hard to see the sow and cubs in this picture because I used my cell phone to take the picture. The sow is below and left of the pine tree, in the water, and the subs are to her right directly in front of the pine tree. You can see the river bending left right where they are at... where the bend ends and straightens this direction is where I was standing.