We didn’t really have plans for Labor Day weekend. September was my on-call month for deployment so I didn’t plan any hunts or adventures during that time. The week before, we decided to take the camper and head north, with no real destination or plan in mind.
After work on Friday, we finished
packing and hit the road. We decided to stop at a pull out near Bonnie Lake. We
hiked a trail here before and shot a couple grouse in late fall, but we were
unable to get to Bonnie Lake due to ice on the road. There wasn’t ice on the
road yet, so we figured we could check out the lake now.
We found a pull out by a couple
trails. We decided to get everything situated, and then go for an evening
stroll in our mud boots. We didn’t hike far. We saw a bunch of caribou tracks
on the trail, which was a surprise since we were somewhat far from caribou
terrain. We also found a large group of wild raspberry bushes with berries ripe
for the taking. We turned around with plans to come back the next day and pick
a bunch of raspberries (especially since our raspberry bushes didn’t produce
many berries this year).
Once back at the camper, we did
our usual camping routine of goofing off in the camper, watching a movie, and snacking
on junk food. Everyone went to bed happy 😊
The next morning we planned to
walk the trail we previously shot grouse off of. Unfortunately for us, we have
kids that like to sleep in, play with toys in the AM, and dilly dally around before
the camping day starts. The typical slow start resulted in someone pulling up
to the trail head with three hunting dogs, and head off onto the path nearly 15
minutes prior to us setting course in that direction. Oh well… that’s how it
goes.
Instead, we decided to walk the
same trail we took the prior evening. We didn’t see any grouse on the hike, but
probably the most prized and rare find discovered on this hike was a $20 bill!
I was shocked to find money on the ground in the woods, but I’ll take it (it
actually went in Ashton’s piggy bank)! On our way back toward the camper, we
stopped to eat lunch and harvest as many raspberries as possible. We filled a
large Tupperware container before heading out.
Bonnie Lake was our next
destination. We loaded up the truck/ camper and drove the gravel road to the
lake. After we realized how far the lake was past the icy spot that stopped us
last year, we were very thankful we didn’t attempt to push through then; we
would have ended up stuck for sure!
Bonnie Lake is a beautiful lake.
It is stocked lake, with a boat launch, scenic mountains all around, and
private cabins surrounding most of the lake. The lake seemed like it was mostly
used by the private land owners since there was only a small amount of lake
access for the public. Without a boat, there wasn’t much to do or see.
Regardless, we made the best of it and found critters in the water.
NOTE – Ashton is OBSESSED with
catching baby fish. It is all he can think about and wants to do. If you told
him he could do anything he wants, he would ask to go catch baby fish. This
means taking a net, scooping them up, and putting them in a bucket.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find
any baby fish for Ashton to catch. We found many underwater snails, freshwater
shrimp, and leeches to play with. Of course, Ashton was sad he didn’t find any
baby fish, so we made plans to leave this area, and head further east, stopping
at Long Lake first to see if there were baby fish to catch.
Josie fell asleep in the truck on
the way to Long Lake. She stayed in the truck with Mom, and Ashton, Tundra, and
I went looking for baby fish…. Thank goodness Long Lake had them! There were minnows
everywhere. We quickly netted a handful and kept them in water in Tundra’s
water bowl. The presence of baby fish meant he would stay busy for as long as
we stayed there.
After a while, Danielle decided to come join the fun. By
this time, Ashton was pushing the limits of the depths he could go without
getting the inside of his boots wet. Luckily, Danielle brought water shoes so
we rolled his pants above his knees and let him go wherever he wanted. It was a
beautiful, sunny day so wading in the water likely felt great.
We decided to wake up Josie so she didn’t miss out on all
the fun in the sun. She didn’t want to wake up but after I mentioned fish, getting
in the water, and snack, she popped right up. I put her water shoes on stripped
her bottoms off to only a diaper, and she was off to join the fun.
I was seeing grayling and rainbow trout swimming around so I
was itching to try some fishing too. I decided to grab my fishing gear and walk
toward the road where it was deeper. The one cool thing about Long Lake is how
clear the water is, and because of that, I was able to see 7 giant trout
hanging out in the deep water. This got my heart racing because the trout
easily looked bigger than any trout I have caught before.
On my second cast, one of the monsters nailed my spoon. I
called out to Ashton that I needed my netter, and he came sprinting over. The
trout was fighting hard and once it got in the shallow water where Ashton was
trying to net it, it would freak out and give Ashton a lake shower. The lake
showers were even more numerous because Ashton’s net was not meant to handle
anything of this size. We eventually got the trout to squeeze into the net and
settle down.
While I was reeling in the fish, an onlooker approached to
get a closer look. He was an older fella and super nice to converse with. After
we released the fish, Danielle asked him if he would like a fish if we caught
another. He quickly accepted the offer, which told me he likely wanted the
first one. Luckily, the second fish I landed was even bigger than the first one
and destined for his dinner table.
Normally, I wouldn’t keep a trout of this size nor would I
offer for someone else to take it home. However, the fish in this lake are
stocked and plentiful. I wanted to take home a fish to possibly cook over the
fire, but this was the first time I had the problem of catching fish too big to
cook whole over an open flame. It took many catch and releases to land a big
fish small enough to be comfortable with cooking whole over the fire. I welcome
the next time I am faced with this problem!
It was fairly busy at Long Lake so we decided to not stay
the night. We wanted to hike and look for rock ptarmigan at some point so we
took off further east to find higher elevation. We settled on a pull out just
past Sheep Mountain near Gun Sight Mountain. I’m not sure how, but we stumbled
across a place to camp with nobody around. The rest of the night was spent
having foot races, huddling around the fire, and just relaxing.
After waking up the next day, we prepared our packs for a
long day of hiking with a .22 rifle, lunch, water, berry picking items, rain
gear, and bear protection. We started on an ATV trail but soon split off on a
caribou trail. The start of the caribou trail was a little rough hiking since
Ashton was on foot and the brush was above his head. We eventually got high
enough to avoid brush and could walk through grass fields.
At one point, Danielle said she wanted to see what was on
the other side of a hill. As she hiked up the steep side the rest of us stayed
low on the trail that circumvented the hill. Right at that moment, Tundra
flushed 7 ptarmigan and they took flight in the opposite direction. Luckily
Danielle was high above everything and she kept an eye on where they landed. We
hiked up to Danielle to create a plan. She pointed out where they landed and I
figured out how I would approach them. Danielle kept Tundra to prevent him from
flushing them again (we only had a rifle so without a shotgun, flushed birds
were safe birds). I threw Ashton on my back and we were off.
I let Ashton walk once we got past the high brush and had an
open approach. It was good practice being quiet and approaching game (even
though we didn’t need to be too quite approaching ptarmigan). When we got
closer to the bushes we thought the ptarmigan landed in, one immediately
flushed. Luckily, there were still 6 more somewhere. I approached a small bush
when I heard the classic “baluuh” of a ptarmigan. GOT YA… I knew right where he
was now. I shuffled to the side to see his head poke out from the brush and put
a .22 bullet in him. As he flopped in the grass, Ashton came over to finish the
job while I went after the remaining birds. I didn’t think about it at the
time, but this was the first time Ashton has seen a wounded bird that we shot.
I didn’t tell him what to do with it but he knew it should be dead. I also
didn’t see it, but he told me (and so did mom) that he tried to kill it so he
was whacking it with his trekking stick. After he yelled to tell me what he was
doing, I told him to step on the bird’s head until I came back. This finished
the job more efficiently than a beating with a stick (especially with body shots),
but I was proud to hear that he took the initiative. We then had a long conversation
about shooting animals and how our goal was to end their life as quick and
painless as possible. He understood.
Unfortunately, the rest of the birds were very skittish and
all flushed before I could get close enough or within sight for a rifle shot.
If I would have had our shotgun (which was in the camper), we would have easily
had 5 birds down.
We decided we didn’t have enough time in the day to get high
enough to find rock ptarmigan (the ones we shot were willow ptarmigan), so we
side-hilled to a ridge that would lead us back down the mountain. Once at the
ridge, we stopped for a very late lunch. We also found a handful of descent
blue berry patches to pick as well. After the lunch and berry picking break, we
shot down the mountain back toward the camper. We ended up on an old, unused
ATV trail that appeared to go toward the parking area. We decided to take it
and see where it went.
It was at this time that Ashton made his first unique joke.
He asked, “Do you know what I would say if I saw a cool leaf on the ground?
That’s unbe-leaf-able!” Danielle and I died laughing and praised him for his cleverness.
The trail ended up adding a couple miles on to the hike, but
it was great terrain for rabbit hunting. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any
bunnies, but we will keep this trail in mind for future rabbit hunts once the
population bounces back.
We got back to the camper, packed it up, and headed toward
the same place we spent the first night. We decided to check out an ice cream
place along the way with hopes of getting cones to ruin our dinner. The flavor
selection was limited (likely due to being the end of summer), but we ended up
with a couple flavors that everyone liked.
Our post-ice-cream plan was to enjoy a relaxing evening in
the woods around the fire. We would then wake up the next morning, and head
after some grouse. Luckily the rain held off until 10 minutes after we
retreated into the camper for the night.
It dumped all night, but it cleared before sunrise. The rain
left everything a muddy mess, but that wouldn’t stop our grouse hunt. Once we
got through our typical, extended morning camper ritual, we hit the trail, this
time with a shotgun in tow.
It only took 5 minutes before Tundra flushed his first
grouse. It flew to a tree right above where it was feeding on the ground. We
set the kids and Tundra by a tree, a safe distance away from the gun blast, and
made our way toward the tree. Danielle had the shotgun and I had the rifle. I
spotted the grouse on a limb and took a shot. It immediately flew to another
tree deeper in the woods. It took a little while, but I eventually found the tree
it was perched on. Danielle went around to a possible escape route and I took
aim for a second shot. I nailed it and he dropped. Instead of going to find it,
I turned around to let Tundra off leash. He immediately sprinted toward the
shots and quickly found the bird flopping by a tree. He grabbed it and brought
it out to where the kids were waiting. The grouse was still alive as well so I
got to teach Ashton how to properly ring the neck of a bird.
Josie was excited and she kept asking to hold it (she got to
pet the ptarmigan as much as she wanted the day prior). After praising Tundra
for his great flush and retrieve, I stuffed the bird in my bag and we continued
on the trail. We were now hoping to add a rabbit to the mix of harvested items.
We didn’t see another grouse or single rabbit the rest of
the hike. The icing on the cake was the random blue berry patches we found at
the place we stopped to eat a snack. There weren’t many blueberry bushes, but
the few bushes there were stacked full of berries. Luckily we brought berry
picking gear and quickly filled a Tupperware container. This was our turn
around point in the hike and we headed back to the camper once it looked like
rain was headed our way.
This was the last adventure of our extended weekend.
It was a very relaxing three-day weekend. Not having a true
plan or need and just going with the flow was a good change of pace. The family
time was amazing and we all had a blast!
Amazing views this weekend, such contrast between summer and fall colors plus fresh snow on the mountain tops.
Blueberry picking! This weekend we brought home grouse, ptarmigan, rainbow trout, raspberries, blueberries, $20, memories and happy hearts. We love Alaska! Bye bye summer, hello Fall!
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