I got lucky again and drew the DM773 any-bull tag for the 4th
time! This hunt has been amazing and successful each time, so I was excited to
essentially have a guaranteed good time and meat hunt for September 2022. I
have hunted this area once with a friend name Carlos, and twice with Kevin…
Danielle helped scout the beginning part of the area, but never hunted it.
This year’s moose hunt was special though… it was Danielle’s
re-introduction back into the hunting scene since the birth of our kids when
she took an extended sabbatical and sacrificed her attendance to meet the needs
of our children. This was the first moose hunting opportunity where the kids
were finally old enough to easily be cared for by someone else for an extended
period of time (We didn’t need a moose last year). We asked Nana if she would
be willing to help us out, and she graciously agreed. And with the kids taken
care of, Kevin, Danielle, and I made plans for an epic time. The best time to
hunt any fall moose area is as late as possible into the season so the bulls
are closer to rut, more active, and responsive to calls, so we marked off the
last 10 days of the season on all our calendars knowing it would optimize our
chances of being successful.
We flew Danielle’s mom up and gave her the challenge of watching Ashton and taming Josie while we went out to put meat in the freezer. She was scheduled to be here for two weeks, a few days of orientation before the hunt, 10 days during the hunt, and a few days after to keep the kids busy if meat care was taking up Mom and Dad’s time.
We loaded everything up Thursday night in preparation for
leaving early Friday morning. I would pull the boat while Kevin pulled the ATVs
and meat wagons in his enclosed trailer.
DAY 1
Danielle was so freaking excited to be back hunting she was
like a little kid seeing presents from Santa on Christmas morning. She was
bouncing off the walls and ready to get out there.
We left the house super early and eventually got to Delta
Junction around noon. We were pretty tired at this point since we were up late
packing, up early to drive, and just spent many hours in the truck. Regardless,
we still had a lot to do to get into the hunt area, and adrenaline helped fuel
much of it.
The first task was getting all of our gear down the river. I
launched the boat while Kevin and Danielle started unpacking the trucks and
trailer. As I was setting up the ramp and loading contraption I created for
putting the ATVs and meat wagons on the boat, a couple pulled their boat up
next to ours. They were returning from moose hunting near their cabin up river.
They said it was the worst moose hunting they ever experienced, and didn’t see
a single moose ☹. This wasn’t the news we wanted to hear, especially
since the rumor was moose numbers were hurting after a harsh winter.
Regardless, they were in good spirits and interested to see what we were doing.
They asked to take a video of us when we loaded an ATV in the boat from shore.
I partly think they thought it wouldn’t work, and partly were impressed that it
might work. So, they hung out and chatted while we got everything ready to
load.
We had six loads to take down river, three ATVs and three
meat wagons. Danielle would stay with the loads still at the parking lot and
Kevin would wait down river with everything being unloaded. I would drive the
boat back and forth, assisting with loading and unloading the gear. This was
slow and difficult work… each of us almost had a hernia trying to push the boat
back in the water after loading a heavy ATV on it… but about 3 hours after arriving, we had all
our stuff down river and ready to go.
The place we unloaded by is near a commune called
Whitestone. The Whitestone Community is a self-sustaining group of people that
are basically a family and work together to grow and advance their commune for
the better of everyone living there. They own a large amount of private land,
between the river bank and the available hunting area. They have roads and
trails, but again, it is private and not available for use. In the past, we
have simply taken the ATVs up the banks of another river, past the private
property, before turning into public land for the hunting area.
Unfortunately, the rivers were swollen from recent rains,
and they were higher than I have seen them on the previous hunts in this area. I
knew this wasn’t good because previously, we were crossing some water areas on
the ATVs that were almost too deep, and with the higher rivers, this likely
meant those areas were unpassable this time.
We took off, excited to get hunting. Not even 2 minutes
after we started moving, Danielle got her ATV mildly stuck in some soft mud,
and was unable get free. The mud of the Delta River is actually silt from the
glacier, and glacial silt can be extremely dangerous and difficult to navigate.
Luckily, we were far enough away from the glacier that the silt wasn’t a huge
problem and gravel was also common. Danielle thought, Kevin and I were going to
leave her behind. It took Danielle a little coaching on what to do when stuck
(she hasn’t ridden in difficult situations for over 6 years) and she was freed
up ready to go.
I was leading, and immediately after Danielle was freed, I
drove straight into what I thought was solid ground, but turned out to be more
glacial silt. I was stuck, and it was BAD! After sitting there and evaluating
it, I could tell I drove into a flood pool, that used to have stagnant water
and just collected silt due to no current removing it. Now that the pool was
dried up, the wet silt remained, and turned into a death trap. The only good
thing about this situation was that the silt had a bottom, and it was only a
little more than a foot deep. There are silt pools that don’t tend to have a
bottom or are multiple feet deep. Regardless, this was a bad situation to be
in.
I stepped off my ATV, and my feet sank deep. The thing with
silt is that it’s similar to heavy quick sand. It’s pliable enough to fill
gaps, but it’s too heavy to really lift and pull things out of, like your ATV,
or foot. When trying to take steps, I was stuck. I was not strong enough to
lift my foot up without having to bend over and pull it up with both hands.
This took a ton of energy and balance to simply take a single step. To make
matters worse, Danielle was loving every second of it! I just gave her a hard
time for getting her ATV mildly stuck and her not remembering how to get it
unstuck, and then I got so stuck that I could barely walk. She was laughing
like crazy!
I was able to get to the meat wagon, unhook it, and have
both Danielle and Kevin connect their winches and pull it backwards, out of the
mud. That proved difficult, but was the easy part. We struggled to pull the
heavy buried ATV out using the same method, and I thought we might need to call
someone with heavy machinery to help pull us out. Eventually, using sticks and
digging as much silt out as possible (having it replaced with more fluid silt)
resulted in the ATV beginning to budge and eventually break the suction that
was keeping it anchored. Thank goodness for two ATVs being able to pull it
because there was no way one ATV with a winch was going to get me out!
This stuck fiasco wasted a good hour of our time and had me
absolutely exhausted, but we got out alive and were able to continue on to
tackle the next obstacle.
That fear of water being too high was soon realized,
especially with the new beaver dam activity in the area. We tried to find
another way up the river and into our hunt area, but it simply was not possible
without cutting down tons of deadfall and taking some risky routes. After about
another hour of not really going anywhere, we decided it wouldn’t hurt to
simply ask someone from Whitestone if we could pay them an access fee to use
their trails to get to the hunting area.
Danielle and I started riding down the Whitestone road to
the commune. It felt odd knowing it was private and we didn’t have permission,
but luckily two people on an ATV were headed out of the commune to the river at
the same time, so we didn’t get too deep into “forbidden territory” before we
spoke with someone.
I’m not sure if they were a couple or not, but the two older
individuals pulled over when we waved. The guy was about 50 something, had a
crazy tan, a jacket on without a shirt underneath, shorts, and loafers without
socks. His outfit drew my attention so much I don’t even remember what the lady
looked like. We explained our predicament and asked if we could pay them to
drive through the commune quickly. They refused any payment and said it was
fine, but they wouldn’t be able to tell us how to get through properly since
they didn’t know where we were going. They mentioned something about taking a
right at the first intersection and then staying on the roads, but after that,
they weren’t sure. Their only stipulation was to go SLOW and to be careful
around the school and children. Going slow was easy, and finding our way wasn’t
a problem because I had satellite maps and could see exactly where we needed to
go now that we had permission to travel through the commune. I was sooooo
relieved I could have hugged them!!
Danielle and I returned to Kevin (woke him up from a nap)
and gave him the good news. We turned everything around and headed toward the commune.
As we slowly made our way into the place, it was confusing
to follow the few directions we were given. I soon realized we likely took a
wrong turn as we were headed directly for a huge group of kids playing in the
road, which looked like the school. The adults with the kids didn’t look happy
to see us. I joked with Kevin that it was likely because Kevin’s beard was more
impressive than the other guys’. Regardless, we crawled through the gravel
roads and on towards the other end of the Commune, toward our hunting ground.
Aside from feeling out of place, we were all in awe with how nice the community
looked. Everything looked meticulously cared for, neatly organized, and
beautiful. They had everything a typical small town would have (minus anything
commercial), and they were thriving! There was a community center, school, utility
buildings, emergency services, library, activity center, maintenance buildings,
houses, farms, livestock, etc. I honestly wanted to find out how I could apply
to live there it looked so nice and inviting!
We weaved our way through the Commune by tracking our
satellite position, and eventually found the outskirts of our public hunting
area. The trails in this hunt area are amazing! They aren’t torn up by huge
off-road vehicles and people being crazy; they are cared for and used as
transportation for responsible people that live there. We also think there may
be some compensation for trail maintenance to allow access by forestry staff
since forest fires are fairly common deep in the backcountry there.
It was going to be smooth sailing from here, and about 25
miles until we got to the place we wanted to camp. Early in the ride, we had to
battle some kind of beetle hatch. There were huge swarms of small beetles all
over the trail. These guys would hurt when they smacked you in the face if you
were driving anywhere near or over 15MPH. They would also shoot into your
mouth, nose, and eyes. The worst part was them colliding with you, and then
proceeding to crawl inside the helmet, your neck, and face. Out of all the
riding I have done up here, I never had issues with beetles, so that was a new
experience.
The cool thing about this area is that there are many grouse
that can be harvested too. We spooked quite a few while we were riding in. We
decided not to try and shoot them since we were really behind for the day and
needed to get to camp and setup as soon as possible before it got dark.
There were a couple unexpected things that occurred while
riding in. First, the trail toward the end was more overgrown than I expected.
The willow bushes on each side were reaching across the trail and would whip
the crap out you. They left welts all over your body, and we couldn’t go
through slowly or else it would have taken forever to get to our hunting spot.
Combined with all the big bumps on the trail, we called it whips and dips!
There is a lake on the way to our camping spot that you
typically get to ride the shore all the way around, but apparently the water
level in the lake was so high and flooded that the trail was unusable. Luckily,
this wasn’t the first year that occurred and a trail through the brush was
already cut that allowed us to navigate around the flooded trail.
We were getting to the end of our ride and coming up to a
big overlook right next to where we wanted to camp, and unfortunately, there
was a side by side and ATV parked there, glassing the meadow below. I pulled up
to them and said hello. I then asked if they were camping anywhere out there,
to which they said no. Apparently, they were the owners of one of the two
cabins that existed in the large hunt area and they were just day hunting here.
That was great news, other than they were glassing where we wanted to hunt, but
that meant they weren’t setup in the area we wanted to camp. I let them know we
were going to setup camp and we took the side trail back to our camping spot
about 200 yards away, tucked into the trees. I was super excited to see that
the spot was open and we could claim it for our hunt!
It was about 5:30PM at this time. We then spent the next two
hours setting up camp for our 10 day hunt. At some point, I unpacked Bertha (my
collapsible cow decoy) and set her to the side. Danielle immediately got an
evil look in her eye and she picked up Bertha with the intent of scaring Kevin.
As Kevin was bent over inside the front door of the tent, Danielle snuck around
the corner, hiding behind Bertha. When Kevin turned around, he was face to face
with a moose, which scared the heck out of him. Of course, Danielle geeked out,
but this put a target on her back for later.
About an hour into setting up, the fellas that were glassing
the ridge rode the side trail in and through our camp. Little did I know, the
trail to our camp site did not end shortly after the camp site, and was now a
through trail. In years past, the side trail ended at the camp site.
Apparently, a new trail was cut and it was the main trail to take before
dropping into the meadow below. We didn’t suspect this until that party never
turned around. So after about another hour of setting up, we got our hunting
stuff together and walked the new trail to where it overlooked the meadow
below. That’s when our suspicion was realized ☹. Typically, we would have the east side of the ridge
and meadow to ourselves to walk to and glass from, since the trail stopped in
the camp site. This was no longer exclusive since the trail rode the ridge on
both the East and West side of the camp site now.
Upon getting a glimpse of meadow, we immediately saw 4
moose, in the meadow, close to the ridge, about 2 miles further east. As we
were looking at them, we noticed the other group was still on the ridge and
also focused on the moose. Since they obviously saw them first, we decided to
walk up to the hunters and chat about the moose. There was only one guy there, an
83-year-old, and he was glassing the moose the other two guys set off on foot
to get a closer look at. Apparently, this guy has been hunting this area for 50
some years, but none of the three guys live in Alaska anymore, and this was the
first time they hunted this particular meadow.
There were two bulls and two cows in the group. One bull was
small, and one was medium sized. The medium sized one is what the group thought
may be legal. They didn’t have an any-bull tag like I did, so they could only
shoot something that had 3 brow tines on one side or had a 50” wide rack. From
where we were standing, the biggest bull did not have 3 brow tines, and looked
sub 50”. Regardless, both bulls were legal for me. Unfortunately, all the
delays in getting to our hunting spot resulted in this group of hunters beating
us to our typical hunting area and pursuing the bulls we likely would have
hunted. That was extremely disheartening to experience the first night of our
hunt.
A few minutes later we heard a shot ring out, then another,
then another, and finally a fourth. The two men shot the larger of the two
bulls. They called back to the elder guy and let him know they took the bull
from 500 yards (that’s way too far for me and typically not a good shot to
take) and will be making a plan shortly before returning to him and the
machines.
I decided this likely ruined any chance we would have to
shoot a moose tonight since the meadow was now spooked and soon to be smelling
of blood. On a whim, I started walking toward where the bull was dropped. I
wanted to see for myself if it was legal or not. My intent was to get a gauge
on the legality, but I would disguise that by letting them know I was looking
for the smaller bull and marking their gut pile for brown bears in the upcoming
days.
It was a grueling a hike across downed trees from the past
fires, swampy patches, and grasses taller than me. I announced my presence
after the hour it took me to find them. You could tell they were nervous on the
width because the first thing they said was that it measured 53” from the
arrows they had with them. I gave a friendly, “Are you sure?” To which we just
shrugged off. I then asked which way the smaller bull went, and headed off in
that direction. At the same time, they started heading back to meet up with the
older gentleman. That gave me a chance to get my hands on the bull and take a
closer look.
The bull didn’t have 3 brow tines, so I pulled out my tape to
measure it… 49.5”. They shot an illegal bull, and really, an ethical hunter
shouldn’t shoot anything remotely close to a judged 50” to allow for margins of
error. That was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do at that point. I
could potentially call the troopers on them, but really that would likely cause
a huge hassle on our part as well. I decided to just pocket the info and leave
it at that.
It was getting dark at this point, and I had no light or
phone on me, so I needed to get back fast. I booked it back through the crappy
terrain, catching up to and passing the two hunters. When I got back to
Danielle and Kevin, we wished the older guy a safe night, since we knew they
would be out for quite a while cutting up the moose. We then retreated to our
camp site and got everything ready for the next day.
The plan for our first day of hunting was to wake up early
and split up. Kevin would go to his favorite spot just west of camp, on the
ridge overlooking the meadow, and Danielle and I would setup on the ridge just
east of camp, in the same spot the three hunters were just at.
We were exhausted as dark fell. It was a long day of
traveling and getting ready to hunt. We fell asleep as soon as we hit the cots
and slept hard through the night. We were expecting to be woken up by the
hunting party driving through our camp late at night, but either that didn’t
happen, or we were all so tired that we didn’t hear them.
DAY 2
We woke up before the sun and anxiously got ready for our
first true hunting day. The forecast was supposed to be similar to yesterday,
gorgeous with a very small chance of sprinkles. It would have been more ideal
if it was colder to make the moose move more, but hey, it was only the first
day of hunting.
We downed our breakfast, and Kevin distributed his lucky
candies he swears by to improve moose kill success (Werther’s and butterscotch…
taken at the same time, NOT separately).
We then split up, walking in the dark to get to our spots and ready
before first light. Danielle and I stealthily creeped to the ridge overlook
east of camp. It was just turning dusk, so we could see where we were going,
but we couldn’t see much beyond 100 yards. When we got to the overlook spot, we
immediately discovered why the hunters from last night never came through camp…
because they were still in the meadow. Apparently, they thought it would be a
bad idea to stay on the trail and go through the muddy ruts, so they went off
trail, and I mean waaaay off trail, so much so that it looked like they didn’t
even think about riding on the good parts of the trail. During their discovery
route, they also found swampy tussocks. Their side by side was buried deep! We
could see the detour path they took from our overlook, and where they were at
was only 50 yards from the trail, which they were facing and likely headed
towards, and about 500 yards away from the lookout we were on. We could also
see that this wasn’t the first time they were stuck… but it was the worst.
I felt bad that they were stuck, but it was also
disheartening to see this group foiling our plans once again. They were likely
loud all night and morning, so there wasn’t going to be any moose near where
they were, or coming this direction. Danielle and I were kind of stumped on
what to do, so we brainstormed ways to increase our chances/luck 😊.
Knowing this spot was blown out, we headed back to camp and
regrouped. We decided our Plan B would be to ride the ATVS down into the meadow
to a spot about 6 miles east of camp, and setup on the ridge down there.
Usually when we go to this spot, we start riding at dusk, but we were well past
sunrise at this point, and we had to get our ATVs ready, take different hunting
gear, and bring different clothes and food.
While we were getting ready, one of the hunters (we later
found out his name was Rocky) with the older guy drove through camp on their
ATV. They told us about getting stuck all night and eventually getting unstuck,
only to get anchored within sight of the trail. It sounded very frustrating,
but it got a little dangerous too. The old man was so cold he was shaking, so
that’s why these two were leaving, to get the older gentleman back to the cabin
to warm up, leaving the youngest guy at the side by side. Rocky was going to
grab a bigger ATV (I guess they had spares at their remote cabin) and a land
anchor to help pull the side by side out. We offered to help, but they said it
wasn’t needed and didn’t want us getting stuck too. We wished them well and
said we would check on their buddy when we went that direction.
After all of this, we were very behind for morning calling
and hunting, but it was gorgeous out and were weren’t stuck in the muck, so it was
a good morning so far.
We decided to take a sandwich and water with us to give to
the guy at the side by side. When we stopped and walked up to him, he was
sleeping so hard he barely heard us saying hello. He had plenty of food and
drink with him, but he appreciated the gesture. Looking at the side by side in
person, it was buried up to its axles and high centered on tussocks… that thing
was not going to budge by itself! One thing that was odd tho was that they left
the moose in the back of the side by side. We asked why they don’t remove the
moose to lighten the machine, to which they said they didn’t have anywhere to
set it to ensure to stays clean/dry. He said they think they can get out
without needing to do that, but it would be a last-ditch option. When we heard
this, we didn’t feel too bad about them being stuck. 600 to 900 less pounds in
the back of the side by side is significant and its removal would have been the
first thing we tried to get the machine unstuck. It was hard to think that they
were being lazy, because I know they were likely exhausted and energy deprived,
but leaving removable weight in something that needs to be lightened to move
seemed questionable.
The hunter wished us luck as we said goodbye and headed
toward our new hunting spot. it was well past sunrise at this time, but still
morning none the less. The weather was gorgeous, sunny with patchy clouds, but
a little windy. It was a fairly easy ride on the trail once we navigated
through the beginning mud swamps. We didn’t see any moose on our ride over, but
that wasn’t surprising due to the loud hunters in the area for the past 12
hours.
We got to the end of the meadow and turned up toward the
ridge. Danielle and I parked the ATVs and changed out of our riding clothes. We
threw on the packs and started hiking through the brush, toward the ridge, with
the intent to get up high in order to glass the meadow as much as possible from
this location. It took us about 20 minutes to get to a good spot we would call
home for the better part of the day. We settled down by setting up the tripod,
hiding our packs, surveying the area, and getting our binoculars ready. We then
went to put on more clothes, and we realized that Danielle’s coat was left at
the ATV ☹ She decided she didn’t need it and simply sat in a
sunny spot to stay warm.
It was extremely windy in this spot, so much so that it was
making it difficult to project our moose calls very far. Similarly, we had no
idea if any moose were close or calling back because we couldn’t hear anything
over the wind. That was disappointing, but we still had plenty of visible space
to watch, and didn’t necessarily need to use our ears.
We sat there for a couple hours and didn’t see any moose at
all. This was a first for me in this spot, as the miles of land in front of us
would easily hold multiple moose, many of which would be impossible to get to…
but not today. It also looked like rain was moving in from the distance. The
weather, lack of moose, late start hunting, forced to change plans, and missing
our opportunity the night prior all put a damper on our excitement for a good
hunt that morning. This was short lived as Kevin soon sent us a text telling us
he had a small bull in his crosshairs, but it wasn’t legal for him. A few
minutes later he let us know two bulls from across the meadow were responding
to his calls and running towards him. He wasn’t sure if one was legal or not,
but he was going to get in a better position and let us know as the bulls came
trotting in. With this news, we decided to pack up since we were getting cold
and rain looked close. As we were getting ready to hike back to the wheelers,
we got a call that he needed help cutting up a moose… he shot a legal bull!!
We hurried to the ATVs and sped back toward camp. Again, we
saw nothing on the ride back except a grouse on the trail (which I tried to
shoot with the 22LR and missed horribly). As we passed by the area the side by
side was stuck in, we could see the machine was still there, and there was no
ATV or help in sight yet. We didn’t have time to chat so we just waived and
rode by and up the hill/ridge to our camp site.
Kevin said he was able to drive the ATV to the moose kill,
and that we should just follow his tracks. Unfortunately, his tracks weren’t
easy to find. I knew the general location of the kill, I just couldn’t find a
way to get there. It wasn’t until Kevin came to us and told us to take a turn
at the “butthole” to get on track. We eventually found an uprooted tree with a
large hole in the middle of the muddy roots, that resembled the “butthole”
Kevin was referring to. Following some faint tire tracks, we made our way to a
small lake tucked behind the ridge from the meadow, that was often visited by
traveling moose.
Kevin said the two bulls weren’t fighting, but were in a
hurry to beat the other to the cow moose they thought was calling to them, as
they were grunting the entire way over. They didn’t run straight to him, and
Kevin lost sight of them once they traversed the ridge west of him. He then
stalked closer, trying to find where they went, and when he peaked over a small
hill, he saw both of the bulls about 100 yards away near the pond, and they saw
him too. They started to head for cover and Kevin only had a split second to
take a standing free-hand shot on the legal bull. It connected enough to stop
the bull from running, which gave Kevin time to put a second bullet through his
spine and drop him dead.
The bull died on the banks of the small pond. If it died any
closer to the water, it would have fell in swampy brush, or even worse, the
water, and made dressing a mess, but we were lucky it dropped in a perfect spot
with no muck or mud to deal with.
We took a ton of pictures, stuffed ourselves with food and
drink, and setup our gear for cutting up the bull. Danielle didn’t dive into
the cutting or dressing too deep, as there wasn’t too much for her to do with
both Kevin and I working on the moose. Instead, we encouraged her to go to the
top of the ridge, practice her calls, and keep an eye out for other bulls that
may be in the area. You could tell she had the itch and was bummed she was in a
dud spot that morning. She didn’t get to experience the excitement of cow
calling, bull grunts, and harvesting a moose that was lured in… we gave her a
quick tutorial on calling and she left us to try and make something happen by
herself while we took care of the moose.
After an hour or so, between spurts of rain, clouds, and sun,
Danielle came back to check on us. We were almost done but took a break to
chat. She didn’t see anything but got some good calling practice in. We asked
to hear how she was calling… and when we heard her moose call, we both burst
out laughing. We joked that even dumb moose need loving too. It was in good
spirit, and we weren’t really being mean about it, but her moose call was…
different. A cow moose call is very nasally and high pitched. For some reason,
Danielle can’t get the high pitch part down but both of us guys can. She was
laughing at herself too, so it didn’t make her feel too bad. But in all
honesty, all moose sound different so really, her moose call would likely work,
and the more she practices, the better she will get. Regardless, her first
attempts at moose calling will never be forgotten and we reminded each other of
what it sounded like on a regular basis throughout the rest of the hunt (and
even to this day).
Danielle stuck around and helped us load up the meat bags
and clean up. The sun was starting to get high and the temperatures were rising
to where we knew the meat needed hung soon. It was good timing to be wrapping
up the field dressing. We got the ATVs turned around and found our way back to
the “butt hole”, and on to the trail. It was only a 5-minute ride back to camp
and was extremely easy really.
It was about 2PM once we got back to camp; we had to get the
meat hung. Our two meat poles from the last time we were there were still
hanging, however, their stability was questionable. I tested each out by
hanging on them, and they both came crashing down. We only needed one meat pole
for the moose, but decided to make two. We were going to shoot a second moose
eventually, but the second pole needed done now because we knew the other
hunters were still stuck in the meadow. With the rain and sun impacting their
meat, it needed hung as soon as possible. We planned to go help grab their
meat, and hang it in our camp to relieve them of that worry while trying to get
unstuck.
I used the chainsaw to cut down dead birch trees still
standing from a recent forest fire. I found two good sections to use as cross
poles between the trees the old poles hung from. After securing them, Kevin and
I hung the meat. At this point, there was nothing a third person could do to
assist, so Danielle decided to head East of camp on the ridge to look for
moose.
After hanging the meat, Kevin worked on putting a tarp over
the pole and securing that down, while I used the chainsaw to cut up a bunch of
firewood. In the middle of this, Danielle came charging back in to camp, out of
breath, looking like she just saw a ghost, “You’re never going to believe
this!” We asked her what happened and she explained that the hunters’ side by
side caught on fire! She went on to explain that it was no longer in the meadow
swamp, it was on its side, halfway up the steep climb to the top of the ridge,
smoking, and down to bare/burnt metal. We couldn’t believe what we were
hearing!
We finished up in camp and got ready to head over to the
other hunters. We knew they had to be exhausted, distraught, and completely
over the hunt. Kevin grabbed some beers to share hoping it may bring a little
pick-me-up to the guys. As we slowly walked that direction, we could see a
plume of black smoke coming from the slope off the ridge. We were actually
surprised we couldn’t see it from Kevin’s moose kill site, which was probably a
good thing since it would have interrupted our field dressing.
Arriving at the descending trail down the ridge, we were in
shock. At the top of the ridge was an ATV, with an enclosed meat wagon behind
it, presumably with the meat inside it. On top of the wagon was the moose head,
skin on still, but the right side of the head was completely charred and still
smoking. Halfway down the sloped trail, and to the side a bit laid the remains
of the side by side. It was completely toast. The only thing left was the thick
steel frame and chuncks of the motor… no tires, no parts, no thin metal, just
steel spitting out dark black smoke. Around the steel frame was scorched earth.
Luckily, this slope was mostly sand and dirt with very little brush, but the
brush that was near, had no chance. You could even see where drippings from
melted rubber and metal flowed down the slope, slowly burning, leaving scorched
trails.
A few feet below the side by side were Rocky and the
youngest hunter, looking absolutely defeated. Our hearts went out to them
knowing what they have been through, and currently awake likely for more than
30 hours at this point. Kevin dropped down to hand them beers, and we asked the
question on all our minds… what happened?
They explained that the older guy was taken back by Rocky’s
cabin to get some sleep and warm up. Rocky then grabbed a larger ATV, a meat
wagon, and some equipment to aid with getting the side by side unstuck. Rocky
then made his way back to the stuck side by side around noon. They were able to
get the side by side unstuck and navigate the mud holes without needing to
remove the meat. They got to the bottom of the steep hill up the ridge and the ATV
ascended first, in case the side by side needed to be winched up. As the side
by side hammered down to get up the hill, it struggled a bit due to the soft
dirt and heavy load. About halfway up, the front tires started to bounce and
come off the ground due to incline and all the weight in the rear of the
machine. One of the bounces resulted in the machine turning slightly to the
left. Subsequent bounces occurred with it still turning, and without the front
tires touching the ground to correct the turn, the eventual left facing side by
side tipped downhill, onto its side. Apparently, when this happened, either oil
or fuel started leaking and a fire instantly started.
A couple lucky things instantly became apparent. Rocky was
not wearing his harness/belt. This allowed him to tuck and roll quickly without
catching fire or getting burnt. Rocky recently purchased a latching system for
all accessories, which failed miserably. All accessories came unhinged and
rolled down the hill (speaker, storage containers, bags, etc.). The meat was
not covered or secured in the bed, so it fell out and rolled as well. Both
Rocky and the younger guy quickly worked to grab the meat and drag it as far
down the hill as possible, away from the flames.
Once the fire started, there was nothing they could do. The fire
engulfed everything instantly; they could only watch and make sure it didn’t
cause a forest fire (something that happens often in this part of Alaska). Any
time plants caught fire, they were quick to toss sand on it and put it out. The
scariest part of watching the fire was when the bullets started igniting/ firing.
Apparently, a box of shotgun shells and rifle bullets didn’t tumble out and
fired randomly as the machine burned. Luckily, they didn’t hit anyone!
Initially, Rocky called the Alaska State Troopers and
Department of Forestry to see if there is anything specific, they wanted the hunters
to do. Both told them to make sure it doesn’t get out of control, and to remove
the remains once it stopped burning. Luckily Rocky had insurance on the machine
too… that call would happen later. The insurance company would likely be tasked
with retrieving the charred side by side. I’m guessing the only way they will
be able to get it out is going to be by helicopter.
Once the fire appeared under control and dimming down a bit,
the meat was transported to the meat wagon. The hunters did not need the second
meat pole we setup for them since they had the meat secured in the meat wagon
attached to the ATV at the top of the ridge. We couldn’t help but think the
meat might be ruined after all that happened… the moose was shot at 8PM, they
likely got to the meat by 10PM (a long time to sit before opening the moose up),
had it cleaned by 1AM with it in their side by side, it would have been piled
on each other in the back of the side by side (no air flow or way for heat to
escape the thick parts of the meat), then the sun came out in the morning with
the meat uncovered and them being stuck without shade until noon, the meat was
uncovered as they rode the ATV trail after getting unstuck, every meat bag fell
in the soft dirt/sand during the tumble with unknown heat/charring from the
fire and was subsequently drug down the hill to sit exposed there while the
side by side burned, it was fully exposed to the weather (sun and rain) since
sunrise, then the meat was placed in the covered meat wagon without any way for
a breeze to touch the quarters while it sat enclosed under the sun, all before
the 1+ hour ATV ride back to their cabin where hopefully it was hung quickly
before they passed out for a long sleep and recovery prior to getting enough
energy to start to try and salvage meat.
The hunters were appreciative of us stopping by. We asked if
there was anything we could help with, but at this point, the only thing left
was to watch the burned pile until the smoke thinned out, which was likely in a
few more minutes. Regardless, we didn’t want to delay their progress toward getting
back to the cabin, so we wished them luck on the final leg of the dramatic
hunt, and headed back to our campsite.
It was still midday and moose didn’t really move until 6 to
7ish at night. We were tired from waking up early that morning after a long and
late night the day prior and cleaning a moose earlier. After collecting more
fire wood and putting it in a dry place, the hunters drove through camp on
their way back to their camper. We then lazily lounged around camp. Kevin
sprawled out on his ATV and took a nap. Danielle sat with her back against a
tree trunk basking in the sun as I laid down next to her on the ground and quickly
fell asleep too.
We weren’t in too big of a hurry to hunt the evening moose
movement. We had 8 more days to hunt and my tag allowed me the ability to shoot
any moose with antlers. This was essentially a guaranteed kill waiting to
happen; there was no need to hunt hard that night. Still, our campsite was
tucked in the trees and we couldn’t see anything going on in the meadow, so we
were always curious what was out there. We also needed to call before dark to
make sure any bulls near-by would hear the call and hopefully wonder over
during the night or the morning. As a result, we decided to warm up an early
dinner, and then spend the rest of the night glassing off the ridge. I didn’t
have any desire to shoot another moose or put a lot of effort into further hunting
since we already did a bunch that day, so I didn’t even take my rifle with me
to the ridge.
It was getting cold so we bundled up and all walked over to
the ridge east of camp. It was a peaceful evening full of food, relaxed from
our ad-hoc naps, and content from the meat hanging in camp. We sat down above
the former side by side, which was still slightly smoking, and began searching the
meadow. We saw a few cows from our spot, but no bulls. After about 20 minutes,
Danielle spotted a descent bull a mile or so away directly west of us, crossing
the meadow toward the spot Kevin shot his bull from. As the bull cleared the
brush and was halfway to ridge, I decided to see if I could turn him toward us
with some cow calls. I bellowed out two loud cow yelps and the bull stopped in
his tracks. He looked in our direction, trying to listen again for the sexy cow
he just heard. That’s when I hit him with a long cow moan. He immediately turned
90 degrees and made B-line toward us. Danielle was thrilled; she now got to
experience the calling and reaction from bulls.
He had a bit of ground to cover before he got to us. We were
on top of the ridge, and he was in the meadow. We figured he would walk the
base of the ridge the entire way to us, likely not knowing exactly where the
call was coming from. There was a hug patch of trees from where our campsite
was on the ridge, extending all the way down the slope from the ridge and
stopping at the meadow. We would lose direct site of him once he got behind
those trees. That eventually happened, but it didn’t matter because we could
here him grunting, letting us know he was coming in hot!
All three of us then had a discussion, what do we do with
this bull? My heart wasn’t set on shooting him, knowing it would be a super
long night, but Danielle kept reminding us of the intent of the hunt… to put
meat in the freezer. She rightly mentioned that tomorrow is never guaranteed and
every chance should be capitalized on to put meat in the freezer. I agreed and
was now stuck in the situation of needing my rifle. Luckily, the bull was
unable to see us, so I left Danielle and Kevin to run back to camp and retrieve
my rifle and shooting sticks.
I came back on the ridge and heard the bull grunts very
clearly. He was almost past the obstruction of the trees, still along the base
of the ridge. I kept trying to sneak back to Kevin and Danielle, but the trees
were too patchy at that point. I only made it about halfway from camp to where
they were before I was too exposed to move any further for fear of being
spotted by the bull. He stopped at the edge of the trees, looking all over the
ridge above trying to find the cow. Bulls typically know exactly where the
calls are coming from, so I knew I wouldn’t have to make another call to tell
him a cow was there, but it was likely possible I would have to toss a bull
call or different cow call at him if he didn’t budge for fear of being exposed
himself. Luckily, I didn’t have to do anything, as he lowered his head, snorted,
and continued his waddled walk along the base of the ridge while grunting every
five seconds.
This was the most ideal shooting setting. He was on a path
to walk directly below and in front of me, completely broadside, at about 150
yards in absolutely perfect weather, about 100 yards off the ATV trail. I got
my shooting sticks setup when his head was down, positioned my rifle, aimed at
a spot I expected him to walk. This spot was immediately prior to a big swampy
area, which we did not want him to fall in. As he got closer, I got more
excited that this picture-perfect hunt was going to happen. When he got to the
spot I was expecting him to go, I noticed there was more brush and bushes in
the way than I wanted, and I didn’t have a clear shot. He stopped for a brief
moment in this obstructive spot, but as soon as he took another step into a
clearing, I let a bullet fly. I drilled him hard (later to discover it went
through both lungs and heart). He was stunned initially, then dropped.
I collected my stuff and walked the rest of the way over to
Kevin and Danielle. They were watching the whole thing with great anticipation.
They had no idea where I was, or if I was even going to shoot. They thought I
let it walk since it got so close and still hadn’t shot yet. Danielle was so
psyched getting to experience what she thought she missed out on that morning.
We talked about feeling bad for bull moose during hunting season since they
often think they are going to get lucky, only to end up being extremely unlucky.
We walked back to camp to gather everything we needed to
clean another moose, including plenty of lights and beers. We all jumped on our
ATVs and made our way toward the moose. The last 50 yards to the moose were
down in the swampy meadow. Kevin walked a safe path while I rode behind him
until I got to the bull. He then went back to get his ATV and followed the
downed grass I left behind. Danielle decided to not risk getting stuck, so she
just parked her ATV and walked over.
While I was waiting for Kevin and Danielle, I admired the
bull whose life I just took. He was easily the biggest bodied moose I have ever
shot, but his rack was nothing to brag about. Like I do with every animal I
harvest, I kneeled next to him and thanked him for giving his life. I then
prayed to God, thankful for the successful hunt.
Danielle and Kevin caught up with me and we prepped the area
for pictures. After snapping a bunch, we got everything ready for a long night
of cutting in the dark, marking specific areas to place items and hanging lanterns.
It looked like it was going to be a dry and cold night. We put on our bloody/
sweaty items we used earlier and got to work. As soon as the sun dropped, it
got fairly cold. Frost started to form on everything as we hurried to get the
moose cut up.
A few hours later and the moose was done being cleaned. We
loaded the meat in my meat wagon and made our way out of the meadow. It took us
a little while to find the same path we took in, but we eventually made it back
to the ATV trail without getting stuck. This put us directly at the bottom of
the slope up to the ridge. Danielle hammered down and made it up easy. She then
turned around and faced her headlights down the slope knowing I would likely
have difficulty climbing the incline. I then went as hard and as far as I could
up the slope, but only made it two thirds of the way up before I stalled. I
locked my breaks and Danielle came running down with the winch, hooking up to
my machine. She then threw her machine in reverse while I gave it gas going up…
and I popped right up the rest of the way, my savior! Kevin had no problem climbing
the slope since his machine is a monster.
We got back to camp and were thankful the second meat pole
was already hung. Kevin and I focused on hanging the meat while Danielle started
working on a huge fire. We were all done with our post hunt needs a little
before midnight, so we gathered around the fire and cracked open some more celebration
drinks. As we were reminiscing on the day, enjoying each other’s company, and
taking in the heat of the fire, the northern lights decided to join the party.
They started out faint in the distance, but ended up really giving us a show
that night. We took pictures and sat in awe as we were surrounded by the
beauty. I was in disbelief with the events that took place that day, and this
story book ending.
I’m not sure how, but we stayed up until close to 2AM on
that exhausting but exciting day. Needless to say, we crashed pretty hard that
night, especially being warm from our nifty propane stove 😊
DAY 3
We slept in the next morning since we had no real plans. We
were in no hurry to get home with 7 more days left to hunt. The plan was to focus
on finding some grouse and hares to take home too. We saw plenty the previous
two days and shot many during prior hunts, and now we had a full day to target
them. The thing that really got our hearts pumping that morning was hearing
bull grunts north of camp. The area it was coming from was thick with tall brush
and downed trees from past fires. In fact, we now knew why a plane we saw the day
prior was circling north of camp… it was likely keeping tally of a large bull. Could
this be a monster grunting at us behind camp? We tried calling back and
climbing trees to get a glimpse of it, but nothing we did could enticed it to
show itself. He was smart, which made us think it was likely a large bull and
the same one the plane was circling the day prior.
After destroying some delicious English muffin breakfast sandwiches
Kevin brought, we made our way to the ridge east of camp to take a gander over
the meadow and look for grouse in the brush. We didn’t see any moose, but we
did see a handful of grouse initially. These morning grouse were really spooky
though and flew before you could get within shooting range.
We couldn’t find anything hiding in the bushes or trees
around camp, which usually produces some easy kills. Instead, we decided to jump
on the ATVs in search of some small game and to explore new areas we haven’t
been.
Danielle and I rode together. We forgot how bad the
overgrowth was and got the heck whipped out of us. We stumbled across a few grouse
along the typical ride, most of which flew or we missed shooting at ☹.
Along one side trail, we rode past a patch of trees, and when we passed a grouse
that was hunkered down in the grass, he spooked and flew into a tree (we would
have never known he was there if he didn’t fly like they typically do). We
stopped the ATVs and three more grouse flew up into the trees above the grass.
Both Kevin and Danielle had 22LR rifles, so they both got off and coordinated
an attack. They each had a bird in their sights, and on 3, they each shot and dropped
their grouse. They then shifted focus to the other two, which they quickly
found and repeated the process, putting 4 birds on the ground. It took us
longer to find the birds then it did to shoot them.
Shortly after we shot the birds, we stumbled across a medium
sized bull, eating close to the trail. He didn’t care much about us, and if
someone had another any bull tag, he would have been an easy kill. We continued
to take a handful of side routes, with a secondary goal of trying to locate
Rocky’s cabin. We couldn’t find the cabin and eventually decided it was getting
too late and needed to head back for dinner soon.
I hung up the grouse and we warmed up some dinner. After
downing that, we decided to continue our tradition of heading out east of camp
to sit and watch the meadow as the sun drops from the sky. We got to our normal
glassing spot and immediately saw a handful of cows in the same area the group
of three hunters shot their bull two nights prior, about two miles away. Interestingly,
there wasn’t a bull with them, and they eventually wondered off deeper into the
fields away from us.
About 30 minutes later, a bull appeared dropping in from the
ridge east of us, down to the place the cows were previously walking through. I’m
not sure if he smelled them or what, but he was headed in the same direction.
We wanted to see if we could get him to come to us so we cow called, but he
didn’t change course at all. This got me thinking… we were a couple miles away
and the tall brush he was walking in was likely loud and rubbing against him. So
I waited until he stopped for a short break, and hit him with a couple yelps. He
turned and faced us immediately, clearly hearing the call this time. He stared
for a while, deciding what to do, but after I belted out a long cow moan, he
couldn’t resist and started walking directly toward us.
Over the course of the next 30 minutes, he made his way
toward us slowly, disappearing and reappearing from the overgrown brush. About
a mile away, he came to the edge of the brush, where it was completely open
from there to the ridge we were on. He stalled, hesitant to expose himself in
the open. A couple more calls tossed his way, and his mind was made up to find
out what beautiful babe was calling him in.
We had two moose already, but Danielle had a moose tag as
well, with a legal animal being the same as Kevin’s, 50” or 3 brow tines on one
side. We didn’t need a third moose, but came prepared in case we shot a small
one or two. The two hanging were not small though. At this point, Kevin wanted
to use this opportunity to judge the width of the rack. He has a system setup
in his rifle scope where he can calculate the width of anything based on the
mil dots and measured distance. After many calculations at different distances,
the rack wasn’t bigger than 47”. The width of the rack didn’t matter though,
this bull was legal with 3 brow tines. With a tag in our pocket, and a legal
bull in front of us, Kevin was itching to add this bull to our meat pile. You
could tell it was eating him up internally. He has a big heart and wanted to
shoot it for donating to a friend, but logistically, it would have been a nightmare
we weren’t prepared for. Kevin was forced to practice restraint and let a legal
animal walk in his presence without dying.
As the moose got closer, we could here ATVs behind us,
coming from the trail into camp. Not wanting the moose to get shot by some
opportunistic hunter after we called it in, I stood up to show myself and tried
to spook it off. Although I was clearly visible, waiving like a fool, and the
bull staring directly at us, he didn’t move an inch from his spot about 500
yards away from us. He had his heart set on love and was confused what we were
doing in his path.
No matter what we did at this point, that bull wouldn’t
budge; he looked like a statue. Luckily, what we thought was ATVs turned out to
not be hunters. The sound disappeared. It could have been ATVs that turned
around, an odd sounding plane, or just our imagination.
We decided to leave the new moose statue where he was and
return to camp for the night. It was another nice night so we started a fire
and happily sat around it. Although we already had dinner, I had ramen noodles
for using with fresh grouse, and I wanted to know what it would taste like, so
I decided to clean a bird and cook us a fourth meal. The grouse ramen was
delicious and the warm soup cut through the bite of the cold and dark night.
It may have been the Ramen, but Danielle’s body decided it
was time for a late-night poop. She made her way into the woods to relieve herself,
but what she didn’t realize was that the depth of picked spot may have been sufficiently
far enough during the day to prevent seeing her, but at night with a headlight,
it was very easy to see her relieving herself. Of course, we didn’t watch, but
this left Kevin a great opportunity to know exactly where she was and where she
was going, to setup an epic payback scare. As Danielle finished and came walking
back from the spooky woods, Kevin jumped out from behind the ATV and scared another
poop out of Danielle. Good thing we were done moose hunting because her scream
would have scared any moose away within miles.
The auroras didn’t come out that night, but we also didn’t
stay up as late as the night prior. The plan was to pack up and head home after
we woke up the next day. Although we didn’t need to leave, the meat would be
better off getting out of the field sooner rather than later. We learned from
past hunts we couldn’t sleep in too late as it would result in getting home
very late, so we set our alarms for sunrise and went to bed.
DAY 4
It was going to be another beautiful day. We woke ready to start
our long journey home and the work that came with getting there. We split up jobs
as we tore down camp. Kevin was given the heavy load of carrying out both moose
in his meat wagon while Danielle and I brought out the rest of camp. It’s tough
to imagine everything fitting, especially since we seemed full riding in, but bungees
and multiple straps make cramming things a bit easier.
We had to stop a few times on the way out to adjust tire
pressures, move bungees, tighten straps and shoot grouse, but overall, we had
no issues getting back to Whitestone. We turned back onto the trail we came out
on and headed into the commune. As we were getting close to a turnoff that led further
into the community, we noticed a new “No Trespassing” sign was posted. On the
corner, a truck was sat idling with a couple gentlemen in it. We went to turn
down that road and the truck honked, waived its finger, and indicated we go
straight. Since they didn’t want us going the way we came in, this made me think
we were the reason the new signs were posted and were directed to go a
different way.
We went straight on a different road through Whitestone. I
pulled out my phone to figure out how to navigate this new path. The maps
showed the road we were on circling the outside edge of the community. We
eventually found our way back to the boat dock road used to enter the community.
We didn’t run in to any people on this route, which made me think we took the incorrect
path in initially.
We parked our ATVs at the spot we offloaded everything on
the first day of the hunt. Danielle and I went to retrieve the boat. I’m always
worried it will be messed with while parked at the commune, but so far, it has not
been touched, which is a big relief when we get back from being deep in the
woods.
The first priority for getting back to the trucks was the
meat. We couldn’t push the meat wagon on to the boat full of moose meat due to
it being too heavy; so we had to lay a tarp down inside the boat, then offload
all bags onto the tarp, and cover it with another tarp. We also had to bring
the bunk cots with since that’s what we put the meat on for the truck ride home.
Kevin and I took the boat full of meat while Danielle stayed
with the rest of the gear. She knew it would take us a long time to come back
and see her as we had to unload all of it and get it ready for the long trip
home.
We parked the boat on the shore of the boat launch, and I
pulled my truck up as close to the boat as I could. I setup the bunk cot in the
back of the truck and we slowly shuttled my moose meat into the truck. These
cots we use are amazing. Not only do they work as collapsible, efficient, and
comfortable means of sleeping in the tent, they work amazing for transporting
meat. They are webbed and allow the placement of an entire, bone-in moose on
the top and bottom bunks, that fits inside the truck topper, keeping the meat
off the ground and allowing air circulation around the meat while driving long distances.
After my moose was loaded, Kevin pulled up his truck as close
as possible and setup his bunk cot. We loaded his truck with moose meat too,
then parked the vehicles out of the way. It would take us about 3 hours to ferry
everything back and forth between Whitestone and the parking lot, but it occurred
without any issues or mechanical trouble (always a huge bonus).
It was about 4PM when we hit the road for home. We had to
stop in Glen Allen for Tok Thai, as this is an absolute must for us any time we
pass this place. We got home close to 11PM. It was dumping rain there, and
apparently it rained the entire time we were gone.
I dropped off Danielle and drove over to help Kevin unload
his meat and gear. After getting everything hung, I left him to head back and
take care of our meat. Danielle already had the garage cleared out and ready
for the meat poles and tables to be setup. We unloaded the meat together and
got it all hung and laid out. We setup the fans to get air circulating and keep
it as cool as possible overnight, and cracked the bottom of the garage door.
Once that was done, we took a couple quick showers and went to bed.
DAY 5
We were pretty lazy the next day, hanging out with the kids
and Nana. The meat didn’t need processed right away so I opted to spend most of
the day cleaning all gear and unpacking. The plan was to hit meat processing
hard the following day after we relaxed a bit.
It was warmer and more humid out than I wanted, so it was
important the meat was taken care of the next day; it couldn’t hang for much
longer. That night, I wanted to crack the garage door again to help keep the meat
cool, however, the night before, the neighbor dog Lilly was able to reach under
and pull out a bloody game bag to chew on. It was a difficult decision, but I
didn’t want to risk the dog getting in the garage again, so I had to close it overnight
(which made it even warmer in there). This was a lucky decision because
overnight, a large black bear wreaked havoc in the neighborhood, getting in
people’s trash and feasting on anything he could find.
DAY 6 AND BEYOND
The moose took a couple days to completely put away. It was
a good thing Nana was there to keep the kids preoccupied while Danielle and I
focused on processing. We ended up with a few hundred pounds of meat, which
will feed us for a couple years before we need to shoot another moose in 2024.
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