Denali Highway weekend trip

Hey everyone! Last weekend, Adam and I took a trip to the Denali Highway for a backpacking, camping, moose scouting, bear hunting, rack hunting trip. It was AWESOME! We took Tundra and his best friend, Chena too! (we were dog-sitting!) It was Tundra's first tent camping experience and he loved it! It takes about 3.5 hours to get to the highway and then we drove in another hour or so to the start of our hike. The highway is actually gravel and a gorgeous drive! Adam worked on Friday, so we left around 6, which meant we started our hike in at midnight. We went 2 miles in and laid down to sleep at 2:30a.m. Nope, no flashlights-- remember it is light enough in Alaska right now that we were able to see well!

We saw quite a few porcupines, but they waddle pretty fast and we didn't get a good picture. Some of them had almost yellow butts---the color of their quills I guess.

Gorgeous view of tundra, lake, and mountains

Adam's cute butt filtering water for us to drink. It was yummmmy! Didn't have that "funk" that water has in the boundary waters in Minnesota/Canada.

Can you see all the little black specks in the sky? No- my camera wasn't dirty. Those are Alaska's legendary mosquitoes! They were really bad in this particular area. Not so bad at our campsite...... even though they bit through two layers of clothes and now my shoulders/arms look like I have chicken pox!

This is a beaver's palace! We were quite impressed. This beaver(s) has been busy, busy, busy for several years! We were also down next to the water's edge. From both view points, we could count 9 individual dams, some of them so old they are growing vegetation. This beaver chopped down trees with its teeth and then engineered a multi-level palace w/ a lodge as tall or taller than me. Truly amazing! :)

Here it is swimming a branch w/ leaves into it's lodge/den. There were at least 2 beavers that we saw, maybe some babies inside! :)

Like I said...we were on the hunt for racks. This area is highly populated w/ moose- we actually glassed (spotting scope and binoculars) for them and saw 7 or so on the mountains in front of us. There was poop, tracks, and tufts of hair everywhere! So-- where better to look for fallen racks?!?! We found 2 caribou and 3 moose racks. Nothing too big or spectacular but pretty cool anyway! Here I am w/ the first find-- caribou.

The pups and I sitting out of the rain.... pretty cool set-up, thanks to Adam!

Tundra w/ his day's work. Adam has been training him to find racks. We spotted all of these and then "where's the rack?" sends him off looking for them. He found them on his own each time and was super excited. Next step-- training him to signal us when he finds one on his own! He's got the nose for it!

Tundra swans flying over our camp.

Our packs loaded up and ready to hike out

Tundra was ready to go home!!!

This ridge we are driving on is called an "esker" and has to do w/ glaciers. A pamphlet we have said it was formed from two glaciers meeting. However, online it defines it as having to do w/ streams under a melting glacier. ?!?!

One of the two light colored moose we saw---interesting!

Can you spot the light moose?!?! It's in the middle of this picture. Sticks out quite a bit, I don't understand how it hasn't been eaten yet!

What's a weekend in Alaska w/o some fishing!?!?! Stopped at a stream along the way to try for Greyling.

TUCKERED puppies! They had a blast!

So...no bear- only some grizzly tracks! We also flushed out some Ptarmigan... we could tell they were close from how fast Chena's tail wagged and how "smell-crazy" she got-- she is a bird dog! We would hear them in the distance and her ears would perk right up! Adam def. found a spot to hunt for moose in the fall-- perhaps I will be able to take a day or two off and go w/ him! We also have racks in our flower/rock garden now. It was a fun and successful weekend!

Next up.... stories/pictures from King Salmon fishing in our new boat!

***Side notes.... while I was editing this entry-- we had the biggest earthquake I've felt yet. The dogs went nutso and when it was over, I realized I was sweating. I am quite surprised nothing fell off the walls! The plants shook for about a minute afterward. Jeanette looked it up and it was a level 5 on the Kenai Peninsula. It also said Alaska has had 7 over a level 2.5 just TODAY! kinda eery!

**Also- I was hiking w/ the dogs yesterday across the river (not far from our house) and heard several gun shots that sounded close. The dogs and I booked it outta there, as there is no hunting in that area and I didn't want to run into a pist off bear who'd been shot. Adam heard the shots from our house! Anyway... it was a tad frightening, even if I was carrying our 44. And by the way... I would only need to take 1 shot! ;) --Who knows what happened......

*Adam saw a black bear about a quarter mile from our house on his drive home the other day!

Iowa Trip and Black Bear Hunting!

Hello everyone! We were fortunate enough to see some of you during our trip back to Iowa, if we missed ya this time, we'll be back in December again! The weekend after our trip, we took our first Alaskan hunt together (Adam has been out numerous times w/o me--during the school year). ......we went for black bear and it was successful!!! :)

**A Section of this blog post was moved to the end**

Now for the Iowa trip

My brother, niece, Adam and Gunner out hunting black birds and starlings---the pests of mom's bird feeders. My niece proved to be a great shot!

Adam and his faithful hunting partner

This is Ariel....my horse's philly from 8 years ago. We sold her and got her back after Gibby passed unexpectantly. She acts JUST like Gibby and has the same body build. :) Pretty fun!

Catfishing w/ daddio at the creek..... not even a bite- the creek was too high from rain.

My brother and his family raise chickens, both egg layers and meat. We got to eat some fresh chicken and brought some back to Alaska too! :)

My brother trying to teach Adam how to rope.....I believe "I'm too tall and my arms are too long" were his excuses! ;)

My college roomie, Jenny, Adam and I going for a ride. This was my first time on Ariel-- I was impressed and happy! :)

EEEEKKKKK What is that bear doing w/ the gun?!?!? Adam and my brother, Brandon, being silly!!

Had an awesome time w/ the Kucera and Harris families--- fish fry, volleyball, and a fire. Couldn't have asked for better weather or more fun! We fried the spoonbill and bass that we snagged and caught in Ottumwa the first weekend. Oh- and halibut cheeks.... yes, the cheeks of a halibut--- suppose to be the best part of the fish. and....it's.... TRUE! Halibut is awesome but the cheeks tasted like crab! :)

Adam and Teddy going for a walk.... trying to get our niece to want to ride in the backpack-- it worked! I think Teddy was sad to get out though!

And what is a trip back to the midwest without fishing for monsters?


My brother with a MASSIVE fish on the line. He played it for about 45 minutes only for it snag him into a brush pile. He actually fought this guy through a hail storm, not even joking!!


The days catch (at least the fish we were trying to catch). They tasted pretty good at the fish fry too! I actually had two of these spoonbills at one point (both bigger than all three of these combined), but they both ended up breaking my line in the current :(
My 10lb catfish!
My 22lb big head carp

This is Adam's personal best bass. It is a wiper/striper hybrid and weighed over 12 pounds! He is probably going to get a replica mount of the fish.

Me and Jeanette showing the guys how to snag.

I was trying to find a baby bunny to catch all week. Well I finally got one and it calmed down enough to let Emma pet it. She was scared at first but then couldn't leave it alone.

So.... I will hopefully be posting lots more pics onto facebook soon. ....hopefully! I'm pretty far behind!

AND now for the bear hunting trip!

We hunted at a cabin near Talkeetna. The cabin, outhouse, and SAUNA were hand built by one of Adam's co-workers and her husband. Absoultely amazing place! We went out for a fun weekend trip with them, so they could show us around and give us the run-down of the cabin. 3 weeks later, Adam, Tundra, and I went out for our bear hunt.

Loading up!

Family pic! 3 weeks ago, there wasn't anything green and still snow on the ground!

The paw/claws of Adam's bear!!!

Adam's first black bear! :) :) :)

I'm so proud of him!

It measured 75" squared (this measurement is calculated by adding the front paw distance plus the nose to tail distance and dividing by 2) with a skull size just shy of 17". Meaning a bigger than average bear for the area.

So, when we arrived at the cabin on Friday, 3 of the 4 corners of the house had fresh bear claw marks (new since we were there 3 weeks ago) and the bear had torn down some of the plastic sheeting from their wood shed. So we were like......oooooooooookay..........game oooooooooon! :) That day we hiked up the mountain in search of a clear, flat area to spot some bears in. After 3 hours of hiking and only half way up the mountain... we hand't seen anything. All we found were alders, devil's club, and little green worms that fell out of some tree/bush and were all over our shoulders! The flat areas (as shown by our GPS) were thick with vegetation and no good for finding bears in.

So then we decided to check out a field we spotted from the train that wasn't far from the cabin. Might as well, right?!?! Well holy moly we ran into a bear right away, I don't know who was more surprised, the bear or us! So we sat and watched awhile. Saw three bears total, a mama and her 2nd year cub plus another that I watched cross the train tracks and had an excellent shot at but had to pass to see if there were any cubs with it. NO cubs, but I wasn't sure on the size and didn't have a good shot after that. We were surprised to see another bear wonder into the same field- since there was a sow and cub on the other side. Adam was positioned at the other end and explains the situation in a video below. Keep in mind, from my position--- I saw the bear walk across the tracks and into the field about an hour after we got there.

The second day we headed out and WAAABOOOOOOM there was a nice blackie walking along the train tracks, right towards us! Again, we had to watch it for cubs and size it up. After deciding it was a go and getting into position--Adam didn't have a good shot and it disappeared into thick brush. We tried to stalk this one for awhile and barely saw it only once more before it disappeared again. So we went back to the magical field, not far away. This time, I sat at the far end, thinking the bear we had seen earlier might emerge in range of me. Adam went to the other end of the field. After about an hour and a half-- BANG, I heard his shot. I grabbed the pack and moved as quickly/quietly as I could to him. He kissed his bullet case and said "Got him!" with the biggest smile ever. We waited a little while to make sure the bullet did it's job and it was safe for us to approach. Sure enough-- a shot through the heart! It was an older female and definitely w/o cubs from the condition of her nipples....whew! Adam watched it for an hour to be sure no cubs were following but it was a relief to see the extra evidence! Adam had gone to a class on bear hunting and did A LOT of research online which meant he did a superb job of gutting, skinning, and quartering the bear. I was impressed! :) It took the rest of the day to take care of the meat and hide. We went out again that night for my chance and didn't see anything.

The 3rd day, we went out again that morning in hopes I would have something line up for me. Nada-- but we watched a little bull moose for awhile!

We feel very fortunate to have such a great first bear hunt, heck- we thought we were gonna end up with 2 by the way things were going! After all of Adam's research and asking of advice, it truly paid off! However, after the bear was down was when the hard part began. We (mostly he) have spent hours on the hide and meat. We are getting a rug made!!!! And like I said, we harvested the meat and are excited to try it. Tundra was an excellent guard dog over the weekend-- he ran out of the cabin barking once, we're pretty sure he chased off a bear as he had the same bark when he smelled my hands and saw/smelled the hide. He went NUTSO, especially when either of us would get close to it. It will be interesting to see how he reacts when it is hanging on our wall in a couple months!




turn up your volume... he couldn't talk loud for fear of giving his position away.

(more videos to be added soon)

** These were moved to the end of the blog entry by Adam... who keeps telling Danielle that not everyone is as obsessed with the dog as she is!**

But first--- a few Tundra pics! ;) Just for Adam and Daddio

Tundra loves my classroom pet frog, Kelso. He can be entertained for quite awhile. The smart pup figured out how to knock the top off with his nose though.....eeeeek! AND I swear that frog taunts Tundra--it's pretty funny!


Tundra and his other retriever friend, Porter. Porter is a week younger than Tundra. Quite the difference in color 'eh? They get along pretty well!




These two do NOT get along---this is the first time I caught them laying next to each other and probably the last time!

Tundra Tricks part 2

So here is the second video of Tundra's tricks, a couple new ones. The newest one is the "play dead"- so it is not perfected yet. He is 6 1/2 months! Last time we weighed him a couple weeks ago, he was 55lbs!

Last weekend, Adam, Tundra, and I went to one of Adam's co-worker's cabins near Talkeetna. You take the train out to it. It is literally in the middle of nowhere, except for the occasional train. They built the cabin, outhouse, and sauna by themselves. I was seriously impressed and amazed--- it was a beautiful piece of land and a very nice cabin. Tundra played with their 2 year old black lab all weekend. They did a lot of swimming in the Big Susitna River... Tundra is a cheater and would wait for Murphy to get to shore with the stick and then steal it from him to bring back to the thrower! We were positive we would see wildlife, as they have many precautions in place for bears and porcupines at their cabin. (actual claw marks and rubs from the bears and chew marks from the porcupines) Unfortunately... we only saw arctic swans and an eagle nest. We had a great time, it totally felt surreal as we were living in "luxury" in the middle of nowhere!

Last day of school tomorrow--- yippee!!

We will be flying out for Iowa tomorrow... double yippee!! We will be snaggin some spoonbill asap! :)

Speaking of spoonbill... we invited our neighbors over to try spoonbill one night (from Adam's Missouri trip) And he told us numerous stories about moose and bears in our neighborhood. We knew of the cow who gave birth in our next door neighbor's yard and of the occasional bear. But he was telling us about two griz twins who were harrassing the neighborhood and killing the baby moose. Also of a griz that had to be shot up the street from our house. A black bear after his bird feeders. A griz scratching it's back on his truck.... All kinds of crazy things-- so now I am watching out the window even more often and considering taking the gun to the mailbox! We also have the binocs and spotting scope set in front of the window to glass the mountain when we have a chance. What a thrill eh?!?

Winter is finally over!!

The two things that mark the end of winter is not the melting of the snow or the slightly warmer temperatures or the dates... it's mosquito's and the awakening of the bears! There is still plenty of snow in the mountain areas and temperature has yet to breach 60. With that said, it has gotten warm enough for both the mosquitoes and bear to wake up.

With the awakening of the bears comes good bear hunting opportunities. The brown bears are the first up waking up early to mid April. The black bears soon follow during early May and up until June depending on where they were hibernating. The meat and hides of spring bear are fresh and sought after by many.

The last weekend of April a guy in the pharmacy asked me if I wanted to tag along on a hunt in Prince William Sound (a series of bays off the Gulf of Alaska). We only went out for 2 days and 1 night, but it was a good time. The other two guys that went were very interesting and fairly unorthodox in their hunting strategy. I won't go into detail about them but I would have much rather expereinced this trip with some closer friends... good thing my pharmacy buddy was there. One of the guys flew up from the states and spent a fortune on the possibility of getting a bear. Well, he wasn't disappointed, but he did drop one of the smallest bears I have seen in a while. Enjoy!!

First fish of the season... a flounder

Not sure what this fish is called, some kind of cod

Porpoise!!

Rock bass

An eagle fishing

Our portable motel and fishing/ killing transport

Black bear down!

First picture with the trophy

SHRIMP!!! We didn't catch many, but it was interesting learning about potting these guys (and they tasted AMAZING)

A zebra... no, a starfish silly

An unknown fish... Wilbur has never caught one of these before

Either he just got goosed or he is confused on what the heck is on his line

Rock fish

Biggest fish of the weekend

Our scenery

This is a long video, but it show you how we shrimp. It takes so long to bring the rope up because it is 600 ft deep!



What happens once you catch the shrimp... minus the eating part.


We were headed to pick up our pots, but got distracted.


A rare group of sealions. We have no idea what they were doing.