Just Exploring

Lots going on here recently. We are now approaching that transition phase where it's too cold to do any summer stuff outside and it's too warm to do any winter stuff. I'm still trying to catch up on the list of things to do from all the guests this summer, but it was totally worth it. Danielle says I need to post about some things I have done recently, but the hunt application for 2013-2014 is where my heart is right now... so this post will be short.

Recent happenings:
- Hunting birds
- Stalking bears
- Exploring new grounds
- Rolled the 4-wheeler
- Caught some trout and steel head
- Finished mounting Danielle's moose rack
- Having a run of the worst / most compounded string of injuries at basketball (and that's saying a lot since I'm always hurt). Stress fracture in the foot, patellar tendonits, torn hip flexor, pulled glute, pulled other glute, broken rib, broken a second rib at a different time, aggrevated shoulder surgery site, torn pectoral, pulled other deltoid, gash to the shin, and other smaller issues. I hate to say it... getting old.



Danielle here....

Check out some photos from our explorations/adventures!

 

 This is the view of "our river", Eagle River, in the fall.

 Some nice black bear tracks on a beach at our river

 The following pictures are from a bear/bird hunting weekend.... which led to what I call, 

"The WORST hike of my life"

 Adam bringing the boat to where Tundra and I were waiting to be pick up- sunrise

We woke up before sunrise and hit the water with just a little light showing. Within 5 minutes of getting to where we stopped the boat, we had spotted two black bears--- way way up high on the mountain.  We picked out the one with the "easiest" stalk and asked, "would this hike be worth it? Even if we got to the top and it was gone?!?" We now have crazy Alaskan blood that runs through our veins, so we decided yes-- let's do it!

Up we went

It wasn't long before we got into the thick stuff.... AKA Alders and Devil's Club.  I despise both.  Alders are very difficult to move through= a maze of intertwined branches that trip you, grab your backpack and/or gun, and slap you in the face.  Devils club stands up to my chest and has nasty thorns on it.  I also found out I have a reaction to it as my thumb and wrist were swollen/itchy/burning where it had cut me.

 

We were joined by lovely "white sock" flies.  All of those little dots around Adam are White Socks!  They are more annoying than mosquitos- their "buzz" is ridiculous and their bite lasts longer than a mosquitoes. Plus they seem to know the worst time to bite your hand is when you are holding an alder branch with it and can't do anything to shoo it away. They also LOVE to fly in your mouth... weirdos.

I was trying to get some view shots-- I didn't post anymore on here because they all have these lil blurs== white socks!

 We made it to where we thought the bear was heading to.... and it was gone!  Besides the alders, devil's club, and white socks.... we also battled a steep climb that was extremely difficult because it had just rained.  We both had our share of falls-- somewhere between 15-20 falls each. 

 I was not a happy camper... or hunter.  I have never been so frustrated in the great outdoors!  I am not joking when I say tears of frustration!  I kept telling myself.... "You are lucky!  You are hiking up a mountain in Alaska, going after a bear, with your two best friends!  STOP being frustrated and be thankful!"  Let's just say it took a day to get past swollen/itchy/burning devil's club reaction.  A week for bruises of falling to go away. And a good two weeks for the white socks bites to go away.  BUT I am thankful and would probably do it again.......... probably.

 We slept in the back of the truck that night-- Adam found two cots online that fit PERFECTLY!  I LOVE camping because I get to cuddle with Tundy!

 Adam's brain at work-- our sweet set-up for the weekend!

 Adam's two best friends--- his dog and his boat.  (not the photographer...me!)

 best buds

 sheep galore!!!  Adam's goal for hunting next fall

 Some crazy fungus... a little colony!

 Pretty strange, yet cool!

 Well, we didn't get "skunked"--- went home with three grouse.  Get this... 3 grouse with 2 shotgun shells. !??!?! Get it?!?!  Grouse are dumb..... two of them lined up perfectly for me so I could take them both with one shot!  Yummy yummy.  Not to mention our bird dog who has crazy intuition since he hasn't been trained!

 Beautiful day!  Another lake we found while lookin for birds.

AND THEN WE CAME BACK TO THIS!  It was soooooo windy on the lake that the waves were flowing over the back of the boat and had flooded it! 

We created "wave blockers" out of storage lids and rope.  .... thankfully it worked!  while they blocked the waves, we used buckets and a hand-held pump w/ the bilge to get all of the water out.  It took a few attempts, but we did it!  WHEEEEEEEW that was a close call.


The next set of photos are from two different weekends in the same spot. Adam went down with Tundra one weekend to look for griz and birds.  I went with him the next weekend.  We again slept in the truck!

The start of the hike in--- destination is where the ridgeline on the right meets the valley

 Zoomed in----again, destination is where the ridgeline on the right meets the valley-- at the large, flat rock formation

 Tundra was SO excited to see, roll, and play in this patch of snow!

" C'mon-- what's taking you so long?!?!" says mountain dog Tundy

 This crevasse was crazy deep and just dropped off so suddenly..... made me loose my breath!

 Another crevasse

 The view from on top of the large, flat rock formation == our destination.  Looking back down the valley.

 A quick stop for a cheesy photo--- just enjoying the view of the beautiful waterfall!

No luck here-- griz or birds!  Ah-well, that's how it goes and it was still a lot of fun!


Next set of pics-- adventures at our river with our new neighbor and their dogs.

 Tundra met his match-- Eiko, the retired military bomb dog who spent some time in Afghanistan.  Neither of them give up at a tug match, I need to start timing them!  I swear they will tug for at least 5 minutes!

 JoAnn!  We have already had some fun and crazy adventures!

Sunset on OUR river!

A couple pics of our fur baby who just turned 3 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A baby porcupine toy from Gma and Gpa Harris.  Silly pup-- he was actually holding it in his paws!

 So Tundra loves going to the pet store because he gets to pick something out.  So for his birthday I of course took him in and we went up and down the aisles twice as he smelled things and "looked".  I tried to tempt him to get a couple different toys, but he didn't want them!  I even squeaked a couple.  Then finally.... he found a Kermit the Frog........and he refused to let it go as we walked through the store.  I put it up on the counter to pay for it and he stood on his hind legs and put his front paws on the counter, reaching for it!

SILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY Pup!

 A Saturday adventure out at Hatcher's Pass..... Erin/Shawn/Chena and I skiied up to the old mine.  And Ellie rode in her chariot with ski attachment!  It was a fun day and Tundra was of course overjoyed to play in the snow.

Adam found a new love... fishing in the river below freezing temperature. His fishing transportation

 Adam's Steelhead... he has now found a way to fish year round. The river's wont freeze and stealhead and trout can be caught through the entire winter.


That's all folks.  Happy Thanksgiving to ya'll!  Safe travels!

Herrrrrrrrrrrrrre Mooser Mooser! == Moose Hunt!

As you read from Adam's previous post (AKA "The BOOK") about caribou hunting-- we also drew a moose tag!  It was an -any bull- tag, which meant there were no restrictions on the size of the antlers.  (judging the width of a rack can be rather tricky!)  We were SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!  Adam spent hours and hours researching the area.  And we scouted the area with Jessi and Grant when they were up this past summer.  Also our buddy was knowledgeable on the area since his friends had drawn tags before and they had hunted the area.  So we felt pretty confident on bagging a moose, but ya never know! 


Out at the range-- making sure the good ol 30-06 was sighted in and ready!  Wonder how long some of these shells had been laying around.......

 Adam's turn at 200 yds

some time for silliness!

 and cuteness

 a starfish?!!?

 a beautiful rainbow in front of "our mountain"  This is off our front deck

 Now time for the hunt!!!.............

We drove up north on Friday after work and slept in our trucks to be ready to head out early Saturday morning.  (Our friend Kevin went with us!-- we were so lucky, he had Friday off so he went early to make sure we got our camp spot and set up the tent)  Oh-- can't forget the couple gin n tonics we had with the man who let us park on his lot!  :)   We got up early Saturday and rode in to our spot for scouting and checking things out before opening day on Sunday.

We rode the wheelers in approx 20ish miles.... much of it along and through a creek. It dumped snow on us on the way in.... pretty crazy and interesting riding conditions!

The meat wagon after the ride in to our camp site

 Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Sunrise opening morning of THE HUNT!!!!!!!!!  We were pretty much dancing around and giggling on this morning!  My heart was beating ridiculously fast!

 As daylight spread across the valley- we saw several moose- bulls and cows..  Adam and I moved in quick to check out one we thought might be "the one".  I was a shaky mess for the hike.  I kept talking myself through the trigger pull and my breathing while we hurried to the best ridge for a shot.  When we got to that ridge-- SURPRISE--- there was another massive bull bedded down.  The bull we had originally seen is the one to the right with velvet.  The one to the left was bedded down.  Well we quickly debated, checked them out with binocs and the range finder.  Adam said go for the velvet----- I wanted the one w/o velvet (they were pretty close in size, but my instinct was with the one on the left)  And THEN he stood a perfect broadside at 220yds while I did some breathing to calm the shakes for what seemed FOREVER! 

 Here I am breathing, breathing, breathing and using the fallen tree to steady the shot. 

 220yds-  7:30 a.m. of opening morning!  BAM- The shot felt REALLY good and I was confident he didn't suffer after taking 4 steps and laying down.  It does not feel good to take an animal's life, there is a lot of personal responsibility to make sure it is a perfect shot, so the animal does not suffer.  There is a flood of gratitude and appreciation.  It is a VERY emotional experience--tears and shaking from sorrow for the animal and excitement for a full freezer.     

 Other moose we saw the same morning.... these two ended up fighting each other-- what a show!

 Another set of bulls

 The bull-- 3X2 and 47 inches.  As Adam said, when we first approach the animal- we take
some time to thank it and reflect.  Then of course- we take photos.

 Our friend Kevin has a beast of a 4-wheeler and managed to make his own path to the moose pulling the meat wagon.  This was AMAZING and such an energy saver.  We were of course prepared to hike out the meat and rack-- hundreds of pounds, many miles, and hours!  But he was able to drive it out with Adam hiking the rack and I hiking the gear.  The meat wagon was so heavy that we had to wench (or winch) it up the hills! 

 Photo opp while the boys wenched up the last hill.

 I think I had finally stopped shaking at this point! :)

 Meat for the next two years!  Hanging in meat bags, sheltered from rain/snow, and treated with citric acid for bugs.   

 Since we had the moose hung and it was only Sunday, we had some extra time!  I picked blueberries while the boys glassed for bears and a legal, non-tag moose for Kevin.  Kevin saw a huge black bear chasing a cow and calf.  They saw other bulls, but nothing big enough for the requirements.

All packed up and ready for the ride out on Monday morning.

 One of my favorite places to ride-- so much fun and absolutely gorgeous!

 Through the creek!

 Boot Hill!

On our way in to the hunt=== dumping snow!

On our way out from the hunt==== meat and a rack!

This is my finger all bandaged up--- I took a slice off the top when cleaning the moose in the field.  It hurt and bled and bled and bled-- so I of course almost passed out.  The boys took care of me though!

 Uncovered.  A very minor slice, so thankful it wasn't worse!  Took off the nail and all!

 Tundy had a weekend sleepover w/ one of his many girls while we were gone!  Cuddles with Riley!

 So we got our own meat grinder this year.  This is our set up for processing the caribou.  We also processed the moose ourselves- it took FOOOOORRRRREVER!  Adam even took Tuesday off to work on it all day.  We had a couple nights of staying up past 1a.m.  But in the end, we knew where our meat had been and who had handled it.  We have well over 500lbs in the freezer.... make that freezerS because we had to buy a second to hold all our salmon, bear, caribou, halibut, and moose!  :) 

We worked very hard and are very proud of our fall hunts and meat processing.  We will hopefully be set for the next two years for red meat.  We have also been grouse hunting....more on that to come!  It feels really good to supply all our own meat.

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Unfortunately, we have received negative comments about hunting from some people, including family/friends and strangers.  This is what I have to say---before you try to bring down a hunter or fisherman for partaking in a way of life for them (yes it may just be a sport to some, but please don't generalize to everyone) think about where your food comes from.  Are you a vegetarian?  Well I respect your choice and will not doubt you.  But do you ask your family and friends about that beef, pork, chicken, or tuna and how it ended up on their plate?  I GUARANTEE it was not done so as humanly as ours was.  Not a vegetarian?  Then keep chewing that mouthful of chicken with all the chemicals, machinery, and whatever else it has on it from being processed, swallow... and then repeat your concern to me about hunting!
 *************That is all!***********
Oh-- and of course we still eat meat at restaurants and from stores from time to time.  It just makes us appreciate the meat in our freezer even more!

Thanks ya'll and PEACE