AK moose recap

[blueridge]

No teasers here. Came home with no meat but a lot of good memories. If you want to follow along …

My son and I drew a couple moose tags in an antler-restricted unit south of Fairbanks. My brother-in-law lives outside of Anchorage and came with his menagerie of resident tag options.

We used Copper Valley Air to fly us back to an airstrip that used to be used for some old mining claims just below some glaciers at the headwaters of a river.

Day 1: flew in, set up camp, and explored the area. Found some fresh moose tracks near a small lake, and fresh bear sign. Beautiful spot. Optimistic.

 

[blueridge]

Day 2: Rained all night. Awoke to heavy fog and drizzle. Cleared up for about an hour, then rained the rest of the day and next night.

 

[blueridge]

Day 3: Rain finally stopped! Hallelujah. Dense fog until mid-morning, then cleared up. Blue sky, warm, beautiful.

At lunch a couple guys from a camp a few miles south came up the trail on their atv’s. They saw us fly in and came to say hello. They said they have hunted there for 30 years and have killed about 20 bulls (most back before it became an antler restricted unit). This year they had only seen a cow on trail camera and came up mainly bc they were getting bored to death. One lives on Kodiak. Super nice guys. We were surprised to see them bc the 25 mile trail to get up that far was real bad from all the rain this year and the river being so high, but they came in on a deuce and a half. Said when they crossed the river the water still came over the hood.

That afternoon my brother-in-law (from now on BIL) and I hunted along the river; he went north, I went south. I glassed a big black bear feeding across the river on a hillside a couple miles away. I went to find my BIL to show him when I see him walking quickly backwards around a point, turning around every couple steps with his gun raised, the fear of god in his eyes. As soon as he sees me he says, “Get ready! She’s coming!” We stood shoulder to shoulder, guns raised, I still didn’t know what for. Nothing came. He said he was just around the corner and saw a big brown bear walking down the opposite bank. He was just about to shoot when he saw movement behind her. It was a big sow with two 2yr old cubs. He put his safety back on, and that’s when she sees him and all three stand up for a better look. She charges across the river at him full speed and he puts it in reverse. That was right before I saw him. I bet as soon as she got across the river and downwind she smelled what he was and went back across to take her cubs on off.

We go back to my spot and, in addition to the black bear I had seen, see his grizz and cubs now feeding along another hillside. The river is too high to cross to go after the black bear, you can hear the sound of rocks rolling and crashing together underwater, so we spend the afternoon watching them eating blueberries like they’re angry at them, one cub just laying on his stomach eating, playing, taking a nap. It was fun.

Back at camp that evening my son said he saw a cow moose up at the lake.

Animals in the area! Just need them on our side of the river, without cubs, or with 4 brow tines/50”. Still optimistic!

 

[blueridge]

Day 4: Overcast morning. Called and glassed as best we could. Then it started raining. Then it started sleeting. This is getting old.

The boys saw fresh moose tracks by the lake, some from a bull.

I ran into a porcupine down at the river. He wasn’t too pleased with my company and wouldn’t come back out for pictures. I got a few souvenirs.

 

[blueridge]

Day 5: Clear morning. I hiked to a new drainage with a small lake. No sign. Then I saw storm clouds rolling in across the mountains so I started heading back to camp.

Then it rained, and rained, and rained, and the wind howled and whipped, without stop or let up, for the next 17 hours! Stuck in the tent. Sleeping, reading, laughing, peeing in bottles, being bored to death.

 

[blueridge]

By the way, Garmin Premium Weather is as worthless as a turd at a fish fry (just made that up, but where is a turd of any use?). It kept saying clear when it was raining cats and dogs, and the future forecast was never close to accurate. Can someone explain how the forecast can be a chance of heavy rain and the chance of rain be 0%?!? Maybe I just don’t understand the icons. But more than likely the mountains and glaciers up there just make modeling impossible. The wind was always changing. The wind would be coming from the south on the river and from the north 100yds over on the trail. Anyway, worthless.

 

[blueridge]

Day 6: Clear morning!!!

And we saw a few moose! A bull crosses in front of me at 100yds. Not legal. Later found out that 30 minutes earlier my son had called this one into 20 yards, which was super exciting for him. 3 brow tines on one side, 2 on the other. Maybe 40”.

Light drizzle at noon. I glass two back bears feeding across the river 2 miles away. One looks like a great bear. It looks like a silverback gorilla. Never seen that before. I am seriously considering stripping down and trying to cross. My BIL says I am crazy. He’s right. We walk down the river but just can’t find a good place to cross. It’s just too deep and flowing too fast. I pout for a bit.

We hear an engine and see a piper cub flying to land so we head back towards the airstrip to check it out. The transporters divy up drop points to keep from putting hunters on top of one another, but maybe it’s someone coming in on their private plane??

Ends up being an old guy on his way over from Tok stopping for a quick poop break. Lol! Great guy. Gifted us some coffee. Eventually he says, “Well, I had better get going before the weather hits.” !!! What?! Sure enough: there’s a rain storm coming through the pass to the north.

We’re starting to get a little discouraged. Not seeing any legal moose. Bears are either across the river or with cubs. The weather is shit. If Garmin weather is accurate (big if), in two days the weather will get cold with 100% chance of rain the last three days of the hunt. And then no telling when it would be decent enough for them to get in to get us. We decide to inReach the transporter to see if they could pick us up the following evening. They reply back yes and ask us to give them an update on the weather the following morning.

It clears up the last couple hours of daylight. We don’t see anything that evening, but the stars are out and we finally have the opportunity to use the firewood that we have had drying under a tarp all week. We burn it all and enjoy our first and only campfire of the trip. It was lovely.

 

[Bambistew]

By the way, Garmin Premium Weather is as worthless as a turd at a fish fry (just made that up, but where is a turd of any use?). It kept saying clear when it was raining cats and dogs, and the future forecast was never close to accurate. Can someone explain how the forecast can be a chance of heavy rain and the chance of rain be 0%?!? Maybe I just don’t understand the icons. But more than likely the mountains and glaciers up there just make modeling impossible. The wind was always changing. The wind would be coming from the south on the river and from the north 100yds over on the trail. Anyway, worthless.

My experience with the weather app the last two years is that it has been incredibly accurate like down to the hour. Before that, it was not accurate at all, but local terrain influence can really mess with it. Weather prediction in Alaska is incredibly difficult in much of the state especially near the cost (100 miles). There are so many different influences that the forecasters (NWS) get it dead wrong 2-3 days out many times.

Great story so far!

 

[blueridge]

Day 7: Cold morning. My sleeping pad has developed a slow leak and the last two nights I have been awakened every couple hours to a cold hip or shoulder or butt and had to refill it.

Morning hunt was uneventful. More calling. More glassing. No animals. Overcast.

Mid-morning I give the transporter the weather update they had asked for. They said that if the weather was currently okay that they would prefer to get us sooner than later as it was supposed to turn, so we told them to come on. We packed up camp, and they were there in about an hour. But not before we went back down to the river to do a photo shoot recreating scenes from the grizz charge. Unfortunately, him cowering behind my legs in fear wasn’t one he was up for.

Easy flight out. Great pilot. He said there was one good bull taken on the other fork of the river that he knew about, but other than that it’s been unusually slow in the area for both moose and caribou. Didn’t know if the strange weather this year is playing into that, wolves (we never heard or saw any, but saw old scat with moose/bou hair), or what.

We had an easy but thematically appropriate wet drive back to Eagle River, and had a couple extra days to wash clothes, dry out gear, help my BIL with some home projects, shoot some at the range, and hang out.

 

[blueridge]

What worked, what didn’t:

Worked:

Lightweight Tarps!!! We had a 10x10 that we put off the front of the 6p tent. Was SO nice to have somewhere to hang out, eat, sort gear, etc., other than inside the tent. At night, when it was blowing sideways, we could put our boots and gear in the middle of this space and cover them with another small tarp. We also had yet another small tarp to put over firewood.

Good boots and gaiters! Well oiled Meindls and OR Croc gaiters kept my feet dry through all the stream crossing and grassy trail waking. Both my son and BIL had boots that leaked and it took 3 days just to get them kinda dry.

Collapsible large quantity water container with spout -great for minimizing trips to the river.

Lemonade packets - I find it really difficult to stay hydrated when it is wet and cold. Just a little extra flavor goes a long way.

Marmot puffy - I bought over 2k worth of puffy jackets this spring to try and compare (and send back the rest). The Marmot was the best I found. Not only glassing, but I kept the upper part of my sleeping bag unzipped and used it as a quilt.

Camp chair. This makes the list every year. 2lbs. No brainer. I had one. They didn’t. Any time I wasn’t sitting in it, one of them was.

Didn’t work:

Spotting scope. Wasn’t worth the weight or effort to set up. If it’s moose or bear sized, I could see everything within 2 miles with my 10s. If I needed more, I would probably go with 12 or maybe even 15 binos. Seemed unnecessary redundant to have both.

Entertainment. We were stuck in the tent for over half the trip bc of rain, sleet, and fog. Should have brought some cards or packable games.

Having a book (One Man’s Wilderness) where every other page he’s talking about sourdough pancakes and biscuits, blueberry syrup, goat stew, when I am stuck in a tent eating MH or PR. Next year I am bringing some pancake mix.

Platypus charcoal filter. I have the 2L gravity system and needed a new in-line filter. I bought a replacement last minute and didn’t notice until 3 days in the small writing that says this particular one doesn’t filter bacteria or viruses. The “clean” water was awfully silty! Lucky for us, we were pulling from the headwaters of the river and not the lake full of beavers a half mile over, or it could have been a terrible trip. Fortunately we had a steripen as backup and started that combo from then on.

Antler-restricted units: having the pressure of being able to recognize a 48” bull vs a 50” bull sucks. Especially when they are walking through an opening that is quickly closing.
From now on I will only put in for any bull units.

Uncrossable rivers: the river split the valley with mountains and hillsides on both sides. With no way to cross, we were limited to half the land. Super sucks when there is game within view just across. If I ever hunted here again, I would bring chest waders. On a year like this when the water is so high, I would bring a small raft. It absolutely killed me to watch that big black bear feed on that hillside both of those days. I like that in AK you can put your tag on any non-draw animal of equal or lesser monetary value. Towards the end of the hunt, when it was looking like there were no legal moose in the area, I would have jumped at this if I could have gotten across.

 

[Wyhunter]

Such beautiful country. I hope to experience it one day. Sounds like you guys had a great time.

Im with you on the 50" bulls. I could only imagine the stress of trying to figure out if they are 50" when they are closing in on you. I did a point restricted elk hunt and that was stressful enough.

 

[Bambistew]

Great writeup, thanks for sharing! I especially liked the what worked and didn't.

Moose populations are way down in a lot of areas, sorry you didn't tag out. I've always been curious how the hunting was in that general area and have eyed it for a long time. I've wanted to hunt bou there later in the season when they move through.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Gotta love AK.

 

[blueridge]

I've wanted to hunt bou there later in the season when they move through.

I couldn’t believe the number of rigs parked just off of the highway heading up into the public use area. Holy cow. My BIL says it’s like WWII when the caribou come through. Definitely a different kind of hunting, subsistence tags emphasizing meat over solitude. A fly in bou hunt is currently top on my list.

 

[BearFoot]

Beautiful country.

 

[seeth07]

View attachment 293626

This might be one of the best camp fire photos I've ever seen. Well done.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Really enjoyed reading your report, @blueridge. Looked like some spectacular country and good company to be frustrated and tested with.

 

[Steiny77]

Thanks for sharing.
I'd call this a successful hunt.

 

[blueridge]

This might be one of the best camp fire photos I've ever seen. Well done.

Did you notice the socks drying on the limbs off to the side?

 

[blueridge]

Thanks for sharing.
I'd call this a successful hunt.

I do as well. Great perspective.