And…we are off!

[Hunting Wife]

We are on a weather delay for the wind. It’s not likely but we might get one group out yet tonight, but hopefully first thing in the morning we will all get out.

We visited some WWII sites.
View attachment 345828

View attachment 345830
And we saw some free range Kodiak horses.
View attachment 345831

This made me chuckle. Pretty sure I did the exact same tour when we were stuck in Kodiak for 2 days trying to get out to our hunt. According to the signs, there was a big brownie somewhere on the tour as well

 

[Johnny Bravo]

The kids get on the bus at 7:15 central time so I try to FaceTime them at 4:15 AK time when we are in town before they get on the bus.

My brother is an Ak resident. My dad drew the only Nr brown bear tag for the area we are in. We each have deer a deer tag and shotguns for ducks and ptarmigan. Crab pots and fishing poles are somewhere in that mess as well.

It’s going to take 2 flights on a beaver with 1200lbs of payload to get all of our crap out there. Yesterday was a sunny beautiful day but the area we are going to is open to the northwest. The wind was blowing at 30 knots straight down the length of our bay so it was a nice day except the wind direction was bad for us. A lot of other hunters got into the field. Bear season opens tomorrow so we are hopeful we will get out today. The forecast today is drizzle, light winds out of the east and 2 miles of visibility. We are supposed to meet at the float dock at 8:30, sunrise is at 9:10 this morning.

View attachment 345919

Did you really have to bring your own outboard? wth....lol

 

[gonhunting247]

Oh man, this looks like it's gonna be fun. I've been up twice this year and still wish I could go again ! Good luck, sounds like a blast.

 

[Gellar]

Did you really have to bring your own outboard? wth....lol

The bay we will be on is 15 miles long and 2/3 of a mile wide at the head and over a mile wide at the mouth. Plus the bear tag is good for parts of 2 other bays. Packrafts are cool, but zodiacs are cooler.

Watching other people load their gear, everyone who was going DIY to the salt had a raft and motor. We debated if we should take 2.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

The kids get on the bus at 7:15 central time so I try to FaceTime them at 4:15 AK time when we are in town before they get on the bus.

My brother is an Ak resident. My dad drew the only Nr brown bear tag for the area we are in. We each have deer a deer tag and shotguns for ducks and ptarmigan. Crab pots and fishing poles are somewhere in that mess as well.

It’s going to take 2 flights on a beaver with 1200lbs of payload to get all of our crap out there. Yesterday was a sunny beautiful day but the area we are going to is open to the northwest. The wind was blowing at 30 knots straight down the length of our bay so it was a nice day except the wind direction was bad for us. A lot of other hunters got into the field. Bear season opens tomorrow so we are hopeful we will get out today. The forecast today is drizzle, light winds out of the east and 2 miles of visibility. We are supposed to meet at the float dock at 8:30, sunrise is at 9:10 this morning.

View attachment 345919

Holy shite. I hate packing for a simple elk or muley hunt.. Cant imagine planning for all of that!

 

[Gellar]

This made me chuckle. Pretty sure I did the exact same tour when we were stuck in Kodiak for 2 days trying to get out to our hunt. According to the signs, there was a big brownie somewhere on the tour as well

The sign on the motel door makes me wonder if we should even leave the comforts of the hotel.

 

[Gellar]

1st flight got out around 8:45. As soon as the flight is back we will fly to.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

The bay we will be on is 15 miles long and 2/3 of a mile wide at the head and over a mile wide at the mouth. Plus the bear tag is good for parts of 2 other bays. Packrafts are cool, but zodiacs are cooler.

Watching other people load their gear, everyone who was going DIY to the salt had a raft and motor. We debated if we should take 2.

I get that, I just thought you would be able to rent something and not bring your own. Seemed odd to me I guess...lol

 

[duckhunt]

I'm thinking we should have some updates soon.

 

[Nick87]

I'm thinking we should have some updates soon.

I know killing me.

 

[Irrelevant]

hopefully the bears didn't get him!

 

[Gellar]

Made it out a day late! We messaged the flight service on Thursday saying if they could pick us up early on Saturday we’d be ok because the weather was looking like crap for our scheduled departure on Sunday. Saturday, the ceiling was at 250 feet most of the day with a sw wind coming over the mountain. That meant no flight out Saturday. Sunday, the winds had increased to 40 mph sustained and 4-6 foot waves on the salt. No way they were getting us out. As the sun came up this morning the roar of a beaver was heard and we moved all our gear to the beach. As the beaver departed a 185, our second plane, touched down. We were all back in Kodiak shortly. Our pilot said if they hadn’t gotten us today we probably would have been stuck until Friday. A new storm was moving in tonight with seas up to about 10 feet and 50 mph sustained winds. Now I’m in Anc waiting to fly home!

 

[Gellar]

Yesterday we had a rental car and a room at the best western but got those cancelled when we knew we were not going to be back in time. Today the lady we rented the car from graciously let us use her showers at her house, let us use her truck to run errands and gave us a ride to the airport. We were rushed since we got back to Kodiak around 10 and we were to fly out at 3:30. My brother thought I needed to look the part so he gave me a bag to use for a carry on. All of our checked baggage was overweight, but the Alaska air people were wonderful, as always, and let them slide.

 

[Gellar]

Day one: we got dropped off at our Usfws public use cabin and began to get situated. We spotted deer immediately from the cabin. Hopes were high.


After we got situated we went for a little boat ride. We spotted a pod of Orcas close.
I spotted a deer 100 yards or so on shore so we got out to have a look about. As we were on shore we look out across the bay and spot 4 deer swimming the width of the bay, according to Onx the closest opposite shore to where they landed was 1.03 miles.

 

[Gellar]

Day 2 was opening day of bear season, October 25. It was rainy, foggy and windy with a high of 40 degrees. I hiked 2.3 miles and gained 2211 feet of elevation. It doesn’t sound like much, but every step was a fight. There was was always alders, devils club, or grass grabbing at you and slowing you down. These 2.3 miles felt like 7 or 8 normal miles. We saw around 20 deer, no bucks and no bears.

Day 3. More of the same from day 2 but this time it was clear and colder. When the sun is out you see a lot of deer. The mountains that had been socked in the day before were now covered in snow. Still no bears.

 

[Caseknife]

Beautiful country, could just sit on the hillside watching everything and not try to kill anything.

 

[Gellar]

Day 4: we all headed out in the boat down the bay. It was a cold morning and we had frost on the boat. We got about 3 miles from the cabin and saw a fox and a deer on the beach. A small spike and beautiful red fox.

Sunrise isn’t until 9:10 so we aren’t exactly getting an early start to our day.

We saw more orcas

Around noon a transporter boat motored to the head of the bay and dropped anchor about 250 yards out in front of our cabin.

 

[Gellar]

We got checked by the AK state troopers that afternoon. All was up to snuff. They came into the bay in a skiff. Being 65 miles from Kodiak we were curious as to where they came and the logistics. They, 2 troopers, were staying on a parent ship. A 60’ vessel with a captain and crew. They launched every day and checked the bays in the area for hunters. The vessel would move to a new area each day while they were out.
The troopers warned us of impending weather, which we had been aware of from the inreach weather report. By 11:30 that night the wind was howling and the waves crashing. The trsnsporter was having trouble keeping anchor and he moved several times constantly shining his spotlight to know where he was at. When the sun came up the waves were 4-6 feet and no one was able to go anywhere.