Finally, ALASKA!

[kwyeewyk]

Ok, hunt day 3, back by the lake in the morning hoping the big guy would show again or another like him would come along, there was an obvious high traffic area crossing the river and around the lake. Tried a cow call and some raking, then not long after heard a distant cow call. Followed by what sounded like a bull more quietly. Coming from the direction the bull had gone the day before. Slowly work that way, the cow calling occasionally. Got to the edge of the river, too deep to cross. Sat a while until she called again and determined it was across the river. Looking at the map it appears to be just where the bull went.

We make a plan to float down to that spot and get across the river. By the time we get down there it's been a while since we've heard a call. As we got up off the river bank and sat for a bit we heard another cow call and zone in on the denser patch of trees slightly above us. After waiting a while I tried raking a tree lightly. A few minutes later we heard what sounded like a much more distant cow call, and thought we might have scared them off. A bit longer and we hear the call again just above us still. At this point we decide Derek will stay put and I'll circle back to the river and try to get around the other side where might be able to spot something.

As I got down to the river, found a caribou shed on the river bank, and noticed tracks much smaller than moose and decided they must be caribou.


I started glassing the hillside, suddenly my heart sunk, hunter, just as I locked on him he raised his binoculars and waved. I waved back and started my retreat. The look on my face tells it all in this pic Derek took as I returned with the disappointing news that we'd spent the day being snookered by another hunter. We had considered the possibility, but after seeing the bull the day before we were ready to bite.



We sat for a while and contemplated what to do, and decided to break camp and move down a few miles to another spot we had eyeballed. We discovered that we were able to effectively paddle upstream fairly well, so I guess the day wasn't completely wasted.

As we were floating down, we saw a camp along the river that must be where he'd come from, and a little ways further downstream we met him along the bank. He flagged us over and we stopped to talk. He asked if we were the ones he called in and we confirmed. Turns out he was from Texas and had been hunting the river since 1998. He gave us several tidbits of information regarding the outfitters and boats coming upstream, and asked where we were heading. Turns out we were going to his next planned stop, so he said they'd stay where they were a couple days before heading down there. We asked if he had seen the bull we saw assuming he might have spooked him or maybe called him in, but he hadn't seen this particular bull and it was a total coincidence that he set up to call right where it had gone. He also said he'd seen a few caribou.

We didn't quite make the next spot that night, so we decided to try out sleeping in the boats with a tarp handy if it started raining.

Woke up to a few sprinkles and then a nice light show.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Hunt day 4 checked out the area near where we camped first thing in the morning. Our new approach was to leave Derek closer to the river near another lake while I would cover a little more ground and try to find a little elevation to glass.

Found another shed, and some really nice lichen that was on the most firm ground I'd walked on since getting off the plane. I was learning that for the most part, lichen was the best thing to try to walk on. Lichen>moss>tussocks. Still lots of moose sign sporadically but nothing obvious to focus on, so that afternoon we continued down to our next planned stop.









As we neared the spot we noticed a camp that appeared to be Tex, so we assumed they decided not to wait to come down river and we decided to leave the area to them and keep going to our next spot, after a brief look around. Found wolf tracks and more caribou tracks along the bank of a tributary, old moose spin, extra large moose track.







The boat camp worked so well the night before we decided to do it again. The light show started early and went strong all night. We decided the best way to enjoy them is to just constantly stare and try not to miss anything because they're constantly changing and when you try to take pictures you usually don't get the picture you want and just miss the best parts.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Hunt day 5, time to cover some ground, there's elevation to be had and I was hoping to find some quality glassing. Covered about 8 miles, noticeably less sign here, but not none. Never could find any great glassing though, a few areas around some lakes where you could glass shoreline but no good open expenses. The doubt really started to set in. We'd been a little shy of trying to call aftertheother hunters called us in, but feeling pretty unsure about locating moose near or far from the river in general. Found another caribou shed.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Next morning we decided we'd move down river further. There was a stretch of mountains the river cut through and there was noticeably less sign at every stop as we moved through this stretch. As we were breaking camp I spotted a moose in the river upstream. We scrambled to get a look through the rain, turned out to be a big cow, she came up out of the river, hung around on the bank for about 20 seconds and disappeared into the trees. Well at least we wouldn't only see 1 moose on the float! Managed to get an accidental video of her, crappy shot, too much rain on the lenses.



We went upslope a ways and tried to spot her through the trees. Even though there was more terrain here the trees were thick and difficult to hunt. We watched a while hoping a bull would follow her, and contemplated staying, but decided we'd be better off trying to get back into more moosey ground that was more huntable.

We picked a spot to camp along the way where we might glass in the morning, and with ample rain in the forecast we decided to stake our tarp out with trekking poles and brave the rain in the boats as a bit of a test. The boats (Aplacka Foragers) are pretty nice to sleep in, built in pad and you don't go anywhere so slightly sloped ground doesn't matter. @Derek44 will have to post pics of the tarped out boat house when he gets a chance.

 

[kwyeewyk]

The rain lived up to the forecast and came with some wind, the first real substantial wind we'd had, and day 7 broke in a dreary. The tarp worked pretty good, but between condensation, humidity and general wetness of everything, the soggyness was setting in. We slept in, then broke camp and headed down river to get out of the mountains. Along the way we found a big stack of wood cut and split in an abandoned camp, so we helped ourselves to half of it. Got past the mountains to the next area up. Set up the Seek tent and stove and got that baby cooking. It was like a good sweat lodge in there, felt great, would have been a real shitty rest of the trip without the hot tent, ol' Wllm can suck it! Got everything dried out and feeling good about the area.