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.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Day 8, I figure this is the last chance to try to hunt off the river, with only a few more days to hunt would need to be pretty close to the river to have time to get it out after today. There's a good string of lakes and wetlands between half mile and a mile and a half of the river, with a couple of ridges flanking, so I made my way towards the ridges hoping to get a good look at the lakes. Right away I started picking up subtle bear sign, vague tracks, an overturned rock here and there. I kept my eyes peeled and made some noise in the willow and alder thickets. The ground was better for hiking here, but it still took me longer to get to the ridge than expected because there was so much to look at around the lakes.

Found 4 spruce grouse, had seen a bunch of droppings so far but hadn't found any. Got out near the base of the ridge and found tons of ripe blueberries and cranberries. Spotted a willow ptarmigan, wished I had something for small game. Ended up flushing it and 6 others flew up too.






Started up the ridge and wasn't surprised to find confirmation of what I suspected, berry filled bear scat.



I sang the hey bear song as I worked up the ridge in the thicket patches, and found a few more piles and turned rocks. I made the ridgetop and sat down to finally do some glassing and cook a freeze dried meal for lunch. As I was cooking, noticed well established and numerous trails running along the stream that flowed from one end of the valley to the other. Then along one of the trails something brown. I wanted to believe it was a moose, but my gut was right, grizzly bear! About 1/2 mile down the other side of the valley I guessed.




Well, that's pretty cool, but I want to see a damn moose, for more than 30 seconds! I scan around some more and can't help but check the steep slopes on top of the opposite ridge. I'd searched some of the other mountains earlier in the trip hoping to see sheep, but hadn't found any. Sure enough, there's a lone dall sheep. Just as I try to take a picture it starts down-pouring.

 

[kwyeewyk]

I curse the rain, just finally get seeing some animals and rained out again. I try to watch the bear for a while but lose him in a draw, slowly working back towards me. After a while I decide to move downslope hoping the rain will let up. Slowly work down hoping for a break, and finally starts to let up. I saw enough moose sign below to know that if I could only glass long enough I'd turn something up, something other than another god damn yellow willow bush looking like antlers! I kept glassing, covering the area but focusing in on a few spots the most.







The top of the timber patch in the last picture keeps drawing my glass, and finally I spot something different, a new yellow bush, only whiter, and now it's moving! Sure enough, 2 moose, a bull chasing a cow. She goes into the brush, but he's still visible. Try to get a good look with binoculars but also try to get some photos. Wishing I had brought the spotter now, but what I'm seeing sure looks like a potentially legal bull.









I get a strange sense of fulfillment from spotting these moose and having a chance to look at him. After we saw the cow on day 6 I decided my goal at that point was to at least get a look at a bull for more than 30 seconds. Goal accomplished. Now my wheels started turning. I could get to him easily before dark, 4:30 now, could get a load out tonight and have 2 hunt days and 1 cushion day to get him to the river and floated out. Looking at Onx, about 2.5 miles back to the river from where he was. Further than I'd hoped. Bone in unit. Grizzly bear roaming the valley. Shit. I had to at least get a closer look. I could see a narrow spot in the wetland below that would hopefully make for a relatively easy crossing, then up along the edge of the timber, into the trees, climb the slope, slip out above him and decide if he's legal. I grab my pack and go for it.

The creek crossing is difficult and takes me a while to find a spot. Start up the slope and just as I get out of the willows, the breeze picks up at my back. Damn it, should have picked the other side. Can't really go that way now or my scent will cross them for sure. Try to hug the left side as far over as possible. Make it up into the trees and hope they didn't wind me. Can't find them. 5:30 now. Search for 2 more hours, hoping they'd show in the thick brush. Nothing. Consider trying to rake a tree, but still thinking they may be sitting just inside the thick trees, and instead hope to be back there first thing in the morning and glass them up again without revealing myself, assuming they hadn't winded me.

Head out about 7:30, got about and hour and a half to go 2.5 miles before dark. Luckily the hiking is relatively easy, get the snow baskets on the trekking poles and make some time back to camp. Along the way, start noticing dig sites from the bear. First a few, then soon large digs everywhere. I start singing hey bear and work out into the open more, away from the alder thickets near the dig sites.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Back at camp, starting contemplating the options. If I could get back there and find him and kill him before noon, might get 1 load out before dark. Then probably at least 2 more days of packing, probably 3. Could leapfrog meat closer to river and let Derek take it the rest of the way and start staging it along the river. If everything went perfectly might be able to get out only 1 day late, but probably 2. Having never dealt with a bone in AK/Yukon moose, I started to doubt the sanity of trying to kill one 2.5 miles off the river with a known bear roaming the valley. I've 3-tripped smaller bull elk that far, but was unsure of my ability in this case. I think the night before I would have gone for it, but at this point it didn't seem to be pencilling out to be a wise move. It was a hard decision because I knew it was mostly going to come down to luck finding one close to the river at this point with only 2 days left to hunt.

That day Derek had talked to Tex again as he was working his way down river. He said he'd hunted here about every other year since 1998 and had killed 6 bulls, about 50% success, all within about 1/2 mile of the river. He recommended not killing them off the river. In the end, Larry Bartlett's advice about killing a moose because you should, not because you could, won out. It was a tough decision, but decided not to go back for him and to try our luck on the river the next couple days.

As we worked downstream the number of camps increased significantly as the river became motorboat accessible. Saw at least 2 camps with meat hanging, but no more luck for us. It was a bittersweet ending, but I definitely felt satisfied with how the trip had gone overall.

We learned a ton, about float hunting, moose hunting, tundra walking, reading imagery and topography (the scale of the landscape and unknown actual ground conditions made escouting difficult, and 20 contours are a must), calling, and this particular river. We proved to ourselves we could do it, and gained a lot of confidence for both of us. Super impressed with @Derek44's progress since 2019 when we first hunted late season cows in WY in 20 below blizzards for his first big hunt. We've killed 8 elk between us since then, and I know when we go back to AK in 2026 at least one of us is getting a moose.

 

[BAKPAKR]

Thanks for sharing the story and photos of a great adventure!

 

[Sask hunter]

Looks like a good trip!

 

[Akcabin]

Looks like a great time out in bush Ak ! You enjoyed the opportunity to harvest a trophy moose. There's nothing wrong with that