Alaska Black Bear - The plan has started
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
So this morning, I tell Photofin, "Since I am on a protein-restricted diet and cannot consume alcohol, I will get the food, you get whatever adult beverage you want."
Obviously, Photofin is a closet drinker. He drinks a closet of booze each day. Here is what he ordered.
Actually, this was stacked on the sidewalk next to the motel. We had a good laugh about it, when some guy tells us, "This is only a partial order, you should see how much is in a total order."
If you stay in Petersburg, I can vouch for the clean rooms and good beds at the Scandia House. And, they have a shuttle from the airport. Here is the link:
Scandia House
And it is right next to the some good home made cooking, and the only coffee joint in town.
Obviously, Photofin is a closet drinker. He drinks a closet of booze each day. Here is what he ordered.
Actually, this was stacked on the sidewalk next to the motel. We had a good laugh about it, when some guy tells us, "This is only a partial order, you should see how much is in a total order."
If you stay in Petersburg, I can vouch for the clean rooms and good beds at the Scandia House. And, they have a shuttle from the airport. Here is the link:
Scandia House
And it is right next to the some good home made cooking, and the only coffee joint in town.
elk_hunter
Active member
Good luck guys; can't wait to see more pics and get the play-by-play!
Are we getting a play by play? Did I miss something, did you get a satellite set up fin?
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Crickets chirping.........................coyote howls in the distance........................... echoing sounds of wind gently caressing the needles on the pine trees...................................................................................................... .....................................the far off sound of water gurgling in the creek................................................................................................................................................................:W:
Just got off the float plane. What a great time. Can I come back next week?
Gotta scrape off a few layers of grime, get a bite to eat, and will start composing the day-by-day story.
No satellite set-up. Do have my HP mini with me, and can now post from a cell connection.
Gotta scrape off a few layers of grime, get a bite to eat, and will start composing the day-by-day story.
No satellite set-up. Do have my HP mini with me, and can now post from a cell connection.
montanadogs
New member
can't wait to hear all about it.
Day 1 - Getting there
May 3rd. Time to get packed and ready for the trip in. Get a good cup of coffee, a doughnut, and pry Troy away from the TV. Not really, he is just charging batteries for the five different cameras that we were asked to bring on this adventure. Five different cameras mean three different types of batteries (and lots of them) and three different types of tapes/cards.
I had agree to allow this episode to be filmed a little differently than others. I had no idea that would require this level of gear, and this amount of filming by me. Restricted by weight, Troy would be the only camera guy, and to gather the many different clips we were looking for with this trip, it would be a lot of work for both of us, and he would have to do a lot of coaching for the many clips I was expected to get with the cameras I would be responsible for. Wonder who was going to do the hunting on this trip?
Stopped by the USFS office and tried to get as much info as possible. The cabin manager asked if we would be willing to change the fuel filter in the stove while we were there. Agreed, but I warned them of my limited - very limited - tool skills. They decided with proper instructions, I could manage. These guys were pretty pessimistic about the odds of finding many bears this early. Oh well, we are not easily deterred.
Met two Montana State Univ grads working at the USFS office. They were very helpful. They asked if we were going to hunt the road systems on the north end of the island - Nope, gonna live like seals and spend our time on the sea. They provided some great aerial photos of areas we wanted to investigate. They told us the bears would just now be coming to the beaches, as things were just now greening up. They gave us some drainages that might be worth checking out, as the bears would hibernate high, and then use these drainages as corridors to move toward the coast.
Headed over to G&F and talk to the biologist in charge of checking in the bears. She was in the process of checking in a bear at the time. A good bear, with a 6' hide, but almost a 19" skull. She explained that the skulls in SE AK seem to have skulls sizes disproportionate to body size. That is good.
This bear had been killed right here near Petersburg. I asked the guide if they were hunting near the coasts, or in the logging areas. He just smiled. Don't blame him. The biologist said a few bears had been checked in, but it was pretty early in the season.
We got down to Pacific Wing Air about 2:30 to get things organized. Didn't take too long to get loaded and down to the seaplane port. Our pilot would be Cole, or as some locals called him, "Cole Train." Regardless of what they call him, he is one hell of a good pilot and very knowledgeable of the area, and a very serious hunter, himself.
The flight in was very smooth, and maybe took forty minutes. He spent another fifteen minutes to fly us up and down the straits, giving us pointers of where the bears first come to the coast. It was very good to see the area from the air. Maps and Google Earth are good, but nothing beats an extra few minutes of flight time. As we lowered our altitude in preparation for landing, a small bear stood on the coast watching us. Ah, a good sign.
Cole touched down out from the cabin, where Gary was waiting with our skiff, 50# of salt, and 60 gallons of gas. Timing was great. We quickly unloaded and Cole was on his way, reminding us to be ready at high tide of 9:00 am on Sunday. Roger that.
Gary gave us the overview of all safety equipment and any quick pointers on his boat. Quickly, he was on his way, leaving Troy and me to start packing our gear the 300 yards from the trailhead to the cabin. Glad we had to come as light as we did.
It took a couple hours to pack our junk to the cabin and get organized. Since Alaska law prohibits hunting on the same day you fly, we decided to spend more time getting organized and preparing for the next day of hunting.
The cabin sits on an isthmus overlooking a very large tide flat. About 7:30 a bear grazed out from the west corner of the tide flats. He spent over an hour in front of us, before he decided to take a nap. While he was napping, two smaller bears came out on the south side of the flat. Wow, three bears without even leaving camp.
The water source is about 200 yards south of the cabin. Very thankful for having brought a Platypus filtration system with us. It works great and works very fast. I spent the majority of the evening filtering water for camp and our Camelbacks. Troy offered to cook - PB&J's coming right up.
We prepped the equipment for the morning and noted good places on the map. We would head north through Rocky Pass, using the high tide to our advantage. The area around the cabin would be our "Back pocket spot" in the event weather prevented us from traveling the coast.
Our ride - a 1958 DeHavilland Beaver
Troy gets the front seat. Claims he needed it for the benefit of taking pictures, but he was mostly protecting himself from his motion sickness problem.
The view off the porch of the first evening. Nothing but the sound of ducks and geese, and lots of them - thousands of them on this flat.
May 3rd. Time to get packed and ready for the trip in. Get a good cup of coffee, a doughnut, and pry Troy away from the TV. Not really, he is just charging batteries for the five different cameras that we were asked to bring on this adventure. Five different cameras mean three different types of batteries (and lots of them) and three different types of tapes/cards.
I had agree to allow this episode to be filmed a little differently than others. I had no idea that would require this level of gear, and this amount of filming by me. Restricted by weight, Troy would be the only camera guy, and to gather the many different clips we were looking for with this trip, it would be a lot of work for both of us, and he would have to do a lot of coaching for the many clips I was expected to get with the cameras I would be responsible for. Wonder who was going to do the hunting on this trip?
Stopped by the USFS office and tried to get as much info as possible. The cabin manager asked if we would be willing to change the fuel filter in the stove while we were there. Agreed, but I warned them of my limited - very limited - tool skills. They decided with proper instructions, I could manage. These guys were pretty pessimistic about the odds of finding many bears this early. Oh well, we are not easily deterred.
Met two Montana State Univ grads working at the USFS office. They were very helpful. They asked if we were going to hunt the road systems on the north end of the island - Nope, gonna live like seals and spend our time on the sea. They provided some great aerial photos of areas we wanted to investigate. They told us the bears would just now be coming to the beaches, as things were just now greening up. They gave us some drainages that might be worth checking out, as the bears would hibernate high, and then use these drainages as corridors to move toward the coast.
Headed over to G&F and talk to the biologist in charge of checking in the bears. She was in the process of checking in a bear at the time. A good bear, with a 6' hide, but almost a 19" skull. She explained that the skulls in SE AK seem to have skulls sizes disproportionate to body size. That is good.
This bear had been killed right here near Petersburg. I asked the guide if they were hunting near the coasts, or in the logging areas. He just smiled. Don't blame him. The biologist said a few bears had been checked in, but it was pretty early in the season.
We got down to Pacific Wing Air about 2:30 to get things organized. Didn't take too long to get loaded and down to the seaplane port. Our pilot would be Cole, or as some locals called him, "Cole Train." Regardless of what they call him, he is one hell of a good pilot and very knowledgeable of the area, and a very serious hunter, himself.
The flight in was very smooth, and maybe took forty minutes. He spent another fifteen minutes to fly us up and down the straits, giving us pointers of where the bears first come to the coast. It was very good to see the area from the air. Maps and Google Earth are good, but nothing beats an extra few minutes of flight time. As we lowered our altitude in preparation for landing, a small bear stood on the coast watching us. Ah, a good sign.
Cole touched down out from the cabin, where Gary was waiting with our skiff, 50# of salt, and 60 gallons of gas. Timing was great. We quickly unloaded and Cole was on his way, reminding us to be ready at high tide of 9:00 am on Sunday. Roger that.
Gary gave us the overview of all safety equipment and any quick pointers on his boat. Quickly, he was on his way, leaving Troy and me to start packing our gear the 300 yards from the trailhead to the cabin. Glad we had to come as light as we did.
It took a couple hours to pack our junk to the cabin and get organized. Since Alaska law prohibits hunting on the same day you fly, we decided to spend more time getting organized and preparing for the next day of hunting.
The cabin sits on an isthmus overlooking a very large tide flat. About 7:30 a bear grazed out from the west corner of the tide flats. He spent over an hour in front of us, before he decided to take a nap. While he was napping, two smaller bears came out on the south side of the flat. Wow, three bears without even leaving camp.
The water source is about 200 yards south of the cabin. Very thankful for having brought a Platypus filtration system with us. It works great and works very fast. I spent the majority of the evening filtering water for camp and our Camelbacks. Troy offered to cook - PB&J's coming right up.
We prepped the equipment for the morning and noted good places on the map. We would head north through Rocky Pass, using the high tide to our advantage. The area around the cabin would be our "Back pocket spot" in the event weather prevented us from traveling the coast.
Our ride - a 1958 DeHavilland Beaver
Troy gets the front seat. Claims he needed it for the benefit of taking pictures, but he was mostly protecting himself from his motion sickness problem.
The view off the porch of the first evening. Nothing but the sound of ducks and geese, and lots of them - thousands of them on this flat.
Day 2 - Time to start hunting
May 4th - Up and out the door by 5:00 am. Raining, and we already have lost a half hour of hunting time. Oh well, everyone says the morning is not the best bear hunting time, so not to worry.
We jumped in the skiff, rounded the point and were pelted by rain and strong wind. The channel markers were very visible, and given the huge reefs outside the marked channel, and the whirlpools of the outgoing tides, it was apparent why there were so many warnings about navigating this channel.
We have about six miles to travel north, and get there just in time for the weather to clear. This is SE AK, it is supposed to rain all day, every day, not just for an hour in the morning. Oh well, I will gladly take the sunshine.
As we bob around in the channel, I glass to the west and spot a nice bear on the beach. He is standing on a narrow strip of beach grass. The coast line is guarded by a very rocky reef, making it very hard to find a way to get anywhere near this bear. I look at the nautical charts and see their exists a small gap in the reef where we might be able to get through and if need be, wait out the tides until it fills later in the day, giving us enough water to get back out to the channel.
Troy gives me the "thumbs up." After all, we have an extra prop, a shear pin, and a wrench to replace it if we lose one on the rocks. I head toward the gap. As we get within about 100 yards of the reef, we are now about 600 yards from the bear. The wind is not favorable from here, but upon getting over the rocks, I will go hard west, taking us more down wind, and hiding behind a small point of rocks for our stalk.
As I am checking the chart and carefully navigating, Troy turns and tells me the bear took the three steps necessary to get back into the forest. Not sure what spooked him. May have been us, but we were still pretty far off. He may have just decided it was time to head in for the morning nap.
Oh well, so far, finding bears is not the problem, so no need to continue risking the sanctity of our vessel. I retreat out to the deeper channel.
Now what? Troy has been salivating upon hearing of the steelhead run up Irish Creek. We are only a mile from the mouth of the creek as morning takes hold, so we head over that way as close as we can get, without tearing up the boat.
I am not too hep on trout fishing, but given the loads of gear Troy has brought with for steelhead fishing, I am easily talked into the idea of a low-tide crossing of a small spit separating this island from the mainland where we can then go upstream the two miles to where Cole flew us over the fish ladder on Irish Creek. This looked like a pretty long hike to me, but Troy thought it would be a short stroll. Given how much gear he was carrying, he obviously didn't plan on a long hike.
We beach the boat and head toward the small gap, in hopes that we can cross at low tide. I am not convinced this is a good idea. Troy assures me we will be back here before the incoming tide gets any further up than what it is where we cross now, as the tide is going out. We plan on having five hours to chase steelhead.
What looks like a short jaunt from the air, or a quick hike on a map, becomes some serious travel. The ground is flat, but the tide flats are a sinking mess. As we get further away from the coast, the river becomes a real river, and not a tide flat. Traversing up the river is challenging, but interesting. We are in a walled corridor or old growth Sitka Spruce and some sort of Red Cedar. Moss grows on everything and the ferns are emerging and thankfully the Devil's Clubs are not yet in their mid-summer thickness.
It takes an hour and a half to get to the fish ladder. We have yet to observe a fish. Troy assures me they are here.
He rigs up some sort of mess that resembles a Muskie plug that I would troll in my home waters of Northern Minnesota. The rod, if you want to call it that, could serve as a pole vault. And he gives me a salt water fly reel that looks like it could be home to gerbil treadmill. He expects me to cast this thing among all these over hanging limbs. If I do hook something, I am pretty sure I can just heave it out of the water like those tuna fisherman of old.
I thrash the water until my arm is tired. The methodic rhythm has me almost asleep when a big silver flash emerges from the deep tanic acid stained waters. My heart quickens as I imagine fighting this big steelhead in a rapid pool the size of my garage. Excitement overtakes me and I set the hook too soon. Damn it, as much as I complained about this fishing expedition, I really wanted to hook that thing.
I sit on the bank as Troy walks around me to fish immediately above me at the base of the fish ladder. He is quickly shouting to get the cameras rolling. His rod is bent and I see line going out quickly. He starts pulling hard and quickly there is splashing in the back eddy at his feet. Whether he is kicking his boot in the water, or actually has a fish, I cannot verify from below, but his excitement exceeds anything in my two years of filming with him. I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
The fishing continues for an hour more when I remind Troy that tides will not wait for him to finally land a steelhead. Grudgingly, he agrees that it would not be good to spend the night separated from our boat.
We head back toward the island where we have beached the boat. It now returns to normal SE AK weather and is raining very hard. Within an hour we are back to the crossing of this tide gap. We have misread the tides to our benefit, and the gap is almost dry, making crossing to the island a non-issue. Glad we misread things to our benefit.
Upon reaching the boat, we see that it is way out on the tide flat. Do we heave and pull to get it off the flat, or wait for two hours in the rain, while the tide comes back in? Unanimous vote is to take cover from the rain and let the tides do the heavy lifting for us.
We are now loaded and moving back away from the rocky flats and back towards the channel. Knowing that we still have a lot of daylight, we move further north from the cabin. In the rain, we find another bear feeding on a small grass spot on the west shore.
With a SW wind, we move NE of the bear and beach the boat in one deep little pocket. A few short minutes and we will cover the 300 yards where the bear was feeding, just around the point. We sneak as close as we can, identifying the big dead tree that marked the location of the bear's last spot. The favorable wind has us within 100 yards.
We look - nothing. He cannot be far off. We wait downwind. Still nothing. We move slightly away from the beach, hidden by rocks and keep our eye on the shoreline. Quiet. We wait for a half hour in the soaking rain, yet no sign of the bear. Where the bear went, I have no idea. He must have moved off as we motored around the point to beach the boat.
With time growing late and the dicey nature of the narrows, we decided to head back in the rain. No sense in wearing ourselves out the first day. We will get the stove going in the cabin, dry out any clothes, cook a warm dinner, and give it hell in the morning.
An hour later and we are at the cabin. We glass the big flats near the cabin, but see nothing. Time to change the fuel filter and get the fire going.
The filter part goes great, even for a guy with my limited mechanical skills. When I came in and opened the stove to light it, I was dumbfounded. Not sure if any of you have operated a heating oil stove, but it requires fuel to be spread over small plate, or element, then the fuel ignited. It then burns very hot and efficiently.
Well, some knotheads didn't have any fuel, or didn't know how to read the instructions above the stove, so they had filled it with charcoal and made it a charcoal stove. Now the entire heat plate was filled with about four inches of charcoal and soot. No way any diesel fuel will penetrate all of that and be ignitable.
I am too tired to mess with it any more. I tell Troy I will fix it in the morning. We eat a cold meal, climb into the sleeping bags, and set the alarm. This has been a long first day.
The gap we are going to wade as the tide is going out, with plans to come back across before the tide comes back up.
I am not convinced of Troy's plan. Steelhead fever appears to be impairing his judgment.
Whew, made it across the gap. Should be no problem on the way back.
Troy being frustrated by the steelhead.
Well, looks like we made it back in plenty of time before the tide came back in. Better safe than sorry.
May 4th - Up and out the door by 5:00 am. Raining, and we already have lost a half hour of hunting time. Oh well, everyone says the morning is not the best bear hunting time, so not to worry.
We jumped in the skiff, rounded the point and were pelted by rain and strong wind. The channel markers were very visible, and given the huge reefs outside the marked channel, and the whirlpools of the outgoing tides, it was apparent why there were so many warnings about navigating this channel.
We have about six miles to travel north, and get there just in time for the weather to clear. This is SE AK, it is supposed to rain all day, every day, not just for an hour in the morning. Oh well, I will gladly take the sunshine.
As we bob around in the channel, I glass to the west and spot a nice bear on the beach. He is standing on a narrow strip of beach grass. The coast line is guarded by a very rocky reef, making it very hard to find a way to get anywhere near this bear. I look at the nautical charts and see their exists a small gap in the reef where we might be able to get through and if need be, wait out the tides until it fills later in the day, giving us enough water to get back out to the channel.
Troy gives me the "thumbs up." After all, we have an extra prop, a shear pin, and a wrench to replace it if we lose one on the rocks. I head toward the gap. As we get within about 100 yards of the reef, we are now about 600 yards from the bear. The wind is not favorable from here, but upon getting over the rocks, I will go hard west, taking us more down wind, and hiding behind a small point of rocks for our stalk.
As I am checking the chart and carefully navigating, Troy turns and tells me the bear took the three steps necessary to get back into the forest. Not sure what spooked him. May have been us, but we were still pretty far off. He may have just decided it was time to head in for the morning nap.
Oh well, so far, finding bears is not the problem, so no need to continue risking the sanctity of our vessel. I retreat out to the deeper channel.
Now what? Troy has been salivating upon hearing of the steelhead run up Irish Creek. We are only a mile from the mouth of the creek as morning takes hold, so we head over that way as close as we can get, without tearing up the boat.
I am not too hep on trout fishing, but given the loads of gear Troy has brought with for steelhead fishing, I am easily talked into the idea of a low-tide crossing of a small spit separating this island from the mainland where we can then go upstream the two miles to where Cole flew us over the fish ladder on Irish Creek. This looked like a pretty long hike to me, but Troy thought it would be a short stroll. Given how much gear he was carrying, he obviously didn't plan on a long hike.
We beach the boat and head toward the small gap, in hopes that we can cross at low tide. I am not convinced this is a good idea. Troy assures me we will be back here before the incoming tide gets any further up than what it is where we cross now, as the tide is going out. We plan on having five hours to chase steelhead.
What looks like a short jaunt from the air, or a quick hike on a map, becomes some serious travel. The ground is flat, but the tide flats are a sinking mess. As we get further away from the coast, the river becomes a real river, and not a tide flat. Traversing up the river is challenging, but interesting. We are in a walled corridor or old growth Sitka Spruce and some sort of Red Cedar. Moss grows on everything and the ferns are emerging and thankfully the Devil's Clubs are not yet in their mid-summer thickness.
It takes an hour and a half to get to the fish ladder. We have yet to observe a fish. Troy assures me they are here.
He rigs up some sort of mess that resembles a Muskie plug that I would troll in my home waters of Northern Minnesota. The rod, if you want to call it that, could serve as a pole vault. And he gives me a salt water fly reel that looks like it could be home to gerbil treadmill. He expects me to cast this thing among all these over hanging limbs. If I do hook something, I am pretty sure I can just heave it out of the water like those tuna fisherman of old.
I thrash the water until my arm is tired. The methodic rhythm has me almost asleep when a big silver flash emerges from the deep tanic acid stained waters. My heart quickens as I imagine fighting this big steelhead in a rapid pool the size of my garage. Excitement overtakes me and I set the hook too soon. Damn it, as much as I complained about this fishing expedition, I really wanted to hook that thing.
I sit on the bank as Troy walks around me to fish immediately above me at the base of the fish ladder. He is quickly shouting to get the cameras rolling. His rod is bent and I see line going out quickly. He starts pulling hard and quickly there is splashing in the back eddy at his feet. Whether he is kicking his boot in the water, or actually has a fish, I cannot verify from below, but his excitement exceeds anything in my two years of filming with him. I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
The fishing continues for an hour more when I remind Troy that tides will not wait for him to finally land a steelhead. Grudgingly, he agrees that it would not be good to spend the night separated from our boat.
We head back toward the island where we have beached the boat. It now returns to normal SE AK weather and is raining very hard. Within an hour we are back to the crossing of this tide gap. We have misread the tides to our benefit, and the gap is almost dry, making crossing to the island a non-issue. Glad we misread things to our benefit.
Upon reaching the boat, we see that it is way out on the tide flat. Do we heave and pull to get it off the flat, or wait for two hours in the rain, while the tide comes back in? Unanimous vote is to take cover from the rain and let the tides do the heavy lifting for us.
We are now loaded and moving back away from the rocky flats and back towards the channel. Knowing that we still have a lot of daylight, we move further north from the cabin. In the rain, we find another bear feeding on a small grass spot on the west shore.
With a SW wind, we move NE of the bear and beach the boat in one deep little pocket. A few short minutes and we will cover the 300 yards where the bear was feeding, just around the point. We sneak as close as we can, identifying the big dead tree that marked the location of the bear's last spot. The favorable wind has us within 100 yards.
We look - nothing. He cannot be far off. We wait downwind. Still nothing. We move slightly away from the beach, hidden by rocks and keep our eye on the shoreline. Quiet. We wait for a half hour in the soaking rain, yet no sign of the bear. Where the bear went, I have no idea. He must have moved off as we motored around the point to beach the boat.
With time growing late and the dicey nature of the narrows, we decided to head back in the rain. No sense in wearing ourselves out the first day. We will get the stove going in the cabin, dry out any clothes, cook a warm dinner, and give it hell in the morning.
An hour later and we are at the cabin. We glass the big flats near the cabin, but see nothing. Time to change the fuel filter and get the fire going.
The filter part goes great, even for a guy with my limited mechanical skills. When I came in and opened the stove to light it, I was dumbfounded. Not sure if any of you have operated a heating oil stove, but it requires fuel to be spread over small plate, or element, then the fuel ignited. It then burns very hot and efficiently.
Well, some knotheads didn't have any fuel, or didn't know how to read the instructions above the stove, so they had filled it with charcoal and made it a charcoal stove. Now the entire heat plate was filled with about four inches of charcoal and soot. No way any diesel fuel will penetrate all of that and be ignitable.
I am too tired to mess with it any more. I tell Troy I will fix it in the morning. We eat a cold meal, climb into the sleeping bags, and set the alarm. This has been a long first day.
The gap we are going to wade as the tide is going out, with plans to come back across before the tide comes back up.
I am not convinced of Troy's plan. Steelhead fever appears to be impairing his judgment.
Whew, made it across the gap. Should be no problem on the way back.
Troy being frustrated by the steelhead.
Well, looks like we made it back in plenty of time before the tide came back in. Better safe than sorry.
Meatatarian
New member
Big Fin- was that by chance Ken and/or JT?
Nope, at least not the two we met. That would be Kevin and Ellen (?).
Meatatarian
New member
Thanks Big Fin. You probably know Ken's dad/JT's FIL Claude in West Jellystone.
Day 3 - Time to get serious
May 5th - The plan was to get after it hard today. Woke up early and it is still raining. I am sick as hell. Troy looks at me and tells me to get back to bed.
I could feel it happening. Some of you know me, and that I have this strange liver condition. It requires some serious management to make sure it stays in line. And some times, even if I am on the "Straight and Narrow" it still flares up, creating some pretty serious problems.
Fortunately for me, and Troy, this was a minor flare up, but enough to make Troy say, "Who beat the hell out of you last night?" Not that there is ever a good time for one of these events, but here and now was about as bad of timing and location as I could imagine.
While I retreat back to rest, Troy is up filming and organizing. I take some meds and am quickly sleeping in this cold, damp, but very quiet place. I wake up and Troy is gone somewhere. He comes back while I am in the midst of organizing and making strategies.
I tell him I have to get the stove fixed, regardless of what it takes. I spend a couple hours cleaning the burner plate and removing all the charcoal from the bottom of the stove. It requires some disassembly of the fuel port going into the stove. If I lay parts out in the same order by which I take them off, I can usually get them back together. Now if you mix them up from the order in which I have laid them out, I am pretty much screwed.
By noon, I was yelling like Tom Hanks in the movie "Castaway" as he yells, "I build fire!" It felt great to finally get some of the dampness out of the air.
The clothes were not soaked from the rain, but the hiking we had been doing caused them clothes to be soaked with sweat. In this area, things do not dry out very easily, or very quickly. Heat is necessary to get things dried out here.
Good news was that we were now making progress. It is raining slightly, so we decided today that we would investigate the miles of tide flats south of the cabin, hard to get to by boat in these tides.
Two moose decided to check out my ability to filter water. Eventually, they tired of me and trotted across the tide flats. Given all the wolf tracks, there mere existence here seemed amazing.
We leave the cabin and start looking around for bears. Lots of sign. The greener areas are almost black with bear scat. Bad part is that only small areas are green, with most of it being brown.
About a mile and a half from the cabin, we come to a small stream. In a depression on the south side of the stream, I see the black hump of a bear grazing about 300 yards away. Troy and I struggle to determine the size.
It is determined we should cross the creek and get closer. I go forward while Troy films from behind. Once I get across, Troy follows my tracks. It is still hard to see the bear's body as he feeds away from us.
I tell Troy I will move closer. Eventually the swirling wind gets the bear's attention. He turns and looks our way. I can see that he is not the size of bear I came to Alaska to shoot. I indicate to Troy to move forward so we can get better footage. As we move closer, the bear stops feeding and watches closer. He eventually moves into the forest.
It is only day two, and the amount of sign is good, so I am not too worried about more opportunities. I had done my opening interview for the show, and stated I would shoot a large mature boar, or go home without a bear, so this bear, this early in the hunt, was safe.
We continued up a creek arm that would take us back up to some open areas that seem worthy of investigation. We are following the tracks of a black bear that has the biggest track of any black bear I have ever seen.
We spend most the afternoon following this creek. It leads to some big openings, as expected .......... that are nothing more than muskeg bogs. Very hard to navigate and hardly worthy of our time.
By early evening, we are back down the creek and following the tide flat further south to a couple other creek arms around a point quite a ways from the cabin. As we get on the end of the rock point, we see two small skiffs that had earlier been tied off to a large fishing boat. These guys were cruising the outer reefs, scanning these same tide flats.
Seeing what they were up to, we moved further toward the cabin and waited for bears to come from the forest and feed in the few green spots along the tide flat.
While waiting for bears to appear, I kept note of the many different types of waterfowl I observed - Canada geese, speckled geese (by far the most numerous), snow geese, mallards, pintails, widgeon, goldeneyes, buffleheads, shovlers, teal, and every type of sea duck you can imagine, except for Old Squaw, the one I most hoped to see. Shorebirds were in such large flocks that when they took off, the rush of wings was so loud, it would wake you if you had nodded off.
After all of this, no bears came out this evening. But with the clearing skies, the otters, the Sitka Blacktails, and the many birds, it was a truly amazing evening.
We walked the mile or so back to camp and find no bears wanting to be celebrities on this day. I am feeling way better, and hope that the rest of the hunt goes off without any further flare ups.
This was a very long hike, and the sweat had again dampened the clothes. I was hunting in a pair of the newest Simms waders. Troy was wearing the same. To this point, they were the most impressive waders I have ever worn, as far as comfort, water-tight, and as close to being breathable as a synthetic wader can. I don't get anything for promoting that, as Troy is the one who wrestled these two pairs from Simms, but I will be buying a pair of these for my next SE AK bear hunt. They are that comfortable.
With a new fire source providing heat, sleep came quite easy after a long afternoon and evening hike. The skies had fully cleared before dark, making me wonder if I really was in SE AK.
After a five hour nap and some meds, I am starting to feel human again.
Looking over one of the tide flats as the clouds are starting to lessen and hopefully the bears are starting to get hungry.
The biggest bear track I have ever seen. Wish it showed up better in the photo. Tracked him all the way up to the muskeg bogs. Not sure where he went to.
Hey, I think it stopped raining. Let's go.
Those Simms waders I have grown fond of. Troy better check his luggage to see that they didn't disappear.
The wading boats are great. Absolute no slip, regardless of how much slime is on those rocks. We put miles on these boots while hiking these flats, while wearing some pretty heavy packs.
Troy doing his amazing camera work. You probably cannot see it in this photo, but he is manning three cameras at one time. My only talent was to pack a couple of those cameras for him.
May 5th - The plan was to get after it hard today. Woke up early and it is still raining. I am sick as hell. Troy looks at me and tells me to get back to bed.
I could feel it happening. Some of you know me, and that I have this strange liver condition. It requires some serious management to make sure it stays in line. And some times, even if I am on the "Straight and Narrow" it still flares up, creating some pretty serious problems.
Fortunately for me, and Troy, this was a minor flare up, but enough to make Troy say, "Who beat the hell out of you last night?" Not that there is ever a good time for one of these events, but here and now was about as bad of timing and location as I could imagine.
While I retreat back to rest, Troy is up filming and organizing. I take some meds and am quickly sleeping in this cold, damp, but very quiet place. I wake up and Troy is gone somewhere. He comes back while I am in the midst of organizing and making strategies.
I tell him I have to get the stove fixed, regardless of what it takes. I spend a couple hours cleaning the burner plate and removing all the charcoal from the bottom of the stove. It requires some disassembly of the fuel port going into the stove. If I lay parts out in the same order by which I take them off, I can usually get them back together. Now if you mix them up from the order in which I have laid them out, I am pretty much screwed.
By noon, I was yelling like Tom Hanks in the movie "Castaway" as he yells, "I build fire!" It felt great to finally get some of the dampness out of the air.
The clothes were not soaked from the rain, but the hiking we had been doing caused them clothes to be soaked with sweat. In this area, things do not dry out very easily, or very quickly. Heat is necessary to get things dried out here.
Good news was that we were now making progress. It is raining slightly, so we decided today that we would investigate the miles of tide flats south of the cabin, hard to get to by boat in these tides.
Two moose decided to check out my ability to filter water. Eventually, they tired of me and trotted across the tide flats. Given all the wolf tracks, there mere existence here seemed amazing.
We leave the cabin and start looking around for bears. Lots of sign. The greener areas are almost black with bear scat. Bad part is that only small areas are green, with most of it being brown.
About a mile and a half from the cabin, we come to a small stream. In a depression on the south side of the stream, I see the black hump of a bear grazing about 300 yards away. Troy and I struggle to determine the size.
It is determined we should cross the creek and get closer. I go forward while Troy films from behind. Once I get across, Troy follows my tracks. It is still hard to see the bear's body as he feeds away from us.
I tell Troy I will move closer. Eventually the swirling wind gets the bear's attention. He turns and looks our way. I can see that he is not the size of bear I came to Alaska to shoot. I indicate to Troy to move forward so we can get better footage. As we move closer, the bear stops feeding and watches closer. He eventually moves into the forest.
It is only day two, and the amount of sign is good, so I am not too worried about more opportunities. I had done my opening interview for the show, and stated I would shoot a large mature boar, or go home without a bear, so this bear, this early in the hunt, was safe.
We continued up a creek arm that would take us back up to some open areas that seem worthy of investigation. We are following the tracks of a black bear that has the biggest track of any black bear I have ever seen.
We spend most the afternoon following this creek. It leads to some big openings, as expected .......... that are nothing more than muskeg bogs. Very hard to navigate and hardly worthy of our time.
By early evening, we are back down the creek and following the tide flat further south to a couple other creek arms around a point quite a ways from the cabin. As we get on the end of the rock point, we see two small skiffs that had earlier been tied off to a large fishing boat. These guys were cruising the outer reefs, scanning these same tide flats.
Seeing what they were up to, we moved further toward the cabin and waited for bears to come from the forest and feed in the few green spots along the tide flat.
While waiting for bears to appear, I kept note of the many different types of waterfowl I observed - Canada geese, speckled geese (by far the most numerous), snow geese, mallards, pintails, widgeon, goldeneyes, buffleheads, shovlers, teal, and every type of sea duck you can imagine, except for Old Squaw, the one I most hoped to see. Shorebirds were in such large flocks that when they took off, the rush of wings was so loud, it would wake you if you had nodded off.
After all of this, no bears came out this evening. But with the clearing skies, the otters, the Sitka Blacktails, and the many birds, it was a truly amazing evening.
We walked the mile or so back to camp and find no bears wanting to be celebrities on this day. I am feeling way better, and hope that the rest of the hunt goes off without any further flare ups.
This was a very long hike, and the sweat had again dampened the clothes. I was hunting in a pair of the newest Simms waders. Troy was wearing the same. To this point, they were the most impressive waders I have ever worn, as far as comfort, water-tight, and as close to being breathable as a synthetic wader can. I don't get anything for promoting that, as Troy is the one who wrestled these two pairs from Simms, but I will be buying a pair of these for my next SE AK bear hunt. They are that comfortable.
With a new fire source providing heat, sleep came quite easy after a long afternoon and evening hike. The skies had fully cleared before dark, making me wonder if I really was in SE AK.
After a five hour nap and some meds, I am starting to feel human again.
Looking over one of the tide flats as the clouds are starting to lessen and hopefully the bears are starting to get hungry.
The biggest bear track I have ever seen. Wish it showed up better in the photo. Tracked him all the way up to the muskeg bogs. Not sure where he went to.
Hey, I think it stopped raining. Let's go.
Those Simms waders I have grown fond of. Troy better check his luggage to see that they didn't disappear.
The wading boats are great. Absolute no slip, regardless of how much slime is on those rocks. We put miles on these boots while hiking these flats, while wearing some pretty heavy packs.
Troy doing his amazing camera work. You probably cannot see it in this photo, but he is manning three cameras at one time. My only talent was to pack a couple of those cameras for him.
