K-Town Spring 2025

[TheGreek]

K-Town is a really rough neighborhood on the west side of Chicago named because all the streets begin with K. This is not a story about that K-town but about a bear hunting trip to another K named island north of Prince of Wales Island in SE AK.

My buddy and I both drew black bear tags for this island after 4-5 years of putting in. The draw odds dropped significantly in that time. Having never been to SE AK at all for me, and never to hunt for my buddy, we booked a stay with CML for mid May of 2025 and upgraded to the larger covered boat.

Everything I read on here and online about CML is what a first class operation they run and my experience was exactly that. Bill (the owner) and his crew due a superb job making sure you are comfortable and taken care of the entire time you are at the lodge. The food is good. The place is clean. And all of the equipment runs flawlessly, the boats, motors, rods/reels, everything works the way you would expect it to.

As for the hunting, it was tough. Guys at the lodge that had the other K island which is also now a clothing company had far greater success. I think everyone at the lodge who had the other K island tag punched their bear tags with some guys looking over multiple bears in a single day. That was not the case for us on Kup.

 

[TheGreek]

We hunted hard for 5 days and only saw a total of 4 bears. Day one saw us worrying that the weather would cancel our ability to get out for the day but we got the go ahead from the owner to head out and were motoring out by 9am. We spotted a bear at 12 noon that first day and I got off the boat, stalked around to where I had seen him last but he wasn’t there. After scanning the area for 15 min or so I spotted him moving across a small tidal flat towards the trees. I cut a hundred yards, quickly got a range of 340 yards, got prone and got on the rifle. At this point he was against the tree line and one more step and he disappeared. Just too rushed of a shot opportunity to let one. Go on the first day with a shaky rest, especially considering that a wounded bear punches your tag.

We glassed from the boat the rest of the day with no other bears spotted. The ride back across the straight that evening was brutally rough. Luckily for us, the first day was the worst weather wise and we ended up with three really nice days over the 5 day hunt.

 

[TheGreek]

The 2nd day, we caught a few rockfish in the morning and then we’re headed out to hunt by noonish. We glassed all day and never saw a bear. We got back about 30 min later than we were supposed to, came in in total darkness and were politely asked to be a little earlier the next night.

 

[TheGreek]

3rd day we fished for a few hours in the morning managing a few rockfish and then headed out to hunt before noon. Tried a different part of the island. We spotted a bear about 6pm in a long skinny cove off a bay. I got dropped off for the stalk, and as I was hugging the shoreline while closing the distance I could feel the wind going towards him the entire length of the cove. I wasn’t able to see him during the approach but when i came around the last bend to where he should have been, he was long gone. But there was no other approach, wind was blowing to him from either side of the shoreline. That was the lone bear we spotted the third day. We made sure we were back earlier that night. No need to piss off the staff.

Here’s a pic of where the bear was supposed to be. He must not have got the memo.

 

[TheGreek]

4th day

Weather was good again. We skipped fishing and were out hunting before 8am. We had a much better idea of good looking spots and where it was worth glassing and where we could move through quicker. Also, after three days we had become much more comfortable navigating the boat in tighter areas and glassing quickly and efficiently. About 11am my buddy said slow down, I think I see a bear. We quickly confirmed it was a good bear, biggest we had seen yet, and it was in a kill able spot. We quickly ascertained the wind was coming from the south and I was able to get the boat to shore north of the bear to drop my buddy off. I took the boat off shore a couple hundred yards and waited. There was a rock formation that kept the bear out of sight from where I was but allowed me to see my buddy on shore. He slowly but surely worked closer and closer. I saw him get prone and eventually heard the crack of his rifle. I watched him pace around for a minute and then take a knee. I was unable to see the area the bear was when he shot, but based on the distance I presumed he was at the shot, I knew he just killed a bear. I watched him walk over to what I expected was a dead bear while I motored over. I had the glass on him in the grass opening as I cleared the rocks, totally expecting him to be standing over a black blob. And then the rocks cleared and I saw him standing in the bright green grass right where the bear had been, except there was no bear. My heart sunk.



Long story short, he missed. He spent along time looking for blood or other sign, he saw exactly where the bear had run off and entered the timber and was able to follow it’s tracks into the jungle for aways with no sign it was hit.

278 yard shot from a reasonable prone rest. He thinks he must have yanked the trigger. Morale was low on the boat after this. By noon, he’s back on the boat and we are moving on. Long rest of the day with no more bears spotted.

Pic of area my buddy missed him in.

 

[TheGreek]

Day 5-Last Day

No fishing. We figured we needed every minute to try and get a tag punched. Me left the dock by 7:30am with a 14 hour day ahead of us if necessary. We motored north across Sumner straight and found calm seas and winds out of the NW. We were able to rip across the straight and settled into glassing as we hit K-town. We glassed as we motored north and about 9am my buddy said slow it down, that looks like a bear. We quickly confirmed it was a bear and the game was on. My buddy spotted this bear but he said that cause he had a shot opportunity yesterday this was my stalk. We all need a good hunting buddy.

I got dropped off on shore with the wind in my face and some distance to close. I came to the first point and got a range on the bear and he was 500 yards. The wind was perfect, in my face and he was in a very stalkable position. I decided I was gonna close the distance. I crossed a small channel of water and made the tree line and kept moving towards him. I figured if he was still there, it was gonna be close by the time I could see him. I kept checking the wind as I went and it was hard in my face every time.

I started to come up to a pine tree that was a marker for the location for the bear and I slowed down big time. I edged around the tree and saw a black blob in the green grass below. He was sub 50 yards, facing quartering away. I wasn’t waiting or looking for a rest. I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder off hand and fed him his medicine. I knew it was a good hit based on his reaction and the fact that he began running at the water, not the timber. When he took off running, I let him have another round and he quickly began flopping around doing the death look. He was rolling around in the tall green grass looking like he was dying and I figured it was all over. Then all of a sudden he was on all fours, walking directly at me at less than 40 yards. I figured that was close enough and put another round in him which finished his cause.

I walked up to him and waited to make sure he was dead. Every few minutes he would huff/pant and I could see his sides moving. After a few times of this, I put a point blank finishing round in him. I finally had my bear. I flipped his leg over and was very pleased to see a twig and berries. I had killed a boar!

Now the work began. I got him gutted and started trying to figure out the best way to get him on the boat. I drug him about 30 yards towards the water, which almost killed me, and then started walking to the water to meet my buddy and make a plan. We quickly realized I killed this bear on a giant tidal flat and we were quickly approaching low tide. Getting the boat into a spot we could get the bear to was gonna be a real issue.

I jumped on board the boat and ditched my rifle and pack and we started motoring in to where we thought we could get the boat closer. We were quickly losing water and when it was shallow enough i went off the front bow to walk the boat in. Except it wasn’t as shallow as I thought and before I could get back into the boat, I managed to fill my pants waders with water. Ugh.

We were eventually able to bring the boat to shore and the real work started. We left one man at the boat to make sure she wasn’t left high and dry while the other man drug the bear out as far as he could before we switched. My hunting buddy had the brilliant idea to wrap his belt around the front half of the bear to allow us to pick most of the body up while it was dragged. After about an hour of this, swapping back and forth, we had the bear 20 yards from the boat, covered in tidal flat mud. After one last heave ho by us both, we had it on our shoulders and onto the bow, only slightly covered in blood, guts and tidal scum.

I had my bear on the boat in hand! At this point it was about 11:30am. We first spotted this bear at 9am and I walked up to it, dead, by 9:30am. My vote was to head back to the lodge and get to cutting it up. But my buddy wanted to hunt a few more hours and try to punch his tag. I couldn’t say no to the guy who just let me kill my first bear. We hunted the next few hours, till 4pm, glassing some prime areas we had previously seen bears but none emerged.

We motored back to the lodge by about 5pm and got to work on the bear. I had never skinned a bear before. It didn’t turn out great but I was reasonably happy with the end result. We got the head skimmed out and meat cut up and bagged in time to make it for dinner at about 8pm. I have to give another shout out to CML here. They have such a professional set up for the packaging, weighing and freezing of your meat, skull and hide.

 

[TheGreek]

The next day we shoved off the dock at 7:30am and then the real cluster started. We were eventually re routed from Juneau to Anchorage after we were gonna miss out Seattle connection, with a planned red eye over night from Anchorage to Denver. Only problem was no one told the baggage handlers so out bags didn’t fly with us.

Upon landing in Anchorage we stood in line to talk to a gate agent about our bags only to find the drunk logger/miner in front of us begin to berate the poor young woman after she refused to allow him to board his flight because he was too drunk. He acted like a fool for about 10 minutes while we held our you tongues, including asking her out to dinner at the end and then he moved off. After we began speaking with her about our itinerary and bags, he returned, cut in front of us and began to tell us that she was gonna f*** us the way she f***ed him. Mind you, she was very patient with his drunk ass behavior before. I was not this time. I told him to f*** off and stop being a drunken fool. He then stated he had nowhere to be because the gate agent didn’t let him on his flight so I told him to sleep in the corner like the piss bum he was and stop bugging the poor woman. He said he wanted to fight and I told the drunk to make the first move. He wouldn’t cause he was a drunken mope and while we walked off, he began to follow us, running his mouth. I told him that if he wanted a piece, all he had to do was touch me. He didn’t but kept following us and talking shit. When we hit an escalator I turned around to see him falling down the parallel staircase and exploded with laughter. By the time we got to the bottom of the escalator, he as nowhere to be seen. Rough night when you get your ass kicked by a set of stairs.

Red eye back to Denver. I sat there another 6 hours and my bags arrived and the meat hide etc was still cold to the touch. Another 8-12 hours and probably not the case.

All told, it was an epic adventure years in the making. I’d stay with CML again in a heart beat. But next time, I’m putting in for the other K-town.

 

[Dave N]

Sounds like fun! Congrats.

 

[TheGreek]

I also got the privilege to meet and sink a few beers with a well renowned Hunttalker from Nevada. Good times.

 

[rmyoung1]

Awesome! I’ve hunted out of that place twice. Such a neat experience. Congrats on your trip

 

[Wild Bill]

Good stuff, looks like fun!

 

[WildWill]

Congratulations! I'll be headed there next spring for my first Alaskan trip.

 

[Southern Elk]

Congrats! We are counting the days until next spring. We will be hunting POW.

 

[Seahawkfan]

Thanks for sharing