So I have wanted to post this for a bit, but just haven’t done so. No excuses. I was blessed with an invitation to go hunt AK Moose this year by a buddy of mine who is from AK and has a homestead in unit 16B. His dad is getting on in his years and isn’t that healthy but still wants to hunt, so he made me a deal. If I went up there and was his pack mule for the trip, he would pay for my moose and black bear tags and the float plane out and back. I thought LONG and hard, but I would have felt bad to say ‘No’, so I agreed.
We made all the arrangements, bought some new gear, dialed my rifle in, and was packed two weeks prior to make sure I didn’t forget something. We flew out on the 5th of September and landed in Anchorage, no issues with baggage. Met up with Ron, my buddy Ben’s dad, and drove to Costco for the last minute grocery stuff. There we met up with Dave, who is Ron’s friend. By the way, Dave is one of those AK guys who has done it all. We had some amazing hunting stories to hear all week long. Then we were off to the metropolis of Talketna. We were towing Ron’s trailer, so we had a place to stay that night and just in case weather didn’t let us leave when we wanted to. The next day arrived, all our gear was staged and waiting to be loaded on a plane, but the weather was awful. It was raining and blowing 30-40mph. So, the pilot told us not today, but hopefully tomorrow. Good thing we had the trailer. Cribbage took up most of the time and not to toot my own horn, but I was on a roll and class was in session.
The next morning the pilot came to the trailer and said, we have a break in the weather and if you guys are ready we can leave now. The planes were loaded in about 30 minutes and we were off. We landed on the lake and I’ll tell you a float plane is way cooler than a 737. The landing was so smooth and the area we were in was amazing, lakes, ponds, and muskeg were everywhere. After landing we had about a 1.5 mile hike to the cabin. When I say cabin, I mean it in the roughest sense of the word. It was a 12x12 log cabin that had two sets of bunk beds in it and about 2-3 feet on the end and 2-3 feet between the bunks. It kept us dry and was a good bed to sleep in. There was a 4” foam mattress for the beds and was way better than they had described to me. There was also a 8X12 shed that we used as the kitchen. After dropping some of the things off, we pulled out two 3 wheelers, yes I said 3-wheelers, and used them to run stuff back from the lake. AMEN. It was way easier than lugging it on our backs, but a 3-wheeler is not the most stable of machines, especially when there is not a smooth spot on the entire trip. Yes, I flipped one over once, but I wasn’t hurt and the only thing that broke was the brake lever.
So the first day was spent running things back from the lake to the cabin. The weather that day was nasty, not real windy, but super wet. It took about 1 hour to make a full trip from the cabin to the lake and back, so it took us a while to get everything to the cabin. Once we were all finished, we got our gear all set up for the next day, which was the first day we could hunt. We had in camp 4 moose tags, 4 black bear tags, and 3 brown bear tags. I was the only one without a brown bear tag because of the regulations. For a moose to be legal it had to be either a spike/fork, have 3 brow tines, or be 50” wide. I was really wanting a moose, but had decided because of the regulations that if it didn’t have 3 brow tines or was an absolute monster, I wasn’t going to shoot it because I spent a lot of time looking at pictures and talking with people who hunt AK moose and tried to figure the best way to judge width on a moose and I still wasn’t 100% confident I was able to say yes or no on 50” wide.
Day 1comes and it is clear and cold, upper 20’s cold. My friend, Ben, had a tree stand built that overlooked a meadow that was 500 yards long to the south and 1000 yards long to the north. There were trails all over this meadow. Not 2 minutes into getting settled in, I spot a cow 500 yards away to the south. I was so surprised because I am used to blacktail deer and looking for an ear or tail. This thing was huge and seemed like it was only 250 yards away because of it’s size. So she walks away and about 45 minutes later about 300 yards to the south a small bull with 4points on one side and 5 on the other walks out. I was stocked! I ended up seeing that same bull later in the day chasing a cow clear on the opposite side of the meadow later in the day. So day one was 1 bull and 2 cows.
Day 2 starts a bit slower, it took all morning and through the afternoon until we see that same little bull about 500 yards to the north and nothing else. We did hear some bulls banging heads in the woods to the west, so Dave decided that he would head in there the next morning. Day 2 was 1 bull.
Day 3 we wake up and it is still clear and cold, real cold this morning, low 20’s. We hang out on the meadow for a couple hours and then we set up on the main trails out of the timber where the moose should leave and cross the meadow. Dave goes through and nothing. He saw a ton of sign, but no moose. After lunch, we head back out and not an hour after being in the stand, I see a dark spot through the trees. It pops out and it is a bigger bull. This thing is about 400 yards to the north and I am looking real hard, but can’t see 3 brow tines. He stands there for about 5-6 minutes looking around then walks into the timber where Dave had been earlier. I guessed him to be about 45” wide, but I stuck to my decision, 3 brow tines or a monster. So we all hear some more antlers crashing and Dave decides to head back in and see what is in there. He sees some cows and a couple bulls, including the one I saw earlier. He knows his Moose and judged it to be 45” also, which made me feel good. Day 3 was 1 bull.
Day 4 is our slow day because we didn’t see anything. Still super cold and clear, which I am not going to complain about.
Day 5 we try something different and hike the trail we made with the 3-wheelers from the cabin to the lake. There were four different meadows on the trail, from 75 yards across to 200 yards across. My buddy Ben and I are hiking real slow and hit the second meadow. We are maybe 20 yards to the edge of the meadow and I see a flash of antler just as Ben says, “Bull.” The bull starts moving in a slow jog back the way we came in, so I try and get ahead of him to get a better look. It was amazing how a 1000+ lb animal can move through the trees and be so quiet and stay invisible. Eventually I hear him and caught up to him. He was headed toward a 20 yard window where I could shoot through and right when He was about to go into the window, I cow called to him and stopped him in his tracks. He actually turned toward me and walked two steps toward me. Just as he stopped about 75 yards away, I look at his antlers and see 2 brow tines and 2 maybe 3 brow tines. His left side is in some alders and it looks like a brow tine, but I couldn’t tell if it was a brow tine or a palm point. I just needed him to turn to the right and expose his left side, then I would be able to see and shoot. What did he do, turned the other way and back into the nastiness. Away he went and we were never able to find him again. I looked at that bull and the more I think about it, it was probably over 50”, but I still wasn’t sure. Day 5 was 1 bull.
Day 6 and it is still cold and clear. It does warm up to maybe 50 during the days, but morning and night a chilly. S Ben and I head back to where that bull was yesterday and try to find him again. We make it almost all the way back to the lake and nothing. We have been calling and getting no response. There is another cabin that belongs to a friend of Ron’s. Because we are a ways from our cabin and nature is calling, I use the cabin’s toilet. I will say that I have never had a problem using the woods to relive myself, but just having something to sit on is a real luxury. Anyways, I finish and walk back to Ben who was sitting on the front steps of the cabin backing some antlers together, just for fun. I get ready to say, “Hey we should go inside and grab the sling shot because a grouse just flew into a tree behind the cabin and I want to shoot it.” Ben shuts me up at about “Hey” and say there is a bull about 100 yards away across the creek. I grab my gun and get ready. It turns out there were two bulls that showed up to the party. We start grunting and Ben continues to bang the antlers together and one of the bulls starts thrashing some brush and grunting back. The bulls are working closer and to our left. The wind is in our face but slightly to the left and I know they will eventually wind us. The bulls are headed toward a small opening where we could get a shot off. The first bull steps into the opening and I cow call and he stops perfect, broadside and I can see his horns well. 2 brow tines on both side and not quite 50”, so we decide to not shoot because we know the second bull looks better. He is definitely bigger in body and is the one grunting, but we haven’t seen his antlers yet. After a couple minutes, the second bull steps into the opening and I cow call again. He stops, but his right side is blocked by brush. I can see 2 brow tines on the left and 2 on the right, but there looks to be a drop tine of the brow on the left that would make him have 3 brow tines. I move a bit to get a different angle and it is still the same thing. I also am guessing him to be around 50+”, but he doesn’t look like a giant. He turns and leaves and all we can do is wonder. We follow the bulls and have them within 100 yards for the next 3 hours, but alder thickets are between us and them. Two of the three hours the bulls are crashing antlers, so we think we can get back on them, but they stay ahead of us every step. After they went quiet, we gave them a little time to relax and then we headed back in to find them. Just before dark, I heard the bigger bull grunt down by the lake and when I headed that way, Ben was pulled up on the smaller bull right behind the cabin we started at. It is already too dark to hunt, so we watch him walk back into the alders and go to the cabin and regroup for the next day. I think that second bull was legal after talking with the guys because the bigger bulls are so big in the body; sometimes they make their antlers look small. Day 6 was 2 bulls.
Day 7 is our last day to hunt and it has clouded up a bit, but no rain. Ben and I get up and go look for that big bull, but neither of us find him. We even split up and tried opposite side of where he might have gone, but nothing. We were only going to be able to hunt the morning because we were flying out the next morning and we needed to close camp and get everything to the lake for the plane to pick us up. After not finding the big bull, I head back to where Ben was and I get about 75 yards away from him and he is standing on the edge of a meadow with his gun up. I hold tight, so as to not spook anything if he has a bull out in the meadow. About 20 minutes later, Ben sees me and waves me in and says it is a small bull. I get to the edge of the meadow and Ben says it has 4 points on one side and it looks broken off on the other, but can’t see because the bull is behind a clump of trees. I say if it is broken off then it is a spike and we need to shoot it. The bull must have heard us talking and took two steps out into the meadow and I take a look and it isn’t broken off, it is a 2 point antler that drops down the side of the moose’s head in front of his eye and blinds the moose’s eye. The antler is literally 1/2“ from the bulls right eye. I tell Ben to shoot and he does. The bull drops in his tracks, but needs one more to kill it because the first shot spined it. We hoot and holler and I get headed back to camp to get Ron and Dave to start the work. We all get back and start working. Dave and I gut, skin, and butcher. Ben and Ron get a meat pole over by where we are going to stage the stuff for the plane, since it is pointless to take the meat back to camp then down to the plane. We get the moose all cleaned up and hung in the tree in about 2 hours. About 20 minutes into working on the moose, the rain comes and it comes with a vengeance. It doesn’t stop until we get back to Seattle.
Day 8 we get all the stuff on the dock and the ready for the plane to pick us up. The weather is rainy, but no windy and the clouds cover if real low. We weren’t real sure whether the plane was going to come that day or not, but it did. The first two planes take off and I am left with a couple guns and my backpack. The pilot told us that he almost didn’t come out to get us because of the weather. So I sit there alone and think about my trip and thank God for such an amazing trip. The pilot comes and gets me and the last of the things and we are off. The pilot told me that he didn’t know I was still out there and wasn’t going to come again because of the weather and because he thought it was just gear he was getting. I told him thanks for coming.
We got the meat to the processor and headed back to Anchorage for our flight. It was truly and awesome trip. I will definitely be back. The only thing I am disappointed with is Ben and Ron had been telling me there are bears everywhere up there and that they her gunshot s and come running. Also, Ben is deathly afraid of bears because he has been charged by both black and brown bears. They all call him bear bait, which got me really excited. We saw 1 pile of bear poop, which it is! Like I said a bit disappointed, but Ben says that he prayed harder that I did. I have never been a trophy hunter and probably never will be and all I could say to Ben when he shot that moose and then said ‘it’s tiny’ is MEAT IN THE FREEZER!!!!
Sorry for the long story, but this is more for me to help me remember this trip of a lifetime. Thanks.
I’ll try and get pictures if I can figure out how to resize them.
