Hi all

[uncoolperson]

Been awhile since I hit huntwa (school/divorce/moving to AK), doing the staying up too late checking my list a few dozen times planning to wake up too early to go HUNTING tonight.

I haven't done any hunting yet in Alaska (nonresident tags are spendy, you'd figure working at fish and game I get them free right?). Have gotten some fishing in (attached pictures, under two hours of fishing from the ocean shore ~8 miles from home).

Tomorrow gonna fly out to Adak island with a group organized by the church I've been hanging out at Sunday mornings (it's kinda weird packing up my rifle and leaving it at church for a few nights (staging packages and such for the group)).

Adak is an island waaayyy out in the Aleutians that we built up on during ww2 in prep for invading Attu, also was a base up through the late 90's (lots of cool stuff to explore!).

Way back long ago they planted a few caribou out there for sport and emergency food supply. Now the herd is a bit bigger (and they're doing damage to the environment (bird nesting grounds and such)), so NO LIMIT. However I am limited, as I've said nonresident tags are pricey.

So tomorrow morning wake up way too early (shooting for 3:30), fly over a thousand miles (and remain in the same state!) and end my day in the Hawaiian time zone hovering just above freezing, rainy, and properly miserable.

The place was just pummeled by this mess http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2824521/Remnant-Typhoon-Nuri-headed-Aleutian-Islands.html hopefully it's better weather for me.


*check*, packed the kite... traveling to "the birthplace of the winds" after all

Hope to have an entertaining "lessons learned" post for you when this is through.



(ohh... today from the parking lot at work, saw porpoises, a seal, some eagles, and mt goats from the same spot. Out hiking a few weeks ago sea lions and humpback whales)

[krzy4elk]

    Howdy & thanks for the post.  Good luck on your hunt on Adak Is.,  Probably by next month & Jan. You will be callin your self  "Too Cool Person" ,      Stay warm up there, Bud !

[bobcat]

Welcome back! Looking forward to the story of your hunt!

[coachcw]

sounds like a blast enjoy it !

[boneaddict]

Have fun! 

[WildBear]

Enjoy the experience!

[elkoholic1]

    enjoy!!!

[Curly]

Cool pics I love the panoramic shot!

[Fl0und3rz]

Welcome back.  Is that panorama Eagle Beach, by chance?

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

 

[skeeter 20i]

I love it "properly miserable".  Enjoy the experience

[kodiak 907]

My Uncle guides reindeer hunters for Jim Shockey on Umnak Island.  You should have a good time hunting Adak.  It is always crazy windy out there so get ready!! Good Luck

[uncoolperson]

My Tuesday involved this, hiking up over a pass and back... More of a write up when I get home.

[uncoolperson]

Heard of this trip while church shopping a few months back it was announced there were a few open bunks... Thought, yeah, I could do that.

Needed an adequate rifle (rain, 2-300+ yards, etc..), adequate gear (which I suppose I still do, so cold and wet).

Two weeks prior to fly out, crack my new rifle's (laminate) stock. Take it to the dealer and ask if there's anything that can be done, they say ship it back and start taking the scope off, I mention Adak in two weeks and off a synthetic stock comes from a new identical rifle on the shelf. And I’m  told "call us when you get back"…yup this gun shop is the place for me


Day one (Thursday):
Settle in to the facts of life on Adak (no appreciable phone data, asked to make it a dry trip, 8 dudes in a small 2 bedroom military housing unit, the ghost town atmosphere)

Day two:
Start out easy, wander about a lake with a partner for the day that didn't know when to say "enough going up hill Andy!", I kept dragging us up the next highest thing in sight. Caribou bones and carcasses all over, and a few hundred ptarmigan. Lots of rain and wind.... Lack of trees is unnerving.
The first of many late night recovery assists... Someone put one down late and many miles out, but all we knew was they weren't back before dark, so we head out.
One bou down, someone assisting a pair of other hunters with another down.

Day three:
Switch partners for the day and tag with two others hiking across a pass. On reaching the pass snow sleet and wind. We get split up and when we regather see a small herd up on a mountain side, I'm sent to cover the escape route as the other two flank them.
More snow, wind and nasty while I'm trying my best to sit still for a few hours laying in a little depression trying not to freeze (dressed for hiking plus an extra jacket, sitting in snow, and drenched). About two hours before dark I contemplate radioing in " perhaps we should head back" (that pass at night doesn't sound fun).
Then I hear ww3 break out in the distance, 10 rounds go off on the mountain side.
I look behind me and another party from our group runs into me and I explain the situation. Then another shot,soon the radio chirps up "4 down!!", nothing is gonna come my way.
We have a fourwheeler up on the mountain for hauling some of the way, but that hasn't been across the pass (yet)... Mile or two from the four down.
By the time something is organized, and I'm with the four down dark starts to settle in, and the rain and more sleet.
One of our group manages to get the for Wheeler across the pass and up near the carnage (seems they lost the herd and ended up in the middle of another and just opened up), we're loading that up and caching what isn't getting out that night (hide, rack, etc) and start the walk out. Upon crossing the pass we see 8 inches of fresh snow... Awesome.
A few miles and some frozen delirious humor I decide we need some music for our chilly dark hike out (with plenty of walking in circles since we don't know the area) so I get something going on the phone.
Eventually make it to the trailhead where I realize I've no longer got theme music... Doh!!!
Home after 10/11 or something like that.

Day four:
Sunny (weird), my knee is bothering me. Planning out the day it's decided the two carnage creators would double up on the fourwheeler, with me walking I’d reach the site about when they were done, it’s gonna be a "light" day of me a 22 looking for ptarmigan and my phone.
I had a rough idea of where I set my phone down, maybe two miles in.
Bam bam bam... Missed him.
Begin looking for my phone, figured it was near where we crossed this one creek, half hour in no joy, getting disheartened I remember we had no real clue and were getting plenty lost, so I walk up the trail turn around and follow a few other paths off the main trail... About to give up and I hear my alarm going off reminding me to get up for church, look down and there's my phone incased in ice. Yay!!!
About this time my knee is done, slipping and sliding the other night was too much, I sit and wait and start to get too cold so I hobble about this lake for the day, about five hours later I hear some radio chatter (I'd been out of touch the while time) and relay (through a couple people) to the fourwheeler crew I'm heading out (don't want them to show up and not find me).
Another late night recovery effort as some of our group got a few late in the afternoon.

Day five
The group has 9 bou hanging and 3 processed, I need to rest the knee bad so I help with getting some of the 9 done. Tell everyone tomorrow is my day. It's gonna happen!
Day six
Today is my day!
I double up on the fourwheeler with the best driver in our group (one of the group I was with day 3), we get to the pass and decide the Wheeler isn't getting across... Still cuts a few miles off the day though.
Begin our hike down to sea level and 4-5 herds in sight (no trees, nothing can hide), pick the closest and start that way.
No dice, impassible ravine blocking the way. Continue to sea level (I look back, strain to take a step up a small hill and think... My knee still hurts good and that pass is 1100+ feet up, meh whatever the hunt is on!!)
We slowly make our way into position having dropped our packs for quickness... And they're gone!
Wait what's that? Moving rock half mile out, 8 of em... More ravines hills and sliding about on wet moss and grass.
And darn the 8 are gone, but there's two more on a hill over there.
Formulate a plan, across that creek and up that “hill” (small mountain) between those rocky areas for cover.
Then it hails, yay!
Get where we want, take a peek out of our depression to see caribou backsides walking to the far side of the hill we're on. So further up this small mountain of a hill (scale is weird without trees) we go, and on the other side take a peek around a rock out cropping, small caribou out on its own 125ish yards out. I work myself in position and it's facing away from me feeding... Thinking I really don't want to try for across the back in the head I start to worry about it walking off... Then I see another, 15 yards closer somewhere between quartering towards and broadside, line up... Almost put a round into the rock I'm resting on (scope above barrel, not a flat rock), happy for that half second "okay, what am I missing".
And pop! Doesn't take a step, just collapses (later turns out I split her heart... Which earned me the nickname heart breaker).
A bit later another rifle sounds off, another pair from our group has one down.
Just as we start my lesson on boning out we hear on the radio " got the four wheeler across the pass, where are you ?" Yay again!
Though, the day presses on and it's once again a snowy cold windy night hike up to the pass and back down.

Day six
My tag is done, partner that helped me chase my caribou was excited (as was I) about ptarmigan. Two hours of hill top to hill top, and 14 in the sack. Get back to the apartment and process some more, tomorrow we leave.

Lessons learned:
I didn't know ibuprofen could be a vitamin supplement, but it became one.

"Gonna go find a tree", spent a few days looking for a tree. Going days without trees is really really weird.

Hills covered in grass and moss can be scarier than climbing wet rocks, I took a few good spills. Microspikes or light crampons are handier on wet moss/grass than snow/ice.

Discarded ordinance is fun to watch out for (only found what looked like tungsten core rifle rounds, and think I found a Rommel spike but it didn't register when I saw it)

Radios, when there’s miles between and trying organize a bunch of people to help with recovery/assist, radios are handy. Those fancy ones with the GPS coordinate sharing were somewhat worthless for that feature.

Argos are not fun to drive

Waterproof still only means “temporarily water resistant”

I am not in anything resembling "in shape"

a week with a dozen people I haven't met/met once/twice... yeah

[Woodchuck]

Congrats man. That's awesome.