POW Island Logistics

[jamesfromseattle]

After reading some old threads on here, I was inspired to start planning a 2017 Prince of Wales Island trip (although Kodiak is still in the running). With airline miles and tent camping, it is surprisingly affordable. I am thinking of going in the early season and hunting up high. The plan is to take the ferry from Ketchikan to Hollis, rent a truck and then do a couple different overnight trips into different alpine areas. If anyone is interested, I'll be tracking my expenses and would be happy to share the info. Goal to keep it around a grand a person including airfare and tags.

If anyone else has hunted up there, I would love to hear your input on two different aspects of the trip:

1. How high is high enough for the alpine bucks there? I understand that the big guys tend to be migratory and stay in the mountains until mid September or October. I am thinking about going in late August and have my eye on a couple hills just over 2,000 feet. It looks like once you get up around 2,000 you run into muskeg and open areas on the ridges. The true alpine looking open basins appear to be above 2500, and most of those areas look like tough access from the road system. Are the 2,000ish feet muskeg/low alpine areas a reasonable place to be looking? They are far more plentiful than the higher alpine areas on POW--there are lots of hills above 2000 feet but not many above 3000. Because I don't have a good sense of how thick the undergrowth is there, I want to plan on areas with minimal bushwhacking. There appear to be logging roads that get within a few hundred vertical feet of many of the muskeg ridges, and then open country on top. Are those 2000 foot muskeg ridge areas high enough for the early season or do you need to get into the true alpine areas higher up?

November also sounds like a great hunt but my calling game is pretty weak (never done it successfully down here) so I am hesitant to put all my eggs in the thick timber/low country basket.

2.  Does anyone know of a place that rents freezer space and sells those cardboard fish boxes around Hollis or Craig? Would love to get everything frozen for the trip back and the fish boxes appear to be by far the cheapest way to get meat home. If not, my plan is to keep the boned out meat in a big cooler with bags of ice in the truck throughout the week and then put it unfrozen in a fish box with ice packs for the trip home. Fortunately it is a pretty quick trip to Seattle so everything should stay reasonably cold.

Would also love to see any pics of the area if anyone has them!

[actionshooter]

I don't have any advice but have considered this trip many times and am curious what you find for logistics.

[lokidog]

I don't have any advice but have considered this trip many times and am curious what you find for logistics.

    

[j_h_nimrod]

The broken alpine/muskeg edge is pretty productive, the higher pure alpine can be hit or miss depending on weather. Going high is good to get your vantage for glassing obviously but you will see a lot of bucks popping in and out of the fringe cover. Speaking of cover, the brush is thick and mixed liberally with devil's club. You will find that most good alpine will have a decent trail to it though.

Even in Sept. prepare for heavy rain and the closer to Oct. the wetter it generally is.

Not sure about freezing but any small fish processor would probably do it and boxes can be had in most any store.

I wouldn't try November unless you really just want to spend a lot of time wet, it can be productive but the road system and beaches all get hit hard. Finding productive ground can be difficult as well. It is all pretty brushy and without local knowledge it can be hard to find huntable areas.

[Muley Chaser]

I will be in POW the first week of September for 7 days of black bear hunting. My hunting partner and I rented a house in Thorne bay for 7 days, it also has a 4x4 suburban included in the rental for 1400$(700$ each). The owner says there is an area for processing game and lots of freezer space. Our main focus is bears, if we are successful on the bears we will shift gears to deer. This is my first time to the island. We decided to take a float plane from Ketchikan to Thorne bay(200$),so we could have more hunting time. I have heard the same thing about the RAIN. Hope you have a great trip. Let me know if I can be of any help.

[Fl0und3rz]

Take rubber boots and two sets of rain gear, if you want to wear the quiet nylon type.

[Limits]

Check out House Bill 137.  Signed into law back in June.  Non-Res. hunting license and tag fees doubling in 2017 .  A deer tag that once cost me $150 is now going to be $300 in 2017.  Bummer

You will still have an excellent hunting experience. Just a little added expense.

[gasman]

Under brush is thick and wet, have rain gear or we lived in our waders during our spring bear hunt.

Seen lots of deer on the road side at dusk and dawn along the roads too.

Deer were relatively small on body size compared to the BT here. And they disappeared in the under brush quicly, so don't lose sight if you see them.

FS has cabins all over the island that can be rented for cheap. There are walk in, drive up to, and float plane access only cabins, and did I mention there cheap to rent.....

I have talked to the guy in Thorne Bay, seem like a good guy with a decent operation. I was considering using his service, but had a 4 person/and or, $4000 a week  price at the time.

We staid at a hunt fish resort out side of Creig,  only 10 min from the airport.  1 week in a cabin was like 400 or so. Not bad when we split it two ways. (I can look up the name if you want) nice people that run the place too. You can rent a boat from there and hunt from it, that how we e hunted bear. It was a awesome trip.

Man would I love to go back up there again.

[JNB]

j_h_nimrod, thanks for the tips.  The broken muskeg easier looks much more abundant and accessible than the true alpine, so that is good to hear.

Muley Chaser, I will definitely be interested in hearing about how you guys do up there.  Looks like there are a lot of amenities available in Thorne Bay, so I am considering spending some time in that area.  Pm inbound on a couple specific things that will hopefully be helpful to you.

Check out House Bill 137.  Signed into law back in June.  Non-Res. hunting license and tag fees doubling in 2017 .  A deer tag that once cost me $150 is now going to be $300 in 2017.  Bummer

You will still have an excellent hunting experience. Just a little added expense.

Darn...should have gotten everything together and gone this year.  I guess Alaska's tag costs were well below the rest of the west so it shouldn't be too surprising that they increased them.  With the pre-price-increase tags, flying to Alaska for a DIY hunt (without a charter flight on the other end) was penciling out in the same ballpark as a Rocky Mountain state hunt once the previous year's preference points are factored in.  All things considered the tag price is a drop in the bucket and I will still be going, but $300 plus the cost of license does seem like a lot of money for a blacktail tag, though.  My plan was to pick up two or three tags and try to fill the freezer with any legal shooter, but that would get a bit pricey.

[JNB]

Gasman, do you mind PMing me the name of the place you stayed if you can think of it?  That is a notch cheaper that anywhere I have found so far in that area.

I know it rains a lot up there, but the fact that 3/7 replies to this thread mentioned the rain brings home the point that it may be worth spending a little extra for a cabin with electricity and access to a dryer.  It looks like some areas in which I'd like to hunt are doable with about an hour of hiking.  I generally prefer to not having to hike in and out in the dark, but I always prefer not being soaking wet 24/7.

[gasman]

Sorry,  not Creig, it was Klawock .

Here's there Web site. http://www.logcabinresortandrvpark.com/hunting.html

Don't mind sharing,  they were good to us and would use the, again 

Verne and Skip are good people, they even have a home here in Sequim 

[The Fin]

I have two of the fish boxes you are looking for.  You are welcome to use them.  I packed clothes and gear in them on the way up and threw in a duffle bag to haul the gear home with the boxes full of meat.  I am in Marysville if interested.

[Jpmiller]

A buddy and I are talking off and on about doing this as well. Has anyone rented a FS cabin? That was the route we were looking but was a little nervous about meat cooling in a more remote location if we go early season. Sounds like an absolutely fantastic trip

[j_h_nimrod]

The cabin rental is pretty easy, use recreation.gov to find locations and specifics of each cabin with date availability and price.

Unless you are staying for seven - ten days and shoot something right away you should fine. Barring unseasonably warm weather you are usually good hanging hide on for at least 2-4 days and in mesh bags for a day or so longer if you have good air movement. Some of the streams are quite cool and work as good submersion coolers if you have a dry bag or heavy trash bags. Ideally you would get the meat frozen or chilled by day three but I have went as long as 6 days in Sept. with no problems when the weather is 45-55 and I can keep the meat in a dry place with good air movement.

Most of the cabins are oil heated (or sometimes wood) and dry your layers pretty quickly, no electricity in any of the cabins I have been in though some are wired for a generator.

I usually use one set of good breathable rain gear and one set of lightweight PVC rain gear. They can be a little loud (but no more so than most rain gear) but I really like a pair of Simms waders for heavy, persistent rain days. Plus you don't really have to think about the water depth until it is obviously deep. Good rubber boots are a must, I have never had much luck with typical good quality waterproof hunting boots.

Don't bring cotton pants or shirts except for wear around the cabin. Good layering of synthetics and/or wool work best.

Don't be fooled by he proximity of roads to the alpine, what looks like an hours hike is often 2-3 and when you only have ~8 hours or less of daylight your hunting window is pretty short so don't rule out some overnights early in the season and always pack a backup light and batteries.

[jamesfromseattle]

Thank you everyone for your input. Lots of great info here.

POW's road access and resulting to hit different spots and still have access to some creature comforts is its big selling point for me over Kodiak and some of the other options up there.

But just out of curiosity, has anyone ever hunted Baranoff or the other ABC islands? Coming from out of state, that actually looks like a very simple to plan hunt. Could fly direct to Sitka and then burn some hoof it up into the mountains above town or get a water taxi to one of the coastal USFS cabins nearby. Lots of options with in an hour or so by boat which would cost a few hundred bucks.

I'm using Sitka as an example here, but it looks like you could do a similar water taxi itinerary out of Juneau, Petersburg, Ketchikan, or even Whittier.

A couple obvious downsides to this type of trip appear to be:

1. You are limited to 1 area, which has some obvious downsides especially if you have not scouted the area.

2. You are getting dropped at sealevel so in many cases you'd be looking at a brutal bushwhack up hill unless you are there later in the year.