Alaska Winter Mountain Goat Hunt! Just gonna send it!!!!!

[elkrack]

No brainer right there
Did he off load any of that goat meat for ya🥴

[PlateauNDN]

Able to sneak a quick fishing trip in the goat hunt?! Smart planning!

haha no unfortunately not enough time for that and no salmon runs right now.  My uncle is a commercial fisherman who likes red meat and I have an elk and 5 deer in my freezer but no fish.  It was a match made in heaven

Goat for salmon! What a deal. 👍

[Pathfinder101]

Awesome Goats!  Way to go Karl.

[PlateauNDN]

  battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

[Rainier10]

battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

It's contagious.

[Crunchy]

battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

I think they are trying to get their story straight

[Caseyd]

My guess is sleep after sitting in a tent dreaming of bears  Must of been the last minute decision to watch The Revenant on the flight up

[PlateauNDN]

battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

I think they are trying to get their story straight

I think he's just torturing everyone for fun...

[fishngamereaper]

Probably sharing with his facebook friends...

[Rainier10]

battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

I think they are trying to get their story straight

I think he's just torturing everyone for fun...

Speak from experience much?

[Crunchy]

Probably sharing with his facebook friends...

We have a winner!  Should have known.  Always the last to know.

[actionshooter]

Nice! Congrats... especially on trading it for fish!

[elkrack]

battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

I think they are trying to get their story straight

I think he's just torturing everyone for fun...

Speak from experience much?

No kidding 

[PlateauNDN]

battery died and still no story Someone must be learning a thing or 2 about story telling.

I think they are trying to get their story straight

I think he's just torturing everyone for fun...

Speak from experience much?

No kidding 

 

[Karl Blanchard]

Some adventures are hard to put into words.  The joy, the sadness, discomfort, and satisfaction are all easily felt by the individual but hard for an outsider to absorb the same emotions.  This was one of those hunts.

I'll spare everyone the ramp up and travel portion of this story as it was semi live up until we climbed onto the cessna 206 and went skipping across the water on our way south.  Weather along the east coast was crap so we cut across the island and came down the west side.  This worked out well as we were able to look at some other spots we had researched.  We made a last minute decision to abort our plan to head to a salt water bay in the SE corner and we touched down on a big lake that was still open.  Cloud ceiling was low so we weren't able to look for goats on our flight in but with the traffic that the SE was still getting, this just seemed like a more peaceful place.  What we failed to calculate is this new spot put us right in the path of the pending weather front that was barreling our way.

The flight in was worth the price of admission, and we touched down in fine fashion.  As fast as we hit the water, our gear was kicked out, we got a serious warning that "if the lake starts to ice you boys gotta pop smoke or you'll have to walk out to the salt for a ride.", and our ride was skipping back across the water headed back to civilization. 

80 air miles from the float plane docks, there we were standing on a gravel bar in the rain with nothing but 2 packs, 2 rifles, and a dry bag full of candy.  We scrambled up the brush line only to be greeted by alder tangles and what I assume is muskeg.  Everything looked and felt like a sponge. 2ft deep holes all over, hidden by the grass and most were waiting to snap knee's with every step.  We found a creek bed that had some solid ground and it was lower than bench we were on so it offered some wind protection.  It wasn't perfect but it was good enough as we were now getting pounded by the rain.  We pitched the Tipi, cut a big alder for a sturdy center pole and began to un-cluster our lives and assess what we had going on. We attempted fire but there was no useable wood.  We robbed the bottom of an old eagles nest for dryish sticks and were able to make enough heat to sorta dry rain gear a bit but it was labor intensive and we quickly realized that fire was not going to be a tool on this hunt.  In my mind this amplified the seriousness of everything.  Heat and getting dry is literally a life or death thing and our intended heat source wasnt an option anymore.  From hear on out we would have to rely on our synthetic layers and sleeping bags to dry gear and salvage body heat.