This hunt started a number of years ago as my desire to see more places and experience more adventure grew and grew out of reading and hearing about others' adventures.
Talking to my old man last year settled it for 2010 as he wanted to experience that same adventure before age crept up and stopped it before it happened.
After a good bit of research but more intel gathered from buddies that have gone we had Kodiak Island picked as the place to go.
I will try and put our trip into words without using too many, and letting as many pics talk as possible.
We flew out of our respective locales into Anchorage by mid-day and got onto a plane together and landed in Kodiak with time to get our licenses and eat dinner at Henry's before hitting the sack for our last night in civilization for nine days.
Next morning we flew out to the hunting area, dropping basecamp and hiking up the mountain for our spike location and to start hunting.
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I had three tags, dad had two.
That night we saw deer up and over the mountain and we made plans for the next day.
First morning we were sacked in with high winds, fog and rain. We hiked out anyway and sat in our Helly Hansen rain gear with visibility about 30yds until about noon. Off I go after a few bucks, but the fog moved in and I shivered on the mountain top in high winds and thick fog until it broke at 5pm.
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I got onto the same group but the wind switched and they took off.
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After the group took off I knew we had to circle the mountain to glass critters that weren't below us. After sidehilling a bit I found two bucks that were upwind, and the terrain looked like I could put a stalk together.
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Once I got to a place where I hoped I could relocate my pack I called dad and told him I was on a stalk and thought he should come up and over as well.
I put on my homemade ghillie hat/ hood and slid down the saddle in plain sight of the bucks from about 350yds till 150yds. Then I was in creek drainages and contours until about 75yds when I was again out in the open.
I got into about 50yds of where they eventually bedded but they were gone. The wind never faltered and I moved like a frozen slug so I knew they were there, somewhere.
I slowly sneaked on my stomach to about 25yds from the drainage that was just on my side of where they were bedded and saw movement. I got to my knees as the smaller buck came within view at about 12yds. I was low and he never looked at me, but eventually fed off into the creek. I sneaked a tad bit closer and noticed the small buck was farther up the drainage and looking at me, but I was just a moving bush and he never got too worried.
He came within ten yards and I almost filled my first tag but saw the bigger buck just in the drainage feeding and held off.
The lil buck finally didn't like the blob and trotted off, taking the bigger buck with him. The bigger buck gave me a quick shot opp as he was getting out of the creek at about 25yds when I sank an arrow three feet from his backside. I never picked a spot, and the two bucks ran off to over 100yds.
I whiffed and knew I would regret that rookie mistake. Shooting a trad bow requires a ton of concentration and I lost it like a freshmen rounding first base the first time...
Let me stop here and say that the Helly Hansen Impertech is awesome stuff. I was more comfortable in my Sitka stuff and a windproof sweater, but we had wind that literally had us leaning our chests beyond our toes to walk into it.
Wearing a pair of UA cold gear pants under the bibs and a heat gear top and a sitka traverse shirt under the jacket was good for slowly moving from glassing point to glassing point, but once stopping I put on a windproof sweater and a vest and still shivered like a wet billygoat.
We also arfed up good and didnt take warm and waterproof gloves. My hands were always cold and a few times I couldn't even pick my nose as I couldn't feel my fingers.
Now back to my miss...
Even though I was feeling like a piece of old gum on an elephant's foot I didn't move.
Let me also add here that I went into this with pretty simple goals...
1) Have an awesome trip with my old man and make sure he had the same.
2) Kill any deer first, then depending on what we saw and of course the weather I would decide on my standards after that point.
3) Kill one ptarmigan.
4) Kill some fish so my wife would have a reason to look forward to me going again.
Eventually the little buck walked by me, only generally looking my direction at 35yds. Seeing as the bigger buck had followed the lil guy's lead prior I stayed put and closed my eyes for a little divine intervention.
Sure enough the bigger buck walked in the same footprints of the lil guy, and stopped quartering away at 35yds as if some great un-avoidable force had placed him there per a script I hadn't yet seen.
The arrow was on the way, guided by hope, determination, and having picked a spot...
At the shot the buck must have seen movement and tilted back to broadside but I didn't notice until the arrow was off the string and inbound with bad intentions.
The arrow hit a bit back, but I saw the arrow fall out the backside about 15yds away from impact.
I lost the buck after he rounded a little bend, but the lil guy was higher on the ridge and he acted weird, staring at the ground and staying put even though he knew something was after his buddy.
He wouldn't leave a little depression about 75yds away from me and about 40yds from the shot. I sneaked to the point of impact and stuck my blunt tipped arrow into it vertically to be able to find the point of impact later.
After waiting a bit I craweled to the fallen arrow and the broadhead tip was bent.
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What happened? What did I hit, should I back out on a deer in Kodiak Alaska with all the critters here looking for an easy meal?
:knothead: :coffee:
Quick answer, Hell no. I saw good blood pumping right after the shot and I saw the lil guy acting like he lost his best friend. I have a dead deer and I need to claim him now and get to work.
I kept a low crawl along the blood trail glassing ahead at every step.
Pretty flowers...
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Getting better...
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Bingo, I can exhale...
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After seeing him down I verified he was done and went to get my pack and meet dad coming down the mountain for a handshake and a moment to share it with my best friend.
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Here's my first Sitka blacktail buck on my first Alaskan hunt.
A pretty wide and heavy forky with no eyeguards and short forks...
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This buck was special for many reasons.
First of all my dad was there. This was his first backpack hunt, first deer hunt with a traditional bow and first deer hunt outside of Georgia.
After the pics and a few moments to take in the big experience we were short on words and ready to start the best part of any hunt, turning it into food!
As some may remember I made a knife for my dad and myself this last year and this is the first animal they have been used on (check the homemade section for that thread). The helle blades maintained their edge and the handles were great in the palm.
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Now part of any successful backpack hunt is the best part, the pack out. But before that started we got a few uninvited guests coming to crash the party as the sun went down.
We had between six and ten foxes coming within feet to grab a mouthfull of our meat all laid out cooling so we tossed some fat scraps and bones to them as the rain lightly fell to keep them off this valuable commodity.
Here's a pic that really doesn't show what was wanted as the flash hit the rain, but you can be sure there are no less than three foxes in the frame, you can bet your backside on that...
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So we are breaking the buck down per Alaskan law with all rib, neck, quarters, straps, brisket, and hock meat needing to come out before the antlers.
As we finish the first half I notice two bucks off about 300 yds and dad takes off.
That turned out to be not only futile as the wind switched, but also pretty damned foolish as we didn't get the buck caped, the meat cooled and into the packs until midnight.
At this point I made another mistake. I knew the drop to the creek and back up the other side was steep, but also knew it cut off a few miles from how we got in there. On the way down, sliding the last few hundred vertical feet on our backsides as the ridge was that steep I knew I screwed up big time.
We then had no way out of that canyon but up the creek. Damn...
We got to our camp at 0400. It blew rain and wind so hard we had to lean into the wind like it was an elephant.
I will add here that my dad is a tough hombre but has never done a pack out, nor a backpack hunt.
A few times we had to have a pow wow as he wasn't totally sure I knew where I was leading him though I was 100% confident. Eventually we hit some very obvious parts of the mountain that even he remembered so we were both in pretty good spirits when we started the short downhill strip to the spike camp.
We very happily ate a MH meal and passed out till 0900 when we hiked down to basecamp and submerged the meat into a hole in the bottom of the creek. Deep enough to be unseen and un-smelled by foxes and the bears.
Then we got weather like I have never seen.
Insane weather that was reminiscent of hurricanes and such from South Georgia.
That night we stayed at basecamp and left the next morning for the top where we sat in the wind and rain till dark. Never seeing past 40yds.
The next day at 3pm we glassed up a buck. Off we went, closing the few miles relatively quickly.
We popped over the edge of the ridge and had the big fork at 10yds. I whispered to dad to get ready and took one last look at his antler tips when I saw him looking our way...
Like a damned fool I poked my head up to see him beading down on me at 10yds.
Now here again I acted like a rookie big time. I was wearing my ghillie getup and knew he only heard us shifting location. No way he smelled us with the solid 30knot wind and because I could only see him thru the grass he couldn't know what I was or that I was capable of pooping out a diamond because I wanted dad to kill him so bad, but I got nervous and went to draw on him.
He ran off about fifteen more yards and looked back, right as the widow spit a meat missle with nothing good to say...
Holy Wright Brothers, the arrow flew like a beer can with one wing, and missed his backside as he took off. Dang wind was brutal on those 5" feathers. I swear I saw it spin a 360 on the way there.
Off he went and I swear I didn't stop beating myself up for the rest of the day.
I know if I had relaxed the buck would have also. I also know that dad would have gotten a shot and that I screwed that up.
But we had almost five days left and we thought the weather was done beating us down...
Well the next two days were more of the worst weather I have ever seen.
Imagine steppig out of the tent wearing a full legit rainsuit to pee, wind at your back.
Now imagine the wind whipping so hard that you are peeing on yourself even with your back to the wind.
After another two days of being tent ridden and climbing the mountain with zero visibility with high hopes it would break everyday, only to come down at sundown having not seen past 50yds at any time we were starting to truly understand that "mother nature was the boss out here".
Finally it broke again at about noon and we were off. We still hadn't seen a buck within a few miles of camp and we headed out the longest ridge we could find.
Pretty soon we had a small 3 pt bedded and we stalked into 70yds with no possibility to close the distance.
I stayed put and dad circled with the wind to come over on top of the buck.
I'll be damned if he didn't get within "this just might work" range when a doe and two fawns came up and started feeding above the buck, busting dad when seconds before I was posing that dead buck in my head for my dad's first bowkill...
After that we got on a group of 9 deer that had two good bucks and a funky spike with eyeguards and a reverse G2.
I won't drag this out anymore than I already have. I got within ten yards of the lil freak spork and would have ground checked him but he got "friendly" and came close to see what that moving bush was. I had my BlackWidow on my right side, as harmless as a church mouse. I made a push for the other bucks after lil freak got antsy and blew them out of there.
As they ran off the two good bucks ran towards dad and I had a great feeling...
In the end dad got both bucks into 45yds but wasn't comfortable with the shot with his longbow and let them walk off.
Next day we got within 40yds of s great three point that we glassed from a solid mile and a half. It was without a doubt the best stalk I have ever put together, and had my dad there with me the whole way.
He eventually fed off and I made one more low probability stalk on a bedded buck half way up the mountain. The wind switched and we headed to camp for the last night out in the bush.
That night we stayed in basecamp as we were two miles from either camp, but spike was up and over multiple 800-1000 ft ridges and then back down to just above sea level and up the next. We woke up early and left at first light to go make one last push before having to pack up the spike camp and hike down to get extracted.
We saw deer and made a few hustles for them but just ran out of time and we flew off that night to dinner again at Henry's. 12 prawns, Texas toothpicks, calamari, and two pitchers of Alaskan Amber and we were ready for bed.
I'll get some more pics up here covering our last day in Alaska as well as a few more to fill in our whole trip.
I will say this, my old man is as tough as anyone I have ever met. He was game for anything. He hiked out part of my buck in conditions that I know most wouldn't even consider, and kept a smile on his face the whole time. I remember laughing together at about 3am on that pack out with my buck when we finally knew where we were, though I knew the whole time. Freaking fog and rain so thick the gps wouldn't pick up the satelite from on top of the ridge.
Dad, thanks for an insane "trip of a lifetime" that we need to do every year.
Great post! Congrats to you and your dad on the success and wonderful adventure.
Awesome! Congrats and thanx for sharing :campfire: :clapper:
Congrats - What a great hunt with your Dad. That hunt will last a life time in your memories. I'm planning a similar hnut for 2012 and hope it is half as exciting as yours. Thanks for sharing - you got me fired up.
Man that is a great story.
Awesome story!!! :clapper:
Thanks for an awesome story and for taking us along, Travis. :bigsmyl: :thumbsup: :notworthy: :clapper:
Great story telling! What a wonderful trip you had and to be able to share it with your dad makes it all the more special. The bad weather, while not a help to the hunting and I'm sure no fun at all, is all part of what will make this trip stick in your memory for a long time to come.
Great job! :clapper: :clapper:
Great story Z !!!!Congrats on a fine trophy there my friend!
ElkNut1
Awesome...that's a great word! Thanks for sharing the hunt and pictures. :thumbsup:
Freak'n awsome!!! :notworthy:
Well told story, thank you for sharing!!
GREAT thread....! Thanks for sharing and taking us along. Hunting with your Dad is about as good as it can get...
John III
Thanks guys, it was a blast!
Last day n Kodiak we caught 6 halibut, 3 ling cod, one silver salmon, and three rockfish.
Ended up with a 50 lb box of fish each and I took home a 72 lb box of antlers, cape and meat. Can't wait to eat some more of that venison. It was the best I have ever had...
Great story, thanks for sharing.
What an experience for you-and us!
Thanks
Great story! Congrats to you and your dad. You guys had a great hunt together you will never forget. The pics are great. Post more pics if you have them. Send some to me at kd_zimmerman@comcast.net I would love to see and hear more. My brother was stuck in his tent for a couple days in May for his brown bear hunt. The weather is brutal up their. Always plan for the worst.
Nice story, congrats on a great hunt, and thanks for sharing it.
Great stuff brother! Nothing like spending time in the woods with Dad!
What a fantastic memory to have, time spent with Dad in a mystical place. Great hunt and experience!!
Thank you
Hopefully I can get some more pics up later. My dad sent me a cd.
Ate some halibut last night with a crab chowder made from the left over crab we got there too!
Good times, almost in tears I miss Alaska so much.
Too cool.Congradulations to you and dad.
Great memories for sure...congratulations!
Great story!!! Loved it. Wish I had my younger brother around to plan a great hunt with.
Sound like you had a great time and will have some great memories.
Outstanding! :clapper:
QuoteOriginally posted by John3:
GREAT thread....! Thanks for sharing and taking us along. Hunting with your Dad is about as good as it can get...
John III
I believe this says it well. Great story thanks for the trip.
My wife told me that she is glad we got that out of my system.
She didn't appreciate my hysterical laughter...
Here's a pic of my homemade ghillie suit. Worked pretty well as long as the wind didn't switch on me...
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A few pics from fishing in the greatest place on earth.
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Nice going!
Man, is it lunchtime yet! That halibut looks pretty good! I bet that is some fine venison with all that great feed for those bucks.
Good to see an "ol' guy" hold up to the test...why to go dad!
See any bears?
Great story, thanks for sharing. Those memories with your Dad will remain forever.
Thanks for sharring! Hunting Alaska is my dream, reading these stories and seeing the pics just push me closer.
:thumbsup: :notworthy:
Very nicely written. Hey, how bad could it be? You were in Alaska. I only dream of going there one day.
Great story and nice looking buck. Nice to be able to share an experience like that with your dad.
great narrative! The weather in AK can be and is often brutul. I have been fishing there 2x and it can rain indefinately. 90 degrees one day and 45 the very next! If you get discouraged by weather, don't go to AK! It is a great and dangerous state. I have never been hunting there, but would like to, so long as I have a couple of weeks...
My only regret would be my rookie moves on the bedded buck we got to ten yards on. Dad should have gotten a shot.
But we had an epic 12 days in the place I was born to be, and we left plenty of deer for next time!
Thanks for the accolades guys, this is a must do hunt if you like adventure. And with the right planning costs less than a western DIY elk hunt.
I envy you to be able to have this experience with your dad!
I hope one day to share an adventure like this with my son.
Well done, well told story!
Thank you,
F-Manny
Hopefully I get the meat back Saturday.
Have eaten fish everyday but twice since we got back. I'll need to go back for that before October, plus I got two more deer tags and does are legal come 10/1.
Just need a plane ticket and time off...
Thanks for an awesome story and for taking us along :campfire:
Awesome!!
very nice, thanks for sharing
Thanks for the read. I enjoyed that.
Great story! Awesome pics! I hope to someday go with my boys! Man I feel your spirit! Thanks for sharing!
Great read.
Wished I could have done something similar with my old man.
I have two boys, almost 5 and 7.
We are already trying to figure the trip for three generations to hunt Alaska.
Whoever said Alaska gets in your blood was 100% right. A very special place I only hope has me in its future many times before I retire to the happy hunting grounds.
Thanks guys, I relive the hunt every moment I close my eyes.
Thats just way cool. Great job.
My boys are 15 and 17 now and when I close my eyes, I can still see them when they were 5 and 7! Cherish everyday! Ok...nuff of this stuffy stuff! Time to go out and shoot some!