2006 Moose Hunt, Part 1: "Moose Lake"

Finally hunting season arrived again this year. It seems like it takes way to long to get here each year. Aaron and I planned and plotted for months and hoped this year would be a success. In 2005 we'd gone into our secret moose hunting spot, moose lake as we call it, and saw a number of large bulls, but couldn't figure how to get close to them since they were another 3+ miles and we were already in 5 miles.  We'd planned accordingly spending $550 on a plane ticket for Aaron's brother, Adam, to join us as a packer...and a guide...and camp cook. :)  We had two areas we'd debated on hunting, and finally narrowed it down to the old standby, moose lake.  The hike would be further, but the opportunity greater with more moose to see and have a chance at, we figured.  Of course, when you don't have a plane you don't really know what is in store for you, but we had a pretty good idea.

We picked Adam up from Anchorage on September 5th at 7:30pm.  We'd driven down from the cabin that morning (five hour drive), ran errands around town, picked him up, ran some more errands, then started on the drive to the cabin again.  We made sure we had in-drive entertainment though with our laptop DVD player and some good moose hunting videos for Adam to get up to speed on.  We got to the cabin very late, around 2am with the Northern Lights guiding us most of the way.

The next morning we woke around 8:30am and started getting ready. I made fresh blueberry pancakes for a pre-hunt meal while the boys packed and organized.  After a good drive we were on the trail at 3pm. We'd warned Adam that the hike was a killer with a 3000+ elevation gain in under two miles, but he didn't seem too concerned.  Our packs were relatively heavy with ten days of supplies, but not bad compared to some of our first hunts in Alaska.  The hike started really hard for me though. I had some pinched nerve or cramped muscle in my right lower back.  We hiked about 1/2 mile then took a break before the big climb. Somehow I got rid of the cramp and the rest of the climb was exhausting but not painful.  Frequent breaks with blueberries as snacks were the key to making it to the top alive

We reached the top later than we expected, but kept on hiking. We planned on camping about 4.5 miles in.  We saw a couple caribou when we crested the first ridge, just cows though.  We set up camp under a clear sky with a steady cool breeze keeping us well aware of the cold night ahead. Adam put pretty much all his layers on and said "wow, I'm gonna be cold the next ten days."  Meanwhile Aaron and I were pretty toasty. We've found that down is the key to being warm when it isn't wet outside. Aaron finally got a down coat before this trip, and he was toasty. We glassed down the bowl we were camped over before the sun set and saw a single bull about a mile away. The surrounding country was very "moosey" and we were very excited for morning. After a hot gourmet meal of Mountain House we were all very happy to lay on the squishy tundra and sleep. 

(The above pictures are from our first camp.  Adam sits with his headlamp on that I think weighted 3lbs....he insisted on bringing it though. It was a gift from his Norwegian father-in-law and it is no joke of a headlamp, it is more like a headlight.)

The next morning was clear and cold. We got up at 6:00 and glassed from a lookout not too far from our camp. The view was limited since it was a smaller valley that opened into a larger area.  We saw a nice bull and some cows.  After glassing for awhile I saw movement on a little knoll about two miles away and realized it was a person...not something we wanted to see after hiking in 4.5 miles already.  We figured though, there is lots of land and it shouldn't be an issue. 

After some high calorie granola bars and coffee, we decided our day would be a scouting day with higher miles to find out what was in our surroundings.  We packed lunch, dinner, the cook stove, water purifier, rifles, and other such hunting items on our pack frames and headed out. We saw a few cow caribou here an there as we walked. We walked about 3+ miles from camp and thought this should be all the further we go. No shooting a moose further or the hike out would surely kill us, not like 8 miles would be a piece of cake, but we had to set some limit.

(This little porcupine was so stoic. He held his ground. Adam was at about six feet from him in this picture, and got up to three feet. The little guy just watched us, and spun around a few times to show us his quills.  Glad my malamutes weren't along with or we would have had quills in mouth and nose)

The top of the valley we've been glassing into. The creek just started from nowhere with a small trickle, but further down produces some fast flowing water that we took advantage of with our Nalgenes.  Didn't even bother purifying it, and boy was it cold.

Fall colors lit up the hillsides. My favorite time in Alaska as far as scenery is the fall. The colors are wild and bright, nothing compares to them.

The problem with the country we were hunting in, was that we were so high that to cover ground we had to drop into these huge river valleys and then hike back up the other side.  We looked and looked for old or fresh shed antlers and found nothing.  Makes a hunt even better though when you can shed hunt too.  The day turned out to be a scorcher. We didn't know the exact temp, but it had to be 60+. We ended up shedding pant layers and Aaron sported a very fancy outfit with his heavyweight long-johns and 10'Danner boots.  I reminded Adam that for the first time on one of his hunts in Alaska he couldn't say he was cold.

Finally at our spotting knob. We had great views in all directions. We fixed some lunch and waited for cooler evening temps to bring the moose out. We figured we'd have to be hiking by 6pm to make it back to camp before dark.  Adam and I made it for awhile after a hearty lunch of Mountain House, but soon the heat and food caught up with us.

Lucky we had Aaron around to take pictures of his great hunting partners.  All eyes on the moose.... I'm not one to take naps very often, so I blame this on the heat waves that make glassing a pain and the early morning.  Adam sleeps all the time so he doesn't get an excuse :)

My nap was interrupted when Aaron said he saw people below us a good bit down the hill we were setup on. People, I thought, who else is crazy enough to hike in 8 miles for a moose. Only Aaron and I, and Adam didn't know any better.  We watched them for a bit. They appeared to set up to glass on a knob as well, but were about a half mile down. We all started glassing then.  Aaron got up and glassed a little further over to our right when he dropped down and motioned he'd seen a bull. We scooted to him and got a good look at the bull that was about a half mile away from us parallel on the hill. He looked gigantic that far away and we jumped into the stalk. It was hard to move with the open country but we managed to get to 500 yards before we lost cover. Then we waited for him to turn before we all moved single file toward him.  At one point we got behind a stand of alders and moved quickly and quietly out of sight of the bull. I was ready with my scope on the lowest power for a close shot. We peaked through the stand of alders and saw antlers moving in the next stand of alders not far from us.  We all sat dead still and watched as the antlers moved in the alders and slowly moved their way out into the open with a large moose attached to them. We ranged him then at 140 yards.  Now it was up to me.   I hadn't imagined I'd be in this situation; the first day of a hunt,  8 miles in, with a nice bull no doubt this close to me.  We hadn't even had a chance to see what else was in the valley, but granted there were people around too. What were people doing way out here? If I don't shoot him surely they will, and I may not see another bull like this, or I may see a bigger one. I'm not supposed to shoot the first bull we see.  Okay let me think about all the moose I've looked at in the last couple months in magazines, videos, and online...is he really nice?   These were thoughts that were pouring through my mind.  He was enormous and so curious or dumb just standing there with us in sight. He watched us and then dropped to his knees to start feeding.  At one point I was ready to shoot, and then with a few thoughts from Aaron, I changed my mind again.  It was the first day, and we probably could find him again since he obviously wasn't spooked.  So I said, "I'll wait, not on the first day".  We watched him a little longer. We counted 13 points on each side with 4 scoreable brows on each side with two more possible on the right. No doubt he had the brows that giant bulls are made of.

(Adam took these pictures through his binoculars when the bull was 140 yards away.)

So we snuck back through the alders away from him, and at the same time he turned and walked back into the alders he'd been in before but kept moving away and down the drainage behind him. I couldn't believe the rush I felt after being that close to a beautiful legal bull, and I couldn't believe I hadn't shot him, I was hunting moose after all.  We started back toward where we left our stuff talking about the excitement of being that close to a nice bull. We crested a little ridge and up ahead of us was a guy sneaking toward us with a rifle. As we got closer and were talking he put his figure up to his mouth to signal us to be quiet.  We got up to him, and he said, "Sshh, I'm making a stalk on a bull."  I almost giggled.  We told him that we were just 140 yards from a pretty darn nice bull. He said he hadn't seen it, but the guys he was with had spotted a bull in the area we'd been.  I'm not sure he was expecting to see three people walk up over the hill he was sneaking over, especially that far in the hills. We at least had already seen them, so we were a bit less surprised, but still in the back of my mind I was thinking, "run moose run. Man, how often this far in is a moose that close to being shot, then passed up, then has some other person make a sneak on them and shoot."  For all the work that Aaron and I do to try and be in remote areas away from other people, this was crazy. We came to find out that the guy was in on horses with some buddies and had already shot two smaller bulls and a grizzly, and was hunting for their third moose. 

Horses...how could we compete with horses. We told him the bull wasn't spooked and watched him go on his way.  Then we ran into his hunting buddies that were just as surprised to see us.  We watched as they all moved in the direction up hill from where we'd last seen the bull. It was sickening to think my chance may have been over with that bull. I kind of wished I could have backtracked time a bit at that moment. 

We got our belongings and headed back for camp.  About a mile and a half into our walk I heard a gunshot and my heart sank.  Well, I figured, at least they had their three moose and were done hunting now and would hopefully leave.  It was a long walk back to camp and we barely made it before dark.  Dinner was tasty and our hot cocoa was even tastier. With a fading light I hurried to glass the valley below for any bulls to lift my spirits.  Sure enough about 1.5 miles away out in the valley I spotted a nice bull walking along a little ridge.  Seeing him gave me a sense of hope that I had made the right decision.
We finished up the night sitting in "the lodge" as we call it which is our tent. Aaron and I in the inner tent, and Adam in the vestibule with lots of room to spare.  Adam kept pulling out his digital camera and laughing as he looked at the images of the moose he'd taken pictures of...the moose I decided not to shoot. We all took turns looking at the pics, and for some reason they made him look gigantic to me, and I couldn't believe what I'd done.

The next day we decided to move camp another 1.75 miles in. We camped along a ridgeline with an outstanding view of the valley below us in all directions.  We hiked about 1/3 mile down the ridge for an evening glass. The wind picked up as we were leaving camp and continued at a steady clip until late into the night.  We ended up building ourselves a makeshift rock wall to block the gusts from us. Makes glassing with a spotting scope really hard when the scope is blowing around in the wind.  We saw a single bull that was close to the area I'd seen the bull the night before.  It was hard to get a good look at him as he stayed hidden in the timber most of the time.  We saw a couple caribou a few ridges over, and glassed a fine black bear across the valley on bright red hillside.

Back at camp we saw a beautiful bull caribou down in the valley below us. We watched him for a good while raking the brush with his antlers. 

We enjoyed more hot beverages in the lodge, and again Adam pulled out his camera to show me all the pictures of the bull I'd passed up the day before.  It was pretty warm inside the tent with all of us and the lantern running. The outside temps were in the thirties, but inside it was toasty.

We decided while hanging out in the lodge the night before, that we would hike over first thing in the morning to where we'd seen the bull I'd passed up the day before.  We all woke at 5:30 am and started our pre-dawn hike. It is strange how muscles and lungs are slow to work in the morning.  We made it to our glassing knob an hour later and Adam immediately spotted a couple cow moose down in the alder thicket.  With the sun hidden behind a thin cloud layer the morning stayed chilly.  Around 10:00 am we saw antlers moving through some alders near where we'd seen the bull two days before.  Two cows led the way, and then a fine bull walked into the open. At first we all thought it was the same bull we'd passed up; but after close scrutiny we realized it was a smaller more immature bull with only two brows on each side.  We watched as he followed the cows up the sloping hillside and disappeared behind a small draw.  We saw another cow down the hill further, but no signs of a bull with her.  We fixed some coffee and had granola bars and discussed our plan for the day. We decided we'd hike up over and glass into the bowl they'd gone into. Right when we stood to put our pack frames on, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and quickly sat back down as the three moose reappeared. They were all running fast down the hill, the way they had just walked up. The cows weren't messing around at all running at high speed, well in front of the bull, but he didn't waste too much time in catching up.  I thought it was pretty strange, and none of us had an answer for their behavior.  We watched them until they disappeared from sight in the alders. 

We decided to stay put for awhile to glass the area after all the action.  It was then that I spotted a dandy bull a ridge and valley away standing in the open just above timberline.  He just stood there and you could see that he was massive. His spread was 60+ with long paddles that carried their width all the way up.  We watched him for a bit, and then I saw another flash of white in the trees just in front of him.  The big bull started slowly walking to the edge of the clearing, and then another bull appeared that looked just as impressive. They kept their distance, but didn't seem to mind each other. I suppose they were still hanging out in groups since the rut was just starting.  Eventually the first big bull left the clearing and started heading along the base of a hill at treeline.  Up ahead of him we spotted another dandy bull with a huge spread. They seemed to all be heading to the same cool bedding down spot for the afternoon.  Back in the clearing the bull in the trees we'd seen earlier finally made his way into the open sporting a fine rack himself, and a smaller bull joined him.  They all walked in the same general direction and disappeared from sight. 

The heat of the day was overwhelming with hardly a breeze. We made some lunch and then it was nap time.  We all fell asleep for a good bit under a beating sun, and woke to our feet on fire.  Nothing like expedition weight socks in insulated Danners with the sun beating on them.  We moved down to a different glassing knob getting ready for some good evening action.  It was about 4pm when we spotted a nice black bear on the far hill.  No moose movement though.  Then Aaron said he saw horses.  Sure enough over a half mile from us on the same ridge was a horse with a rider and two other horses tied behind, and then three other riders crested the hill pulling horses as well.  We figured they must be coming to get their moose they'd shot a couple days before.  They continued on up in the direction the two cows and bull had gone earlier that morning.  It all made sense now, the cows and bull had found or smelt the dead moose and got out of there in a hurry.  I watched as they disappeared from sight into the bowl, and the evening glassing was pretty much over.  It was disheartening to think they'd just come through the area we'd have liked to have seen moose.  We fixed ourselves dinner before heading back to camp.  We arrived back at camp with only a few caribou sightings.  No sign of moose anywhere.

It wasn't an easy decision, but we all agreed we'd be better to leave the area and hunt the other spot we'd scouted.  The valley we were in had had a lot of activity and there were a lot of dead moose around which surely made the other moose spooky.  I had tears in my eyes as I loaded my pack, hoping we were making the right choice.  Aaron and I said in the beginning that we wouldn't leave until the very end, we just hadn't planned on seeing people and horses. 

We headed out at 1pm in the heat of the day with hardly a breeze.  It was miserable, and with each step I was very glad we hadn't shot a moose three days before; the meat would surely have spoiled in the heat with no shade or trees to hang it in.  The walk was quiet and difficult over the tundra. Nothing drains the legs like boggy ground with tussocks to roll your ankles.  We were pretty hot and tired by the time we reached the top of the hill that we'd hiked in on. Nothing like a 3000+ drop in elevation on a path that pretty much goes straight down, with a decent pack on your back.  My knees were on fire by the time we reached the bottom, and I think my feet were raw from sliding forward in my boots.  We were very glad to see the truck as we left it, and even more glad to crack a cold beer and soak our feet in the creek we crossed.  Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that we'd made it out of there without a moose....

When we were driving out, we saw a horse trailer with three moose racks resting against it. We figured it must be the guys we'd seen in there. I was excited to see the moose that I'd passed up, but when we walked up to the racks we realized that the big rack wasn't the same bull that we'd been close to a couple days before; it was an older bull without very impressive brows. It made me feel a little better that that old boy was probably still walking around in there, and would live another year.

We hauled all the meat into the cabin and hung it with the rest of the meat. Quite an impressive amount of moose meat hanging around.  The temperatures weren't great by any means, during the day 58 and at night around 52.  We treated our game bags with citric acid and it seemed to help keep the flies off for the most part.

Adam and Aaron spend a couple hours cleaning my moose skull of as much meat as they could. There were already a few maggots setting up house though.

We drove to town and celebrated with a victory dinner that evening. Pretty cool having two moose racks on your truck, without 4-wheelers, Argos, or boats behind it.

The next morning we finished the meat cutting detail, and loaded our chest freezer full, and loaded one of their shelves full as well. We had lots of burger scrap meat and sausage meat too.  We distributed more moose meat to friends and then headed to Eagle River to pick the dogs up. I was so excited to see them, and was so excited to give them each a big moose leg for allowing us to kennel them for so long (not like they had a choice though).

Kodi and Tundra were thrilled with the treats. They turned into real canines though, showing their wild side.  Once they broke out in a fight when Kodi was trying to take both bones; we ran out and had to break them up.  I guess a little meat makes dogs mad.