Alaska Blacktail Deer 1

Well. We just arrived in Kodiak. Unfortunately. We have lost about, 60%, of our bags are still in Anchorage so including our two guns which is kind of critical so, we're, gonna go figure out what they're gonna do for us and then go, from there. All. Kinds of fun. So. I didn't, grow up hunting at all in fact I hadn't even really done a whole lot outdoors. When. I met. Luke in, 2006. He, had a real passion for hunting and the outdoors and was. Excited, to introduce me to that and I, was, I, guess brave enough to try and so we, started doing more and more hunting, and backpacking trips together, Luke, grew up hunting and lived. You know kind of a subsistence lifestyle, they primarily ate game meat when he was growing up but he hadn't done a tremendous amount of backpack. Hunting before we. Met and so that's something we sort of moved into together, where you're you, know hunting out of a backpack carrying, everything you need with you all the time. Luke. Had a. Rare, Kodiak, brown bear tags, Luke's. Fall tag also offered, the opportunity for, deer and when, his dad Marty decided to join us I think deer took a little bit more. Of a focus of course we would have taken embarrassed, the opportunity, had presented itself, but. We chose our hunt location, based on, good. Access, for deer hunting. In. The rest of my life I am a registered nurse and I work in cardiac care, besides, the folks I work with awesome most, of my female friends don't. Hunt so I didn't, really grow up in a hunting sort of environment, and really know a lot of women who hunted but when, it's something that became a passion, of mine I, really. Had, a strong desire to encourage other women to think that they can do it and I was, not ever much of an athlete growing, up I had never fired a gun till I was you know 20 to 23, years old, in. The last 10 years it's become a real passion for me hunting any outdoors and so I really, like to try to do what I can to encourage other women to realize that they can get out there and they can do this and if you put your mind to it and are, interested and want to learn you can you can really get out there and do a lot of cool things here in Alaska. We. Had a chance to test out a new tent on this trip we. Picked. Up a 12, by 12, extreme. Weather tent or xwt, for. This trip and. We. Always bring more than one shelter with us to Kodiak so we brought the 12 by 12 xwt, and then, we also brought, a, smaller. Sleeping. Tent that Luke and I shared so. The. 12 by 12 as, xwt, served, as our cooking. And hangout, tent and then Marty and Ken slept in there and. Luke. And I slept in the smaller shelter to the side. For. Space that provides already. Should. Provide more than enough room for. Two. People to sleep in here and the four of us to hang out cook weather out of storm if that's what we need to do, the. Vestibule, alone is plenty of space to throw gear we. Got lucky. In that it's not raining today when. We landed here we had nice weather to set everything up but that isn't always the case and it sure would have been handy to be setting things up from in here and then shuttling them out as we needed them. So. We got most of the camp set up with the tents and sleeping. Bags and pads and all that good stuff and, a, little. Bit more organizing, for gear and then we might go for walkabout. Stuff on top of the salespeople you can see we've already seen, three.

Deer Across the way over there so that's encouraging we, could actually. That's. Really the only, big game animal I'm aware of in Alaska they can same day airborne hunt them so that's kind of cool, we're. Pretty. Excited because my. Opinion is the best tasting meat in Alaska so. If. You looking steaks over there walking around. When, we first got to. Our hunt location, one, of the first things we did was go. Ahead and hike up to the nearest, Ridgeline, so if you get a better lay of the land and we. Were definitely seeing, deer on the far side of that Ridgeline although. Once we got up there and started looking we were actually also seeing some deer closer to camp as well. It's. Bigger than the one I saw earlier, but. We were definitely seeing more deer and bigger deer on the far side of that hill. In. A previous season we had unsuccessfully, hunted, brown bear with Marty and so. He was gamed to come along for a repeat try around her. We. Had a great time on the trip and we saw a lot of bears that we weren't able to connect on bears, on, the previous trip Marty even joined us boys to the point another, bear. Now. He's up gonna open their eyes. Some. Of the challenges, on that trip were, wind we just encountered a lot of wind and the wind was blowing our, scent from our camp from one end of the lake we were camped the whole length of the lake and it made it really difficult for us to get on bears we. Also had a little, difficulty we could see a bear but they'd be at the far end lake and we'd have to run the boat all the way down there and by the time we'd get there they'd either hear us or wind us and be gone. We. Definitely have some challenges hunting, bears on that trip. For. This trip we were largely, on foot as, opposed. To hunting from a motorized boat and it. Was also a little bit later in the season so the hours to hunt were definitely, different we were only working. With daylight from about 9:00 a.m. to about 7:00 p.m. compared, to a September. Kind of a trip where it's you know light till 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock at night we. Needed to be back to camp by at like 7:00 p.m. if we wanted to avoid coming back in the dark. We. Got good at looks oh my goodness. Gonna, be so dry my goodness. Prepping. Food for hunts whether, we're going the dehydrated, route or whether I am fortunate, enough to be able to bring real food from home I spend, a pretty good deal of my time planning, that because. Of the number of trips that Luke and I take and you're trying to make sure that you bring, all the food you're gonna need for all the members of your party for as long as you might stay and at, the same time be mindful of weight consideration. Learning. To, hunt and starting, to explore. The outdoors has, opened up a whole new Alaska, for me I grew up here but, the experience that I've had in Alaska, since I started doing things outdoors is totally different than than anything that I had experienced, before I started doing those things the. Number. Of animals you can hunt the number of places you can go and. Explore in Alaska, I mean there just isn't, enough isn't enough time to explore, them all and hunt them all and so. Alaska. Just really offers a lot of incredible, opportunities, for hunting, and outdoor exploration. Luke. Had. Previously, hunted this spot with a friend, who had a bear tag in. 2011. And, they did a combo trip for bears and deer at that time I think, Luke was intrigued by the access. To the area you can really see, a lot of area and you can really get into a lot of area we. Had also heard that the deer population at, that location. Had been increasing, we've had several mild winters, and that, really you, know really helped the deer population to grow so we were hopeful we could get some deer while, at the same time hunting for bear.

And, I worked our way up to help fighting for like that. Be. Good little job but if the piece we're moving we'll just keep doing this stop in the glass every hundred yards or so I mean you could going. It. Was pretty clear but these deer had definitely been hunted, and been pushed around a little bit and it didn't mean that they were inaccessible. But it did mean that we had to kind of plan how we were gonna go after them you, know they were a little bit more skittish you definitely had to, learn. To see them glassing, for deer is different than glassing for other big-game animals they, blend in very well with their surroundings and they can be difficult to see and then they also didn't, want to let us get a lot closer than maybe three or four hundred yards from them so, that presented a little bit of a challenge it. Was not an insurmountable obstacle, but, we definitely had to be pretty. Careful with their stocking skills to get within range. At. Least two bucks. Haven't. Worked mother's mother here. Just. A hundred yards out he's. Working with me down the hill so we'll get a little closer to the end of this and stop, soccer glasses, more seriously. You. Left camp about two hours ago gonna slow, under way up here stop. In every hundred yards to look around it's not quite a few deer the. Power on top and it's really easy walking. But. You know we know we have deer in the valley. That when you walk down we. Saw probably about, 15 or so and then we just, raised. Between two two valleys we. See three more deer in here to Lamar for sure box I, just. Blended so well but the, good thing is all the brushes out of our day until we decide, to come out of here supposed to be a really easy walk in cover. Some country looking for some deer all. Of us went up to the ridge together, and. Started. Seeing deer and and figure it out pretty quick that because these deer, were, a little bit on the skittish side it was gonna be a challenge, for a. Party, of four to get on a deer all at the same time and, it became pretty clear to us that it, might, be easier to hunt deer in smaller. Groups of two as opposed, to four of us trying, to sneak up on these skittish deer all at the same time. The. Feeling would be losing a sweatshirt on the way up it's still warm out. Friends. I have readers. All. Right, we. Got. No. Turn my radio on for another hour so what, I wouldn't even turn it on until maybe this evening I could on 4 o'clock if you haven't seen us buy that. Okay. All. Right whacking stack. Luke. And I were not. At, all, unhappy. About. The idea of continuing, to climb up that big hill and I think. Marty. And our other partner Tim we're. Content, to look for deer a little bit closer to home. There. Was five deer two more bucks and. They're. Just getting ready car around the hill and that deer it just, under 39 yards they were moving away on the skylines about it, ideal. Job, placement or anything like that so we let him go and catch up with them later probably, they.

Were Just mosey, just. Bumper gonna look at this other bucking here in this other ball and. We, can make a play on him if he's not to get to power I don't pursue these ones. The. Domes playing down the Bucs behind, everybody's, a little bit out of sight no doing. Wait for those guys to come back in the back side of the. Yonder. Or we go, after this one. You. Know we got two deer to mess with now I figured. That's. What we're here for right yeah I saw the dough stand in their plan. Plan of attack went, down accordingly. Perfect. So, the old geezer being. Patient staying, close that and running up and over the hills I know. There was a lucky little bit of prayer. He. Considered, me. Two, by two you might use this one doesn't count for anything too small, two. And a half by two.

2020-01-08 15:04

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