Sometimes opportunities are presented in life that you don’t expect to unfold. When they do, you have to reach out and seize them. For all intensive purposes, I was planning to be done with expedition hunting for 2019 after two extremely successful trips. Well... all that changed about a month ago.
A friend of mine from Alaska called me up and we were talking, he joked that we should do a Mt Goat/Blacktail Hunt since he would be moving next year. As a resident he can hunt Mt Goat and I could hunt the black tails. Nonresidents cant hunt MT Goats without a guide. Well we talked and talked and talked about options and just said to hell with it, let’s do it.
A fun fact for all active or retired military with DOD ID, if you want to hunt kodiak, the coast Guard has an MWR there that will allow you to rent all the gear you could need for $0, that right....$0. Absolutely high end stuff too, for all the tents, stoves, sleeping bags, bear fences, crampons, hell, I believe anything. Once we figured that all the gear didn’t have to be purchased in less than a week, it made the rest easier to pick out.
Booked the commercial flights into Kodiak, booked the sea plane, packed the bag, and we’re gone - 3 days planning. There was no time for getting anxious. Redeye flights and long layovers are the norm when traveling to Alaska, but the last minute flights made it even worse. Landed in Kodiak Saturday morning at 8. There are still commercial air carriers that don’t require security checkpoints...who knew. We were picked up by the Air taxi group at 930 and they shuttle us around to get last minute items we couldn’t fly with commercially. We were weighed and ready and just had to wait our turn to go out.
Riding out in the Cessna 206 was a fun deal. Weather was pretty nice and the pilot was cool. He gave us some intel on what he had been seeing and based on that, we changed our location to be dropped off. A quick fly over and we see 20-30 goats and a 9’ bear before we hit the water. Land and set up camp in a hurry. It’s getting dark and my first night in a tent on Kodiak is going to have a bear fence up. Long first night for sleeping. Jet lag and every snapping twig had me a little uneasy.
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Sunday is Day 1 of hunting. We’re up at the crack of dawn and headed up the mountain as soon as we can see. My friend is ~10yrs younger and in the military, so he shoots out like a rocket, only to find out that the pace doesn’t matter. This “not bad hill”, is 40% grade and a biotch. We can see goats from the camp, but what looked like 1-2 hours is actually a solid 4. I learned really quickly, light is light until it’s not. Every single pound means something climbing a mountain.
In any event, in 3.5 hours we make it to 400 yds from the goats. I got a fantastic look at these goats through the scope. If I could have shot one, I could have poked holes all in a really pretty billy with a radio collar and ear tags. We made a plan to punch to within 200 yds of the shooters. That’s the distance everyone says you can make it too before they booger. Plans sounds great, but that 200 yds takes 30 mins. Straight up Like a light pole. Sure enough, we make it to 198 and there’s a goat at broadside. Nice billy on our side of the cliff. The shot is made, the goat jumps up and hauls ass over the cliff. Wtf just happened? Miss, hit, wtf? The goat is gone, never to be seen again. We’re not sure if he missed, or the goat jumped off the mountain and rolled down the other side. ??? What do you do? Well he can shoot two, so. ....No deal breaker, punch tag one just in case and find another it’s day one right.
Slug down takes 2 hours to get to the camp. This is the biggest mistake we made all week. We should have taken the spike camp up and we would have been golden. We got arrogant in thinking 1-2 hours up, dead goat, 2-3 down.
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Day 2.
Am struggle is mother fucking real. Hitting a 40 degree slope for a flat lander two days in a row ain’t what Jesus intended, but I’m outpacing the young buck today.
About 2 hours into our hike up we’re at 1200’ and there’s a real nice buck at 70 yards just standing there. I touched him with the .300wsm and he took a nap. Alaska residents can take 3 deer at no cost, so buddy slams his GF.
Really nice blacktail. Super heavy and a beautiful deer. Only problem is now there are dead deer to deal with in bear country. We make a plan, and push up 100’ to see if the goats are there. We had a spike camp this day, so we were prepared to stay. No goats, so we decide to pack the deer back down the hill. 120# a piece, no problem.
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Day 3
We did our best to dispose of the deer guts and carcasses on day 2. After we got meat cut up, we pulled what we could 150 yds out of our way, in case a Volkswagen found them and wanted supper.
Well the Volkswagen and her cub did find them and undid the 150 yds and pulled them right into our trail up the mountain.
Just as we crest the 1400’ hill, we see goats and get excited. It’s on today baby..., Right where he needs them to be. Easy 45 mins and they’re dead. Then ...NOPE. 3 more steps and it’s Grizzly mom and brood at 11 - too fucking close yards:
An excited, super get the hell out of there moment and goats are for Arabs again. Who gives a cousin fucking fuck about Mt Goats, it’s an 8’ pissed off bear and I don’t want to have to shoot her or pee myself. Best to head to camp and check the weather, make a plan, and wipe.
Make a phone call and get the good news that the Wednesday storm is now coming Tuesday afternoon. It’s also now a Tuesday to Thursday storm, and oh joy, 70 mph winds. Yahoo . We decide it’s better to head down than skirt the bear and get caught up there with the storm coming.
I fish all the time and the weather man is usually a liar so maybe it won’t be bad.......apparently not Alaskan weathermen.
36-48 hours of a constant damn 60 mph wind and rain. I mean hurricanes don’t have shit on this. We would shut down commerce in SC for a year if a storm that big hit us in the winter: Half the size of Alaska with rain, sleet ,snow, & wind.
After that much time in a tent, and a 12 hour window to get out before the next storm, we bugged out Thursday at 3pm for the hill.
Days 1 & 2 were torture. I cussed the world, but by day 3 I had gotten used to the hunt and was actually enjoying beating the mountain. There’s more In You than you think there is. It’s fun to find it, without a hunt like this it hides behind the desk or in the recliner and what you had at 18years old dies. Day 4 in the tent, I hated Kodiak, but on Day 6 after the storm, when we flew out, I already was planning to do it again.
Absolutely the hardest, most demanding hunt I’ve ever done. I’ve hunted a ton of places and have been terribly lucky to have been successful on almost all of them. I learned more here, than everything else I’ve ever done. I’m a good hunter in general, but this reaffirmed I make mistakes every single time out.
Kodiak didn’t yield, it doesn’t bend. When you think you have a plan, you’re wrong. Unlike a lot of places, it didn’t let us win. I don’t know if it can be beaten, but it’s time too try again.
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