successful float hunt in Alaska
Well I thought 15 years ago that I had my once in a life time hunt to Alaska where I got to shoot a 65" bull moose. Little did I know that I'd get to go again, but with lots of savings, some planning, and the stars aligning again, I got to go again this year. My best friend had been dreaming of doing a float hunt for years, I wasn't so much on board with the idea, primarily because everything that I've read says it can be a lot of work and I wasn't sure we were cut out for it. And as it turns out, everything I've read was right. Glad we did it, but probably won't do it again.
We floated, my best friend, his 74 y/o dad, and a guide and I, approx. 32 miles of the river as the crow fly's, which is more like 50+ miles of actual river. I've never even floated a river, let alone be the ore man. Boy did I have some learning to do. With-in the first 5 minutes of floating I had a sweeper try to remove us from the boat. Thankfully I made the dead tree go under the ore and was able to trap it against the boat and the boat's weight and momentum moved the sweeper instead of taking us out of the boat. By the time we reached the class 3 rapids, I had things figured out pretty well and I ended up with the blisters on my hand as proof that I did it. I also got sucked down a false channel which was one of the challenges when the river gets up. It was hard to tell which channel was the primary channel. In several spots we had to walk the boats to get through shallow water and we also got stuck on top of a large boulder that was just under the water.
The river flow fluctuates a lot, depending on rain. When we arrived the river was way down, we actually were able to walk, carefully, across it where we started. But about the time we arrived the rains started. We literally didn't see the sun for more than 2 hours in the 8 days that we were there. It didn't rain constantly, but it sure made it hard to dry anything out, that's for sure. We were scheduled for a 14 day float, but we made the decision to shorten the hunt do to the forecast and the fact that we had lots of meat and no where to get an airplane in to pick it up.
The river had lots of bear. One day we spotted 10 of them. Many of them were way up high in the hills above the alders. On day three my friend finally got to shoot his first brown bear. Not a monster, but we estimate it around 7.5'. Two shots with his .338 win mag had it anchored at 213 yards. Then on day 6 I got to shoot my moose, from a tree at about 120 yards. One shot from my .300 win mag tipped him over after he made it 30 yards. Thankfully he didn't fall in standing water, which was all around him in the swamp where we found him. Thankfully our guide made the decision to climb the tree so that he could see across the marsh where the moose was, because otherwise, we probably would've spooked it if we had simply gone ahead and walked far enough to see more of the marsh.
One interesting thing we saw was a heli towing an airplane out that had broken landing gear. Guess someone had a hard landing.
I ended up with 684# of meat, bone in quarters only, at the processor. So my freezer will be full soon as I am having 450# of meat shipped home and left the rest for my sister and BIL that live in Anchorage. Here's a few photo's.
My friend, our guide, and I hiked up above the alders one day. That's where we were seeing a few caribou, I also had a caribou tag, and some of the bears. One day of hiking up through the alders was enough for us. The Kichatna River behind/below us.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2c426824_c.jpgIMG_0078 by Tim Richard, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...48bf4989_c.jpgIMG_0088 by Tim Richard, on Flickr
Our sleeping quarters weren't anything fancy. My wife asked if we were worried about bear attack and I told her that I had a 50/50 chance since two of us were sleeping in a tent.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2af4759b_c.jpgIMG_0098 by Tim Richard, on Flickr
And the monster. Dang they are big. This one has a 53" spread.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9ec70381_c.jpgIMG_0093 by Tim Richard, on Flickr
And loaded and ready to float out.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e474aa8a_c.jpgIMG_0110 by Tim Richard, on Flickr
