Hunting Douglas 11/28/2010 -- no pics

Went out yesterday in falling snow...I walked down to McDonough and then started climbing as the muskegs below that area are really brushy (plus I wanted to do some tracking and the stuff down below was melting quick)...got up there, started on a set of tracks and followed them for a while.  Jumped a rabbit while I was tracking, though I quickly lost it as it was white on white...I lost the deer after it joined up with a smaller one and they went over a cliff.  Then I started on another set of tracks.  Followed those for about 5 minutes before I saw the ass end of a doe as she turned around and ran uphill...I guess I could've had a shot had I already had that spot in my crosshairs with the safety off and caught her as she lunged uphill, but I really doubt it.  Then I followed another set that went pretty much straight up into the alpine.  I smelled it, but I never saw it...I ended up like 100 feet from the top.  Really exhausting stuff....On the plus side, I did see a ptarmigan up there.  I definitely learned about hunting in the snow -- wear your impermeable rain gear.  Each piece of snow that fell on me or brushed up against me soaked into my rain gear.   I was completely soaked when I got out to the beach...

Hunting Douglas 11/14/2010

It's about frickin' time! I caught this guy in the timber as I was going up the mountain.  I had climbed up a very steep area and came out on a small bench about 60 yards above this guy.  I was pretty tired, so I took the time to put on my gloves and wasn't exactly quiet when I racked the round.  But he stayed put and I put him down :)  Didn't even know it was a buck when I pulled the trigger.

I shot him from the top of the area in the video (like the 2 second mark)...

Hunting Douglas Veteran's Day

This time I hiked down to Nevada creek -- it's about 2.5 hours I think, given how fast I walk.  The deer are definitely running around on the beach at night.  Oh how I would like to run into one on the beach during one of my hunts :) .... At any rate, my only action this time was as I jumped two deer (a buck and a doe, I believe) as I walked up Nevada Creek.  Just a flash, and they were gone...oh well.  Nice 12 mile hike though....

Hunting Douglas Halloween Weekend

It wasn't spooky....it was frustrating!!! I hiked down the beach from Sandy Beach for an hour and change...move through the timber into a meadow....and I snuck up on a doe right as I entered the meadow.  I was only 20 yards from her, but I couldn't get a shot off due to the amount of brush between us.  After a few moments, she left the meadow...and left me frustrated.  So I climbed up the mountain, well into the snow line...after a while I stopped and blew the call....as I'm standing there, after a while I hear "chunk ... chunk ... chunk....chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk"  A deer ran right by me (directly behind and above) at 30 yards (?), and I only caught a glimpse of it.  And that was all I saw for the day.  Frustrating stuff, given the amount of hiking I did...I also saw a blue grouse--I need to pick up a .22 pistol....

Hunting Douglas 10/23/2010

The weekend before I had missed a doe in the meadow at the bottom of the mountain.  So this weekend, I climbed the mountain looking for sign in the snow.  Once I got up the mountain a ways I found a rub with some large tracks near it....so I followed a series of rubs up and over the mountain.  I ended up seeing a doe move through a stand of trees, but nothing that I could put in the scope...oh well.  Good day of hiking I guess!

I took a couple of videos as I hiked up the mountain stream as well....The first video is while I'm climbing up the stream.  The second video is at the headwaters of the creek...

Moose Hunting!

My brother and dad both drew cow tags, so I flew up to Fairbanks to help them fill the tags.  They both drew tags for the area around the end of Chena Hot Springs Road.  So we got started at 5AM on our first day our first day.  Here we are driving up the Steese highway just outside of Fairbanks.

  On our first day, we rode 4-wheelers.  Dominic took us up a very steep trail which freaked out both my Dad and I to the point that we got off the wheelers after only a little ways up the mountain.  That was the best move for us, as we both almost rolled the machines in the short time period we were on them.

After that, we decided to hunt on foot for a while.  No moose, but I take a cool pic of a spruce grouse.

We finally connected on a cow moose in a super convenient spot right next to the road.  So...success!

Teaching Rachel how to snag salmon

So I took Rachel out to Amalga to learn how to snag fish.  She didn't quite catch on to the casting part, but she did catch on to the landing of the salmon part.

This is the salt chuck area of Amalga Harbor.  The hatchery fish school up here as they try to go up the stream.  But they can't really run up the stream because there's a fence keeping them out.  If the fence wasn't there, too many fish would enter the stream and overwhelm it...

Rachel's first salmon!