Skunked

I've always thought that on opening day in Kodiak's alpine getting a deer is pretty much a sure thing. Now I am humbled, and know better. No deer harvested on opening day this year :-( I bet the deer hunting gods conspired against us because I had made plans for a deer liver, new potatoes, beets and onions meal before I had the liver.

It's funny because this year I really was sure we would get a deer. The weather seemed perfect. On the previous 2 opening days I had been worried about our odds because each time it was foggy and rainy. Yet each time we still managed to bring home the deer liver.

This year the weather seemed perfect, and we hiked up with high hopes into the alpine. We camped out and woke up to a glorious sunrise. It really seemed perfect (top photo). We were already seeing deer and I went back to my pack to retrieve my spotting scope so we could check them out. By the time I returned a few minutes later the fog had socked in (bottom photo). In the top photo you can see the fog forming - it happened REALLY quickly. It's hard to find deer when you can't see. By the time the fog lifted around 10:30 all the deer had bedded down for the day. It's hard to find deer when they are bedded down for a midday nap!

Before the fog hit, Preston and I had noticed how unusually difficult it was to keep our binoculars from fogging up. Obviously the air had been super saturated and on the verge of turning to fog.

Patrick