Kodiak's deer season opened on Wednesday, but because of the dig I had to wait until the weekend to go. On Thursday and Friday the weather was perfect for hunting in the alpine, and many of my friends reported that they had got their deer. So directly after work Friday evening Gregg and I hiked up into the alpine to go deer hunting. The weather was supposed to deteriorate and we thought about trying to get a deer before bed. We opted not to and miraculously the weather held until dawn.
At dawn we found a 'bachelor' group of 5 bucks, but the only problem was that between us and them there was a HUGE boar bear grazing on greens - no way around him. So we waited and the bear grazed slowly towards the deer. And then we noticed that the deer were walking around the bear and towards us! We immediately beelined for an advantageous small hill where we could wait for the deer to arrive. We sat and waited and the bear wandered off and the deer came to us!
We checked on the bear after we shot the deer and he could have cared less. He continued to graze and wandered off into the far distance. Time to take care of our deer. And then it started to RAIN.
For the pack home we opted to take a 'short cut' rather than climb up 500 feet and to start down on the trail we climbed up on. Our short cut started out great but ended up as a 1000 foot pitch of head high salmonberry, devils club and alders with the occasional cliff thrown in to keep us on our toes. And at the bottom it got worse - really thick alder and devils club. We busted our way through clambering over fallen logs and falling into holes until at last we joined up with our original trail. Phew!
But now there is meat in the freezer and liver and onions for dinner. Hunting season has begun! Patrick
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