Meat Hunt

Lisa and the meat tent

The main purpose of our fly out trip to Kodiak's alpine was to bring back deer meat.  We like to harvest our deer in August because it tastes so much better than it does later in the year.  In the late August the deer are at their fattest and are still eating wildflowers.  How can something that eats pretty yellow arnica flowers not taste great?

The problem with hunting in August is meat care issues - meat does not like heat.  For this reason we keep our trips short, and bring along a shelter for the meat.  The shelter keeps the meat dry and we've found that the ground keeps the meat cool.  Also by late August it is getting cold at night - a couple of nights it dropped down close to freezing. So the meat stayed remarkably cool.

We also brought lots of clean cotton game bags and kept the meat in the bags during the heat of the day to protect it against flies.  At night the meat came out of the bags.  Lisa was in charge of meat care and kept on top of it - constantly monitoring its condition.

In the end we came back with the meat of 4 deer.  That's a lot of meat!  And it was all in primo condition.  Tasty meat for winter.

First day buck

Lisa and Gregg putting on a stalk

Lisa buck number 1

Lisa buck number 2 - note deer medallion

Lisa heads up the slope towards home with a full pack of meat

A deer harvested close to camp and packed out with an unconventional pack job

Back home - time to cut up the meat