Opening Day

 Opening day of deer hunting season on Kodiak is August 1rst, but for me it is actually the first Saturday or Sunday of August.  I can't go hunting during the week at this time of the year because I am usually running the Community Archaeology dig.

Anyway this year my hunting partners and I had grand plans to hike up into the mountains and camp just like we do every year.  Only this year on Friday evening as we drove out the road to where we planned to begin our hunt it started to rain HARD.  The wind picked up and it got very foggy.  It did not look very promising.  So we opted to forego the camping, eat dinner at a roadhouse, and sleep in our own beds instead.

We then all got up super early, met at the trailhead at 4AM, and hiked up to the alpine in the dark.  And there were deer everywhere.  We saw at least 5 different herds and maybe 40 deer total. 

We picked out a couple of likely looking bucks and harvested them in the early morning light.  Then came the hike out to the road and home. 

For dinner we had deer liver and new potatoes.  It's hunting season! 

Patrick