Well, as most of you know by now, Trevor made it back safe from his trip and so did our party. We all went to the same island but unfortunately, Trevor and Jason were on the other end of it from our group. I spent the majority of the hunt ensuring that my girlfriend had a successful hunt and she did. I'm real happy with the way she conducted herself for a first time hunter and a cheechako to the AK bush. She took 3 deer in two hunts and packed over half a deer and gear herself on the day she took her double. I couldn't believe that we made it out with 2 big deer in one pack trip! No deer for me this trip but it's a long season and I've got plenty more opportunity to connect with mister big though I'll be lucky to ever shoot or even see another blacktail like the 2nd one she took, it's a beauty! We left on 8/20 and flew a Grumman Widgeon to the south end of Kodiak Island. The winds were strong out of the west for most of the trip but we set up a cozy camp and had a great time of it hunting for 5 days. Josy shot her first 2 deer bedded together at about noon on the first day. We put a good sneak on them using the uneven terrain and belly crawling through a small drainage to get up to about 60 yards of them where she dropped them with the .25-06 Encore in quick succession as they stood up from their beds. One proved to be a monster "steer" deer with a nontypical rack of 11 scoreable points. (Some bucks on the south end of Kodiak suffer from cryptosporidia which prevents their testicles from dropping. It's suspected to be from the pregnant doe eating too much kelp in the winter. Because they have reduced testosterone their racks never harden out of velvet and they grow larger than normal.) We had them packed the 1.5 miles to camp by dark in one trip, her with about a 50# pack and me with just over 110 or so. She took the day off on day 2 so I hunted alone and saw 16 bucks but only one that met my 3 point+ minimum that I set for myself and he had me pegged by the time I spotted him 2.5 miles from camp on a cliff above the ocean. I heard a single shot that day so I knew that my dead-eye friend Phil connected but I couldn't determine where in the mountains. I spotted him later that afternoon on his second trip in to pack his buck out and loaded the rest of his deer up for the trip to camp in the drizzling rain. Day three saw Josy and I back out again in the howling wind to where Phil shot his buck in search of another "steer" deer that he had spotted the day before. We never did find him but we did find a decent 3 point bedded tight to a hill out of the wind that we were able to put a great stalk on to get within 40 yards for her to shoot off my shoulder and drop him in his bed. Again, we made it back to camp with full packs just before dark. The next two days were spent with Josy and I hiking and spotting for my deer to take with the bow. We had a couple encounters and some practice stalks on smallish bucks but no success on the big trophy I was after. We flew back on 8/26 and had Trevor and Jason waiting there to open the door for us when we arrived at the house. They had great success on their trip and we spent most of that and the next day swapping stories and pictures of our hunts. Of the 13 tags between all of us 10 got filled so there was a lot of cutting and packaging going on while I was getting caught up at work. (Trevor and Jason made some of my friends VERY happy by giving them a year's supply of prime venison!) It was a great time and I'm looking forward to getting these guys up here again soon so that I can actually get out and share a camp with them rather than just my house! 2/3 of our party were rock chuckers (although all Josy's bucks were shot within bow range) so this may not be an appropriate place for the photos but I'll post the link: http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22/robswanson/Kodiak 09/?albumview=slideshow
Awesome pics as usual Rob, Glad to hear ya'll had a great time. Congrats to the girlfriend fine bucks indeed! Love the scenery, just unbelievable!
Wow, now that's the way to document a trip. I loved the shots of the float plane leaving. I've never experienced it, but I've often wondered if, at that point, you truly feel alone and away from it all. Congrats to your girlfriend as well!
Tell Josy congrats again on all her deer. That second buck of hers was hands down the biggest sitka I have ever seen...besides maybe the state record mounted in the airport lol. I can't get over how big that dude was!...Maybe it will register with her just how insanely big it is a few years from now when no other buck will stack up lol.
KA (Rob), gorgeous, fantastic pictures from start to finish. It's great to see "fun" pictures through out making the whole experience "human". Very nicely done, congratulations to all. Great shots, simply beautiful.