Kodiak adventure

ashersdad

ashersdad

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Joined
Feb 8, 2007
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Location
Happy Valley, OR
Grizzly bear has been on my bucket list for as long as I remember. Finally in 2010 I was able to go on my first hunt with a grizzly tag. Although I was successful for sheep and moose, I wasn’t for grizzly. No complaints here though as it was an incredible hunt.

However, this only made my “grizzly itch” that much stronger. So in 2011, I went on a Spring grizzly hunt. This too was a great hunt but Spring came late and I didn’t even see a bear. Try again Spring of 2012, later in the season and wouldn’t you know it, same result. Not a grizzly to be seen.

Although this didn’t deter me, it did make me rethink my plan. I came to the conclusion that I needed to do whatever necessary to get me into the best area for a chance at a bear. After much research I decided to go for broke and start putting in for a Kodiak tag.

I was unsuccessful for the 2013 draw but earlier this year I found out I had drawn a tag for this Fall. To say I was excited would be an understatement. I would be going back to Alaska with my 4th grizzly/brown bear tag. I was hopeful this one would come home attached to something.

 
The day finally arrived and I kissed my wife and two boys goodbye for 2 weeks. My wife and family have always been so supportive of my hunting and this time was no different. My boys had been praying for months that “Daddy will get his bear”. And when I left my wife told me to have the time of my life and to go get my bear.

I flew into Kodiak a day early and sat by a nice gentleman from Anchorage that had a tag as well. He had a rental car and invited me to hang out with him so we made the rounds to F&G to get our permits and to Wally world for a few last minute supplies for him. We also had a nice lunch and dinner in Kodiak and wandered around the harbor that evening looking at all the cool fishing boats.

The next day, I arrived at Andrew Air for my ride into base camp. This would be my ride and what a ride it was. To say the scenery was breathtaking would be an understatement.

 
We made it to base camp and had a nice dinner and prepared for opening day. I met my guide Adam and he was a great guy about my same age. The plan was for the outfitter to take us to the far side of the bay in the morning and from there we would hike in approximately 4 miles and make our spike camp. We planned on being in for the full 10 days unless we got lucky.

Here is my pack all loaded to go.



We started hiking up the creek bed and at first it really wasn’t bad. But, as soon as we left the creek bed and started climbing the mountain I realized how difficult this hunt might be. Hiking through that brush and Alders was unlike anything I had gone through. It was so thick you couldn’t see 10 yards in places and the brush would grab at you and your pack the whole way. Wow, was it some thick stuff.

 
Even with the tough going, we made good time and were almost to the base of a hill where we planned to make our camp. We stopped for a break and almost immediately Adam says, “there’s a bear”. We looked and about 1000 yards away was a Kodiak brown bear. Wow! A bear on day 1! Now I was excited! We pulled out the spotter and it was hard to get a good look at him as he went in and out of the brush. Finally he gave us a good look and he looked great to me. Adam said he was average, maybe slightly over 8 feet. Now, I had told Adam that I had been on a few hunts already and I wasn’t going to be picky on this hunt. I just wanted a bear, so when he said he was average, I told him I was ok with average and would be happy with a bear like that. The wind wasn’t right for a stalk so we continued to watch him.

After about an hour of watching this bear off and on in the brush, Adam said, “this is not your bear”. I said, “what? I would be happy with that bear”. Adam said, “that’s not a day 1 bear”. I decided that with the coin I had paid, I would listen to my guide, even though I would have been happy with that bear.

 
We decided to continue up the hill to where we wanted to camp and see if we could see anything else. We made the climb and came out on this knob overlooking a nice valley. Immediately we looked down below us and saw another bear. I pulled up my binoculars and was like, “holy ****, that’s a huge bear”. He had a big light colored head with dark legs and lighter colored body. Adam said, “now that is a day 1 bear”. Here is a far off picture of him.



Hard to tell in the pic, but trust me this was a nice bear.
 
He was just over 600 yards away and the wind was totally in his favor. And we looked down and could see the smaller bear headed right towards him. Adam said, “let’s see what happens first and then we’ll try to make a move”. Well as the smaller bear got closer to the bigger bear it became apparent how big the one was. The smaller bear could not see the bigger bear, he was just headed in his direction. I thought we were going to see a bear fight but when the smaller bear got about 20 yards from the bigger bear, he stopped and lifted his nose in the air and immediately swapped ends and took off on a dead run. We watched him run for probably half a mile. Haha

We decided to try to make a move on this bear. Unfortunately as I mentioned the wind was not good so we had to drop below him and let him out of our sight. Of course when we dropped off the hill we were in the alders and couldn’t see crap. We slowly made our way towards where the bear had been but visibility was terrible and we didn’t know where he was. Finally Adam said, “let’s back out so he doesn’t wind us and maybe he’ll stick around this area”.

So we backed out and went back up the hill and could no longer see the big bear. We glassed the rest of the afternoon and ended up seeing this sow way up high above the brush line. We also saw a sow with 2 cubs way up in goat country. 6 bears on day 1, boy was I excited!
 
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We made it back to camp and had our Mountain House dinner and called it a day. This was also a difficult thing for me. It got dark at 7:00pm and didn’t get light until 9:00am. 14 hours in a tent was going to be a challenge. And we were losing about 5 minutes of light per day. I had brought a book but I knew that would only last 2-3 days. Oh well. Here is a picture of our camp.



Day 2 dawned bright and clear. We ended up seeing the smaller boar from yesterday about ½ a mile away about where he had ran to. We also saw the same sow up high and on another mountain we saw a sow with 2 yearling cubs.

Day 3 was a crappy weather day and we were in and out of the tent depending on visibility. We saw 1 sow this day. We watched her for awhile and she was beautiful. This was the only bear we saw this day.

 
Day 4 was another crappy weather day and we saw the same sow and the smaller boar again about ½ a mile away.

Day 5 weather was getting worse and we once again saw the same 2 bears. With my hunt half over, I was starting to get a little concerned. I knew any stalk was going to be difficult in the alders and that the weather could play a huge factor. That night at camp I told Adam that if we saw either of those 2 bears the next day, I thought we should put a stalk on one of them. He was hesitant and thought we could do better than either of those 2 bears but I had been burned before with the weather and didn’t want to chance it. He said we would see what tomorrow would bring.

Our glassing knob on day 2.



And the same knob on day 4. Notice the snow line getting lower.

 
Day 6 dawned with higher clouds and good visibility but very cold.



When I got out the tent I glassed over to where the smaller boar had been and saw a bear for just a moment walk through an opening. I thought it looked like a bigger bear but it had been right where we had been seeing the smaller one so I wasn’t sure. We hiked up on our knob where we could glass in several directions. We again saw the pretty sow in the same area from yesterday. She was in a perfect spot for a stalk and the wind was perfect. I was really tempted to make a move on her but I really didn’t want to take a sow if I could help it.

I was really having a feeling that we needed to make something happen today if possible. I told Adam, let’s grab some lunch at the tent and if we can see that smaller boar, let’s at least make a move into his area and just see how close we can get. I knew it would be thick and I wasn’t confident that we could get this bear in one stalk so I thought we should start trying.

Adam said, “if we see him while eating lunch, we’ll make a move”. We made it back to camp for a quick lunch and then moved out to our knob to glass. Almost immediately we saw the bear walk through a small opening. Game on! We were going to make a stalk.
 
I've hit the refresh button about five times in the last ten minutes. This is good.
 
We started off and immediately I knew it was going to take a miracle to get this bear. The brush was so thick and the terrain had so many small ravines, there was no way of knowing where the bear had been. As we got close to where we thought he was, a really nice blacktail buck busted us. He kept looking back at us nervously but then he’d turn and look ahead of him nervously. Finally he slowly walked parallel to us instead of away from us.

Adam said, “I think that bear is ahead of that buck and he didn’t want to go that way”. He said, “let’s try to climb up the mountain so we can look down in and see if we can see him”. Sounded good to me, so off we went.

As we were climbing, I looked to my right and for just a second I saw a bear walk through an opening below us. I stopped Adam and pointed to where I had seen the bear and the direction he was headed. The wind was good so we made our way in the direction to hopefully intersect the bear.

We came out on a small mound covered in blueberry bushes and bear scat that looked the size of elephant poop. We stopped to glass and there was an opening in the brush that I thought I had caught movement in. I dropped down in a prone position as Adam ranged the opening at 248 yards. He said, “we really like to get under 200 yards if possible”. I told him that I was very comfortable with this shot and I didn’t think we should risk trying to get closer.

Right then, I could see the bears hump and rear end as he walked out of the alders across the opening. I wanted to shoot in the worst way but I never could see more than his hump and butt. He walked into the brush. I was crushed. This was my 32nd day of hunting these great bears and the first time I had actually chambered a round and no shot. There were no other openings and I figured that was our one chance.
 
We watched for a few minutes to see if he’d come back out but he didn’t. Finally Adam said, “let’s hike up the mountain again so we can look down in and see if we can spot him”. Off we go again up the mountain.

We climbed up several hundred yards and stopped to glass. I turned around and there he was back in the same opening. This time though, he was out in the open. As I pulled up my binos, he lifted his head to the wind. HOLY CRAP!! Huge, light colored head! This wasn’t the smaller boar. This was the big boy from day 1. And there he was in the opening where we had just been at 248 yards. Now we were over 500 yards up the mountain.

We immediately dropped into a small ravine that would bring us back out close to the mound we had just been on. As we dropped out of sight, I was praying the bear would stay put.
 
We came out just above the mound and we could see the bear was still there. I dropped my pack and we belly crawled up to the mound. For the 2nd time in 32 days, I chambered a round. I dropped down prone and got on the bear just as he turned broadside. He looked HUGE in my scope. I heard Adam say, “when he gives you a good…” BOOM! I hit him right behind the front shoulder and he roared and whirled around. BOOM! I hit him a 2nd time and he dropped. I put 2 more insurance shots into him and quickly reloaded. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I was in amazement. I just laid there for a few minutes soaking it all in. I couldn't believe what had just happened and I was completely overwhelmed. One of my biggest wishes in life had just happened.

I looked at Adam and he was all smiles. I gave him a huge high five and thanked him for helping me hold out. I would have gladly shot one of the smaller bears for sure if he hadn't helped me hold out.

After waiting for a few minutes we cautiously made our way down to where he was. As we walked up on him I was overcome. What a magnificent animal. As I knelt and lifted his massive head, I thanked God for this beautiful animal. I had a few minutes of personal time with him. It had been such a journey to get to this point and I was beyond thankful for every minute of it.
 
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We took our time admiring the bear and taking tons of pictures. It was all we could do to roll him over. His coloring was gorgeous. He had dark legs and a lighter colored upper body. Then his head was a beautiful silvery color. His teeth were very worn with one of his canines busted off. Later in Kodiak the biologist would tell us he was probably over 20 years old.





 
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