44hunter45
Well-known member
I wasn't going to write this up, but after reading @neffa3 's write up of his 2023 WA High Buck hunt I decided I should.
If you were around HT in 2021, you will remember that I fell toward the end of my first week on POW in 2021. I was moving to my plan B location and the second growth proved to me that, as the locals say, " The Southeast is a Beast." My plan then, as it was this year, was to spend a week in the alpine hunting and then meet one of my sons to fish for silvers the second week. I took my tumble on Friday of the first week and was scheduled to pick up my son at the IFA ferry the next day. I really did not lose more than a day of hunting due to my fall, but I was beaten by POW. After a trip to the SEAHC clinic in Klawock for an exam and super glue on some contusions, I was a free man. I did not want to hump back up to the alpine for just one evening and have to be back in Hollis the next day. I went fishing and had a ball. Picked up my son Saturday and we fished the rivers of POW. No silvers that year, but Dolly Vardens and Sockeye.
A couple of pics from 2021:
Dolly Varden on an Egg Sucking Leach
My son with his legit Sockeye
I learned a lot on that trip and was anxious to have another go at it. I am, as @Cornell2012 put it, a completionist. I have to read the whole trilogy, finish all the episodes in a TV series, etc.
I will not be able to move on until I put a locking tag on a Sitka Blacktail buck. I knew that I had not gone high enough to find bucks before and I set out to rectify that mistake this year. So I went back to finish what I had started two years ago.
This trip was in jeopardy financially and almost did not happen. Some HTers whom I will not embarrass contributed their time, knowledge, powder, optics, and other treasures to make it happen.
I cannot express my gratitude enough to these friends. The generosity of the folks on here leaves me speechless.
I flew out of Pullman, WA August 26th. In all honesty, lugging all the gear for a week in the alpine and a week of fishing all by yourself is a PITA. I made some changes to the 2021 kit to make it more portable. I still took too much stuff.
Stayed with friends on the island Saturday evening and sorted my gear to hit the trailhead Sunday early. I hit the rock pit early Sunday morning to check the zero on my rifle. It was not on paper at 100 yards. I had to pull back to 25 yards to work out what was happening. After shooting 18 of the 30 rounds I had brought with me, I got it back on zero. 12 MOA left and 15 MOA high out of the case. I could not find any mechanical issues with the mounting or scope. I checked it once more later in the week and it was right where I wanted it. I had switched from Leupold dovetail bases to Talley Lightweight for weight and rust control about a couple of months before me trip. My M70 7mmRM was shooting lights out before I packed it.
(After reading about Talley Lightweight issues, I think I will go back and lap these. )
I hit the trailhead really late after getting the rifle sorted out. I still wanted to get on top before dark Sunday, but ran out of light at about 1700' and pitched my tent.
The view from the tent door, Day 1
Day 2 consisted of achieving 2500' and finding a spot to camp and glass.
2300' looking across a deep canyon to where I want to be.
Camp at 2500' and my playground for the next four days.
Day 3 - Waiting for the fog to clear.
The morning of day 3 I zipped up my rain gear and got a "MRAK" from above me on the slope. I worked the zipper a couple more times and got responses. I thought it must be some kind of duck in a muskeg pond. It turned out to be this guy. POW's very unique Spruce Grouse. My companion from there out in this spot.
After three days and more than 20 does glassed and stalked, I decided to head for my plan B spot. I hunted Wednesday morning and then broke camp and headed for the truck. More second growth. Not necessarily any easier going downhill. My knees were beginning to remind me that I'm 61.
Wednesday evening I was back at my friends' place to refresh.
Thursday morning I was back at the rock pit to check the zero on the rifle again. Bigger groups than I wanted, but in the right place.
It was now a 100 yard limit. Not that big a challenge. The alpine is broken up by rock tors and clumps of trees. I had been inside one hundred yards multiple times on does in my first location.
My plan B spot was a sure thing.
The vehicle I was using had a snow plow mount on the front and could not negotiate water bars on skid roads. After leaving the rock pit I found myself parking at a turnout 1 mile below the trailhead I wanted to reach. There was nothing to be done but suck it up and hike. I got to the trailhead about 12:30 in the afternoon.
From the trailhead:
Then more of this:
Until I got to this:
Skirting clockwise, I finally got around it to this:
Another 1/2 mile and I set up camp here:
I spotted and stalked nearly 20 deer here. Not so much as a forky to be seen. All does again.
They had to be in here somewhere:
Week one -
More than 30 does spotted and stalked but no bucks. Humped up and down to the alpine twice. Living on Heather's Choice and Gastro Gnome at about 1100 calories a day I lost about 15 pounds and gained 5 belt notches. I pushed myself past what I thought I could do physically and mentally. My pre-season fitness work focusing on hiking the most vertical things I could find was boring, and it paid off. I did not roll down the second growth and land in a rocky streambed at the edge of a waterfall. One thing people forget about SEAK is that it is low altitude. The highest peaks I summited are 150' lower in elevation than my house.
Gastro Gnome is the best there is. Period.
Week two -
I came down off the alpine Saturday morning and got a shower at my friend's place. Did some laundry. Met my son's Taquan floatplane at 5PM. I had set him up with fishing gear and license, but that is not his thing. We "glamped" at three of the Tongass NF cabins for the next week. There was one wet night in a tent. We toured the island and saw things I could not in 2021 due to COVID lockouts.
Control Lake Cabin:
Kasaan Totem Park:
Surprisingly, our only black bear for the whole trip:
And finally, on the ferry from Ketchikan to the airport to fly home.
So much easier hauling gear with a traveling buddy!
TSA in Ketchikan has had their XRAY machine down for weeks. Every bag had to be hand searched. Our flight was delayed over an hour. (They decided the three Bic lighters I had in a pill bottle were contraban.) We made our connection by doing the OJ through SEATAC. Our luggage did not make it. Lots of forms to fill out when we landed. It was a stressful night with several thousand dollars worth of gear and a rifle in the wind. Alaska Air called me the next day to report that our stuff had arrived.
One last thing - Gastro Gnome is the best. PERIOD!
If you were around HT in 2021, you will remember that I fell toward the end of my first week on POW in 2021. I was moving to my plan B location and the second growth proved to me that, as the locals say, " The Southeast is a Beast." My plan then, as it was this year, was to spend a week in the alpine hunting and then meet one of my sons to fish for silvers the second week. I took my tumble on Friday of the first week and was scheduled to pick up my son at the IFA ferry the next day. I really did not lose more than a day of hunting due to my fall, but I was beaten by POW. After a trip to the SEAHC clinic in Klawock for an exam and super glue on some contusions, I was a free man. I did not want to hump back up to the alpine for just one evening and have to be back in Hollis the next day. I went fishing and had a ball. Picked up my son Saturday and we fished the rivers of POW. No silvers that year, but Dolly Vardens and Sockeye.
A couple of pics from 2021:
Dolly Varden on an Egg Sucking Leach
My son with his legit Sockeye
I learned a lot on that trip and was anxious to have another go at it. I am, as @Cornell2012 put it, a completionist. I have to read the whole trilogy, finish all the episodes in a TV series, etc.
I will not be able to move on until I put a locking tag on a Sitka Blacktail buck. I knew that I had not gone high enough to find bucks before and I set out to rectify that mistake this year. So I went back to finish what I had started two years ago.
This trip was in jeopardy financially and almost did not happen. Some HTers whom I will not embarrass contributed their time, knowledge, powder, optics, and other treasures to make it happen.
I cannot express my gratitude enough to these friends. The generosity of the folks on here leaves me speechless.
I flew out of Pullman, WA August 26th. In all honesty, lugging all the gear for a week in the alpine and a week of fishing all by yourself is a PITA. I made some changes to the 2021 kit to make it more portable. I still took too much stuff.
Stayed with friends on the island Saturday evening and sorted my gear to hit the trailhead Sunday early. I hit the rock pit early Sunday morning to check the zero on my rifle. It was not on paper at 100 yards. I had to pull back to 25 yards to work out what was happening. After shooting 18 of the 30 rounds I had brought with me, I got it back on zero. 12 MOA left and 15 MOA high out of the case. I could not find any mechanical issues with the mounting or scope. I checked it once more later in the week and it was right where I wanted it. I had switched from Leupold dovetail bases to Talley Lightweight for weight and rust control about a couple of months before me trip. My M70 7mmRM was shooting lights out before I packed it.
(After reading about Talley Lightweight issues, I think I will go back and lap these. )
I hit the trailhead really late after getting the rifle sorted out. I still wanted to get on top before dark Sunday, but ran out of light at about 1700' and pitched my tent.
The view from the tent door, Day 1
Day 2 consisted of achieving 2500' and finding a spot to camp and glass.
2300' looking across a deep canyon to where I want to be.
Camp at 2500' and my playground for the next four days.
Day 3 - Waiting for the fog to clear.
The morning of day 3 I zipped up my rain gear and got a "MRAK" from above me on the slope. I worked the zipper a couple more times and got responses. I thought it must be some kind of duck in a muskeg pond. It turned out to be this guy. POW's very unique Spruce Grouse. My companion from there out in this spot.
After three days and more than 20 does glassed and stalked, I decided to head for my plan B spot. I hunted Wednesday morning and then broke camp and headed for the truck. More second growth. Not necessarily any easier going downhill. My knees were beginning to remind me that I'm 61.Wednesday evening I was back at my friends' place to refresh.
Thursday morning I was back at the rock pit to check the zero on the rifle again. Bigger groups than I wanted, but in the right place.
It was now a 100 yard limit. Not that big a challenge. The alpine is broken up by rock tors and clumps of trees. I had been inside one hundred yards multiple times on does in my first location.
My plan B spot was a sure thing.
The vehicle I was using had a snow plow mount on the front and could not negotiate water bars on skid roads. After leaving the rock pit I found myself parking at a turnout 1 mile below the trailhead I wanted to reach. There was nothing to be done but suck it up and hike. I got to the trailhead about 12:30 in the afternoon.
From the trailhead:
Then more of this:
Until I got to this:
Skirting clockwise, I finally got around it to this:
Another 1/2 mile and I set up camp here:I spotted and stalked nearly 20 deer here. Not so much as a forky to be seen. All does again.
They had to be in here somewhere:
Week one -
More than 30 does spotted and stalked but no bucks. Humped up and down to the alpine twice. Living on Heather's Choice and Gastro Gnome at about 1100 calories a day I lost about 15 pounds and gained 5 belt notches. I pushed myself past what I thought I could do physically and mentally. My pre-season fitness work focusing on hiking the most vertical things I could find was boring, and it paid off. I did not roll down the second growth and land in a rocky streambed at the edge of a waterfall. One thing people forget about SEAK is that it is low altitude. The highest peaks I summited are 150' lower in elevation than my house.
Gastro Gnome is the best there is. Period.
Week two -
I came down off the alpine Saturday morning and got a shower at my friend's place. Did some laundry. Met my son's Taquan floatplane at 5PM. I had set him up with fishing gear and license, but that is not his thing. We "glamped" at three of the Tongass NF cabins for the next week. There was one wet night in a tent. We toured the island and saw things I could not in 2021 due to COVID lockouts.
Control Lake Cabin:
Kasaan Totem Park:
Surprisingly, our only black bear for the whole trip:And finally, on the ferry from Ketchikan to the airport to fly home.
So much easier hauling gear with a traveling buddy!
TSA in Ketchikan has had their XRAY machine down for weeks. Every bag had to be hand searched. Our flight was delayed over an hour. (They decided the three Bic lighters I had in a pill bottle were contraban.) We made our connection by doing the OJ through SEATAC. Our luggage did not make it. Lots of forms to fill out when we landed. It was a stressful night with several thousand dollars worth of gear and a rifle in the wind. Alaska Air called me the next day to report that our stuff had arrived.
One last thing - Gastro Gnome is the best. PERIOD!
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