Here's the story and some pics.
A hunt for Brown Bear on the Alaskan Peninsula.
I left Denver on May 2nd and flew to Kenai, Alaska where my buddy Ron picked me up. Ron and I guide for spring brown bear on the Alaskan Peninsula at Bear Lake Lodge. Bear Lake Lodge is legendary for its large bears and remoteness. The lodge was started in 1964 by Don Johnson and is still run today by his son Warren.
We stopped at Air Service and checked weather; it looked good for the following day. Early the next morning, we loaded up Ron?s Super Cub at the Soldotna airport and headed down to Bear Lake Lodge about 500 miles down the Peninsula.
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The ice pack was still up next to the shore most of the way but after Walrus point, the ice cleared. There were a lot of whales just south of the ice pack waiting for it to clear so they could make their way north to their feeding grounds.
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We did manage to find two dead walruses on the way down and so we landed on the beach and cut out the tusks. (A lot harder job then it sounds like) Although you cannot hunt walruses, you can keep their tusks if you find a dead one.
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Bear Lake was still frozen when we arrived about 7 hours later and there was snow everywhere. The following day, we flew down to our cabin at HooDoo Lake and it too was frozen over. We did see some bear tracks in the lower elevations and down by the beach. HooDoo Hilton, our 12x14 foot cabin, had made it through another tough winter and everything inside was in order so no major repairs like in past years. The ropes on the cabin are to hold it down in 100mph winds and the classy metal siding is to keep the bears from tearing it apart.
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We spent the next few days provisioning the cabin with fuel, food, and propane. We also loaded up the 15hp boat motor and hauled it down there also. On the 7th, Todd, our packer showed up along with some of the other guides that would be guiding out of the Lodge. The lodge has a long list of distinguished guests that have hunted there throughout the years including Arnold Palmer, Chuck Yeager, and the prince of Saudi Arabia (he was the ambassador to the US at the time) who booked the entire lodge for his trip. (That had to cost him over $200,000.) He brought along his entire entourage of 30 friends and security guards to enjoy his trip. He did get a nice bear and I understand everyone thought he was a nice guy. I heard his monthly income from the family fortune was 20 million. His body guards all carried automatic weapons!
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We spent the next few days fishing and glassing for bears out of the lodge and getting all the other spike camps set up along with our cabin.
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On one of our trips down to the cabin to get it ready, we were flying up the valley a couple of miles from our lake, we spotted two tents. They were nowhere near a place you could land and we were surprised to see them there. Another outfitter had set them up, right on the border to the refuge. We have the exclusive rights to hunt inside the refuge so we weren't too happy to see another camp so close to our little bit of heaven. Several days later, the outfitter crashed his super cub while trying to land in the tundra next to these tents. The plane was totaled but fortunately no one was hurt. The outfitter borrowed another plane and about a week later he stopped by the lodge to borrow a prop. Apparently, he had rented another Cub to fly and bent the prop on that plane too. Not a good year for this poor guy. I heard Cabela?s books his hunts.
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The weather this year was cold, windy and about 3-4 weeks behind a normal year. A lot of other outfitters down that way had a tough time finding bears. Most bears were still in their dens. We never did see any sows and cubs which are the last to come out.
The season started on May 10th and our first two clients were from the D.C. area. I had hunted with Marc before out of Kotzebue several years earlier where he had taken a nice Grizzly. This trip proved to be pretty tough but I knew Marc was up to the challenge. He was eager to go and not at all afraid to do some hiking. Since the lake was frozen, we ended up hiking up a valley to the south about 4 miles. One of the ways you hunt these bears in the spring is to look for their tracks coming down from the top of the mountains where they den.
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On the fourth day, I spotted a new track we hadn't seen the previous day another mile up the valley. The track came down a ridge and looked like it ended. I glassed the surrounding area but kept coming back to this track. I couldn't see where the track left this one area. I concentrated on this spot for some time and finally spotted what I thought was the top of the bears back. I watched it for 10 minutes and finally he raised his head. There was a low rise in front of this bear and he was lying down behind it. The stalk was on! We dropped down the ridge we were on and took off up the valley. We got to 450 yards and he was still sleeping in the snow field. We continued up the hill to a rock outcropping and I checked the range, 196 yards. I got Marc set up for the shot by getting him to lie down and use the top of the ridge to rest his rifle on. Marc?s first shot looked like it completely missed. The bear stood up on his front feet and looked around. The bear was next to a large ravine and if he made it down there, we'd never see him again. Marc shot again and it looked like it hit the bear good but he got up and started for the ravine. I shot and broke his back. The bear tried pulling himself toward the ravine with his front feet and Marc put one in his vitals and it was over. Walking up on his bear, Marc couldn't believe how big he was. I told him I thought he would go close to 10?. While we skinned him out, we watched a Wolverine heading to the top of a huge mountain we were next to. Not sure why the Wolverines and Bears hang out at the top of these mountains that are covered in snow but that's where most of them are this time of year. We took the skull with us and got back to the cabin several hours later. The next day, we took Todd, our packer back up and packed out that hide. We later weighed it at 186 lbs. Todd is an animal, that's all I can say. We were at least 4 miles from the lake where we could get the boat to, so that's where we headed to. This hike was pretty tough without a heavy load, rough tundra, wet bogs and crossing the river at least a half dozen times. Todd used to be a linebacker for Iowa a few years ago and is built like one. He?s a great guy to have in camp and always in a great mood. Todd completed his requirements to get his Alaskan guide license so he'll be guiding for us this fall.
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Our next client was from San Diego. He had also hunted with us in the past and this time brought his son along. We had spotted several bears the first few days but nothing worth going after. On the third day, we headed up to a ridge about three miles from camp. We sat on top with our binoculars and spotting scopes watching several bears for an hour or so. I walked over to the edge of the ridge and looked down and spotted what looked like a bear sleeping about 600 yards below us. We put the spotting scope on him and it turned out to be a huge bear. I took our clients downwind of the bear about 300 yards from him and Ron headed to his upwind side. The bear didn't move until Ron was less than 30 yards from him. He got up and started our way. We were ready and our client shot him at 100 yards. This bear was huge. The largest taken at the lodge out of 17 bears. He squared at 10? 10? and turns out he was almost 30 years old.
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We helped pull camps out on the 25th of May on a blue bird day, the first we'd seen all month. The weather report called for another low to head up the peninsula the next day so late that afternoon, we loaded up the Cub and headed back to Soldotna. We landed around 11:30 that night.
Alaska in an incredible place that I hope everyone gets a chance to hunt up there some time. Everything is so remote, you never see another hunter and the game is plentiful. If you ever get the chance to go, take time to enjoy all the other aspects of your hunt. By far the most enjoyable to me is the flying. We always fly low and get to see a lot of game and other things that you don't always get to enjoy when flying. Coming down the Peninsula, we were never higher then 100 feet flying down the beach. If you see something interesting, you simply land on the 800 mile long runway below you. We found old Japanese glass balls that were used back in the 30s-40s as fishing buoys. Some of them are wrapped in the original rope they used to protect them. Years ago, someone at the lodge found a human skull that had washed up. It's now sitting in the lodge with hundreds of other interesting items that hang all over the walls and rafters. Old guns found in the field, dozens of sets of walrus tusks and huge bear traps. I'd love to know what the story is on many of these items.
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Overall it was a great trip, looking forward to spring 2012.
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