**2021 AK Moose Hunt** DIY Float Trip

[PoppinPiggies]

This is going to be EPIC

[Gclyde28]

Round 2. Im in for it!

[St59]

The last thread you did on this was my all time favorite. Can’t wait for this one

[jshouse]

last years thread reminded me of the show called "Dropped," with the Keefer brothers. i dont know if its still on but i remember at least 2 seasons and thought it was great.

i didnt even see last years thread until yesterday, and i read the whole thing. sadly, i saw this one today and will now have to wait for updates...lol

[diamond10x]

**2021 AK Moose Hunt** DIY Float Trip

We didn’t keep any Pike for dinner like we would have liked to for dinner as we were running a very minimal camp that night so we could get an early start in the morning to start the voyage. As darkness began to fall we enjoyed several homemade dehydrated meals for dinner only to retire to our bags soon after.

Day 2

Morning came after a good nights sleep and we get to packing our beds back into our packs. My brother and I soon finish to grab our rifles and saws to cut a trail to the creek. Dad stays behind to break down the tipi and get it all put away. If you’ve ever been to Alaska and ventured off the beaten path you’ll know why. In most areas unless you’re in a meadow or spruce thicket, the brush and everything else makes traversing a chore even with just a backpack. We had 2 rafts and rowing frames at ~100lbs each, our pack of just camping and shared gear items at ~65lbs, and food packs both combined for ~120-130lbs, then our each individual packs that are ~65lbs a piece. It doesn’t take long and we find a decent game trail that doesn’t require us to cut too much brush and is fairly direct to the creek without too difficult of terrain. We portage everything and in perfect timing dad has the tipi and everything all packed and his gear packed as we’re coming back from hauling the last load of gear to the creek.
Get over to the creek and decide we’re only going to inflate one raft for now as this will make a portage around an obstacle quicker and easier. We air the boat up, get it loaded and start making our way downstream. In the case you’re wondering right now about the 3 of us and gear all in one raft, it’s much easier to just walk with the raft and steer it by hand than to actually ride in it in this small water.





It’s not long and we’re at our first strainer. This time around we’ve each brought our own saws and make quick work of this tree. Much quicker than trying to portage. We then come to a second strainer/sweeper. Same as before, make quick work of that old spruce and keep on trucking. Don’t make it 100 yards more and encounter another. At this point we’re beginning to wonder how many more there will be, and dang glad we decided to wait to do this with an entire days worth of time as it’s now about 11:00 am. Get this one cut out but it takes a few more cuts than the last but none the less doesn’t take more than 20-30 minutes. On we go. We come to a split in the creek about 500 yards down from the last place we had to cut a tree. I stay with the boat, dad and brother walk a ways down each arm to see which way would be best as both have a bit of a log jam right past where they start.



We pick the one with the easiest one to cut which ends up also being the path with no more jams or trees to cut til it joins back up with the other arm of the creek. Once it joins to the other arm the creek starts to get a little deep and in several areas we have to hop on the raft and float through.
We notice the more we go the higher this creek is getting, flooding the timber, and really slowing down in flow. We all kind of look at each other from across each side of the raft and think “oh no, we’re about to probably have to portage again but it’s going to have to be a long ways and go strait to the main river”. We decide we’ll float on and let the creek decide what we have to do before we jump to any conclusions. No sooner do we come up on a beaver dam. This thing stretches from bank to bank and well above the normal water line. We have to tie the raft off to one bank and I am on the back holding the other end of the raft to a tree by hand as this bank is fairly steep. The water is also well above all of our heads and about 6.5’ deep (measure by sticking a paddle to the bottom). After inspecting the dam, there is absolutely no way of cutting it out without taking too much time and getting washed away with it. Dad and brother unload the raft and leave a few last things for me to grab as I’m getting out before we pull the raft up. As I climb out and sit down on the bank to reach over and grab the last few things, I feel something warm on my butt that doesn’t feel right and a smell that isn’t pleasant. I pull the gear out, set it on the bank and stand up real quick. To my surprise and everyone else’s entertainment, I sat in a pile of minutes old grizzly crap. As the laughter wears off we begin to realize the more seriousness and reality of the situation. There was just a bear here and there is probably who knows how many salmon stacked up below this beaver dam just waiting to be caught and eaten by a bear.



We calm ourselves down and keep our heads on swivels as we have to cut another path through the brush to portage through. The whole way there’s bear dump piles, salmon carcasses, bear beds, tracks, you name it. There has been numerous bears here, and VERY recently. This is probably the one time I’ve been pretty nervous being in bear country, even though I’ve had more big bear encounters than I care to count. I quickly get my waders cleaned off and get to cutting brush. To say we hustled getting that trail cut, boat and gear portaged, is about right. It’s now 4:00 pm and we are really glad we waited to do this today and not yesterday. We get back on track and start floating down again. The water level now seems normal, and according to onX we are getting close to reaching the river. We make the river by 5:00 pm and pull over to air up the other raft. Taking a small break , to eat a bit, before we decide to head on down the river looking for moose sign. We make about 10 miles and come across our first fresh bull tracks on a sandbar with a nearby lake. There’s also fresh cow and calf tracks. Before hiking all over we decide let’s get camp set up as it’s about 8:00 pm and then with a little bit of light we can call and maybe find a little more sign. We do this and nothing eventful happens other than finding some wolf tracks. We notice something a bit odd compared to our list trip though. There’s zero raked trees around here with bull tracks and obvious signs of a cow in the area. Over dinner we decide we’ll hunt the lake in the morning and see what happens than come back to the tent for lunch as it’s only about a 100 yard walk through the brush.


Day 3

To be continued…


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[DBLHKUP]

Very well written, can just picture the adventure. In for day 3 write up tomorrow.

[Statton48]

This is awesome!! Thank you for sharing with us

[Mtltx]

Man that’s crazy. Sounds like a tough day

[TKRanch]

sounding good so far!! keep it coming!

[JWHunt]

That is so cool!
Congratulations

[Saltaholic]

Awesome!!

[MarkV]

In for this

[Sticks&Strings]

Love this thread....assuming it's even close to the last one. Thanks for sharing!

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[Quackerbox]

Can you really top the first trip?? Can’t wait to find out!

No chit!!

Not only does he do this trip once, he doing it again!!!

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[canny]

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