Welcome to September in Alaska, or, as it is commonly referred to, “moose hunting season”, which is a busy time in our household. We normally head north, with at least a full day’s travel ahead of us to get to our hunting spot, but this year David drew an any bull tag near our house on the Kenai Peninsula, so we were hunting close to home this season.
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The season started September 1st, but we avoided the Labor Day weekend crowds and headed out to Clam Gulch on the fifth. The areas we normally hunt are private land and fellow hunters are few and far between. Hunting this new area was a whole different ballgame. The parking area where we left the truck and unloaded the side by side wasn’t too busy most days, but once we struck out on the trails there were camps and four wheelers in every turn out.
The first day was mostly spent exploring and getting a lay of the land and trail system. The roads were decent and people brought their vehicles way back in to road hunt, camp, or unload their ATVs. Main roads just kept branching off left and right, and there were many off shoots to check out. We found a more open area that seemed to be ideal for sitting and calling or waiting for moose pass through, which is where we sat for a few of the days.
A cow and calf frequented this area, but didn’t seem bothered by us, other four wheelers, or any calling. And she didn’t have a bull trailing her yet, so she and her little (but still big!) calf leisurely walked through the small meadow and the calling, waiting, raking, and more waiting didn’t produce any bull sightings during our time in that spot. It was definitely too early for the rut to be starting, so we realized that we’d just have to happen upon a bull while checking out the trails or spot one over the brush on the side of the trails to get a chance at filling the freezer. This determination led to David creating an addition for the Ranger: the boat seat viewing platform.
In our usual hunting area glassing is king. You can take a spotting scope or binoculars and see for miles around you. At this year’s hunting spot in Unit 15 (Alaska’s hunting areas are broken up into a series of Game Management Units) that was not the case. The tall brush surrounding all sides of the trails made it difficult to see into the woods and spot moose, even if they were relatively close. After seeing many groups of hunters with one or more people standing in the bed of a sided by side to get a better viewpoint (think African safari with people standing in the bed of a Jeep for a good vantage point), David built a handy chair to see over the dense brush. But, before he put that together, we got another tip from a hunter in the parking lot.
This gentleman, who I’d assume had been hunting Unit 15 for some time, said we were missing a whole prime area, and he had seen some smaller bulls out there. Since we had the any bull tag it would be worth checking it out. So the next day we switched things up and took a new trail to explore the spot we’d missed.
The trail we took passed through a pretty well established camp. We were already told it was ok to drive through (which I would assume since it’s public land and all), but for the sake of being courteous and respectful we stopped and talked to the group at the campsite. These guys had a great setup and were very friendly. They told us there was an about twenty-five inch moose they’d seen back in the trail. The area is fifty inches or three brow tines (check out this Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulations page for details on moose antler restrictions) with the exception of the any bull tag, so we were in luck!
While heading back to the truck as sunset was creeping in, David looked in a swamp and spotted the bull with a cow. It didn’t respond to calls and was deep in the swamp, up to its belly in water and a long enough distance from us that it would be difficult to recover. With light dwindling and the bull being too far away, we headed home to get some rest and try spot him the next day. We had seen many cows on our way to the hunting area (one precariously close to our bumper, which would have been number thirty-eight killed on Kenai Peninsula roads in the past couple months according to the road signs), so seeing this bull really got us amped up to get back out there and track him down the next morning. But, unbeknownst to us, our morning hunt would be rather short.
The next morning we cruised out to the hunting area. After unloading the Ranger and getting gear ready, we were prepared to head on back and spend the morning looking for the swamp bull. But, just a couple minutes from the parking area, I spotted two large creatures through the fog, standing in one of the few big open areas. I quickly motioned David and he pulled out his binos to see if it was a bull. Sure enough, there stood a bull with a cow, and off we went.
He stood there snacking on his breakfast as we walked closer, fairly unbothered by how close we got, just as the cows were. With two shots of the Ruger American .308 he was down and the work began. We got him field dressed and spend the next two days processing meat and filling the freezer. Our first hunt with just the two of us was a success, and we got to spend our fourth anniversary packing up moose meat. It may not be for everyone, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Here a just a few gear notes regarding this year’s moose hunt. This year I got some new Lacrosse boots to try keep my feet a bit warmer when we’re out hunting. They are Lacrosse Women’s Alpha Thermals with neoprene, and a far cry better than my solid rubber boots I’ve been using in past seasons. Although my feet were still cold (because when aren’t they cold), they were much warmer and more comfortable than usual. I’m excited to get some more use out of these.
Next up, I tried out the Sofia Adventure Pant from Ditale. These truly are “ninja quiet” as advertised! They are also incredibly comfortable, and the adjustable inseam makes it so my short legs aren’t dragging the pant hem on the ground. The large pockets hold everything I need, including a good stash of HotHands. If you’ll be in the rain, layer lightweight rain pants over these, but other than that I think these pants are fantastic.
Aside from our adventures in hunting, winterization was the name of the game. Pulling the sparse carrots and potatoes we got from the garden, stashing Trapper’s pools in the greenhouse, unhooking hoses, winterizing the camper, and other pre-winter chores occupied our time towards the end of the month. September is a busy time of year, filled with chores of the fun and exciting variety and the less exciting and more necessary type as well. All said and done, it was a very successful and productive month, and I’m ready as one can be for a slightly early start to winter.
