Burnt Reynolds
Lil-Rokslider
My youngest sister married this guy a few years back. His cover story is that he is an optometrist and so is his twin brother; all Alaska residents. The brothers are excellent sportsmen having grown up climbing mountains in Alaska & Wyoming in pursuit of game. Alaska has this 2nd Degree Kinship allowance for non-residents to go on many hunts with a resident relative such as a brother in law in place of a guide.
Tags, license, airfare, transport: few thousand bucks vs $20k, $30k, or $40k or more for a guided hunt + tags, licenses and airfare. Luck has finally found me! So I grew a mustache.
Under cover of darkness on a moonless night many months ago we hatched a plan while enjoying some scotch over facetime and certain that the CIA was eavesdropping given my past life. I was completely blown away when then President Elect Trump conferenced us in on a call with NATO and the joint chiefs - I wasn't ready for the mission they assigned us, but for love of country I agreed to do my part.
We were assigned an area in unit 19, the Eagle Creek area where the Dall sheep had been getting out of control and attacking people right and left. We were told it was a secret Russian plot meant to destabilize our country to spray wildlife with contrails from planes that would make them hyper aggressive, many good men died to get us this information. I could barely handle some of the pictures in the mission file. Wiley creatures that are few and far between, but some toads among them if you're willing to work and luck favors you.
Getting in is another concern. Initially we talked about a HALO jump from the secret pods on Air Force 1, but potential weather issues shelved that plan. The next best option was to hide in plain sight and hire a local pilot; SecDef Mattis suggested we talk to a former operative he knew up there. Boy am I glad we did! Our pilot is well known in international espionage circles for some of his stupid crazy successful missions during the break up of the USSR. He was grounded years ago after an accident in which he was totally cleared of any wrongdoing but felt it was time to hang up the .gov life and live simpler, luckily he still has his chops.
Our ingress into the area of operation is to be one hunter at a time: we bring only what we are wearing, a rifle and a pack no more than 60lbs. We are to rally upon drop off of the 3rd member on September 1st and we wouldn't see the pilot again until September 12th. On our own in no-mans land against a beast genetically modified in a secret government lab - seems like a great way to ease into the fall right? What could go wrong...
After my personal kit inspection and physical fitness evaluation in January a few matters were made crystal clear.
1) I needed to retire some various pieces of kit, figured selling for cash was the way to go. See here: http://www.rokslide.com/forums/rokslide-classifieds/64210-deals-hot-theyll-melt-kuiu-vortex.html
2) While my fitness wasn't bad, the preceding several months were tough given the gym renovation, house projects, family obligations, holidays, work and my part time alcoholism (holidays )
3) I needed a rifle and spotting scope. Those would be my big acquisitions. But I had "turning 40" as a smokescreen if you will.
I had given away my trusty Tikka 7mm to a client when he retired and had my dad's old Ruger '06. I wanted light, accurate, compact and easy to carry given my past experiences hunting in the mountains. I needed the glass to see enemy compounds before they could see me too.
Fortunately the gym renovation was winding down so I was back to 4-5 days per week + my Saturday pack hikes around February. As I filtered out kit items that were to go on down the road in favor of light weight and compact I also shopped for a spotter and rifle. I also trained. But it was tough going until about April when I remembered my old CIA handler had recently retired and was a little "too short" when he stepped on the scale, so I gave him a call. He needed a little coaxing to get on board but eventually agreed to train with me beginning early April. That was the nexus of plateau transitioning to progress.
Training looked like this:
Sunday - Chest Day Eve
Mon - Fri 30-40 minutes cardio on treadmill, pushups, abs, stretching
Monday - Flat bench, Flies, dumbell press
Tuesday - Lat pulldowns, seated rows, other random back exercises
Wednesday - squats, Hungarian deadlifts
Thursday - Clean & press, other shoulder exercises
Friday - Sun's out Gun's out: biceps and triceps
Saturday - pack hike
I'm down 25 lbs since April and within a few pounds of what I weighed as an NCAA swimmer 20 years ago. Unbelievable! Practically had to buy all new civilian clothes because everything else looked like I was wearing a potato sack.
Some regulatory issues were giving us a little grief in May. I had been in contact with Austin Atkinson @ Hunting Fool regarding some technical & terrain matters when he mentioned AKG&F might have a new rule which consolidates bag limits for 2nd degree hunters and their resident guide - in other words, if I harvested a ram, my brother in law was also tagged out and vice versa. We'd have to wait until the new regulatory year began on 7/1. I was on the phone immediately with AKG&F and they were fantastic about responding with detailed information. Turns out the proposed rule met with such opposition that it was dropped. I still wanted to wait until it was confirmed with the new regs before I bought my tags. Good news was mine on July 1st. We're all in. Then, the plot thickened. Grizzly bear tags.
$25.00 for them, $1,000.00 for me. My plan was to take a Christensen Arms 308 shooting Federal 165 grain trophy bonded tip factory cartridges. Not only had I been dealing with some optics issues with my new rifle but I was now faced with whether or not the platform was the right one given the 2nd tag. Mental turmoil ensues, contemporaneously my tactical CIA riding mower had broken down at the furthest nastiest spot on my property and wife's dad offered to sell me a large chunk of land I can't not work on buying.
Status update forthcoming: but here's mission critical supplies. Older Mystery Ranch Marshall & 2k inch Kuiu bag, Leica APO 16-48 x62 spotter, Christensen Arms 20inch 308 Ridgeline, chest harness with binos, garmin, etc. Currently the bag weight with spotter & tripod is 51.8lbs without water and a few minor odds and ends.
Tags, license, airfare, transport: few thousand bucks vs $20k, $30k, or $40k or more for a guided hunt + tags, licenses and airfare. Luck has finally found me! So I grew a mustache.
Under cover of darkness on a moonless night many months ago we hatched a plan while enjoying some scotch over facetime and certain that the CIA was eavesdropping given my past life. I was completely blown away when then President Elect Trump conferenced us in on a call with NATO and the joint chiefs - I wasn't ready for the mission they assigned us, but for love of country I agreed to do my part.
We were assigned an area in unit 19, the Eagle Creek area where the Dall sheep had been getting out of control and attacking people right and left. We were told it was a secret Russian plot meant to destabilize our country to spray wildlife with contrails from planes that would make them hyper aggressive, many good men died to get us this information. I could barely handle some of the pictures in the mission file. Wiley creatures that are few and far between, but some toads among them if you're willing to work and luck favors you.
Getting in is another concern. Initially we talked about a HALO jump from the secret pods on Air Force 1, but potential weather issues shelved that plan. The next best option was to hide in plain sight and hire a local pilot; SecDef Mattis suggested we talk to a former operative he knew up there. Boy am I glad we did! Our pilot is well known in international espionage circles for some of his stupid crazy successful missions during the break up of the USSR. He was grounded years ago after an accident in which he was totally cleared of any wrongdoing but felt it was time to hang up the .gov life and live simpler, luckily he still has his chops.
Our ingress into the area of operation is to be one hunter at a time: we bring only what we are wearing, a rifle and a pack no more than 60lbs. We are to rally upon drop off of the 3rd member on September 1st and we wouldn't see the pilot again until September 12th. On our own in no-mans land against a beast genetically modified in a secret government lab - seems like a great way to ease into the fall right? What could go wrong...
After my personal kit inspection and physical fitness evaluation in January a few matters were made crystal clear.
1) I needed to retire some various pieces of kit, figured selling for cash was the way to go. See here: http://www.rokslide.com/forums/rokslide-classifieds/64210-deals-hot-theyll-melt-kuiu-vortex.html
2) While my fitness wasn't bad, the preceding several months were tough given the gym renovation, house projects, family obligations, holidays, work and my part time alcoholism (holidays )
3) I needed a rifle and spotting scope. Those would be my big acquisitions. But I had "turning 40" as a smokescreen if you will.
I had given away my trusty Tikka 7mm to a client when he retired and had my dad's old Ruger '06. I wanted light, accurate, compact and easy to carry given my past experiences hunting in the mountains. I needed the glass to see enemy compounds before they could see me too.
Fortunately the gym renovation was winding down so I was back to 4-5 days per week + my Saturday pack hikes around February. As I filtered out kit items that were to go on down the road in favor of light weight and compact I also shopped for a spotter and rifle. I also trained. But it was tough going until about April when I remembered my old CIA handler had recently retired and was a little "too short" when he stepped on the scale, so I gave him a call. He needed a little coaxing to get on board but eventually agreed to train with me beginning early April. That was the nexus of plateau transitioning to progress.
Training looked like this:
Sunday - Chest Day Eve
Mon - Fri 30-40 minutes cardio on treadmill, pushups, abs, stretching
Monday - Flat bench, Flies, dumbell press
Tuesday - Lat pulldowns, seated rows, other random back exercises
Wednesday - squats, Hungarian deadlifts
Thursday - Clean & press, other shoulder exercises
Friday - Sun's out Gun's out: biceps and triceps
Saturday - pack hike
I'm down 25 lbs since April and within a few pounds of what I weighed as an NCAA swimmer 20 years ago. Unbelievable! Practically had to buy all new civilian clothes because everything else looked like I was wearing a potato sack.
Some regulatory issues were giving us a little grief in May. I had been in contact with Austin Atkinson @ Hunting Fool regarding some technical & terrain matters when he mentioned AKG&F might have a new rule which consolidates bag limits for 2nd degree hunters and their resident guide - in other words, if I harvested a ram, my brother in law was also tagged out and vice versa. We'd have to wait until the new regulatory year began on 7/1. I was on the phone immediately with AKG&F and they were fantastic about responding with detailed information. Turns out the proposed rule met with such opposition that it was dropped. I still wanted to wait until it was confirmed with the new regs before I bought my tags. Good news was mine on July 1st. We're all in. Then, the plot thickened. Grizzly bear tags.
$25.00 for them, $1,000.00 for me. My plan was to take a Christensen Arms 308 shooting Federal 165 grain trophy bonded tip factory cartridges. Not only had I been dealing with some optics issues with my new rifle but I was now faced with whether or not the platform was the right one given the 2nd tag. Mental turmoil ensues, contemporaneously my tactical CIA riding mower had broken down at the furthest nastiest spot on my property and wife's dad offered to sell me a large chunk of land I can't not work on buying.
Status update forthcoming: but here's mission critical supplies. Older Mystery Ranch Marshall & 2k inch Kuiu bag, Leica APO 16-48 x62 spotter, Christensen Arms 20inch 308 Ridgeline, chest harness with binos, garmin, etc. Currently the bag weight with spotter & tripod is 51.8lbs without water and a few minor odds and ends.
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