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Papa Bear Float hunt 2018

This hunt started Dec 1st 2015 when officially booked. I'll say that without a doubt that this was the most epic and disheartening adventure I've ever been apart of. I've debated on writing up this story, but feel that it is worth sharing for others to learn valuable lessons. I will also breakdown this hunt into sections, as my wife will only tolerate so much Rokslide time! Let's begin!

 

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My buddy and I chose to do a float because of the want and need to experience as much of Alaska as possible. Although we knew the challenges faced would be difficult, we were young and eager enough to face them head-on. We got flown into a remote lake on Sept 9th. Our final shuttle put us @400 yards from the starting point of the river. View attachment 80361

 

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We had two options for our Portage to the river. We could haul loads over land and make 5-6 trips or we could inflate my Kork raft and use it to haul everything through a low-lying area that appeared to be the better of the two choices. Big mistake. Where there appeared to be water it simply turned into cattails and floating muskeg. We bullishly pushed onward after 6 hours and were humbled and exhausted to retreat to the comforts of our sleeping bags for the evening

 

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Our first day of hunting found us eating breakfast to the sounds of a bull thrashing to the east 1/4-1/2 mile away. For two boys from Illinois, this alone was worth the price of admission. There was absolutely no doubt that the sounds we were hearing came from an animal that could never be duplicated by a half dozen men. It was day 1, and the hook had been set.
We inflated the provided raft, which was an NRS Otter and loaded gear for the river descent View attachment 80369

 

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We exited to side channel that fed into the river and selected a gravel bar for our 2nd camp. This site allowed us visibility up and downstream. And it also wasn't far from the thrashing we had heard earlier that day. Anticipation was high as we established campView attachment 80370

 

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With camp established we tried our hand at fishing. Assuming that unpressured fish would be a pushover turned out serving us humble pie. We could see the whirls where fish were breaking topwaters and still couldn't get a bite! Two 14 day fishing licenses and one 9 inch long grayling to show our skills!View attachment 80372

 

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We thrashed and grunted sparingly the last few hours of the evening to round out day 2. A fire in the Wifi took the chill out of the clear Alaskan evening as we prepared for day 3View attachment 80373

 

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Day three greeted us with sights and sounds of moose. 1/2 mile west of us 2 cows and an unidentified moose made their way across an open ridgeline. The sounds of thrashing continued in this valley throughout the morning. Continual grunting was also heard as we tried to chime in on the ruckus downstream. It got up into the morning and the intensity of the calling subsided. Since the action was a good distance downstream of us with no action closer, we decided to breakdown camp and float towards the morning's chaos.

 

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Not long after the initial idea of breaking down camp, grunts were again heard SW of our location. We had a deadfall within 50 yards of our camp with plenty of shore debris to create our version of moose aggression. I grabbed a 12ft log and heaved one end above my head and let it slam into the deadfall. The noise created sounded like a slug hitting a watermelon, but must have made an impression because the grunting continued in volume and cadence. I felt this bull was grunting with every step and it was becoming apparent to a couple of Cheechakos that this was going to happen! We got into position at our deadfall and waited the bulls arrival.

 

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When trees started violently shaking directly across the river from us, we knew it was about to get real very quickly! The bull swaggered his way through the trees and stopped at 60 yards to give us the once over. I think it was Robert Ruark that once said speaking of a Cape Buffalo encounter, " he looked at us as though we owed him money" came to mind

 

[Kevin Dill]

Good storytelling!

 

[rayporter]

yes sir!

 

[KJH]

Keep going....

 

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The bull continues on his quest to silence the intruder in his valley. As the bull pauses on the opposite high bank at 50 yards, I try my best to anchor him on the spot. The high shoulder shot does anchor him, but not without momentum carrying him into the river. Adrenaline-infused decisions are almost always a recipe for disaster as we watched hopelessly the bull drift downstream. Camp needed torn down, bull floating to parts unknown, safety briefly popping in and out of my mind. All of these thoughts quickly were dismissed when the bull grounded out in the middle on the riverView attachment 80387

 

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We had already experienced something that was worth noting earlier in the hunt. The current was swift enough that any attempts to travel upstream were futile at this stage. We carefully planned our path towards the bull and used my Kork to safely allow us the wade out into the middle of the river

 

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Words and pictures cannot do justice to the way I felt upon getting up to this amazing animal. For over 20 years I've anticipated this very moment and it was all too much to take in at that moment. View attachment 80391View attachment 80392

 

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With plenty of daylight and more than enough adrenaline flowing we started the process on breaking down the bull into manageable pieces. I would guess the water depth to have been @ 2 ft deep and the current according to our GPS was @ 4.5 mph. We tried to allow the current to help us rather than fight it and I feel we had done quite well considering. We would load my raft and line it back towards the Otter so as not to get ourselves in too deep of troubleView attachment 80394View attachment 80395

 

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One thing we found out quickly was that for every piece taken off of the bull the river tried to have it's way in moving it downstream. Fortunately we were about to dismember and sweep the carcass without any further hiccups. It was time to head downstream with a load and see what the next bend had in store for us...

 

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After 6 hours of butchering and an adrenaline dump like I've never felt we drifted downstream in clipper-like fashion. So fast in fact, I pulled over to the first available gravel bar to have a talk with my buddy. We both agreed that this was beyond an awesome feeling but was ripe for potential danger. Inexperience coupled with heavy loads and current woke the two of us up as far as potential danger. We cautiously paddled downstream to a potential campsite

 

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We came to an location that provided us shade in the form of spruce trees and a 150ft elevation point to overlook a lot of terrain. After establishing camp and a meat cache we slurped down a Mountain House meal with fresh moose tenderloins for supper! Delicious!View attachment 80408