Cold Day!
Because of Covid-19, 2020 will be a year we will always remember! It affected our lives in many ways. The loss of loved ones, the mask wearing, lock downs, the election, our travels and for hunters, many cancelled hunts.
Even though my hunting family was only drawn for two caribou permits, we still had an active year of hunting. We did a trip for black bear in the spring, a sheep hunt in August, a moose/caribou hunt in September, a late caribou hunt in October (where Nate my granddaughter Jordan’s husband took a caribou, his first big game animal), and finally a Sitka blacked-tail deer hunt on Kodiak.
After I retired from the guide business, I decided to take advantage of hunting the Sitka black-tailed deer on Kodiak. The deer were transplanted on Kodiak between 1924 and 1934. Overall, they have done well. Most of my hunting trips nowadays are for my grandkids but the deer hunt has become “my hunt.” My goal has been to take a Boone and Crockett class Sitka black-tailed deer. To make the B&C Record Book they have to net score 108 points. I have come close with two beautiful bucks which gross scored 107 & 108 B&C. They only net scored 103 & 101. For a buck to score that high he usually needs to be a 4 or 5-year-old deer.
My first big buck! He was taken out of the “honey hole” on November 3, 2014. Gross score 107, net score 103.
My second big buck! Taken in the same area just on the other side of the hill. Gross score 108, net score 101.
The problem in Alaska and especially on Kodiak Island is bad winters. You need at least three mild winters in a row to get a big 4 or 5-year-old deer. Even though Kodiak is known for their mild winters, relatively speaking by Alaska standards, just one bad winter can take the population down by 75 to 90%. That is a brutal number and starving to death is a terrible way to die.
My last deer hunt was in the fall of 2017. That year we had good doe and young fork horn numbers but no 3, 4 or 5-year-old bucks. I was told there was a fresh water freeze right after the rut so all the big guys died. Didn’t make that much sense but something for sure happened. The big bucks always go into winter in the worst condition because of the rut. They burn up all their fat supply fighting and mating. This is true for most of the antlered animals.
In the fall of 2019 Sagen and I talked about a big family deer hunt on Kodiak. I called Jo at Sea Hawk Air and scheduled two beaver loads for October 30, 2020. This deer hunt was to be my twelfth. Not in a row but with a few breaks for known bad winters. Starting in November, twice a day for the next five months, I checked two of the FAA weather cams close to the area where we hunt. The north end of the island got hammered with lots of snow but looking at the weather cams the snow conditions around those areas were fine or what I considered normal. Later in the summer I emailed my friend Paul Chervenak, a guide on Kodiak, about what he thought of the current population. He said he had reports that the lower south end of the island did alright but he would let me know what he found out when he went to his cabin in Zacher Bay. Right after his first goat hunt, he emailed me back saying he thought it would be okay where we were going but still wasn’t sure about the buck numbers.
The Covid summer took its toll on Alaskan businesses. My son-in-law and daughter were in the process of selling their home and having a new one built and his business was slowing down. My granddaughter Rachel was planning her wedding for November in Hawaii so with everything going on Sagen said, he needed to cancel. As it got closer to the date because of Covid Rachel had to cancel her wedding. My grandson Jared was purchasing a new home with the closing going to be close to the hunt dates so he also had to back out. I called Sea Hawk Air and cancelled one of the beaver loads. I felt I could get at least two friends to go with me. That didn’t happen but my good friend Dwight Hill said he was up for another Kodiak deer. Dwight had hunted deer on Kodiak numerous times and had taken some nice bucks but no “Booners.” I told him we were going to take two “Booners.”
I checked in with Sea Hawk a couple more times to see how the early hunters were doing. I was told it was spotty at best. I still felt the area we were going would be fine.
The morning of October 30 Dwight and I arrived in Kodiak and were picked up by Sea Hawk Air. I was told to call Jo as there was some concern about the lake where we were going freezing up. When I called, she was on the other line so I talked to Rolan. He told me the next four to five days would be below freezing so I might want to change to another area. I told him I had a satellite phone and would call him if the lake started to freeze. That happened to me on one hunt and he had to break the ice to pick me up. As an old man, I just hate going to a new area that I don’t know anything about.
Our freight had been picked up so all we needed to do was go to Walmart to buy small propane bottles, matches and some eggs. As we were waiting to be flown out one of the groups that just returned after a nine-day hunt told us that they had seen only three does and that they shot them all. Sounded bad for sure.
Early morning full moon.
Around 2:30 PM we loaded the Beaver and were on our way. When we arrived at the lake, we were greeted with three inches of snow. Rolan was surprised that there was that much since most of the areas that he had been to that day had just received a dusting. I really don’t care for setting up camp in snow but I have done it before and it is what it is. After setting up camp we finished our Subway sandwiches and had something hot to drink. We had a Coleman lantern and a two-burner Coleman stove but no heater. I have taken heaters a few times but usually don’t use them much. It looked like this hunt was going to be different.
Dwight glassing from the knob where I shot my first big buck. That was when we named this area the “honey hole.”
The next morning before sunrise Dwight and I headed out for what I call the “honey hole,” which was about a mile and a half away and was where I killed my 107 B&C deer. We spotted a few sets of tracks right after we started, I was hoping that was a good sign. That day was our best day for spotting deer. We ended up seeing about 25 does and one buck, a 3x3. This was my fifth trip to this area and this was the least number of deer spotted. The winds picked up that afternoon but the temperature never got above freezing so no snow melted. We had a good evening meal and climbed into our sleeping bags. That night it dropped into the high teens or low twenties.
A cross fox.
The next morning after an egg and bacon breakfast we headed in the opposite direction to an adjacent lake. That day we only spotted a fork horn and two does. There was a little shore ice on that lake but nothing to worry about. We did spot two foxes, a completely black one, which was a first for me, and a cross fox, more gray than red. That evening we called Sea Hawk and talked to Rolan. He said no change in weather other than a little colder than the initial forecast. It wasn’t going to get above freezing until Thursday, another four days away.
Frozen water!
Day three we went to what we call Dan’s spot which was only a quarter mile or so away. It was out of the wind but shaded so it was really cold. We keep our bottled water in our cooler so it wouldn’t freeze in the tent but by 10 AM it was mostly frozen. Never spotted a single deer that day. This was getting bad or maybe I should say worse. We had good evening meals with fried pork chops, fried chicken and hamburger steaks with mash potatoes or rice with different vegetables and rolls. However, after the stove was turned off the temperature dropped like a rock. We burned the lantern until we got into our sleeping bags. A little reading and then off to sleep.
Dwight having fun.
Day four we headed back to the “honey hole.” We never spotted a deer until we sat down at the “honey hole.” That day we spotted 12 does, a fork horn and the same 3x3 that we had spotted the first day. This was November 3rd which is usually one of the best days on Kodiak for the bucks to be in the seeking period of the rut. It had to get better.
Day five when I got up to go out of the tent the door seemed lower. As I opened up the door, I could see why, new snow. Five inches of new powered snow. We brushed off as much as we could and then had breakfast. I told Dwight this was going to show us just how many deer were around.
The tent after we knocked the new snow off.
I had planned on climbing the hill between camp and the “honey hole” but with the new snow on all of the alder I said let’s just head back to the “honey hole.” We only spotted two sets of tracks in that mile and a half, one doe and one buck. With the new snow, cold temperatures and wind it was a brutal day. We ended up seeing ten to twelve deer, all does. The whole time there I only spotted two fawns. I told Dwight I had never left a hunt early before but if it was okay with him when we got back to camp, I was going to call Sea Hawk Air to see if they could pick us up early, either Thursday or Friday. He said, “It’s fine with me. I have never been on a deer hunt where I’ve seen this few deer.” I called Jo and asked her for a big favor to be picked up early. She said, “We can pick you up sometime around 12:30 the following day.” I said, “Thank you so much.”
Where we did the majority of our glassing. It was really cold sitting there.
The next morning, I called to confirm and she said it would probably be closer to 1 PM. We had everything packed up but the tent waiting for Rolan by 12. I had called Karen and asked her to get our reservations moved up on Alaska Airlines and she did. Once back in Kodiak we packed our freight, dropped it off and checked in for our Anchorage flight. Things went smoothly.
What a trip! The worst for the numbers of deer. The coldest for the longest period. A cold November for sure and then to come back to the election results. That’s almost too much. Joe Biden said it was going to be a dark winter and with everything that’s going on, I believe him. Cold and dark!!