Before I started guiding, spring black bear hunts were some of my favorite hunts.  Once I retired, I started hunting them again with my grandkids.  My preferred area is the beautiful Prince William Sound.  Nothing is more spectacular than a sunny day with gorgeous snow covered mountains dropping down to the blue ocean waters.  My five grandkids that like hunting all share wonderful memories of that area.  All five have harvested bears in the six-and half-foot class with my grandson Greg at the age of eleven taking the largest, a 7’1”.

This spring we took Nate Johnson, my granddaughter Jordan’s husband.  Nate didn’t grow up as a hunter but loves the outdoors and has been the designated shooter on our last three hunts.  He is very enthusiastic but for some reason, I call it “not lucky,” the animals have not shown up.  We planned to change that on this hunt.

There are four of us that wanted to share this experience with Nate but my 15 ½ MK III Grand Raid Zodiac will not accommodate that many plus the camping gear.  Normally, my son-in-law, Sagen, and I take one grandkid at a time and back when they were 10-11 years old, they were small.  The youngest on this particular hunt will be 22 in a few days so I needed to find someone that was willing to drop us off.

I called my good friend, John Koldeway, who has a 26’ Hewescraft Alaskan Sea Runner and asked if he would be willing to drop us off in the middle of the day on June 6th and pick us up on the afternoon of June 8th.  He said he actually didn’t have anything going on during that time frame and with the cheap price of fuel he would drop us off and just hang around the area and do some fishing and shrimping.  He said if Nate scored early, we all could do some fishing.  Sounded like a plan so we were on.  

Nate, who is an Anchorage Fireman, got off shift at 9 AM and we all headed south for the tunnel to Whittier at 10.  We made the 11:30 tunnel opening as planned.  It opens to go through to Whittier every hour on the 30’s and opens to return at the top of the hour.  Once in Whittier we launched the boats and were on our way.  It was a gorgeous sunny day.  After we unloaded our gear from John’s boat, we set up camp in the same spot that I have been using since the early ‘70’s.  The first time I hunted the area was in ’68.  I have been going over there off and on for the past 52 years.  At least 20 different times for sure.

The snow condition this spring in the area was less than normal and there were leaves on many of the alders.  It’s not a real big deal if you are just hunting the shoreline which we were.

With camp set up we were on the water around 5 PM for the evening hunt.  The first thing we did was slowly motor the Zodiac along the shore checking all the tide flats.  Then at the head of one of the coves we sat and watched the shoreline and glassed the lower slopes.  Nate spotted a nice bear that came out on shore to feed or a least we hoped he was going to feed.  But he only walked the flats a couple hundred yards before he went back into the brush.  We spotted two small bears high on the hillside.  I assumed they were kick-outs, having a great time playing.  We also spotted a good sized bear about a half mile from them.  We left about 11 PM checking all the tide flats again as we headed back to camp.  We made it to bed around 1 AM.  We were up at 6, grabbed some oatmeal, hot chocolate or coffee and were back in the Zodiac.  There was a -3’ low tide which is good for bear hunting but meant we had to dock and tie the boat so we could get to it when the tide came back in.  We walked out to two small islands where we glassed the big flats the entire morning.  We never spotted a single bear.  We met up with John before we headed back to camp.  He told us fishing was very poor but shrimping was great.  We made a plan to meet him out in front of our camp at 5 PM.  We then headed back to the far end of the bay and hung out on John’s boat and glassed the rest of the evening.  Somewhere around 8 PM I spotted a small bear on the hillside working his way in the opposite direction.  We lost him in the alder.  Later that evening we spotted our largest bear two thirds way up the hillside.  He was too high and moving for an evening stalk.  Those were the only two bears we spotted that evening.  Once John brought us back close to camp, we jumped into the Zodiac and headed back to the islands where we had been that morning.  We sat and glassed until 12:15 or so.  Another late night with no bear.

The last morning it was raining which is not the best weather for black bear hunting, especially in an open boat.  We motored back to the head of the bay but never spotted a single bear.  We hung in there in the rain until about 11:15 AM.  We were going to pull camp at 1 PM so we headed back.  The water started out flat but about two thirds of the way back it started to get rough, with 3 to 4’ seas with the wind also gearing up.  The Zodiac performs fine in that type water but you can get wet if you’re not careful.  From camp it was 18 miles to Whittier so once we meet John, I asked him if he could tow the Zodiac and let everyone ride in his boat once we got the camp broken down.  He said, “No problem because he was going to have to go slow anyway in that water condition.”

We broke down camp as fast as we could and ferried everything to John’s boat.  We used the anchor rope to tie the zodiac to the stern of his boat and were on our way.  It was slow going and the zodiac was riding well in the water but the sea and the wind were both increasing along with an incoming tide.  The seas were somewhere between four and five foot now.  All of a sudden, the front bracket that the anchor rope was attached to ripped loose.  Before the Zodiac was tied to John’s boat, Sagen had tied one of the boat gas cans to the Zodiac side tiedown ropes using a lead rope that was also attached to the bracket that had ripped out.  That allowed the Zodiac to still be connected to John’s boat.  However, the Zodiac was now being pulled sideways in the water with the gas can suspended in the air on the rope that was tied to the Zodiac tiedown.  John was in the captain’s chair in the enclosed cabin trying to keep the boat turned into the breakers.  He couldn’t see what was going on but could feel the weight of the Zodiac turned sideways in the water.  He yelled, “What happened!” I told him the anchor rope had ripped the bracket off and the Zodiac was now turned sideways.  He said, “Get rid of it, cut the line!”  Sagen, Nate, Jared and Nathan were all trying to pull the Zodiac to the boat, hand over hand as John struggled to keep his boat turned into the waves.  There was no more room on the deck to help so I was standing in the doorway relaying messages between John and the boys.  They were finally able to get the Zodiac close enough to the boat to get hold of the gas can.  I yelled again to cut the rope.  They removed the gas can and dropped it into John’s boat.  Unexpectedly Sagen jumped from the boat into the Zodiac and the boys cut him loose.  I yelled, “Why did you guys cut it loose with him in it?”  They said, “That’s what Sagen told us to do.”  I said, “I just wanted you to cut the Zodiac free and just let it go.”  John yelled, “What’s going on!” I yelled back, “The Zodiac is free but Sagen is in it.”  John yelled, “What the hell was he thinking.”

I knew what he was thinking.  He knew that we had to cut the Zodiac loose and he wanted to save it.  That’s just the kind of guy he is.  Someone had to do it, so away he went.  He knew the Zodiac could handle the waves and he knew he could handle the Zodiac.  As long as the motor didn’t quit, he would ride it out.  Just like riding a wild horse, you hang on.  That was something I had done a few times in Cold Bay during my guiding days.  I was hoping the water wasn’t going to get as bad as it did the time that the same Zodiac turned completely upside down with me in the middle of Cold Bay.  See my post, “God Saved Me.”

Sagen got the motor started and headed into the waves.  He stayed out about 300 yards from us making almost the same progress that we were making.  However, as the seas reached the 6 to 7 foot level with whitecaps he got further behind.  John was fighting to keep the boat into the waves and doing a great job.  I braced myself by the back door as John announced any big waves.  We were still about eleven miles from Whittier but only about five miles until we got into Passage Canal.  I figured it would settle down the closer we got to the canal.  It finally did and John was able to get the boat turned. 

I never lost sight of Sagen and as we were turning slowly into Passage Canal Sagen actually caught us and crossed in front of us.  The worst was over and the water continued to settle down even more.  John was able to get his boat on step as he picked up speed.  Sagen stayed with us for about a mile or so then John opened up a little as we approached Whittier.  Sagen made it to the dock about fifteen minutes later.  He was a little wet but safe, and he had saved the Zodiac.

We didn’t harvest a bear but we had a great time and added another exciting memory with a happy ending.  I will have to say, during the peak of the waves I was having a few flashbacks about my experiences running the Zodiac back and forth in the nine miles of open water from Cold Bay to AAA’s main camp on the shore of the Izembek Refuge.  More great memories.