Andy Goes Moose Hunting

Last Tuesday evening Andy left around four pm to go to Kalgin island to hunt moose. I’ll let him do most of the telling, but from my end it was a lonely 30 hours with no contact. There was no service on the island and you could only get in and out at high tide. Then my neighbor remarked in passing that there are some really bad rip tides around the island and depending how the big the waves are it can get really dangerous. Suddenly my mind began running through all kinds of possible scenarios where Andy had been hurt or killed before even reaching the island and no one would even suspect until Thursday morning since that was the latest time he was supposed to return. I pretty much had him dead and buried by Wednesday afternoon and when I heard he was on his way home Wednesday evening about cried with relief.

But enough about that. I’ll let Andy tell you his hunting story in his own words.

Hi all! I have been dreaming for years of going to an island in the middle of Cook Inlet called Kalgin island. It is around 10 miles long and 3 miles wide at it’s widest part. There are moose on it, but no bears, so the population is managed strictly through hunting. Because of that it is a special type of hunt called a registration hunt, where the season ends after a certain number of moose have been harvested. Also where in nearly all other parts of the state there is a bull-only hunt with large antler restrictions, the season on Kalgin island is open for any moose, whether it be big, small, male or female! That means that if you go hunting there and you see a moose you can just shoot it without worrying if it is big enough to be legal! Two years ago a fellow that we know went over there and his son shot a moose and they hauled it back to the boat and brought it back. The boat was very overloaded and they nearly sank on the way back. I guess that the water can get rough out there because it gets really shallow around the island and that affects the currents and the tides and the waves. I kept that in mind as I contemplated hunting there this year. The marine forecast was good for this week, and Tabitha really wanted some moose meat, so she was encouraging me to go hunt there. My phone was out of commission,  so I had to use Tabitha’s phine for all of my communications. I called Luis up, since they could probably use some meat and he is often game for an adventure. He was busy this week and it didn’t work for him, so I called John Allen up. He was game for it and could get off work, so we planned on meeting at the Kenai dock at  6 o’clock. It really reminded me of the good old pre-cellphone days when you made a plan and then followed it because you knew that you couldn’t communicate until you talked on the landline or face-to-face. 

I left in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday. We planned on getting to Kalgin island at high tide around 7:45 and hunting that evening and the next morning. I had to pick up Matt’s boat and print out some moose identification course certification at his place, but then I was off to the gas station and Three Bears (bulk grocery and outdoor store). After picking up game bags to keep the meat cool and clean I checked the time on the receipt and I was just about on time. I drove the short distance to the boat launch and met John Allen.

Before we left I realized that we didn’t have enough lifejackets for both of us, so John Allen went to the store to get some. Meanwhile I stayed with the boat and ate the hot soup out of the Stanley that Tabitha had sent me for supper.

After he got back I launched the boat and  drove up to park the vehicle. John was coming back down to the boat as I pulled out, but I didn’t see him anymore as I approached the boat. When I got there I found him crouched down in the back with his finger in the plug hole. I had forgotten to put the plug in the boat! Thankfully it didn’t sink, but the bilge pump didn’t work, so we got the boat running  after putting the plug in, and pulled the plug out after getting under way. As you move, the water falls away from the back of the boat and you can drain the water out of the hole. After the water is all gone you simply put the plug back into the hole and you are good to go!

We went skimming across the waves until they got too big to keep going fast, and pretty soon we could only go about ten miles an hour. The island was about 25 miles away, so it took about two and a half hours to get there. There was a lot of smoke in the air from the numerous wildfires on the peninsula, so visibility was poor. We had a GPS thankfully, and were able to follow that well. It also had warning areas and rocks marked, so that was a blessing. As we approached the island we could see an outline of Mt. Redoubt and the Alaska range up close through the smoke, with Kalgin island in the foreground and the sun setting through the smoke beside Mt. Redoubt. It was surreal. 

We were going to land on the beach at one spot, but there was already a tent there, so we landed about five hundred yards down the beach from them. I told John Allen to go ahead and start up the bluff and go hunting and I would stay and set up camp as there wasn’t much time left in the day (it was around 9 p.m.). He agreed and climbed up the bluff as I set to work making camp on the beach. It didn’t take long since we have a tent with integrated tent poles and takes only a few minutes to set up.

I inflated the air mattress so that we could sleep well and hit it hard in the morning. After getting everything straightened out I heated and ate a pizza pocket that Tabitha had made for me, and then I walked down the beach to explore a bit.

It was nice to know that there weren’t any bears there to worry about, but I did see some fox tracks down on the beach. That was neat to discover, and I followed them a bit as they made their way down the beach. 

After going about half a mile or so I found a spot where I could climb up the bluff and explore a bit. After I got up through the brush I realized that there was going to be very little exploring. The brush was thick and there was a lot of Devil’s Club, which is about as nasty as it sounds. There were windfalls all over the place, making travel even harder.

After about half an hour of fruitless effort I climbed back down the slope and made my way back to camp. John Allen was waiting for me there, and he had better luck finding a good spot. It turned out that there was an excellent spot to hunt right above our campsite, with a muskeg to look out over and a creek for moose to wander along. We fell asleep with the waves crashing close by and high expectations for moose hunting the next morning. Morning came early, as it often does, and we hit it soon. We ate a bit of breakfast, then climbed up to where John had found he muskeg. I stopped to watch over part of the muskeg, and John traveled a bit farther to watch over the other part of the clearing. Within about ten minutes I saw a moose walking across the other side of the muskeg! I scoped it and it looked like a bull, but I couldn’t be sure in the dim pre-dawn. The rangefinder said that it was about 400 yards away, and it was walking with a purpose, not like it was feeding. It was too far to shoot with my .270 Win., but it was exciting nonetheless!

Pretty soon the moose galloped off into the woods and I never saw it again. I moved to a little better spot with a tree that I could use as a rest if I saw another moose at long range. Soon I heard a little dog yap two sharp sassy barks. “Oh brother”, I thought, “Someone has a dog here and it’s going to ruin our hunt.” Soon, though, a red fox appeared, oblivious to my presence and hunting through the muskeg for mice and such.

It was around fifty yards away, but I think it eventually caught my scent and ran off towards John Allen. I soon heard two sharp sassy barks down there, and I realized that the fox was the one barking. Another red fox soon appeared, that had different markings. It was much closer, around 20 yards, and I think that it caught my scent as it soon snuck off behind me. 

The wind was light and variable. Fog would creep in from the ocean like a silk curtain, then I could watch it go back to where it belonged, and the warm island air would take over again. The light kept growing, and with it came two more hunters. They were wearing florescent orange, so they showed up well. I stepped out to where they could see me, and they moved around to the other side of the muskeg where the moose had gone. We sat and watched that muskeg for a while, then I went down to where John was sitting and we went exploring. We followed the creek, then saw one of the other hunters and changed course to avoid messing up his hunt. We found a beaver pond with two dead swans. I still wonder what could have killed them since there aren’t predators on the island.

Blueberries were thick and abundant, and we kept stopping to eat them. Sweet and juicy, they filled us up. Where there was woods, there were lots of logs and brush. There was also a lot of moose sign, so we were excited. We kept finding little meadows and muskegs all over the place. Moose heaven. After a while we made our way back to the original muskeg, down the bluff and back to the campsite.

After a bit of food we hiked down the beach and climbed up the bluff, and found another muskeg! Muskeg is a good word on Kalgin island, because you can see for a ways and you can travel without being a ninja or looking like you should try harder to be one.

There was a border of woods, but it wasn’t very wide. We discovered that the muskeg was horseshoe shaped, so I stayed on one side of the horseshoe, and John Allen went over to the other side to watch there.

Pretty soon the late night, early morning, excercise, and good food began to have an impact, and I found myself falling asleep on the ground. I tried to see how far it was to the other side of the muskeg, but my rangefinder battery died, and the spare battery was already dead, so I laid back for a nap.

I woke up a short time later realizing that I had been dreaming. I looked around from my nest, but there were no moose in sight so I fell back asleep, dreaming satisfying. 

I suddenly woke up, realizing that I was hearing a noise of walking and sniffing! It sounded like a moose!! I opened my eyes and right there, RIGHT THERE was a moose. I think it was around six feet or so away, but it is hard to be sure. As I recall it had it’s nose stretched out and it seemed to be trying to figure out what was making the snoring noise. It had probably never seen a human before, and with no natural predators the moose there don’t get very wild. 

After a very quick glance to familiarize myself with the position of my gun and the moose I sat up and grabbed my gun. The moose bolted, and I got the crosshairs right on it. It started slowing down, and I thought, why not let it stop so I can get a good shot on it? It did stop after running to about 16 yards away and it stopped broadside and stood looking at me.

I put the crosshairs between the eyes and pulled the trigger. The moose dropped with the roar of the gun, but I could see that I hadn’t hit the brain, so I put two more shots into the head to finish it off, and then I had my first moose on the ground!I hollered in victory and John came over to see what all the commotion was all about. He had been sleeping when the shooting started, so I guess he had gotten a good nap in too, and it was a sudden awakening!

It was a  yearling cow that I had shot, so the body wasn’t huge, but it would be enough meat for our family and would be excellent, tender meat. Add to that the fact that I had shot it in the head, and we got a lot of good meat. John hiked off to take our guns back to the boat and bring our packs, and I stayed to skin the beast and get it ready for packing. Unfortunately since John left with his phone we didn’t get any pictures until the moose was skinned out and in our packs.

It wasn’t a huge animal, maybe 600-700 pounds on the hoof, but it was fat, and the meat was as marbled as you will find in a moose. I finished skinning it just before John came back with the packs. He had good news – we would only have about a hundred feet of woods to travel through to reach the bluff! A hundred feet doesn’t sound like much, but a hundred feet through Kalgin Island woods with eighty pounds of meat on your back is plenty, believe me.

There was a cool breeze that was cooling the meat down nicely and it skinned out well. We fell to, cutting hindquarters and shoulders off and putting them in the game bags. With the size of the animal we could put a front and hind quarter in one backpack, and it weighed about 80 pounds.We loaded up and headed towards the bluff. The hundred feet of woods was rough but doable. Next time I think I will take a chainsaw for all those windfalls. We reached the bluff, then tied a rope to a tree at the top to help us keep from falling and rolling down the bluff with packs on our backs. After that we could walk pretty well. We left the first load of meat at the bottom of the bluff and headed up for another load. 

As we headed up after hauling the heavy packs down, we realized that we had cheated ourselves the first time that we had come up. We had actually climbed up then, but this time we just kind of floated up the whole way! If you don’t understand how this works just strap a hundred pounds of meat on your back and carry it up a steep hill and then take it off, but don’t do it outside unless you have a railing or something to hold onto until your weightlessness wears off. 🙂

The next trip we only had one pack of meat yet and the hide since John wanted to tan it. I took the hide and he took the meat, and we avoided the hornet nest that I had found by default when they started stinging me as I was walking down a log. We retrieved the rope and made our way back to the boat, then returned and got the rest of the meat.

By the time we got back with the last load of meat the tide was nearing the boat and I set about taking the tent down and packing all the gear into the boat. John laid down for another nap, and I kept watch, excited and ready to get back home as soon as the water lifted the boat free. After a while John woke up and started to pry on the boat to try to get it farther into the water that was now starting to rock the boat. I got another log and we worked together to pry it free, and we were off!

The weather was much nicer than it had been the day before, so we were able to go 30 miles an hour back to Kenai. John only wanted a shoulder from the moose, so we parted happy.

I didn’t have any service to text Tabitha, so the stage was set for a good surprise. When I arrived home she came to the door and I was able to surprise her with moose meat! It was a perfect night for letting meat outside, and we worked most of it up the next day. I went into town to pick up freezer paper and bags and the lady at the checkout said something like,  “What did you do, shoot a moose?” I was happy to answer in the affirmative. 🙂 

Tabitha again –

All told we got around 200 lbs of meat off the moose not counting the shoulder we gave John Allen. The meat is very tender and we cooked the bones to can broth as well. What a blessing this moose has been!!