The Hunt

Gregg and I on the shore of the Kenai Lake before being flown in to Swan Lake. We drove about 100 miles South of Anchorage on the Seward Highway to a small town called Cooper Landing. The Seward Highway crosses the Kenai Lake right at Cooper Landing. The lake is an unbelievable torquoise color.

Bush pilot Ken Bethe washing his plane before flying us into the bush. He is the owner and pilot of Kenai Lake Air Service and has been flying for 31 years. He is located in Cooper Landing.

Our approach to Swan Lake in the Kenai Mountains located about 15 miles from any road. The lake was crystal clear and very deep. The water was cold, but we did go for a swim on our way out one week later.

This is a remote cabin with the Chugach National Forest. We ended up staying our first night in there since it was empty. It was great. It had two bunk beds and a wood burning stove. There was an outhouse about 30 yards from the cabin and a firering in front. The log book indicated alot of bear sightings around the cabin. In fact, 15 minutes after being dropped off, we located two big black bears high up on the mountain

One evening while standing around the tent having some scotch and talking about the day, Gregg and I looked to our left and were surprised to see this cow moose and her baby calf come trotting by within 40 yards of where we were standing. It took a little time for me to get the camcorder, so the picture isn't as close as it could have been. I can't explain the feeling of seeing such wildlife in the backcountry where we are the strangers.

This was home for one week. During the seven days, it rained on us five days with the temperatures in the lower 40's and quite a bit of fog. For being well above treeline, there didn't seem to be that much wind, but we were prepared in my low profile Northface tent. We were camped at about 2800 feet above sea-level and we had many blue-berries around us. Normally that wouldn't be a good idea in bear country, but we couldn't seem to find a place that didn't have blue-berries. Therefore, we were forced to eat as many as we could. Each day, we would hike about 1 1/4 miles each way to the top of a mountain pass to glass the surrounding mountains for caribou.

These are some of the many blue-berries that were everywhere. We even fixed fresh blue-berry pancakes. Each morning on the way to hunt, we would pick and eat them by the handfulls. We would even fill a ziplock bad and eat them from the mountain top where we hunted. There were, however, huge grizzly tracks among some of the blue-berry bushes. My foot easily fit into the tracks and the stride was slightly bigger then mine.

Here I am hunting on top of one of the many mountains. This was the last full day and we had resorted to hunting with my .270 rifle instead of bows. We were never able to get close enough to the caribou, so we thought we might have a better chance with a rifle.

This was about as close I ever got to a bull caribou and this is using the zoom lense on my camcorder. He was within shooting range at about 250-300 yards away, but Gregg had the gun this time and he was much lower on the mountain than me, so I could only sit and observe. It probably turned out for the better though, since we spotted and observed a grizzly bear on an adjacent mountain right after seeing this caribou. We have been told that if a grizzly hears a gun, he will come over to investigate a possible kill (pretty smart, huh?). We always saw caribou alone and the first morning we named the first one Barney-Bou. This might be the same one, but we don't know for sure.

Every evening, we would sit out in front of the tent after dinner and have some scotch and a cigar. We would discuss the happenings of the day and just enjoy the scenary. It always managed to stop raining by evening, so it was pretty comfortable to sit outside. With the cigar smoke, the mosquitoes weren't too bad. At the beginning of the hunting trip, it was staying light until 10:30pm. By the end of the trip it was getting dark by 10:00pm. It sure was easy to stay up pretty late due to the light.

This was back at Swan Lake after our long hike back out. We both worked up quite a sweat, so we went for a swim in the lake - it was VERY cold! Also, when Ken dropped us off a week earlier, we put a couple of beers in a creek and they were cold and waiting for us to drink them. The water in the lake is very clear and this evening it was calm and looked like glass. We ended up staying our last night in the cabin before Ken showed up in the plane. It was a good night to be in the cabin as there was a storm that came through during the night with alot of rain and string winds. At times, I thought the cabin was going to blow away. The next morning, Ken showed up three hours early and it was a good thing. There was bad weather forecasted for that day with winds expected to be 40-45 mph. He wouldn't be able to come in to get us if he waited until after the storm.

Getting ready to land back at Kenai Lake

Big bull moose right after leaving Cooper Landing on our way down to Homer. This bull was feeding in someone's front yard. They can be very dangerous, but this one seemed more interested in eating than anything else.