After packing up camp and saying our goodbyes, l left
on the next leg of my journey, an Archery Moose Hunt.
I was flying into Anchorage, picking up my friend and
cameraman Chris Douglas, who had just finished a hunt
with Tom Miranda. We would be making a 2 hour
drive to Talkeetna, where we would be flying to Bunco
Lake in Denali State Park to hunt with an old friend,
Ray Nicks, Sr. and help him fill his freezer, a win-win
situation for both of us.
But, on the third day, glassing across a lake, we caught a
break. We see a Bull Moose stripping his velvet on a tree
at the edge of the lake. Even at over 1,000 yards away,
you could see the glimmer of the white paddles against
the foliage.
The weather in Alaska, as I found out on this trip, can
alter all of your plans. Due to fog, we were grounded
for two days. Since it didn’t look like fog was going lift
anytime soon, we took an airboat to Bunco Lake.
Losing those two days to fog cut into my hunt time. This
gave me only 5 days to hunt in early season, with a bow,
with thick foliage and when the Moose generally don’t
come to calls. It would be a long shot at best. Before
arriving at Bunco Lake, the rain started. Except for a
few hours on Day 4, it didn’t stop the whole time I was We discussed what our plan should be, grabbed our
gear and took off around the lake. Cautiously, we make
there.
our way through the bush to where we thought we saw
Spending time with friends, fishing for Silver Salmon,
cooking fresh fillets on the wood stove, helped me
accept the fact that I probably wouldn’t get a Moose on
this trip.
We start the
Moose hunt.
We set up on a hill with a good vantage point to a river,
glassed for hours and called, but saw nothing. We
moved and tried this technique in a few other areas.
The thick foliage made it difficult to glass and the early
season lack of response from the Moose made it even
more difficult.
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