I haven’t made a post in quite a while. We had a lot going on. The house moving is over and we are back in our house now. A couple of friends came up from Arkansas to go moose hunting with me and we were in the woods for about 8 days.
Moose camp phase 1
We went up to the Yuki River on the 12th and set up camp. We hunted pretty hard for a few days but only saw a cow and calf. The weather was pretty nice for the first day but then a thunderstorm came in and hit us pretty hard at camp. I saw more thunder and lighting that night than I have since moving to Alaska. We kept going further and further up the river and began to see more moose sign so we made the decision to go back to Galena and get more fuel, (we were running low by then), get more supplies, and come back on the next day and camp further up the river. That way we wouldn’t have to spend so much time traveling back and forth from camp.
Moose camp phase 2
After getting more gas, food and hot showers we went back up to the Yuki and set up our camp much further upriver. We saw a couple of bulls but Dave and Andy couldn’t shoot because it was hard to determine if they were legal. As out of state hunters they were limited to a 50″ or larger bull. I could not shoot since I was operating the boat. We saw more cows and calves as well as bear and wolf tracks. We didn’t see any bears or wolves but heard wolves most evenings.
The trip back
Lynn was expecting us back on Sunday the 21st so we hunted that morning, loaded the boat, and headed back to Galena. It was about an hour and a half from our camp to the mouth of the Yuki running at top speed. After that it was about another hour back to Galena if the water was relatively calm. On my way back down the Yuki I noticed we got a lot more wave action on the sections of the river that were oriented to the northwest. I told the guys that the trip back on the Yukon was liable to be rough and I was right. We ran through whitecaps all the way back to Galena and just upriver from town we had to cross the river near the dunes at a point where the waves were actually higher than the boat. Dave has video of this crossing but I didn’t want to upload it until I had a chance to edit it for language. Everyone was wearing life jackets but the water was 44F so chances of survival if we went in the water was pretty remote.
We got back to the house okay, cleaned up our boat and equipment and the guys went back to Arkansas on Tuesday. We didn’t get a moose but had a pretty good trip. Next spring I will have some means of communicating with Lynn while I am out on my boat so I can keep in contact and check the weather while I am out. I have a couple of ideas of what I want to get but I have some time before I need to get anything.
House update
Lynn and I are back in the house and our city water should get hooked up before long. Tomorrow the water line is supposed to be reburied. I’ll send some more pictures of the house later.