Last week I explained how I met Steve Johnsen of Ultimate Alaskan Adventures and how that set the stage for the start of my 2010 hunting season. My 2010 season got its start right back in the Chugach mountains of Alaska. This time instead of being a customer I would be helping Steve guide a Dall Sheep/Bear combo hunt.On this ten day hunt Steve would need a lot of help. Our very large crew included four guides/packers in Steve, myself, Dan, and Charley. Two Spanish hunters Roberto and Georges, who couldn't speak a lick of English and finally a booking agent named Fernando as a tourist/interpreter.
After two full days hiking with extremely heavy packs we finally got to the location where we would split in to two groups. Georges would be going with Charley and Dan while Roberto and Fernando remained with Myself and Steve. Given that none of the clients were in extreme back packing shape us guides were super weighed down. I remember thinking "what the heck are we going to do if we get a few animals down way back here?".
The weather was extremely warm for Alaska and we couldn't seem to ever get the wind right to hunt the valley bottoms for Bears. The first half of our hunt was spent glassing for Dall sheep in an attempt to find an old Ram.
Roberto wasn't to interested in climbing to the tops of the mountains to hunt the ridge tops unless we knew there was a legal Ram there for sure. This really limited our possibility of finding a big Ram but when you are guiding you have to play the cards you are dealt. We didn't let the lack of mobility discourage us in the least, Steve has a great area and knows every inch of it. Over the first four days of our hunt we managed to look at a ton of Rams although a few were close none were shooters.
After taking close looks through the spotting scope at a lot of Rams it wasn't until the morning of day five that we found one worth going after. We were able to put a stalk on this gorgeous trophy but could only close the distance to about 600 yards. Roberto wasn't comfortable with that long of a shot so there we sat, pinned down waiting for the sheep to make a mistake. The Ram didn't move from his bed all day. We finally ran out of time and had to reluctantly retreat back down the mountain to our tent.
After coming close on the Ram Roberto was totally discouraged and decided that he wasn't cut out for sheep hunting. He wanted to hunt the valley bottoms and concentrate on bears for the remainder of his time in Alaska. With a new plan we headed back in the direction way had came from a few days ago and hoped the temperatures would cool off so the bears would start moving.
All of day six was spent hunting as we traveled from one valley to another, we arrived to the spot we wanted to camp right at dark. We quickly set camp, cooked some Mountain House meals and hit the old fart sack with hopes of seeing some bears in the morning.
It did happen to cool off a few degrees over night and it was amazing how much of a difference that made. We glassed right from camp first thing in the morning and were pleasantly surprised, there was game all over. We spotted two black bears and five moose right from our front door.
While Steve stayed in camp and prepared breakfast for the guys I decided to walk to a basin about a mile away and check it for sheep or more Bears. As I made my way a long a steep cliff I kept my eye on the closest of the two Black Bears we could seen from camp. I found it kind of funny he was paralleling my line of travel just across a ravine at about 3oo yards. I knew he seen me but didn't think too much of it. I rounded the corner into the basin, got in a got spot and glassed for about 30 minutes. Fairly confident the small basin wasn't holding any animals that morning I started to make my way back to camp. When I rounded the corner coming out of the basin I was surprised that the Black Bear had actually crossed the small ravine and was now walking nose to the ground on my exact trail. I re-routed to a set of cliffs a little higher on the slope and made my way above him back to camp. I had a great look at the Bear at under 100 yards and judged him to be about a six and a half footer.
Once back in camp I explained to Roberto that the bear wasn't far off and it was a good trophy. He chose to finish his breakfast and take his time deciding if he wanted to take him or not, he was a little worried about possibly scaring off any Brown Bears that might be in the area. Then something really surprising happened, I was over by the tent eating my oatmeal when I looked up and I spotted the same Bear. Again he was walking my exact trail with his nose to the ground, I couldn't believe it, this bear followed me right to camp. I Pointed him out to everyone else and it didn't take Roberto long to get down in the prone position right in front of the tent and let him have it at about 150 yards. The bear was a great Trophy and Roberto was very pleased with him, I think he also liked the idea he was able to shoot him right from the front porch of the tent.
As part of a guides job I now had a bear to skin so that ended my hunting for the day but lucky for Roberto there were two guides on the trip. While I remained back by camp and got to work on the Black Bear Steve, Roberto and Fernando decided to head out to another basin across the valley. It took them a few hours to get over there, when they finally did Steve spotted a nice Brown Bear about half way up the the basin wall. They were a little too far off for a shot but the Bear had no clue they were there. It didn't take overly long to stalk in to a good position, when they crawled over a small rise there was Roberto's Brown Bear standing at 83 yards broadside. I heard the two shots from camp and Knew me and Steve had our work cut out for us.
I was so happy for Roberto when they all arrived back in camp with the skinned Bear, what a day seven but I knew what laid ahead for myself and Steve and that was three days of up and down ridiculously steep slopes with packs that weighed well over 100lb's.
Unfortunately for Georges he wasn't as lucky as Roberto and didn't manage to tag anything as he passed on a few squeaker Rams and smaller Brown and Black Bears. This hunt was extremely tough but I absolutely love the rugged Chugach Mountains and have full intentions of finding my way back there for the beginning of my 2011 hunting season.
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Thanks everyone, Tom Sallows, Mountain Man Adventures, mountainmanadv@hotmail.com
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