Please ignore the haphazard ramblings. I wrote all of this on my phone at night, so there is no structure to it, just play-by-plays.
Travel Day 8/25
We left Toms at 02:15, AK airlines shows up to check firearms at 4:45 (not sure what the point is of showing up early if the airlines have no concerns of getting our rifles squared away - I guess that's the beauty of the Boise airport, easy in, easy out, okay with gun-toting travelers). Met airman Josh who grew up on POW, exchanged hunting and air force stories. Josh assured us that we would get into some bucks in the locations we had pegged. Ferry from ketch to POW, very pretty, worth the three hours and $$ savings over float-plane ride (IMO). Saw two bears eating fish on drive in, also saw 5 deer.
Hunt/hike day 1 (8/26) Saw 2 does on drive to parking spot at base of Manty MTn. Climbed through timber about 1-1/2 miles, took 4 hours of struggle, getting Cliffed out. Following someone else's tape route that dead-ended. They appear to have given up (no more tape). We backtracked and Tom found a root-ladder that shimmied up between last set of cliffs (clutch moment, we were out of survey tape to backtrack). We named it Tom's ladder and it became very useful on our hunt. Spotted 8 does/fawns up top, saw 4 Black Bears. Got clouded out right at prime time and spent rest of night in tent drinking fireball (I carried it up there and wasn't about to keep lugging it around
). It POURED on us all night. Toms rain gear somehow rolled out from under vestibule and was soaked in morning.
Hunt day 2 (8/27)
Spent first several hours in the fog, Tom made fire to dry out rain gear. Spotted a doe in the fog. Fog lifted for a couple minutes, spotted biggest bear we had ever seen about 400 yds away (Tom things he was 7 ft, I wouldn't know, but he made my 5'2" sow from this spring look like she belonged in kiddy pool). Note, bear in photo is significantly smaller than the big one we saw, he was too fast for pic. Fog finally lifted, for about 25 minutes, at 12:30. Spotted a doe bedded behind camp, spotted two across canyon. Clouds and rain moved in, we retreated to tent for a 45 min nap. Moved camp much closer to Manty. Saw 9 more does. If weather cooperates we will spend 30 minutes glassing in the morning and then making big push over to Manty and beyond.
Hunt day 3
Woke up to fog. Tom had an epiphany the night before that iodine was likely causing my throat to hurt because iodine is the reason that most people are allergic to shellfish. I woke up early to boil water for the day. Once the fog started lifting I woke Tom up. We had a quick breakfast and then walked a short distance over to the glassing point from the previous night. The fog kept coming in and out and we grew impatient so we hiked about 150 yards over to the ridge behind us. Immediately upon cresting the ridge I spotted a buck about 75 yds away. I got Toms attention with "Tom, Buck!" As Tom was getting a round chambered the buck, another slightly smaller buck and a doe, took off. Tom dropped him through the neck at 120 yds. I had a chance to shoot the smaller buck but decided to pass. We got him cut up and headed back to camp. Hiked back to where we camped the first night and descended the same path we came up (kind of). We saw a spike and a tiny forky on the way out. In total we saw 13 deer, 4 of which were bucks. The pack out was treacherous and punishing. I'm no stranger to action and adventure, I'm not afraid to break a few bones or get some stitches, but the risk associated with these mountains is insane. Hunting in the Sawtooth mtns of Idaho, in my opinion, gives me a relevant benchmark for what "steep and nasty" looks like. POW ascents/descents assuredly qualify. If you slipped and fell in the helicopter slash (always wet and riddled with Devils club) you could very well find yourself in a very soggy, sh!tty, situation. If you lost your footing in the moss-covered ledges that you inevitably scale to reach the alpines, you could find yourself being a permanent "trail" marker as they have on Everest. I'm not kidding, this place is no joke. As we drove back into Klawock we called the owner of Hollis Adventure Rentals, DJ, and told him we were inbound with meat, horns and cape. We stuck meat in DJ's freezer and then ate a huge pizza at Papa's Pizza in Craig. Highly recommend the stuffed breadsticks (they are, without a doubt, the best cheesy breadsticks Tom or I have ever had - we ended up finding reasons to eat there 3 times in 10 days). Also highly recommend using DJ for rental needs on POW. He's a great guy with quality equipment, fair prices, and let us use his personal freezer space to keep our deer in as we continued to hunt.
Hike/Hunt Day 4
Spent the morning getting gear sorted and running clothes through laundry wash I Klawock. Planned to ascend Black Bear Mountain but rain/fog prevented us from finding a definitive route. Gave up at 1:45 and spent rest of day drinking a few beers in Frank-the-Tank (aka Smokey, aka Busted-Bearings-Betty).
