The new teepee

On this year's elk hunt we got to try out my new 8 man teepee from Seek Outside. All of my large 'expedition' teepees - the kind I take for archaeology camps or for group outings to our place on Afognak - are getting pretty worn out. So I decided to get a new one. But rather than getting one made out of the usual sil nylon I went for the lightweight dyneema. Dyneema is super strong and light weight, and it does not sag when it gets wet. So you just tighten it up and leave it that way. 

Dyneema is also expensive so no one makes a big tent out of it that I could buy. But I talked to the tent makers at Seek Outside and they agreed to build one custom for me. They tell me I may well have the world's largest tent made out of dyneema. 

What's amazing is that the teepee all up with pole, stakes, bag, and cords only weighs 6.2 pounds. And all six of us can sleep in there with the woodstove. People can stand up and walk around inside it! My old elk hunt tent (also made from dyneema)  weighs 4.6 but only sleeps 4 with the woodstove. You get a lot of room with that extra pound and a half. And I also think that with all the extra guy out points that it will do better in the wind than the last one did. I must say the tent seems HUGE!

In the future this is the tent I'll take on archaeological expeditions and as a cook tent for when we go to Afognak. But it is also light enough to use on our nomadic elk hunts where we traipse across the landscape. 

Patrick

Brooks hard at working making s'mores

Floating camp

 

For most traditional hunters deer and/or elk camp is a fixed spot on the landscape. Usually it is a cabin or wall tent where a group of guys go every year and use it as a base camp. You've all read the stories and seen the pictures in various hunting magazines. Our elk camp floats and moves. It is a 50 seiner. 

It is a little cramped when all 7 of us are on board. But there is beer on tap and we have gourmet meals all frozen and waiting to cook. The boat gets us to where we want to hunt. Then when we go ashore to hunt it can pick us up at whatever spot chasing the elk has taken us to.

Once on shore we carry a lightweight teepee and woodstove for shelter (more on this in next blog post). But onshore, and in particular when we are making the slog back to the beach carrying an elk, we always know 'don't worry there is beer on the boat'. A reassuring notion indeed!

Patrick

The Afognak Landscape

 

Afognak is a beautiful place and up there it is sort of hard to take a bad landscape picture. That said, this year I am not happy with my elk hunt landscape pictures. Mostly this is because the weather did not cooperate. It's hard to take good landscape photos when it is overcast and/or raining. Also with the poor weather conditions I was a little adverse to using my good camera, and it was often in my pack. I was worried I'd get it wet. So I ended up using my really old water proof camera that has a tiny sensor. The quality of the waterproof camera images is about the same as with an iPhone (or maybe even worse!). And this year some of my favorite pictures were taken with smartphones.

I think the top photo is probably my best landscape photo. There are others below that might have compared if I had just taken the time to stop and grab the good camera out of my pack instead of sticking with the handy waterproof camera. In particular, the ones below of the morning frost and dead spruce trees. I took those with the waterproof camera and they just lack dynamic range. The colors do not pop, and they seem kind of grainy. They are not sharp and colorful like the ones taken with my good camera.

It's funny but I only started to take my good camera along on the elk hunts about 10 years ago. Prior to that all of my photos were taken with a waterproof camera with a small sensor. Back then I was happy with what I got out of the camera with a small sensor - I guess I have gotten more picky with age!

Patrick

Someone's smart phone scenic

Pack on the go

 

This year we had quite a bit of turnover on the elk crew. We lost Philip and Ray but gained 2 new guys, Brian and Matt, from Juneau. The new guys brought some very strong backs. In years past there has always been a little 'musical chairs' when picking out the meat loads to carry back to the boat. No one really wants to carry the 80-90 pound hind quarters. But not so this year - this year the heaviest loads were all chosen first. On the last pack out I was kind of amazed to pick last and find the lightest load.

And this year we got to do a lot of traipsing and camping. We went ashore twice and each time we got to hike a long way before we found the elk. We also got to camp on shore for 4 nights. Camping and hiking is always my favorite part of the trip.

Patrick

Lunch in the sunshine during a LONG pack out to the beach

Bringing back the elk

 

The meat diva at the end of the hunt

The whole point of the elk hunt is to bring back meat, and we managed to bring back plenty. This year I needed the meat for my freezer a little more badly than usual. I had not done very well on my earlier deer hunts, and the freezer had been looking a tad empty. But not so after the hunt - I got enough elk meat now to feed me for a year.

Bringing back the elk is a lot of work. You got to butcher the elk in the field and then carry him back to the boat on your back. One of the pack outs this year was over 4 miles. On the boat you got to keep the meat clean and dry. This means that you got to protect it from the rain and change the cotton game bags on a regular basis. And then when you do get back to Kodiak you have to cut it all up and package it for the freezer. This year we cut up all the meat in one long day. It might be the quickest we have ever cut up all the elk. The Juneau crew was the 'A-team' with the knives.

Patrick