Back from the elk hunt

We got back from the elk hunt Thursday afternoon and the last few days have been a whirlwind of putting away gear and cutting up and packaging elk.  But we are all done now and the freezer is packed with meat.   The Afognak hunt is an annual tradition that I do every year with pretty much the same guys.  This year was the 21st iteration of the hunt.  Wow!

This year we found the elk herd on the first day and shot a bull and a cow at sunset. Only problem was that the boat was on the other side of a mountain and 6 miles away.  So we spent the next 3 days packing out meat to the boat. It was actually a pretty nice pack out with a good foot tread the whole way and virtually no bushwhacking.  

The hard part was timing our pack outs with the tide - we needed high tide to get to and from the boat. High tide was in the late afternoon, and so we could only do one trip a day.  Day one of the pack out we arrived back at the boat just past high tide, then the next day we could not leave the boat until high tide in the early afternoon, and then, finally, on the third day we again arrived back at the boat at high tide in the late afternoon.  But timing with the tides was not such a bad thing because it allowed us to sleep in a bit and made for relaxed mornings in the camp and on the boat.

As usual the views on Afognak were glorious and we did see a lot of bears.  We did not lose any meat to the bears but bears did claim the elk carcasses.  We also had a bear drop by our house back in Kodiak when we were cutting up the meat - so more stories to tell in subsequent posts!

Patrick

Favorite field meal

 

On the recent deer hunt our favorite meal without question was a braised tenderloin with roasted vegetable dish that we cooked on the woodstove.

It was getting late in the trip and a pair of the tenderloins were beginning to smell a bit.  It looked like they would go bad before we got them back to Kodiak.  So we decided to cook them.  We decided to braise them in boiling water and then slice and add to a pan of roasted vegetables.  It came out amazing!

Basically, I boiled a pot of water and simply dropped the tenderloins into the water and set it aside off of the stove.  In the meanwhile I had been roasting a big pan of vegetables on the woodstove.  I brought garlic, potatoes, and beets from my garden and we also added a red onion.  We simply added some salt, pepper and avocado oil, put the lid on and left them on the stove to roast.  I stirred them infrequently so that they could get charred and 'crusty'.  I also added the onions and garlic cloves late in the process so they did not burn - the beets, potatoes and carrots needed a lot of time!

At the very end we poured off the braise water and cut up the tenderloins.  They were perfectly pink inside.  In a separate fry pan we fried up some chopped garlic and then quickly did sauté with the sliced tenderloin before adding it all to the roasted vegetables.

It was delicious!

Patrick

Note tenderloins on wood pile to right of stove

Hunting deer

 

Where we were on the South End the deer had big bodies but the antlers were not all that big.  I figure some and maybe all of the deer weighed over 200 pounds, and from just 6 deer we brought back 600 pounds of bone-in meat. We ended up with 260 pounds of packaged meat.

The antlers weren't big by trophy deer hunter standards but they were very thick and big in their own way.  They had the characteristics of old deer.  Big old guys whose antlers were in decline.  A couple of the deer were just huge forks without eye guards.  I've noticed that old deer tend to lack eye guards and often have slightly palmated antlers (like a moose).  One of the big boys we harvested had a heavily scarred neck from fighting with other bucks.

On the north end of the island old bucks tend to die during harsh winters.  They expend all their energy reserves during the rut and most of them die when it gets cold.  The fact that we saw so many old bucks indicates that the winters down on the south end are relatively mild.  There is good winter survival.

Last night we cooked up a stir fry with some of the backstrap, and I noticed that the meat was marbled with fat - like beef cow meat! Usually deer meat is very lean.  The marbled fat in the meat made it very tasty in the stir fry.  The kids and I gobbled it all up.  When getting seconds I noticed them selectively choosing pieces of meat out of the stir fry and avoiding the vegetables.  Not the greatest form food etiquette wise - but a big compliment to the taste of the meat.

Patrick

This old boy had the biggest body of all and a scarred neck from fighting - note lack of eye guards

Life in Camp

 

Some pictures from our South End camp.  As usual we used a teepee with a woodstove for a base camp, and another small teepee for our meat shelter.  It was Ray's job to keep the meat dry and cool in the meat shelter.  He put the meat into cotton game bags to help keep it dry and changed them out frequently.

On this trip we also brought a smaller teepee and woodstove which we used for a 'spike camp'.  We hiked an hour and a half to another location and camped there for a couple days.  For variety sake it was nice to have 2 camps (see photo of 'spike camp' from first hunt blog post).

Lit up with solar charged Luci Lights our teepee was quite comfortable!

Patrick

The morning after the storm - drying game bags at camp

Inside the spike camp teepee

On the Landscape

 

The South End is a pretty place and very, very different from the North End of the island.  On the North end there are tall spruce trees and lots of brush.  There were practically no trees where we went, and even very little brush.  No bushwhacking at all - what a concept for Kodiak! Still, it was very marshy and the ground was often very 'frost heaved' with bumps and holes.  So the hiking was a little more tiring than you'd expect given that there is no brush to negotiate.

The South End is also pretty remote and the beaches have not been totally combed over for glass balls. On this trip we found 2 - Mike and Ray found one each and, despite spending the most time looking, I found none.  It's not often that you come home from a deer hunting trip with glass balls. In fact, I've only done it once before (click here for that story) also on another trip to the South End.

Back from the South End

 

Late last Thursday Mike, Ray, and I returned from a successful deer hunt to the South End of Kodiak.  We brought back 600 pounds of field-dressed deer meat that represented the harvest of 6 big deer.  That's a lot of meat and we spent the next two days cutting it all up and packaging it.  We also had to take care of all our gear and cleaning up.  So basically we spent the last 3 days cutting up meat and taking care of gear.  We ended up with 260 pounds of packaged meat in the freezer.  Meat for the winter!

While the primary purpose of the trip was to bring back deer meat, a side benefit was that we got to enjoy spectacular scenery.  The hiking was pretty good too.  Of course we also had some hardship - carrying heavy deer and surviving a BIG storm.  The storm blasted us with 50-60 miles per hour gusts and the rain almost flooded our tent (it was a mere inches from turning into a lake).  We could hear the wind keening in the tent guys and making ripping sounds.  It was very alarming and we stayed awake wearing all our rain gear and boots - ready to jump up at a moments notice if the tent started to come down.

Anyway, it was a great trip and I'll post more in subsequent posts.

Patrick

Ray tending to the meat in the meat shelter - got to keep it dry and clean