The South End Beauty

 

Here are some pretty pictures from our hunting trip to the south end of the island.  It is such a different world than on the north end. There are no trees or nearby mountains.  On the north end of the island the views seem 'common' because I see them everyday.  On the south end everything is very new and unique and I could not stop taking pictures.

Patrick 

On the beach

 

Where we were hunting was close to the beach.  This was important because there are no trees down there and we needed wood for our stove.  So we routinely walked to the beach to collect driftwood. The beaches were quite spectacular and there was a lot of marine debris along the tideline.  I desperately wanted to find a glass ball and combed the beaches for hours.  But no luck.  I did not find a single glass ball.

Patrick

Fields of Grass

 

Where we were hunting on the South End it was pretty flat and swampy.  The flat areas were often old lake bottoms that had filled in with muck.  And the grass was often growing in a couple inches of water.  Xtra tuff boots were pretty much required footwear.  Where it was not flat - the tundra was all holes and tussocks - patterned ground created by freeze and thaw cycles. The easiest hiking was along the old lakeshores were it was flat and dry.

Walking across the swampy fields I often contemplated whether sinking in with every step was harder work than climbing a steep hill on firm ground. In the end I decided that the swamps and tussocks is actually more tiring than a steep climb.

Patrick

Back from South End Hunt

 

I got back late Friday evening from a hunting trip on the south end of the island.  It was a successful trip and we harvested 5 big deer.  So successful that I am only now getting around to finally posting on the blog.  I spent the first 2 days after we got back cutting up and packaging meat for the freezer and cleaning and putting away gear, and then I had so many good photos that it took days to edit through them. But here are the first  of my favorite pictures from the trip.  There are many more to follow.

The south end is such a spectacular place.  It is wide open and there are deer everywhere.  Or rather maybe there are the same number of deer as elsewhere - only with no brush there is no place for them to hide and they are far easier to see. The south end is also further from town and harder to get to than places closer to town.  This means there are less people and the animals are a little less leery of people.  When you are out there - you are really OUT there.

It was also pretty windy.  The lack of trees and brush mean there are less obstacles for the wind and fewer protected places to pitch a tent.  We ended up with our teepee and camp tucked up under the bank on the beach of a shallow lake - And praying that the wind did not shift and come across the lake at us!

More to come.

Patrick

  

collecting drift wood for the stove

Our tent by a lake

Killing Time

 

Still on weather hold.  Yesterday it was too windy to land where we want to go deer hunting and so we hung out in town.  On weather hold.  But funnily enough it was nice in town.  Usually when you are on weather hold it is nasty outside and not only are you on weather hold but you are also house bound.  Not so yesterday.  We knew we were not going to fly and the weather was somewhat decent, and so we went for a hike.

We climbed to the tippy top of Pyramid.  What's funny is that while I climb up Pyramid practically every day - I almost never go to the very top.  Climbing Pyramid made what seems like a useless day on weather hold worthwhile.

Patrick

Windy

 

Right now I am on weather hold waiting to fly out on a remote deer hunt.  The weather is beautiful but it is too windy to fly to where we want to go. Squirrelly high winds and float planes do not mix well.

These are some pictures from my dog walk yesterday evening.  You can see the wind on the waves.  Windy and clear - fall weather.

The bottom photo is of a completed puzzle I did over the last few days.  My mother gave it to me and it came with no picture.  It was an extremely hard puzzle.  Near the end I turned over the pieces and aligned the wood grain to make it easier to fit the pieces together.  Fitting each piece came with a great deal of satisfaction.

Patrick