special winter moose hunt - hope I find one.

[Dand]

We have  a short special moose opening west of Dillingham  Jan 2 to 15. I've not been well and its been below 0 for over a week now.  Had hoped it would warm up.  It did for a few hours today.  I woke up to only -10 but by 9:30 it was down to -20 again.  It warmed to about -5 to -10 by 3 pm.  So I've decided to give it a try tomorrow as I feel a lot better today.  A friend got a small bull 2 days ago.

So of course tonight my thermometers are reading -30 to -32!  I put more warm clothes in the duffle bag and we'll hope for the best and go slow.  I'll be encased in layers of fleece and down.

Only small bulls still have their antlers now and the opening is for antlered bulls only. Hope we find one but it should be fun to just look too. At least with this weather its usually sunny part of the day and I can already tell we're getting a little longer daylight.

Too cold to take a camera but will try to get some pics at home if successful.
At least we have some snow for traveling.

[Dand]

Well I awoke to -32 at the house ran 8 miles to my friend's house where it was only -23.  We dallied a little until it was daylight then 4 of us headed out.   We made good time but it was cold.  We got into the open area and ran up to some brushy areas and began looking around.  My friend's youngest son (16) was leading and spotted 4 moose bedded. Two ran off and the two that we could see were cows.  Moved on up a valley and again the kid in the lead snogo spotted 4 moose about the same time the next two of us in line saw them.  One was clearly a bull in about the low 40 inch range.

This is only the second time I have hunted big game off snogos and I have a lot to learn. For one they are so noisy,  we were so spread out, and we were so bundled we couldn't hear each other talk.  Anyway with all the racket the moose began to move out before we could work into shooting range.  Lots of alders and brush to interfere with walking or shooting. The moose made like mountain goats and went straight up the mountain until it looked like they were leaning against the hill as they stood. No way to buck through all that alder.  We sat and watched them for a while but it was too cold to try to wait them out.  And in the calm cold sound travels like crazy.  Every time the moose moved in the brush it sounded like they were 50 yds away when in fact they were probably 800 to 900 yards away.  Frustrating.  So we moved on and looked at some other places. No luck.

On our return we couldn't locate the 4 mountain climbing moose.  We should have found a place close to hide and wait them out. Darn.
We had a cold ride back in the dark.  It was kind of hard for me.  My photo-brown glasses wouldn't get clear even though it was pitch dark!  I could barely see my headlight on the snow let alone nearby landmarks.  Once I split off from my friend's trail I drove home looking over my glasses (I'm blind as a bat without them).  But I could recognize enough of the trail that I made the 8 miles in about a half hour or so. 

It was -32 at my house again at 7:30 PM. Was nice to be back in a warm house. Turns out I frost bit my nose and cheeks - probably when I had my head tipped to see over my glasses.  Was concentrating on the trail so much I didn't notice.  My speedometer broke around lunch time at almost 30 miles so I figure we covered about 70 miles round trip.  It was gorgeous and sunny and the sunset was beautiful but darn it was cold. I'm glad more stuff didn't break.

Also learned I must live in one of the coldest holes in Dillingham.  Our official temps are always considerably warmer than at our house.  Even a friend with a new Toyota Truck says the temperature drops when she drives into our neighborhood.

It supposed to warm up Monday, might blow and snow.  If it just warms up I mght try again.  Sure had fun.  Sure wish I had pictures to share.

 

[corbanzo]

Here is one trick I learned:  I take the digital, put it in a padded waterproof box, and keep it in a pack or box, somewhere that it will stay cold.  I keep the batteries in my pocket where they will stay warm. 

Since the camera is cold, the lens won't fog up, and since the batteries are warm, there is power.  This theory has been tested to about -30 at crescent lake on the kenai pen.  There are definitely never winter openings down here on the road system... too many people for that....

[Dand]

Corb thanks for the idea on keeping a camera operational.  I'll have to try that.  Up to +10 blowing and snowing low visibility at times now so my hunt is over.  Now it bugs me we weren't more determined and or smarter to get that moose. I've watch 3 nice bulls get away from me in the last 3 seasons!

One thing I have to say is my new Christmas beaver mitts made by Annie Fritze here in Dillingham were phenomenal and warm. I had heavy wool mittens and light poly propylene gloves inside and I never got cold.  I did keep my grip warmers on quite a bit.  But off the snogo my hands only got cold when I took off the mitts for a while. She and her husband do great work.  I think the mitts have a light wool blanket liner built in.