I finally have time to sit down and write about my Southeast AK black bear hunt from the beginning of September. It may be a little long winded, so forgive me.
We left for Prince of Wales Island the 26th of August for what we had planned to be 4 days of deer hunting in the alpine and 4 days of black bear hunting on the salmon streams. 2 months of some pretty rigorous backpack training for the deer portion were completely washed away by some very nasty rain, fog, and wind. We "elected" to spend 3 days in the lodge rather than stuck in a tent on the side of a mountain. It was really a no brainer with 6-8" of rain, heavy fog, and wind gusting up to 65 mph at times. The one good thing about getting stuck in the lodge was that we really got to know our outfitter/guide Kurt Whitehead, his wife Trina and their assistant Josh very well. The company and stories were very entertaining. When Alaska gives you lemons, make lemonade! We were also able to do a little sightseeing and take in some totem poles in Klawock and Hydaburg which were kind of neat.
After days of checking and double checking gear and otherwise killing time, we finally got to leave out of the harbor on Kurt's boat, the Glacier, the day before the bear season opener. The trip by boat to the hunting area was filled with Humpback and Orca sightings as well as dodging all the debris that had been washed out of the rivers by the rain.
Opening day found us wading up some pretty crazy swollen stream with salmon tripping me up when the submerged logs were not. I only thought I was going to get washed away on a couple of occasions and Kurt did a great job of keeping us safe. I ended up getting water over the top of my waders once which was a little cold, wet, and miserable....but I survived. We saw numerous bears, which we were told were all too small. We even had one borderline shooter approach to about 10 yards which made for some great photos.
Fast forward to the last day of the hunt, I woke up thinking that I had spent a lot of time and money coming on this adventure and that I stood a pretty good chance of not getting a bear thanks to the weather washing the salmon out of the streams for a couple of days. Surprisingly, I wasn't disappointed because it had been a great adventure so far. To make a long story short, my hunting partner and I both ended up getting nice bears on the last afternoon of the hunt. Our .375 Rugers performed flawlessly and we have decided that a .375 Ruger to the chest is not a survivable event...ever.
I would highly recommend Kurt Whitehead as an outfitter for the giant black bears on Prince of Wales Island. He is very thorough, prepared for all contingencies, and is just a pleasure to be around.
