Kodiak Road System Deer Hunt - September 2022

Fieldwork in remote Alaska can be a bear: horrible logistics, bad weather, uncertain schedules that drag on, droning machinery, and sometimes difficult and usually unusual people. Its also a chance to see beautiful and wild places that you might not otherwise. In September I headed to Kodiak Island for a few days of environmental work about an old laundromat that used to throw its dry cleaning fluids out the back door. Some people.

Hoping for a quick overnight hunt when I landed, I tossed my gun in my luggage pile next to the work gear. When I landed on the island I ran to pick up a pile of sampling equipment from air cargo, stuffed a few energy bars in my pockets, then drove south in hopes of finding a buck.

When I pulled off the Pasagshak Road there were already three trucks parked and I wondered if it was gonna be a busy night. I quickly caught up with a group who looked more like your stereotypical moose hunters than my solo backcountry skier type. I worried they might feel like I was encroaching, but they were looking for a goat, and with a promise not to scare off any shaggy white carpets they waved me on.


The trail was steep, though would have been worse if wet and muddy, and I didn't have much time to work with before dark. So, I was drenched with sweat from my sprint to the alpine by the time I emerged from the thick brush and tall grass that is so alien to mainland Southcentral AK. Over the years, a key for me to improve my harvest odds has been to get out of sight of eyes of road hunters glassing from their trucks. So, I dropped off the ridge and out of site of civilization. As I descended to the next low pass I ran into two guys returning from a successful goat hunt. They looked totally worked as they climbed out of the valley; I knew I could be in their shoes the next morning. 


Climbing out of the valley pass in the maroon sunset I could see a couple tents tucked into a draw and knew I should hike as far as possible to give them space. With that in mind, I kept going until I couldn't see the ground under my feet and needed my GPS to confirm I was perched in a high spot that hopefully would have a good panorama of a view the next morning.