Buck season kicked off this year with a 2800' climb up to an alpine lake in Alaska. With both my good friend Brian and my 1 year old blue heeler, Remington, we began our climb at 10a, arriving to the lake around 3 in the afternoon. Temperatures, at least for SE Alaska were HOT, at a whopping 70 degrees by later afternoon. The heat wave coupled with the drastic rise in elevation and 30 lbs of gear on our backs, reaching the top was a much deserved effort. Which we did not take advantage of...
We set up our site rather quickly in order to relax and soak up the views with a platypus of gin, for him and wine, for me. Mountain House meals over a very small fire, due to the lack of trees up in the alpine, and we hit the tents by 9p. Alarms were going off by 4a, and we were zipping up the tent and on foot by 5a. We decided to bed down behind some low lying rock formations overlooking a meadow at 2700'. But no sooner did we sit down, we had bucks in our sights. After just a couple missed shots at some far-off targets, Remington's inability to stay out of sight to wildlife and lack of vision through the swarm of bugs, Brian made his kill using a Weatherby Vanguard rifle in 270 WSM @ est. just under 200 yards. Not 5 minutes later, I also took a shot at a buck maybe 30 yards beyond his, but missed. (We'd be thankful of that later on the climb back down.)
The 4-pointer was down by 6a (followed by a 30 minute search 100' down a ravine) and field-dressed by 8a. We were able to pack up site by 9a and begin our climb back down. Although this time, we had double the weight on our backs! Few dropped items, re-distribution of weight, and lots of complaints later, we were down the mountain by 4p and just in time to catch a ride back to the truck from a member of the local fish hatchery in that area.
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