Day 1 - Fly In
Day 2 - Hike to High Country
Day 3 - First Hunt
Day 4 - Stupid Mistakes
Day 5 - It all comes together - sort of
Day 6 - Rainy Camp Day
Day 7- Goat Hunting Again
Day 8- Goats Everywhere!
Day 9- Fly out day
Day 10- POW Island hunt rained out
Day 11- First Blacktail Hunt on POW Island
Day 12- Blacktail Action! - Last Day

 Goats 1999 - Day by Day
 

We broke camp in the rain and fog and packed our bags for the long trek to the lake. Because everything was wet and we had the meat to pack out, our packs were quite heavy. By 6:30 AM we were on our way. After stumbling, and sliding our way down, we made it back to Camp 1, the base camp.

From there it was a jump in the lake, a change of clothes, and a scramble to get all of our gear organized and loaded at the beach for our pickup. It is always a crap shoot if we will get out on-time (or at all) but we were lucky and a few minutes before 2 PM, we heard the sound of our plane coming up the valley.

We loaded the plane and strapped in for the hour-long flight back to Ketchikan, we were in excellent spirits and ready to hit Prince of Wales (POW) Island to hunt deer. JJ was our pilot and he told us that weather in Ketchikan was deteriorating, so we got up and out of there quickly.

Video of us taking off from our remote lake (1.4 mb)

 

It was a a long flight through rough weather, but we landed safely in Ketchikan and organized our gear for POW Island. After a long hot shower and a hot meal, we hit the laundromat to get the rank out of our clothes and gear. At 1:30 AM we boarded the POW ferry for the nearly four our boat ride to Hollis, Ak. Tomorrow would be questionable if we could get up to high country to hunt deer. We would need to rest up and plan around the weather.

Gear for my hunt

Bow

For the first part of my trip it was my homemade recurve, after that it was my Marriah Thermal at 60" and 67# @ 28"

Arrows

I used Rogue River Archery's tapered and matched cedar shafts on this hunt with Gateway feathers.

Broadheads

Magnus II broadheads, 125 grain 2-blade.

Clothing

For my goat hunt, I was right-on with my clothing with minor exceptions. For pants I brought one pair of cotton camo pants, and one pair of fleece pants for the cooler days. On rainy days I used long Johns with my rainwear over that and little else. For shirts I brought one cotton T-shirt and 2 Thermax Turtlenecks which can be purchased at Cabelas. For a jacket I used Hidden Wolf Woolen's Predator Camo Jacket for cold days, and a fleece camo jacket from Renegade Bowhunting Supply for cool days and evenings (doubles as a pillow).

Footwear

For footwear it was my rubber caulkes boots (logging boots with metal spikes) with a spare pair of leather mountain boots back at base camp. For socks it was only Cabelas Thermax Heavyweight socks. (Note: I brought 5 pairs with me and recommend doubling this in the future)

Rainwear

For rainy days, and hiking through the soaked underbrush, I used my Peter Storm Rainwear with long Johns underneath. On foggy, drizzly days it was a gore-tex suit which breathed a bit better but was not as waterproof as the Storm gear.

Tent

I used my standard North Face Tadpole, 1-man free standing ultralight tent. This was inadequate this year with the pounding rain and I recommend using a 4-season tent with a large rain fly instead. My tent, and sleeping bag got wet on this trip which was no fun.

Backpack

I used a Cabelas Alaskan Pak III which is an external pack frame with a large, multi compartment bag. this worked well however it is too heavy for ultralight hunts (ok for this one). On day hunts I used a great fanny pack/backpack combo called Trailblazer 2000 from Crooked Horn Outfitters. I got this pack from Back Country Inc