Last Thursday (Aug 10th) was the start of the 2017 archery moose season. I had to work, but I'm on a reduced schedule of 6 hrs, so I had plenty of time in the evening get my hunting fix.

For opening day, I chose to hunt about 2-miles from home where I had seen a fork horn during a scouting trip. It was fairly warm at the start of the hunt, so I hadn't gone far when I took a break to cool down, and sit for about an hour in a likely trail along an alder patch.

First break:

     

You'll notice that I'm hanging onto my Misty Dawn for this canned photo. I've learned to keep my bow handy at all times after missing out on a shot when I left it behind to do some glassing. It happened on my first scouting trip up the mountain on Prince of Wales Island where I took the buck in my profile photo. I was most of the way up the ridge to the lowest peak. I decided to take a break, so I dropped my pack and set the bow on it while I went about 10 yards slightly downhill where I could glass a valley and a semi-open area on the next ridge over. When I turned around, there was a nice buck standing broadside to me and almost standing on my bow!

About the time I ended the break, clouds had moved in and a light, cooling breeze came up. I still hunted and did some short posts for the next two hours until I came up to slough. Right away, I picked out bull feeding in some timber across the slough. Could this be the bull I saw on my scouting trip? After a glassing him for a few minutes, I determined that it was a different bull with slightly palmated antlers...not legal. Still, that made my day.

Friday, I decided to hunt the same spot, but didn't see any moose.

I hunted one of my favorite areas on Saturday. There was off and on drizzles all day. I covered a lot of ground, and spent quite a bit of time on my Torges Seat, but didn't see any animals, which was strange considering how many I saw last year.

My last post was on the edge of a nice muskeg area. I cut out a blind in the spruces bordering the muskeg last year. There is a nice trail between the two.

The final post:

     

Notice the moose droppings at the bottom of the photo. I guess they didn't like my work! Also notice that I didn't have my bow in hand...OOPS!

The muskeg from the stand:

     

Flash back to 2013 at this muskeg: The first time I came to this muskeg was in September 2013. I wanted to get a better look around the muskeg, so I jumped up on one of the hummocks where a small spruce was growing. I no sooner got on it than the ground started wildly shaking. Earthquake! I grabbed the spruce to keep from being thrown off into the muskeg. I watched the tall birch trees across the muskeg violently whipping back and forth. Why they didn't snap off I'll never know! I'm sure there was a rain of dead branches coming off those trees. I was sure glad that I was in the muskeg surrounded by the small spruces and not in the birch timber!

Today (Sunday), started off fairly windy and rainy, so I didn't get into the woods until after noon. I decided to hunt in the muskeg post area again as I saw some pretty good sign yesterday. To get there, I need to cross a small drainage, where my son and I built a simple log bridge.

     

This leads to a nice strip of open birch and spruce where we have taken a couple of bulls. I had just gotten into the timber when I spotted a moose. Turned out to be a cow with a calf. Always fun to see a nervous cow with her calf.

The wind wasn't favorable to post here, so I made a wide circuit around some good moose cover and came into the muskeg, this time setting up in a clump of small spruce opposite yesterday's stand to take better advantage of the wind. It started off good, but the wind start making wild swings, so I called it a day fairly early. It was still a great time in the woods.

I hope I didn't bore you too much with my ramblings. I'm still hoping to get my first moose with a bow. Four more days to go. Wish me luck!

Definitely wish you luck and thanks for taking us along  on your adventure.

Beautiful pictures, good luck to you sir

One day I'll get to do that ! Good luck on the hunt

Good luck!

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Cool!  I notice you are from Palmer.  We stop at a cafe there every year on the way to Tok.  It's across the street from the fairgrounds.

Mike

Nice recap.  Good luck with the rest of the season and keep up with the updates

Thanks, everyone.

Mike: That would be the Noisy Goose. Nice place to take a break.

Yep that's it.  Good breakfast!

Traditional stop every year on the way.

Mike

Good read Chuck. Good luck, and isn't work supposed to come last now? Like maybe after moose season!

Terry K.

I used to live in Wasilla, the last two bulls I killed up there were about 8.5 miles out KGB towards point McKenzie. Back then there were big tracts of timber between the subdivisions that held a lot of moose.

Yep, Terry. That's the way it should be, but the short work days give me a fair amount of time in the woods. Then there's the month long general season coming up. That's when things get interesting; fewer mosquitos, the bulls coming to calls...still plenty of time!

Wonderful story and pics.

Best of luck...

great story.

 awesome

Thanks for sharing your adventure,nice pictures.
  Good luck!

I had a prior commitment on day 5, so I didn't get to hunt. Would have been a beautiful evening in the woods.

Day 6 (Tuesday): The weatherman predicted that Wednesday would be a wet one, so I mowed the lawn after work. For this reason, I decided to hunt close to home and prowl the woods where I hunted on opening day.

I was hot to trot to get in the woods, so I double checked that I hadn't forgotten anything as I loaded up the truck. As soon as I got to my parking spot, I realized I had forgotten to put in my contact lenses! I usually only wear them when hunting, so it is easy to forget to put them in. Then I remembered the backup set in my shirt pocket.

After popping in the contacts in, I saddled up and eased into the woods. I had only gone in a short way when I remembered that I forgot to put on my camo war paint, in this case, charcoal from a wine cork. I wasn't going to go back, so at the first muddy spot I came across, I painted on some mud. With any luck, I thought, a moose had relieved itself here and I would have an effective scent camo too!

After standing for a while to cool off at the same place I did on opening day, I eased over close to the edge of a 30 yd wide grassy swale that happened to run in the direction the light wind was coming from, so to the right I could look across the swale and into some nice timber, and to the left about 40 yards away, I could look into an stand of alder.

I was following a fairly well defined moose trail with a set of large tracks that look fresh heading into the wind. I had only gone about 100 yds. when I got a whiff of what I thought had to be moose. Naw, it must just be my muddy camo. Another few yards, and there was a moose just inside the alders. I glassed it for about 10 mins before it started moving it's head some so I could see that it was a cow. She slowly turned and walked deeper into the alders.

I moved ahead a few hundred yards and setup at the base of a large cottonwood.

Cottonwood stand:

   

From here I could see 200 yds ahead in the cottonwood/birch/spruce timber, almost to a slough on my right and the remnants of the alder patch that was transitioning into a grassy area with scatter brush and timber on the left. The timber I was in had tall grass, wild rose bushes and other small bushes that would make pretty good cover for a stalk.

After about 45 mins., caught a movement off to my left. I could only see the hind end of the moose  at first, so I had hopes that it would be a legal bull. Alas, it turned out to be a cow.

Here she comes:

   

She got as close as 35 yds at one point. Had it been a bull, I would have been able to close that distance down to to 20 yds or less without a problem.

I only stood there a short while after she passed me, quartering downwind. I didn't want to spook her, so I backed out the way I came in, so I was moving downwind too.

Today (Wednesday)is cool, overcast and occasional light rain...perfect! I won't be able to get out until this evening, but I'm hoping for the best.

Great Stuff !!

I'm hooked!  good luck