Bear Bums - Bear Hunting

A big day for us and the day that made me nervous for months.  Today we split up and got, groceries in boxes, 100lbs of salt for hides, hardware type stuff, satellite phone and camp equipment.   The float plane guys, Alaska Seaplane Tours, let us use their jeep to shuttle stuff around.

Shopping for our groceries in Ketchikan.

The camp equipment was rented and had been delivered as had the satellite phone.  The rest of the shopping went smoothly and by the time 10AM came around we found ourselves being loaded on the float planes and headed to Salmon Lake cabin.

Alaska Seaplane Tours.

Alaska Seaplane Tours has the ability to organize the cook kits, boat motor, petrol, etc and as good as they were to work with that’s who we’d use for every thing next time around.

Getting ready to go.

About noon we completed the 30 minute flight to Salmon lake and were alone on the beach by our 80 year old forest service cabin.  On the way in we could see Karta River and Karta Falls as well as Karta Lake and our lake, Salmon lake.  From the float plane thousands of migrating salmon were visible moving up the river system. We were pumped.

Flying in to Salmon Lake, Prince of Wales Island AK.

First off I set up the spotting scope and within 20 minutes had spotted a large bear on the opposite bank of the lake.  The cabin was better than expected, very adequate for a hunting camping experience.  Spending the time to organize our food, cooking gear, sleeping situation etc was wise.  We also put up a large tarp in front of the cabin making our rain free area much larger.(a great idea)  The outdoor fire spot was then on the beach in front of the cabin and tarp.

Unloading the spotting scope to take a look at the black bear across the lake.

Looking at that first big black bear.

Outside of Salmon Lake Cabin.

Inside of Salmon Lake Cabin.  Notice the shelves for food, wood stove and bunks.

A fresh water stream was approx. 250 yds up the beach.  All the water we used was filtered and we tried to stay ahead a gallon or two.

This water filter works great when bear hunting.

We put in some time fishing time that day and got organized for the more aggressive stuff like bear hunting.  That evening as it was getting dark we learned a lot about our boat and motor as we ran out of gas and had to row all the way across the lake.  It became obvious we were wise in renting the motor and dumb in not carrying extra fuel in the boat!  I think we had our first fish meal that night.  Lake trout with lemons!