Laborious Day

I am not much into hunting, however, filling the freezer with quality moose or caribou meat is always a good idea. Most folks use a motorized boat or 4-wheeler to get where they need to go. Not having any of the motorized fun toys I used both of my kayaks. I was hoping for a small enough antlered moose I could kayak out myself. To see if I could even haul 400-600 lbs in my boats I filled both cockpits full with water, I think there was easily about 50 - 60 gallons between them and it was entirely manageable but not exactly a good time.



It seemed fitting to go down to Topkok Labor day weekend to end the summer when I entered the summer down here on Memorial day. I haven't been back here since that bear encounter on the beach side. I was hoping the lagoon side was a little more bear-free.



It ended up being both bear and moose free (at least none I saw). Just some muskox...



.... and tons of cranes, geese and ducks. I'm not a big fan of the taste of wild bird so I didn't hunt those, though the north wind was so strong I doubt I would have hit anything flying. I stopped periodically and glassed all the willow creek beds almost up to the last lagoon before the cliffs. It was hard to get a really good look b/c the wind was so strong and the vantage points were low.



It ended up being a fairly labor intensive 10 hr 12 mile outing and was almost glad not to have to go through the tremendous effort of prepping then hauling a moose by kayak.

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