"Alaskan Adventure"
This year’s hunting season started off with Pat fulfilling one of his life-long dreams to hunt Brown Bears in Alaska. Pat’s opportunity came after being invited by good friend Doug Klunder who guides for Northern Wilderness Adventures Inc. NWA, which is owned and operated by Nick and Sheila Pierskalla is based 250 miles southwest of Anchorage in a small little quiet place called Marabou Landing.
The trip started for Pat on May 13 when he met Doug in Minneapolis and flew up to Anchorage to meet up with Nick and Sheila. He spent the evening at their home, which was a short ways out of Anchorage. The next day they gathered all the gear, food and supplies and made the full day flying trip to Marabou Landing. When they got there I think Pat was pleasantly surprised to see that the camp was full modern with a cook tent, log cabins, shower house, sauna and electricity powered by a generator. (And here I thought he was roughing it!) He had envisioned spending the week in a two-man tent on a gravel bar and having to bathe in the cold stream but I guess I couldn’t have got that lucky! He was definitely living high class up there! The place not only had all the comforts of home but also was one of the most breath taking spots he had ever seen. Doug who had lined this hunt up for Pat was acting as guide/cameraman this week and he had guaranteed a shot at a bear before the weeks end.
The first day of the hunt they hiked up behind camp a couple of miles with plans to glass from a good vantage point. Pat and Doug had a little wager ($1) on who would spot the first bear. Because of the money at stake, Pat was keeping his eyeballs open! After an hour of glassing Pat became a dollar richer. He spotted a couple of bears across from camp on another mountain hillside. From their vantage point all they could see was that there were two bears and one was much larger than the other. So they devised a game plan and it required getting in the boat and crossing the river by camp to climb the giant hillside.
On their way to the boat, they stopped and picked up Nick and planned out how they would get to the bears! As Pat waited on Nick and Doug to get the boat ready and things packed he glassed the hillside again only to confirm that it was a sow and three cubs not a boar with a sow. So their plan was up, they decided to cash it in for the night and get ready for day 2!
With only a couple of hours of darkness, morning came quick for day 2. The plan for them the second day was to drift the river and do some glassing and hopefully spot a bear to put the stalk on. As they drifted quietly down the river they glassed the large hills in the distance and Pat just knew the place was loaded with bears. The banks along the river had fresh bear tracks and so did some of the snow patches up high. Nick had commented to Pat that their chances along the river were very good for several reasons, one because it was a quite approach and two the bears hang out there waiting on their favorite food-Moose! This made sense for them so they drifted along the way stopping several times to eat some lunch and do more glassing! As the afternoon wore on they were drifting around a big bend in the river when all of a sudden Doug was in front of the boar yelled in a scrabbled hurry “Bear!”. Just as Pat looked up to see the monstrous bear, it jumped to his feet and took several bounds into the thick willow brush along the riverbank. The three of them drifted quietly by in hopes to not spook the bear. The giant bar walked slowly back into the brush as they passed by his location. Pat couldn’t believe how big this thing really was, he looked like a beef cow when he first spotted him! As the bear finally disappeared, Nick devised a game plan to pull the boat up to the opposite shore down river and wait on the bear to maybe come back out.
The three musketeers were trying to be quiet as they climbed out of the boat and onto the shore. Pat could see through the brush with his Nikons and the bear was still back there hanging out. Eventually the bear started working his way back out to the river bank towards them. At this point of time, Pat was getting a little nervous, his ticker was definitely through the roof as the giant bear finally cleared the brush. You could tell that this bear was an old bear because of his giant body and scares that he carried. Nick whispered that the bear was not the “best haired bear” but he was a trophy and he would most likely make B & C book.
That’s all Pat needed to hear as he cocked the hammer sack on my 416 Rigby Rifle and settled the crosshairs. The bear now was directly in front of them across the river at only 100 yards if not less. As they waited for a perfect broadside shot and his nerves to settle down, the bear laid back down facing them and decided to take a nap! They waited for over an hour as they rolled footage and even snapped some still pics of the bear before he woke up! Now that’s some luck boys!
As time stood still, they patiently watched the giant bear. Then all of a sudden he was up and on his feet walking. It was now go time! Pat hit the bear perfect behind the shoulder and he crashed off into the brush 20 yards before tipping over. His dream had finally become a reality! As they walked up to the bear he couldn’t believe just how big this thing really was! He squared over 9 feet and his skull was enormous with Nick figuring over 21 inches! They skinned the bear for a life-sized mount and headed back to camp that night just as darkness set in. Pat would like to personally thank Nick and Sheila and especially our good friend Doug Klunder (aka Catfish) for lining up a trip of a lifetime! If you are interested on going on a trip of a lifetime for trophy Brown Bear or Moose, give Nick and Sheila a call or drop them a line! Their information is on our outfitter page; so don’t forget to look them up!
Well guys and gals, it looks like Pat’s one up on me but as soon as fall hits, lets just see who gets ahead! Don’t forget to send us your viewer pics and your Cuddeback pics as we would love to post them on our site! Stay in touch and let us know how your season is going! Best of luck and Happy Hunting!
Stay Driven,
Pat & Nicole