It has been awhile......

I haven't posted to this blog in a couple years. Hunting season is about to start and I thought I might catch up this blog with some photos from the last 2 years and call it good!

Big Buck Contest

  I stopped by the local gun shop, Boondocks, to see how I did in this years Big Buck contest.  I had entered a nice deer I had taken on Kodiak Island in Nov.  I was happy and surprised to find out it had finished well enough to win a new Remington .22 rifle.  The boys were pretty happy as they think this new "weapon" is just right for them.  I know one thing for sure we'll have a hard time ever loosing it, as the stock is painted blaze orange.

  The reason his antler is broken off is that when I shot him, with a shotgun slug, he turned and ran straight down hill and in his death sprint he stepped in a hole and did a summer sault which broke his front leg and he buried his antler into the mountain and snapped it off.  He was dead by the time he stopped rolling.  It was extremely steep and I had to climb back up hill about 30yds from where he was laying to find the antler buried into the ground.  Pretty neat looking rack even if it did get broken.  

Chugach Sheep Permit

Well, permits came out on Friday evening and I was shocked to see that I had actually drawn a coveted Chugach Mtns. sheep permit!  There are 20 permits available and normally over 800 applicants.  Lucky me.  The season is only 12 days long, the last 12 days of September.  I will be hunting the entire season as this may be the only time I ever get a chance to hunt this area.  

The Chugach Mtns. are just outside of the Anchorage and Wasilla area, which means it will be close to home but far from an easy hunt.  Last year I drew a archery sheep permit for a very small section of the Chugach and that permit was for Sept. as well (a lot easier to draw though)  The weather can be brutal that time of year.  A foot or more of snow and tent squashing winds in the 60 mph range can appear overnight.  On the 2nd night of my hunt last year one of my tent poles bent in half after getting hammered by heavy gusts.  I spent the rest of the night putting my feet up against the back of tent.  My second 4 season tent took some punishment as well but made it through with only one pole having taken a slight bow.  I finally gave up the hunt on the 8th day when the snow added up to 8 inches and showed no signs of stopping.  If the weather holds out it will be a great hunt.......even so it will be good to be in the mountains.

The pictures are from my hunt last year and give a glimpse of what the Chugach looks like.

3 weeks on the slope.....

  Well, I didn't get to do much hunting related activity in the last 3 weeks since I've been working up on the slope the entire time.  I worked over an extra week which means I had to spend a total of 3 weeks away from my family.  It was tough but it will help cover the vactions I plan on taking this year.  I didn't get to the gym much in the last 3 weeks as I spent most of my time working.  I worked 343 hours in the 21 days I was at work to be exact.  That doesn't leave a whole lot of time to exericise.  Plus what helps me through the long days is good food!    I did workout a few times but I think any progress I made in the gym was offset by the polar bear size portions of food I consumed.  

   Tomorrow, Feb 06, the hunting permits are suppose to be posted by the Alaska Fish and Game.  That means that I will find out if I drew any special permits for either Dall Sheep or Mountain Goats for the 2009 hunting season.  To me this is equal to Christmas morning for my 3 boys.  I have beeen checking the A&FG website everyday for 2 weeks even though the results aren't suppose to be out until the 6th of Feb.  This is a big deal!   Fingers are crossed, maybe I should have taped that $100 bill to the back of my application after all.......we'll see.

   The above picture is of the wonderfull sunrise at 11:00 am!  Good news is that we are gaining daylight.  Temps were a bit on the chilly side for my 3 weeks spent on the "slope" as it is commonly referred to.  Most mornings were in the -38 t0 -40 temp range, which is on the edge of us even being able  to work.  We shut down at -40 ambient, no wind chill, because frostbite will happen so quickly.  Not to mention our equipment doesn't work like it is suppose to at those temps.  I was only shut down for "weather" for 2 days in my 3 weeks.  Not too bad for this time of year.   Enjoy the sun if you have it!

Hunting in Alaska.....

My wife, Amber, encouraged me to start my very own blog.  I guess she thought that sense I spend so much time thinking, reading, dreaming and talking about hunting, I might as well blog it.  We'll see how it goes....     

I'm hoping it will help to keep me motivated about getting in shape for the up coming sheep season which will open Aug. 10th.  The past 5 years this is when I've always started to get focused about getting in shape and losing those holiday love handles.  Lets just say there is a little more to grip on the handles this year.    I haven't completely quit working out since my last hunting trip, which was early Nov., but I've only been hitting the gym a couple times a week since then.  That doesn't work to well when your idea of a light snack is 7-8 cookies(variety doesn't matter as long as they have sugar in them and they are round, honestly they don't even have to be round)  So, I started on Monday 1-12-09 back to my sheep hunting routine, hard carido workout of 30-45 min. a day.  Also cutting back on the cals, trying for roughly 2000 a day to get started.  The diet will vary as I like to eat A LOT but I also really like to workout hard so they seem to even each other out over time and I will lose weight slowly and be in great shape by the time hunting season rolls around.  That's the plan anyway.  Speaking of the weight I officially hit the scales at 245lbs on the hoof this morning at the gym.  Man, that sucks to put that down in writing but its the truth.  I like to be heading into the mountains at 220lbs or less.  I'm 6'2" by the way for anyone that doesn't know me, I know that anything less than about 190lbs for my height is obese but I can't even imagine me at less than 200lbs, I look like the walking dead.  Anyway here's the start to 2009, sheep season here we come!

BTW....this picture is from 2006 with my best sheep to date (Sheep 160B&C...me at a slim and trim 215lbs!)