When we were living in Anchorage around 1980, I took the opportunity to go moose hunting with Nicky Hanson.
Nicky was a friend of mine from High School. His father had some horses including pack animals. He was willing to let us use two saddle horses and two pack horses. Our plan was to leave Nicky’s father’s home on the south side of the Kenai River in Soldotna. We would travel south and southeast to the timberline. This area had low impact from other hunters due to its remote location.
We left in the early morning from Nicky’s home. He had prepared most of the food, camp gear and, of course, the horses and pack animals. I helped him with the pack animals and learned how the pack saddles held the large bags that held the equipment and food. There wasn’t a lot of stuff. We expected to bring back a moose which would require all the energy of the pack animals. But we had a small tent, sleeping bags and very limited cooking equipment.
It was a nice day as we started off. There was light cloud cover with a fes breaks in the clouds for sunlight to peek through. It was in the fall so we had about 12 hours of daylight which should give us time to reach timberline if we traveled from early morning until dusk.
The first part of the trip we talked about our families and the things we had done while growing up on the Kenai. We had both graduated from Kenai Central High School. I had gone to the Air Force Academy Prep School with hopes to be a hot shot fighter pilot. Nicky began working right out of high school and had started his family in a nice home on the Kenai River.
My family was living in Anchorage. I had left the Air Force Academy and went on a mission to Argentina. More of this stuff later.
Anyway, Nicky and I decide to go moose hunting at the timberline on the Kenai Pennisula. It would take about a day to get there and we could hunt for about two days.
We started out early with two riding horses and two pack animals. The day went without incident as we travel through small trees, tundra and small streams. At timberline we stopped and made a small fire. Nicky began cooking the hamburger as I cleaned up and finished preparing the camp.
I completed my task and went to see how Nicky and the hamburger was doing. The shadows of the trees started to get long in the clearing next to camp when I reached over to get a flashlight to help Nicky see if the meat was done. A caught a movement out of the corner of my ear to my right. A quick look and it was a brown bear. It was about 30 feet away and moving toward camp. Yikes!
“There is bear!” I blurted out. It was about 30 feet away.
Nicky reach for the rifles that were leaning against a near tree that was to his left and in front of me. He grabbed my rifle and brought to up to his shoulder.
“Hey that’s my gun!” I said. He handed over my rifle and reach for his. The bear was now closer.
We brought our rifles up about the same time and shot. The bear spun around and ran into a grove of small trees. Immediately, we ran to the trees, took about two more steps and stopped. The trees averaged three to four inches in diameter and two feet apart. The brush between the trees reached our waists and was thick. With the fading light we could not see three feet.
We had a wounded bear in fading light in Alaska far from home. It was too late to move camp away from the bear. Also, Alaska law was very clear. A hunter must not leave a wounded bear without a reasonable attempt to find it. There would be no attempt now. Not tonight!
We rearranged the camp somewhat. The horses had been hobbled about 1oo yards from the camp. They were moved next to the tent. We felt it was better to be trampled by horses than eaten by a bear. (Now that I think about it . . .) Next we gathered all our weapons around us. I placed my rifle along my right side next to my sleeping bag. The 357 Magnum was on my left. I had learned how to shoot it with my left hand. My large skinning knife was under my jacket which served as a pillow. Nicky prepared in a similar manner.
All night we heard every sound and movement. As Nicky said, “We jumped when a squirrel farted.” Only once did we actually think that we heard the bear in the brush next to the camp.
In the morning, we broke camp and saddled the horses. Nicky lead the way with his pack horse and I followed with my mine. The bear had probably stayed in the area so we started the search with a small circle around the small stand of trees.
Nicky was in the lead and had his rifle in his right hand with the butt on his thigh and the barrel pointed in the air to his right. I had mine in my right hand and slung in the my left elbow. Suddenly, Nicky’s horse reared high into the air on his hind legs. My horse turned to my right as I was looking everywhere for the bear. Nothing!
Nicky stopped and was looking down. “What!” I yelled.
“It’s here.” he stated flatly.
The bear was laying in the trail, dead.
Have you every tried to get a bear hide on the back of a horse? But that’s the next story.
