If you are an avid elk hunter or always wanted to hunt in Alaska, this adventure is for you. You can hunt on your own without a guide and make the trip a combination effort with a Sitka blacktail tag as well. Whether you hunt on Kodiak or nearby Afognak Island, you can expect plenty of adventure, spectacular scenery, little competition from hunters.
Although Kodiak terrain is mountainous, you begin at sea level so you can’t get high enough to suffer from altitude sickness. Some sections are covered in forests, yet most is open tundra where you can spot and stalk silently in the soft, spongy vegetation.
Hunt of a Lifetime
Remi Warren, the author of this post, entered his adventure much like I did 30 years ago when I decided to hunt Alaska on my own. I teamed up with a resident of Alaska, invited my best friend to join me, and dove in. We flew from Kodiak city to Red Lake on the far end of the Island and spent a week among the bears, eagles, and other creatures, hunting and fishing to our heart’s delight.
We didn’t have electrified bear fences then, yet my Alaskan friend assured us that bears were interested in salmon and not us. We actually camped along a salmon stream, a terrifying event at first, and climbed each day to hunt in the mountains.
Gearing Up
A successful hunt on Kodiak requires specific gear and luckily that’s easy to obtain. You want a bear fence for sure, tents, stoves, and the best rain gear you can find. Normally, that’s a logistical problem, yet the air services on Kodiak routinely rent gear to hunter, campers, prospectors, and other adventure minded folks. In fact, once you have the license, you can call one of them and plan your trip. That was our approach. We told the pilot what we wanted to do and he suggested the best location.
Now is the time to plan that special hunting trip and this post can take you to the promise land:
My brother laughed with jubilation and relief as he popped the top off an Alaskan Amber. This was no ordinary beer; it was his celebration beer. “Want one?” he asked. I didn’t. My whole body ached, but when would we ever have this chance again? I looked past the fire we built and past our bear fence, into the dark, and took a sip. It was good. We sat in silence, enjoying that moment as the fire burned down to coals, planning to cook one of the largest tenderloins I’d ever seen.
