Kodiak Island

Who wants to go to Alaska??

Alaska is an amazing place for every outdoor enthusiast and should be on everyones bucket list whether you are a hunter or not. Stop dreaming of going, and just go! Once you do, you will want to go back year after year. It is just one of those places that grabs your heart, making you feel right at home.

Fishing, hunting, hiking, sight seeing, cruise ships…. Alaska has it all. I remember when we were sitting at the kitchen table talking about what to do for a vacation, if and when, Covid restrictions lifted. We wanted to combine a new experience with a hunting trip we had never done before. Alaska came to mind and we remembered a podcast about Sitka Blacktail deer hunting. Shout out to the Hunt the backcountry podcast for doing an in depth discussion on their experiences in Alaska and going through all the details of their trip!

When to go, where to stay, what to do??

We definitely knew we wanted to hunt. We knew we wanted an adventure. And we didn’t have the funds to go after some of the high priced game that Alaska can offer such as moose, goat or sheep. There’s a little deer called a Sitka Blacktail deer that can be found pretty much everywhere, but a lot of the hunting options we were looking into lead us to Kodiak Island. There are three common types of hunting trips when on Kodiak Island.

Option 1: You stay on a boat for a week and they take you to shore each day to hunt.

Option 2: You can stay in a lodge and then take the boat or in some cases be able to travel by land to various parts of huntable areas.

Option 3: You can do a completely remote fly-in option where you hire a pilot to drop you and your gear off by yourself for the allotted time you schedule it for.

We opted for the Lodge because it was our first time hunting Alaska and although remote backpacking is our style, we wanted to get a feel for the type of hunt and country it is before being so remote with no lifeline. Since we have never actually stayed in a hunting lodge we definitely felt like this was a treat and well worth the money. When staying on the boat you are sometimes limited by weather as far as access to land. Also, while we were there a big storm came in giving us wind, rain, and snow. We appreciated our warm cabin with hot meals and a boot dryer!

How to Get to Kodiak

Alaskan Air is pretty much the best option to fly to Kodiak.

Who wants to save money on their flights???

Heres how you do it…. Get online, apply for the Alaskan credit card and earn a “companion pass.” The companion pass allows one person to fly for free with just the purchase price of one ticket. So this is a great option for a husband/wife, Father/son or just two old college buddies trying to go on an epic adventure. The way you earn the companion pass is by spending a pre-stated amount of money. I can’t remember what it was off the top of my head but maybe it was a thousand dollars that needed to be spent in the first 2 months of having the credit card. That is not as hard as it may sound. When you use your credit card to purchase your Alaskan hunting license, deer tags and maybe a few tanks of gas in your truck, you are well over the amount and you will receive a voucher for the companion pass through email. Make sure to do this way ahead of time so you can get your companion pass before you need to schedule your flight. Here is a link to Alaska Air credit card information.

We are on our way!

What are we gonna pack? It is so easy to over pack because you are going to Alaska and you never know how the weather will be. Cold, windy, snow and rain. You should expect it all if you go in the winter. We had intentions of chasing these blacktail during the rut which required us to go in November. There is definitely some strategy to packing if you want to save money. Alaskan Air breaks down their baggage fees like this….

Carry on— Free

1st bag— 30$ or free (if you have the credit card :))

2nd bag— 40$

3rd bag —$100

4th— $100

And so on…. Your checked bags must be under 50 pounds. If they are between 50-100 pounds then they automatically cost 100$. Are you confused yet?? Here is what we did..

We put 2 rifles into one hard sided gun case and it would be a checked bag for one of us.

We put the bow in another case and it was going to be a checked bag as well.

Free and Free so far….

Clothes bag with all of my gear— Second checked bag

Clothes bag for Austin— Second checked bag

40$ and 40$

We each had a carry on. This can be your actual hunting backpack which holds your valuables. (binoculars, license, tags, spotting scope, tripods). We had heard that if you want to check your hunting back pack then you should put it inside of another large luggage bag to protect all of the straps and buckles from being ripped, torn or broke during handling and on the conveyer belts at the baggage claim. This is a Kuiu Bag we brought and they have multiple different sizes!

I’ll skip to what to do when you come home with meat, since we are already talking about baggage fees. We had all of our meat in insulated cardboard fish boxes that our lodge supplied for us. It doesn’t make sense to have 4 boxes of meat with 48 pounds in each… Since each of us already had 2 checked bags, every bag after was going to be 100$ So we were smart and combined some meat and fit 96 pounds of meat into one box and then 96 pounds of meat in another box making our total, two 96 pound boxes of meat instead of four 48 pound boxes of meat. Does that make sense? We basically saved 200$ by combining some meat.

Landing in Kodiak after a night in Anchorage

Arriving into Kodiak was spectacular, the views from the city were unreal and we felt like we had actually made it to Alaska. We ate dinner at a local joint near our hotel then went to bed at Kodiak Compass Suites anticipating the early morning flight the next day. I booked our hotel ahead of time and made sure they had a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport!

Getting to Your Lodge

Once we flew into Kodiak Island we then needed to take a small charter plane to get to a very remote town, Larsen Bay, where our lodge was located. Our contact at our lodge set up our small charter flight through Island Air. This is an additional price you pay each way and the more weight you have the more you pay.

A little tip to save some money both ways: Leave you hard gun case with the guys at Island Air and bring a soft small case or no case for the short flight. When you get to your lodge you don’t need your case and then you don’t have to pay for its weight. These are private pilots that fly you in and out. The weather has a huge role in whether you get out on time or a few days later. We got very lucky and had the first flight out before the wind picked up and cancelled the rest of the flights for the day.

Island Air is also who you would book through if you were doing your own remote fly in camp or river float camp. The river option gets into either freight shipping your boat to Kodiak Island or renting one there. You run the risk of the river freezing and not being able to make it down river with you gear. There is a lot of details that go into that style of trip as well as remote fly in camps due to no resources nearby at all, weather causing delays in pick ups, mother nature and grizzly bears.

The Lodge

We stayed at The Foxtail Lodge which was an amazing family style lodge. Jerre is the guy in charge and he was fantastic from start to finish! He was quick to reply to my many questions and so friendly we felt like family. They provide a cabin fully furnished with a bathroom and heater. Also, the main lodge just steps away is where we all join for afternoon stories and meals. They prepare you a warm breakfast to start your day then get you off on your hunt. They send you off with a sack lunch comprised of endless snacks and a sandwich. They were not stingy on portions either, which I appreciated. Once you got back to the lodge after a long day of hunting you could take a hot shower to warm up, get your gear cleaned up, get your boots drying, and then join in the lodge for dinner. We would enjoy hanging out together with two other fellow hunters and the staff having a glass of wine or a cocktail while we waited for dinner. Dinner was always good and comprised of home cooking! Being that there is no grocery store, coffee shop, gas stations or restaurants on this small Island they made sure to have plenty of food! Each night we would have different varieties of locally caught fish, steak, ribs, sides, and always followed by dessert. The crew never let us go hungry!

We always had a great time sharing hunting stories amongst each other and getting to know one another. We still keep in touch with the other hunters who stayed at our lodge. What we learned about Alaska is that the people here love their land and also loved sharing it with us! We met many people throughout our travel that welcomed us to their home or shared hunting stories with us.

The Hunt

Okay, I know, there are a lot of details… But, these were all very important details we had to work through in order to get this point.

Day 1

In the morning we flew into Larsen Bay with our Island Air Pilot.

Once we arrived, Jerre met us on the runway and picked us up and took us about a 1/2 mile down the road to his lodge. We were able to unload our suitcases, get in our hunting gear, grab our sack lunch and off we went to get on the mountain. Due to getting there mid morning he dropped us off on a road where we made our trail up the mountain. We started seeing deer tracks and poop right away getting very excited for our first encounter! As we kept hiking we did spot a couple deer but they seemed to be moving sooo fast that they were only visible for a second and then would disappear . The brush there is very thick and in order to get above it you have to hike straight up a mountain crawling and fighting through the brush. We got very close to the top where it started opening up and spotted some does with our binoculars.

Although with our tags we could harvest a doe it was our first day and we ultimately wanted bucks. It was getting late fast and Jerre mentioned in our safety debriefing to be back to the road before dark due to grizzly bears and the wilderness. We were happy with our sightings for our first afternoon hunt and started making our way down the hill excited for the week!

Day 2

We were up early, coffee and breakfast in us, gear on, and out the door! Due to strong winds and expected worsening weather forecast it was unsafe to take the boat out and drop us elsewhere in fear they could possibly not get the boat back to us for pick up. If you had been staying on a barge this could possibly mean you miss out on a day of hunting! Lucky for us he took us down the road and dropped us off where he had the day prior. Since we knew our initial trail from the day before we pulled out our Onx maps and followed our route. Once we started the climb we started seeing deer very briefly through the thick brush in about the same spot as the day before. We decided to walk laterally on top of this small hill that had minimal brush to look for a game trail the deer were taking through this spot. When we got the highest point on this small hill we pulled up our binoculars and instantly saw a buck!! Austin rushed for me to come to him and use his gun! He ranged the buck up on the hill with his sig range finder and recited the moa to dial my site to adjust for yardage. I clicked it in place, steadied the gun on a branch of a tree nearby, placed the crosshares, took some deep breathes and slowly pulled the trigger… Down he went! Within the first hour of the day we had our first sitka black tail down!

With all the excitement we look back up where I shot my buck to find landmarks for when we hike towards him. While looking up for a brief second we see another buck! This one was slightly bigger than mine and Austin grabs his gun I range it and he pulls the trigger! Down the buck went. Now we look at each other knowing the real work starts. Knowing the danger of grizzly bears especially while skinning animals we started coming up with a strategy so one person would always be keeping an eye out.

We started the hike up towards our two bucks. They were not even 50 yards from each other. We attempted to drag Austins buck up the hill a little since it had slid down into some brush. He started skinning his buck while I kept watch with bear spray and a revolver. No Grizzlies were seen but we also felt it took too long to process a whole deer without helping each other. Next we walk over to my buck and I start skinning it while Austin loads his entire deer on his pack. Once he finished that he started helping me finish mine so we could get off that mountain with all the meat! Since we didn’t want to leave meat on the mountain and have to come back for it in fear that we may bump a grizzly feeding on it; we both carried our entire deer off the mountain. I know this might not seem terrible but this was probably one of the heaviest packs I have ever carried and we had a few miles to go. Mostly downhill which was nice but also a little harder on the knees. We got back to the road where they dropped us off and they came shortly after to pick us up!

Once we got back to the lodge we hung the deer in their insulated walk-in cooler then Austin started cleaning the skulls and we ended with a nice lunch! We both warmed up and changed clothes and headed back out to start processing meat. At this point we couldn’t have gotten back out on the mountain to hunt with enough time before dark so we worked on cutting up meat and packaging some of it.

After that we waited for the other hunters to get back exchanged hunting stories over dinner and got ready for another day of hunting!

Day 3

The weather decided to cooperate enough for us to be able to go out on the boat and access a different area. We decided to all hunt together and headed in. As we continued in making a trail for ourselves through the thick brush we got to a point where we decided to break apart. Austin and I tried sitting and waiting in an area that had a lot of sign to see if one would come by. No such luck. We then continued on hiking further and further up. When we got to the top we glassed up our hunting friends on the other side and they were skinning a buck! We went over and congratulated them and then started hunting the way back since over half the day was gone and the rain and wind was starting to come in.

Well the rain came and thank goodness I had a great rain jacket to keep me dry but it made it hard to continue hunting since we figured the deer were probably bunkered down. Just as we are looking at our maps to figure out the best route back to where the boat dropped us we see deer! This was a decent buck and just like that he was gone. We tried to cut him off but no luck. We liked the area we followed him into and hung out there a while. We actually saw a few different doe in the area but decided not to shoot.

A few hours later we make it back to the boat and catch a ride back to the lodge. We gave ourselves the night off of cleaning meat and enjoyed the company inside at the dinner table!

Day 4

We decided we wanted to head back towards where we went the first two days but swing around the left side and see what was over there. We hiked up and made it through to where we skinned our first two deer and took a left. Once we got up there Austin spotted a brown bear and two cubs. We watching them from where we were coming up with another plan since we didn't want to be heading in their direction. However, moments later I spot a doe and then I yell "Big Buck" as I am starting to get overly excited looking through my binoculars. Just below the grizzly about 50 yards was 2 does and 2 bucks. One buck came out after the doe then an ever bigger buck showed up pushing from the back. They were on the move and heading across the mountain towards us but a few hundred yards above. They were behind more bushes before Austin could get down and get sighted in. We then ran uphill and got set up again waiting for them to come out and hoping the didn't cross over the top. Just like we hoped they came one by one through the brush at different heights. Austin aimed at the bigger buck and shot. Down he went no questions asked.

The local guides back at the lodge were impressed by this regressed old buck. Sitka Black tail aren't known for huge racks so this is actually a very nice buck and at one point in his life surely was bigger.

While we were skinning this buck we were on a shelf and it was difficult to see right above us. The fog was coming in and it started lightly raining. I look up while on grizzly patrol and see some horns. I motion at Austin and as its walking along above us but going at a steady pace away we both see his huge rack. I run towards the rifle and then start running side hill and up as fast as I can to cut it off where I will be able to see it knowing it would only be a 100 yard or less shot. As I get to a point where I see the buck, the rifle scope was still zoomed in where Austin had it and I tried to zoom it out and get it in my scope but just like that it was gone into the brush never to be seen again. Austin and I both sighed in frustration. If I had not been zoomed in I could have seen the buck faster and made a shot but those seconds of trying to get the gun set up accounted for a lost opportunity on the biggest buck we had seen.

Day 5

Now that Austin was tagged out I had one more tag left. With the amount of deer we were seeing I decided to try with my bow but Austin brought the rifle in case all we had was a long shot. As we start that morning the rain from the day before had turned into snow over night. Since the weather was very windy and snowing we could not take the boat out again. So we went back to the same spot and decided to hike up again and see if we could cut that big buck off from the day before if he happened to be on the same path.

The wind was very intense and didn't help hiking against it. We ended up seeing some deer through our hike. I started getting down on myself for yesterdays encounter and also knew we didn't have many more days left. After hiking and realizing the wind and snow was not allowing us to be able to glass we decided to hike back and hunt the low country on the way back. There had been an area I had been interested in every day while hiking so we headed for that spot. Austin decided to take a break near what we called "misery hill" and while he did that I hiked a little further into an area that had a lot of track and sign. Austin was rattling which I didn't know and next thing you know I see a beautiful 3x3 through the brush. I was standing right there, he had nowhere to go but run away. However, I slowly moved back and lowered myself to the ground trying to grab an area as fast as I could without scaring him. He moved back and then came through the brush on the other side of me. There was a tree in between me and him. I drew back knowing he would need to walk passed the tree to get to where he was going. I steadied my 20 yard pin on his vitals and released. He was quartering towards me slightly. I felt steady and good about my shot. I saw blood in the snow and stopped. Knowing I needed to wait. I went down to Austin a few minutes later and told him.

We waited and went through what happened with him over and over again. We found my arrow broke in half... and we found blood. We tracked him until the snow disappeared and all we had was leaves and rain washing all drops away. My emotions were high and this is the part no hunter ever wants to have to live through. After hours of searching we couldn't find my buck. After going over the story and showing my broken arrow to other hunters, we feel as if my shot was not a kill shot. Austin and I re made my shot and it turns out the buck was closer to 10-15 yards. With him quartering slightly to me and having my 20 pin on him we think I actually hit high on his shoulder blade. This would explain why my arrow didn't have a lot of penetration and broke off. The amount of blood was not significant either. Also, birds flock to dead game within 20-30minutes of every kill we have had, the locals told us to look for birds and to look again for birds tomorrow.

I have relived this moment in my head over and over again. I even considered not sharing this part. However, archery hunting isn't easy and it has made me more determined to practice more than I had and be better. Although they felt as if it wasn't a kill shot and assured me the deer can live through it I still decided to not attempt to fill that tag after that situation. Yes, I could have gone out with my rifle but I felt that was what I needed to do. I may have learned more from that shot than any deer I have harvested.

Day 6

I didn't sleep well and we went out first thing in the morning and looked for birds.. None were circling anywhere. We hiked all over and retraced our steps just in case. No deer anywhere. The crazy thing. The first buck Austin got actually had a scar in its coat that appeared like an arrow entrance. It turned out the first buck Austin harvested was actually a buck that one of the locals had shot and thought he killed but was never able to find. However, it had lived and was running around that mountain perfectly fine when Austin shot at it. This gave me a better outlook at my situation imagining that my buck was out there chasing does happy as could be.

After coming back to the lodge at a good last effort search the locals took us out on the boat for a quick fishing trip. This helped get my mind off things and allowed for a great last day!

We fished for yellow eye, halibut, and rockfish! This was an absolute blast. I was reeling in fish back to back. We were only out there for a couple hours because the wind was picking up and becoming unsafe to be out in open water. That didn't matter though, we had already caught over 50 pounds of fish to bring home!

Once we got back to the lodge we had to finish cutting up our deer meat and packaging it for the departure. The lodge equipped us with an area to cut meat, vacuum sealer and bags, and insulated boxes! Jerre's helpers processed all our fish for us but they are not allowed to do our deer meat since they are only licensed for fishing. After we finished this, we got to relax and enjoy more stories and our dinner together!

Day 7

Well, after breakfast we made sure our things were packed and caught our flight back to Kodiak Island with Island Air. We had a little bit of a wait until our flight left Kodiak to Anchorage so we stopped in town and had a nice lunch and beer at Henrys with our new friends from the trip. After, we loaded all our meat and luggage and made it back home!