Bob and I went deer hunting and gave the boat a test run after the swamping incident a few weekends before. We left a tad before sunrise and glad we did as boats were coming by as we anchored at our spot, likely wishing they’d left 15 minutes earlier to beat us there. I had wrapped a spool with fresh ground line, so this time we had a line from shore to the anchor as I’ve almost always done for insurance against the boat dragging away. We headed up the hill, and went a bit north of where we had gone in the past. We were soon in very thick crap that took us awhile to get out of. When we finally did, we were on the edge of the huge rolling muskegs on top. I sent Bob down about 50 yards and said I’d wait to see where he was, then I’d find a spot and he’d know where I was when I started on the deer call. Bob had found his spot and before I could get to mine “BLAM”. Bob shot. And missed. There was a deer in the muskeg that was not sticking around and Bob could not hit it.  It’s October and bone dry here. A rarity. October is usually two things – rain and wind. We moved from muskeg to muskeg and spent a long time in each one, mainly just soaking up the warmth of the sun and the the scenery of the Chilkat Range with a dusting of new snow. But no deer or even seemed like a hint of a deer. Fresh tracks here and there, but no deer.

We worked our way around the top of this area we were hunting. I was thinking of working our way back and Bob suggested we keep going out a little further to see what was below and work our way back that way. We ate lunch and called on the edge of a stand of trees. We moved on further to a spot that was brush down the slope below us, and then a little muskeg up the other side of the gully at the bottom.  When I blew the call, I immediately saw movement above the muskeg, and here comes a nice deer. It kept coming and coming. Bob couldn’t see it and I looked over and saw he was looking right. I said look left. Got it, he says. He tried getting a good bead on the deer but it was about 200 yards away, and kept stopping and moving. Eventually it got to the brush below us, and I thought it would come right up to us. I sloughed my pack and chambered a round in case Bob couldn’t get a shot. I kept calling and the deer kept snorting. Seemingly closer, but not close enough to see.

After awhile, the deer quit snorting. I kept calling and wondered if we’d never see it again or it would go back up the muskeg where it came from. About 20 minutes later, Bob was the first to see it this time. He said it’s headed back up the hill. I couldn’t see it at first, then locked on it. I could see Bob didn’t intend to shoot, so I quickly laid down on the mound we were sitting on and into the prone shooting position. The deer was walking straight away so no good shot. I called and she quartered back. I fired. Too high and I knew I flinched. The deer started walking again straight away. I get more settled, whistled, and it quartered back to look. I fired again.  It bounded to the left. I saw it go into the brush, saw it’s head rise up, and then it was out of sight. I didn’t see it come into view again, which it would have had to since the brush was surrounded by open areas of muskeg. I didn’t know if I hit it, nor did Bob. We both saw the same spot where it was last seen, so I had Bob stay put and I got a land mark near the last sighting spot and headed down there. Bob was giving hand directions. Left. Right. Come this way. You are on the spot. And there it lay. Two thumbs up to Bob that I’d found it. The shot when through the wheel house and the lung.

Although there was no blood, on the side of the animal I could see, flies were already on it. It was close to 50 degrees and we are in October. I dressed the deer, as Bob made his way down to me. We decided it would be best to get the hide off the deer since it was so warm out. I showed Bob how to make a hoist as Steve Merritt once showed me hunting in Craig. We hoisted the deer up, and I showed Bob how to start skinning on his side and me on mine. I saw hair flying, and showed Bob you have to cut from under the skin. If you cut from the top down, it cuts the hair and you’ll have hair all over the meat.  We quickly skinned the deer, and put it in a big game bag I made for moose and elk quarters. I tied it on my pack, and Bob took all of my pack contents and put it in his pack and we started back.

It was going to be a long walk as the tundra is murder to walk long distances on. Bob took us on a good route back. We were able to skirt most of the brush we’d encountered as I lead the charge up the hill. We got to some bigger timber on a steep slope and could see the water. Almost home. Then Bob discovers he lost something off his belt. So, he tries to retrace our steps while I sit and rest a spell. After about 15 minutes, I realize I have no communication, flashlight, or survival gear. Just a deer on my back and rifle on my shoulder. Bob has everything else. So I thought I’d better get down to the beach. I start down and about 5 minutes later, Bob catches up with me. He didn’t find his lost item. We take our time down the steep slope, me with my stiff knees.  When we get to the edge of the beach, we’re up a cliff from the beach. No way to get down here. We can’t see the boat in either direction, and agree we think it’s north, so we walk the beach a quarter mile or so until we find a path down to the beach. And find we went the wrong way. So we trudge quarter plus mile back to the boat on the beach. It’s a good walking beach.  It’s one foot in front of the other as I’m extremely thirsty and know there is a beer of Bob’s waiting for me at the boat.  When we reach the boat, Bob gets the beverages from his pack at the forest edge and I untie the deer and plunge it into the ocean to clean it out and cool it down further. We sit in the rare October sun enjoying an Alaskan Ale knowing we had a good day.

It’s been enjoyable rewiring the boat after it was swamped last weekend.  I learned a bit about preparing wiring ends for marine use on the slope, so making the wire ends neat with heat tubing over the crimps.  I’m also making all the wiring long enough so I can remove the whole fuse box and bring it out into the light instead of having to lie on my back and look up under a dark dash later on.  All my electronics seem to work.  Just need to replace the transducer to the depth sounder that broke off from the stern.  Now I know better how the boat is wired if something doesn’t work.  I’ll have to replace the floor this winter as it’s rotted, and I see the spray foam underneat is soaked, too. Sara and I will spend the weekend in Fairbanks at Ken Dunshie’s memorial.  We’ll see alot of our Fairbanks friends, some who I’ve not seen in decades.

Started putting the boat back together today.  I had an epiphany at work today – what if water came through the vent in the back of the cowling when it was on the beach? I pulled the cowling tonight and it looked okay in there. I got some electric parts spray and hogged down the engine.  I put new terminal ends on the electric leads, and hooked them up to the battery. The hydralic lift worked and the outboard turned over.  The electronics did not work yet but I think the ground may be at fault so I’ll track that down tomorrow.  Damn, this stuff is hard when it’s failing daylight my eyes are 52.  I pulled the boat out of the garage, hooked up the earmuffs to the outboard, turned on the garden hose, and cranked the engine.  It started right up.  I ran it for 1/2 an hour to get it hot and dry it out.   Everything seemed great.  I’ll continue tackling the electronics tomorrow but a big relief that the outboard appears just fine. 

Matt and I went deer hunting Saturday. The plan was to hunt Admiralty across from the cabin.  However, when we got there, the wind was not good to anchor the boat or even putt-putt a little boat over from Horse Island to our favorite spot.  I dropped Matt at a sheltered spot across from Horse Island, and as I was anchoring the boat, another boat came by and said they were duck hunting where we intended to cross to deer hunt, so we moved further north to another fairly protected anchorage.  The wind was blowing about 20 kts, and this anchorage was protected, but not really great.  I dropped off Matt, putted out, dropped anchor with plenty of scope, and paddled back in to shore in the punt.  The wind was blowing on shore, and I figured if the boat drug anchor, it would just beach itself. We headed up the hill.  This area is really flat with muskeg after muskeg with few trees in between.  By later in the day, it was clear the deer were not in these muskegs in this weather.  We headed down the hill looking forward to hunting in better weather somewhere else tomorrow. When we got to the beach, no boat.   The wind was still blowing onto the beach.  We looked all the way down the beach for as far as we could see – which was probably a mile and a half as we were on one side of this big wide cove that had a river at the head of it.  No boat.  We couldn’t understand what had happened.  We did know that there was a cabin in the woods where we came out so we would have a place to hole up for the night.  We called Sara, Jeff, Chris M. and Kurt and made plans for a pickup and search for the boat the next day.  Sara called the Coast Guard, who put out a notice on the radio to look for our boat.  We called the owner’s number on the cabin, and left a message.  When I talked to Chris, he knew the guy, having gone to high school with him, and also knew his best friend who used the cabin.   Chris called the friend to let him know we were staying there.  The Coast Guard called as well, wanting to know we were safe for the night and we assured them we were. Matt used to be a handyman carpenter, so he found that he could pull the molding off one of the windows to get in the cabin.  While in there, he found a leatherman with a phillips screw driver, which he passed out to me.  I was able to remove the lock hasp and get the door open. Matt then replaced with window pane and molding.  There was a wood stove with dry wood and kindling and we had a fire going in no time.  We surveyed the food and drink.  Plenty of beer.  Cookies.  Chips.  I told Matt we should stay til Monday. We dried out and I was asleep by 7.  We were up at a phone call the next morning with Jeff saying our friend Todd was bringing Jeff over in Todd’s big 24 foot boat, so Matt and I cleaned up the place, screwed the lock back in place, and headed to the beach.  It was almost flat calm and no rain.  There was a brief moment of sunlight, and I saw a shiny object on the other side of the cove.  I looked through my scope, and there was our boat.  How we didn’t see it yesterday, neither of us could comprehend.  Until the sun went behind a cloud again and it seemingly disappeared.  Matt said the big white caps may also have hidden it.  What a relief. When Todd and Jeff arrived, we ran up the beach to our boat. It had beached itself, and still had the anchor line attached, so it had drug anchor.  The tide was flooding and already near the boat.  The boat was full of water, as waves must have come over the stern.  There was no power to the bilge pump as the battery was under sea water.  So, I pulled the plug and also started bailing by hand to try to get the boat empty before the tide was up to the drain hole.  Our gear was strewn on the beach, as it must have floated when the boat swamped.  The engines looked fine, though, as I’d thought to put the big engine up when I anchored so it was not damaged. Incredibly, the hull was not damaged at all, either.  I’ll need to contact the maker of Grayling boats in Anchorage to let him know. I got the boat drained.  The tide was at 10:09 and at about 940, the boat started to rock a little so starting to float.  I was confident at 8 am that the tide would be plenty high to float it, but now was getting worried.  At about 945 I was able to move the bow around but the boat seemed to be high centered on a rock near the stern.  I moved the boat back and forth, pushing and pulling the bow.  I tried pushing at the engine but could not move the boat.  Finally, at about 950 I worked it free. I’d tied a line to the front cleat so that when I did free it, Jeff could pull it off to their boat anchored up about 100 feet off shore.   Jeff pulled it over and I got in the punt and paddled out to Todd’s boat.  It was an uneventful tow back to the dock, where my truck awaited.  With a flat tire.  A rock had punctured the tire somehow, and was still embedded in it.  Matt had his vehicle there and we went home to get one of the winter studded tires and a big jack to make things easy.  Sara had grub ready so we ate a bite and had some coffee.  Back to the truck, and I got 7 of the 8 nuts off.  Of course, number 8 would not break free, and was a bit rounded so the 4-way wrench kept slipping off the nut.  Back to the house for my big socket and more tools. This time, it broke free.  When I went to put the studded tire on, it would not go over the big rear hub.  Must be I only used it on the front where there’s a small hub or I’d know this.  So, we hoped the spare under the truck would work. I crawled under and it had air – probably filled it when I drove up to Whittier to buy this boat a couple years ago.  We got it down from the hangar, and it looked checked on the side but good.  It held air when we let the jack down. We went home and mucked out all the wet gear on the boat.  I bought a new battery and new battery connector ends for the wiring and will get that up and hopefully running this week, as we have  a moose hunt planned in two weeks that we’ll need the boat for.   Turns out that the cabin owner works on my floor here at work.  I must know his face, but not his name.  And, he had a job that Matt had after he left over at Health and Social Services.  And, Todd knows the cabin owner who had the hunting party that we moved away from and had taken a buck there just last week.  Seems like it’s always this way here, where strangers really aren’t.

After I pitted the cherries from Haines last week, I put them in colendars to catch the juice like I do for salmon berries. This makes vac packing the berries easier without so much liquid. I thought I’d try my first batch of jelly ever. I’ve made tons of jam, but never tried jelly. I had 10.5 cups of cherry juice. I added 15 tsp of lemon juice and 11 tbs of no sugar ball pectin according to the Ball website recipe. I bought this to a rolling boil, added 1 cup of sugar, and boiled another minute, then put the jelly in 13 half pint jars and canned it in a boiling bath. The bottom of one of the jars broke, so I lost a 1/2 pint of jelly. Crap. I had 1/2 a pint extra of the jelly, and put that in a little plastic cup. It looked like it was going to set up great when I put it in the fridge. It was set up a few hours later, and tasted freakin’ excellent.

Andrew, Samuel and Gloria came over to help package the salmon tonight.  I pulled each fish from the flake ice, rinsed the ice off, cut it into steaks, and put the steaks in a colendar basket.  The Contehs put the pieces in the vac pack bags and ran the packer.  Didn’t take all that long at all with so many hands.  After we finished, I helped Gloria with a class project by teaching her several knots – bolen, blood knot, and others I don’t know the names of.  Gloria will graduate from high school this year, and her expatriate family in the lower 48 will attend so now we know there will be salmon for them as with the low king salmon returns, finding salmon in May can be tough.   I vac packed the cherries I’d pitted on the ferry, and bagged up 8 cups of juice, too. After the Contehs left, I pitted the rest of the cherries.  Ellen called earlier on her way to moose camp north of Delta with Brian and Howard, and said she’d love some cherries so I’ll get plenty to her on her way back.