2022 ALASKA MOOSE 14-DAY DIY (and a preseason 10-day float)

[Kevin Dill]

Brute!

Truth to tell Doc, I'm always impressed by your great appreciation for the experience more so than the actual result. You communicate that so well in your recounting. Nothing but absolute respect and admiration for your style!

Hot damn....that's one banger of a bull moose. A real gift that came your way and keeps on giving with sore muscles, memories and MEAT. Major congratulations my friend!

KD

 

[Thess87]

Thanks for the story!! I look foreword to your recap every year.

 

[FlyinRyan411]

Thank you all for your patience with my lengthy narratives and pictures of rainbows and a blurry wolf…I can’t believe I even did that LOL…geez…I’m a former Marine!

A few last closing comments of sincere thanks. BTW, I do not profit in any way from any of my following thankful comments about specific services, people, or gear. It just seems like the right thing to do…

Over the last nine years, I have used Wade Renfro as my transporter between fifteen to twenty times for remote moose hunts, grizzly hunts, and five different 10-day lite-raft floats…all DIY. I am so thankful for each adventure, and very thankful for Wade and his hard-working staff. Wade is a very good man in my admittedly biased opinion, knowing him and his good family for twenty-years…period. Thank you Renfro family! Reiterating once again (sorry), each trip is what it is…so many things totally outside our control when doing a fly-in trip. I just try to be truly grateful inside and humbly go with the flow. It’s always a learning opportunity for me, and I wouldn’t trade any of my trips. My son and I are planning to go moose hunting together next year with Wade. My long-time hunting friend is reluctantly tapping-out on remote adventures due to increasing health challenges. Thankfully, I’m still going strong.

I want to thank another good man…Larry Bartlett …for bringing us some truly great outdoor products, and his generous discount for fellow veteran’s. I use the heck out of my PR-49HD and my Kork (pictured in the float images), and a few years ago my wife bought me LB’s roll-up sled (it has saved my old man back from humping meat loads across tundra!). Thank you LB!

I am once again also thankful this year for my Hilleberg Staika tent…I just had to say that (again) after this trip. I’ve used it for the past eight years on my remote drop hunts out in western Alaska and on Kodiak as base-camp on a mountain goat hunt…my son is in it right now on a Kodiak elk hunt. It has been repeatedly tested by me and truly bomb-proof, even in a residual typhoon this year…and, as noted in shared photos last year and once again this year, it’s a proven effective moose attractant LOL! Below is a supplemental photo of our Staika’s pitched on an open treeless plateau for a grizzly hunt a bit further south in western Alaska several years ago. That was the first trip with my Staika, and I became an immediate fan. That lake to the left was typically white-capping from some strong winds and occasional blowing rain over the course of that 7-day hunt.

My sincere best to you all for safe and memorable hunting adventures in each of your futures!

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Great story and amazing pictures. Thank you for sharing and congrats on the Bull!

 

[CRJR45]

Thank you for sharing , and as a old guy myself , I'm truly impressed and motivated , you make me want to do more !

 

[streetdoctor]

Thank you for sharing!

 

[98XJRC]

I'll continue to echo what others have already said. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. I too look forward to reading your words and seeing the pictures from your trips. Congrats on the great bull!

 

[BC Alpine Hunter]

That was an extremely enjoyable read! Thank you for taking the time to post your adventure and great photos. I hope you have many years left of pursuing those adventures.

 

[Vrybusy]

Thanks for sharing! Great story!

 

[Robinhood21]

Good stuff once again Doc! Please keep up the "long winded" posts as I greatly appreciate them. Kevin hit the nail on the head about your great appreciation for the experience... It's refreshing.

You are an inspiration and I will be sending this write up to my father who plans on making it back out there to AK again (possibly 2025). He will be 65 and this will give him the reassurance that he can indeed make it happen.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Right on Chuck, great write up and pictures, and congratulations on the 60” club!


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[AKDoc]

Thank you all for the kind comments...sharing uniquely special experiences on a public forum has always been a bit of a leap for me...I've never even been on facebook (and never will)...but there are lots and lots of really good people here. Thank you.

 

[AKDoc]

Brute!

Truth to tell Doc, I'm always impressed by your great appreciation for the experience more so than the actual result. You communicate that so well in your recounting. Nothing but absolute respect and admiration for your style!

Hot damn....that's one banger of a bull moose. A real gift that came your way and keeps on giving with sore muscles, memories and MEAT. Major congratulations my friend!

KD

Thanks KD...I appreciate your perception, and it is an accurate read of me. You share that too guy...nothing but total presence while being in the world of the animal we're hunting. A total reset for me in life...always.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

D A N G !!

 

[AKDoc]

Good stuff once again Doc! Please keep up the "long winded" posts as I greatly appreciate them. Kevin hit the nail on the head about your great appreciation for the experience... It's refreshing.

You are an inspiration and I will be sending this write up to my father who plans on making it back out there to AK again (possibly 2025). He will be 65 and this will give him the reassurance that he can indeed make it happen.

Thank you...but you're the true inspiration. You worked a side-job for two-years in addition to your 9-5 so that you could save money to return to Alaska this year. That is inspirational!!

 

[Robinhood21]

Thank you...but you're the true inspiration. You worked a side-job for two-years in addition to your 9-5 so that you could save money to return to Alaska this year. That is inspirational!!

Alaska is worth it

 

[bmrfish]

Thanks for yet another great hunt report. I am a big fan of your posts. Congrats on a bomber bull. It’s about a lot more than horns but bigger bull = more meat too.
Interesting area. A lot more timber than where we were this year. Your weather report made me glad I didn’t pass on my bull holding out for a bigger one. We were able to get out early before the big weather hit.
Sorry to hear your partner is hanging it up but glad your son is going next year.


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[MightyWhitey]

Wow, congratulations! I love it when good things come to the ones that are grateful for it. Thanks for sharing!

 

[AKDoc]

Right on Chuck, great write up and pictures, and congratulations on the 60” club!


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Thank's TB...it was just one of those perfect combinations of circumstances coming together at the same time...I'm just very thankful.

 

[Mt Al]

Thanks again, AKDoc, love your writeups! Very inspirational as I/we get older and your appreciation for the whole event vs. just the kill does justice to how blessed we are to be able to experience things few other people will. Thank you!

 

[VernAK]

Doc,

Even though you haven't reached "geezerhood", your hunting stories are definitely of that highest quality!

You have the experience, and put in the effort, to do it right. It takes years to develop those qualities.

I hope you have many more great trips Doc!