Being a Huntin’ Fool member, I always look forward to the Membership Drives. When I realized that they had been broken down to monthly drives, I debated skipping the January one, not because I didn’t want to enter, but because after the holidays I was thinking the $20 would be better in my checking account. Finally, though, the “You can’t draw if you don’t put in” mantra and my bucket list desire for hunts like these overcame me and I purchased entries and split them between the sheep and moose hunts.
A week later, in the midst of rushing to get out of work and running late to pick up my daughter from playschool, my phone vibrated. Looking down quickly, I saw, “Huntin’ Fool is live with the Alaska moose hunt drawing.” Immediately, I thought, “Guess I didn’t win that one,” and left to get my daughter.
A short while later, my phone rang. I answered, only to hear, “Hi Roy! This is Austin from Huntin’ Fool. How would you like to hunt some giant moose in Alaska this year?” I was pretty much in shock. I barely remember what I said, but I know it was not overly enthusiastic and possibly unintelligible. By the time I got home, I was so excited all I could do was say to my wife, “You’re never going to believe this,” and handed her my phone to watch the video.
August 29th arrived, and I was on my way. The next day, I landed in McGrath, Alaska and met Michael Litzen, owner of Litzen Guide Service. He checked over my gear and the gear of the other hunters and then notified two of us that we would be going to base camp immediately, so we loaded up his 206 and were on the way. An hour later, we landed in base camp where we once again went over our gear and shot our rifles to make sure they were still on. Since the weather was good and there was plenty of light, Michael said I would be going to my spike camp right away, so we loaded up his Super Cub and were off. On the way, we saw a great bull moose and a herd of caribou.
Upon landing, I was introduced to Kelen Lovett, my guide for the hunt. He and I immediately hit it off, and he explained that we would use the next day to scout for moose but also watch for grizzly and caribou since I had multiple tags in my pocket.
The next day, we awoke at daybreak and started glassing from camp. Almost immediately, we saw a great bull. We watched it for almost an hour until it went out of sight. The rest of the day was uneventful, but as I went to sleep, I dreamt of the bull and could not wait until we could start to hunt.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t agree with my excitement and we awoke Sunday to high winds and almost no game at all. We hiked to various glassing points and saw a few small bulls and some cows but nothing great. This continued straight through Monday.
That afternoon, we decided to go further from camp to look into a different area. This worked out in that we saw more game, including two nice caribou bulls that walked within 200 yards of us, but nothing that fit what I was seeking. That night, rain came in, and the next morning, we woke up to off and on fog and colder temperatures. With that in mind, we decided to work our way to a point not far from camp, but visibility was almost non- existent. Our hope was that the game would stay up and feed and we would catch something as the fog lifted. When it did, we were immediately rewarded by spotting two bulls sparring in a pond below, so we kept working from glassing point to glassing point in search of a large bull. After seeing six different bulls but no shooters, we decided we would work our way to a large knob to glass and then hike back to camp. No sooner than we had started walking into the basin below the knob we saw antlers in the trees on the far side and Kelen said “Let’s get ready. That looks like a shooter.”
I set up, and before I knew it, the bull was walking out in the open at 350 yards. Kelen got a good look and said that it was definitely the one, so I settled in and took a shot. When the bull didn’t go down, I quickly reloaded and shot again just before it crested over the ridge. Finally, we took off to get ahead of the bull and up on the next small ridge, but when we did, we did not see the bull. Knowing I had hit it and having full confidence in my shots, I said it had to be close, so I set up and started looking for it while Kelen hiked back to look for blood. Immediately upon reaching the top of a small ridge behind us, he called me over and there in a small draw we had missed was a pond with my bull. Now began the hardpartaswehadabullintheedgeofa pond about two miles from camp. Luckily, the weather with its cold nights was in our favor, so we spent the remainder of that day and all of the next taking care of the meat and getting it back to camp.
When Thursday came, our plan was to once again glass from camp for caribou and then work to where we could see further in hopes of spotting a grizzly. That afternoon as we glassed, I saw some movement about a mile and a half away and quickly said, “Wolves.”
They weren’t far from where my moose was killed, but the wind prevented us from a direct stalk. We began to slowly work our way around to get the wind right with a plan of making it to the knob we originally were going to when we saw my bull. When we were about half a mile away, Kelen said, “There’s one!”
We both dropped and slowly crawled to a rock about 30 yards in front of us. The wolf was working towards us, but then the wind shifted. When it did, he finally turned broadside and Kelen said, “375,” so I set my crosshairs on him and took the shot. Kelen said, “He’s down!”
We hiked over, took photos, skinned him, and then decided to make our way to the knob to glass for the evening. Once there, we sat down to have a snack and some drinks. Suddenly, I caught movement to our left and grabbed my binos. When I raised them, I surprisingly saw another wolf, so I rapidly set up and told Kelen where to look. He quickly said 515, so I got ready and fired, but as I watched the wolf fall down, Kelen said, “Miss!”
Confused, I moved my scope to try to find the wolf only to see it stand up with blood running down its side. Kelen said, “I didn’t see that one. You hit high,” so I aimed low, squeezed the trigger, and watched as the wolf disappeared out of sight. When we got over there, we found it about 10 yards from my second shot.
On day eight, we figured we would once again hike up the high knob and look for a grizzly or caribou, but before we even left camp, Kelen said, “There is a good caribou bull about a mile and a half away that I think we need to check out.” As we worked our way closer, the wind shifted on us, so we mainly watched as the herd fed about 1,000 yards away. When they finally crested over a ridge, we were able to move after them, but as we would move, they would move away. Finally, after over three hours of stalking, they bedded and we were able to crawl within 200 yards. When the bull finally stood up, one shot was all it took and I was fully tagged out.
I can’t believe how amazing of an adventure it was. Michael, Kelen, and everyone at Litzen Guide Service were true professionals, and not only did I fulfill a bucket list hunt for a bull moose, I was also able to bring home three other amazing animals. Had I not bought those tickets, I would have truly missed out on the trip-of-a-lifetime!
Thank you to Huntin’ Fool for making these awesome hunts available, to my family for taking care of things when I was away, and to my wife for not only supporting my passion, even though she doesn’t understand it, but also for putting up with my non-stop talk of hunting and surviving as a “hunting widow” each fall.
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