Covid-19My Hunting StoriesHunting Adventures with Roger Morris

No matter what you think about Covid-19, and we all know there are many different opinions, it has changed the way we think and, in my view, not for the better. This man-made virus has taken many loved ones and tanked our economy. It has also taken its toll on Alaska hunters especially the guided ones. Last year the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed down non-resident spring brown bear hunting in game unit 9 and, many villages in the State barred non-locals from coming into their communities. This really hurt the guide industry and some resident hunters. 2021 has been better but some hunters are still afraid to travel, even some residents. Saying that, my family still hunted sheep and moose in 2020 and planned our 2021 moose hunt like there was nothing going on.

After last year’s successful moose hunt in a new area, we all were excited about returning. We had trouble with one of the boats and a motor that we had borrowed on that hunt. We really needed three boats to handle our large group of eight family hunters. So, we planned to purchase three motors and two of the new Solar 470 Super Jets inflatables before the 2021 season.

Thor ended up selling his duck boat that didn’t work well last fall and bought a new Tohatsu 35 Jet for his Solar 470. I purchased a Solar 470 Super Jet Exhibition model and a new Tohatsu 35 Jet. Karen kept wanting to know why a 77-year-old man would want a boat that would run in 2 inches of water and that he would only use once or twice a year. It didn’t really make good sense and I didn’t have any good reasons other than I just wanted it. Our group now has two Solar’s which should work for our 2021 moose hunt.

Because of Covid it took longer than normal to get the boat and motors, but they did finally arrive. We broke in the motors and familiarized ourselves on how the boats handled during the summer and were ready to go in early September.

The week before we were ready to go Jens, one of Thor’s sons, tested positive for Covid. Thor and Jack were exposed before they knew Jens was positive but felt they had stayed far enough away from Jens that they wouldn’t get it. Sagen, Jared, Nathan, Nate and myself had a meeting and decided that we would wait until Monday to leave so that Thor and Jack could get tested and hopefully be negative for Covid. Thor was fine with that idea but wanted to get a rapid test on Sunday so we could leave as quickly as possible after they hopefully got their negative results. Nathan wasn’t too keen on this idea and the semester had just started at UAA and he knew the trip was going to put him behind in class, especially his calculus class, so he reluctantly backed out.

Sunday morning at 7:30 AM Thor and Jack took the Rapid Test but the results basically came back as a false positive. I say that because both tested negative two times the following two days and they never developed any of the symptoms. However, because of the first positive they cancelled out. So, after waiting a year to go moose hunting a false Covid test stole their moose hunt. However, they did hunt a couple days in the local area with no luck.

We were off around 9 AM heading north on a beautiful fall day with only one boat and four hunters. Having only one boat is for sure not what I wanted. At my age safety in numbers is important so I was concerned that we were going with only one boat.

Once we arrived at the boat launch, we inflated the boat and manhandled the 230-pound motor onto the boat. Good thing for young strong backs. We loaded the boat for the first of what looked like was going to be three trips. The river was completely different than the year before. I had planned on following Thor or Sagen in my new boat since they were the ones that ran the river the previous year. I didn’t feel comfortable leading and since we only had one boat, I told Sagen that he would be running the boat. I have said this in previous stories, as I get older things that require quick thinking stress me out. That was not the case in my younger years. Even in my 60’s flying the “cub” in bad winds and landing on short unimproved strips was no big deal. Those days are gone.

I went on the first trip and we found a great place for our camp. I believe overall it was one of the best camping spots that we have ever had. Other than good fresh water it had everything. I had the sleeping tent set up before Sagen and Jared arrived on the second load. Jared and I cleared the spot for the new wall tent and cut a couple poles for it as we waited for the last load to arrive. Sagen and Nate had stopped at our old campsite down river and picked up our two sets of end poles for the wall tent that we used last year. Sagen finished the last load around 8:30 PM close to last light. We got most of the new 14x16 wall tent set-up by around 12 AM and called it a day.

During the night the winds came up and blasted us, but everything held. We glassed from camp that first morning and spotted five or six cows and two young bulls on the hillside in front of us. It was a beautiful day and sometime after 11 AM we started getting the camp set up like we wanted it, including lots of firewood for the wood stove. Everyone loves the wood stove. It has been a big hit in the old 12x14 wall tent and should work great with the new larger tent.

**Sagen chillin after camp was set-up.**

**Cooking area inside the new wall tent.**

The next morning after checking out the hillside in front of us we ran the boat a couple of miles upstream to where we could climb a small hill to get above the brush to get a better view of the surrounding area. We spotted a few more cows and a couple more bulls both in their 40’s. One was on a small ridge about half mile down river. He slept most of the afternoon with his head down. Nate and Jared spent most of the afternoon chasing ducks with their bows. No luck there. Sometime after 7 PM the bull below us raised his head up again and not too long after that a second bull’s rack appeared. We tried to get a good look at his antlers using my new Leopold HD 15x40 spotting scope but because of the brush and the way he was laying it wasn’t happening. We knew he was a little larger so around 7:30 we slowly putted down river to get a closer look to see if he was legal. We tied the boat to the brush and took off. The brush was thicker and taller than we thought. It took us about thirty minutes to find them. The sun was setting but in the wrong direction creating quite a glare making it difficult to get a good view. It was possible that he was legal but we were looking for something around 60” not 50” which is legal in this area so we left them alone and headed back to the boat. It was right at last light when we made it back to base camp.

The next morning, we headed upriver. About three miles upriver it changed into one channel and was close to a foot deep in most areas. That made way better running. We spotted a small lake on the left side and stopped so the boys could hunt ducks. After they shot a couple, we continued upriver until we came to an area with some small rapids. I was running the boat and didn’t want any part of that so we pulled over to where the rapids swung against the bank. Sagen and I climbed the bank to check out the hillside. It looked like a great place to spend the afternoon glassing. Jared and Nate spotted the back of a grayling caught in a pool of shallow water left after the river had gone down. They decided to help him get back into the main channel. It was extremely muddy and as they walked into it, they started to sink. They tried to step out but the mud was holding them tight. Sagen was videoing and we were both laughing really hard. I jokingly yelled to Nate, who is a fire fighter, that I was going to call the fire department to come and rescue them. About that time Sagen turned toward the hillside and spotted two bull moose going up the hill. With all of our loud laughing and hollering we had spooked the moose who were more than likely bedded for the afternoon. They were about 350 yards from us moving up the hillside at a fair pace. One stopped and looked back and I could see a great brow. I felt he was legal and maybe close to 60”. Sagen wasn’t sure he was that big. I just couldn’t believe we pulled in right where they were laying and started making so much noise. The boys were able to move the fish into deeper water and finally got out of the mud. The moose went over the ridge before the boys even made it up the bank. We decided to eat lunch and give the moose time to settle down and hopefully not leave the country.

**Where we docked the boat before spooking the two big bulls.**

After a quick lunch we headed across a small creek bed and up the hill. It was fairly easy going and as we went over what we thought was the top of the ridge it continued with a small grade for what looked like a half mile or so before there was a sparsely treed area with mainly spruce trees. The brush was three to four feet high making it difficult to glass. We got to what we thought was the best area to glass from and Nate climbed a forty-foot spruce tree to see if he could get a better look. We glassed for a couple hours. Not seeing anything we felt we needed to head back to the river so we could get back to base camp before dark. We took another way back overlooking the small creek that we had crossed before we came up the hill. It was great moose habitat and I’m sure it was where the two moose had come from. Once we made it back to the boat, we noticed the grayling were back in shallow water flopping around. So much for trying to save them. The trip back was uneventful and we made it back before dark.

Every morning and evening when we are moose hunting Sagen always cow calls from camp. This year he purchased some Moose Urine Gel which was supposed to be made out of urine from a cow moose in heat. I questioned that! The day before we went up river we dropped Nate and Jared off on the other side of the river and asked them to make two scent bags and hang them in different trees on the hillside we were glassing.

When we returned from upriver Sagen and the boys put a scent bag about a half mile behind camp where Sagen had been calling from and another about 300 yards from camp.

It had rained off and on during the night and when I got up there was some ground fog. When I went out of the tent and looked around, I spotted a bull moose crossing the river about 400 yards below camp. He was another one of those 40+ inchers. When he reached the other side of the river, he started shaking his head and ran up the hill right to the scent bag that the boys had hung up. I couldn’t believe it. When Sagen got up he went back to where they had hung up the bag behind camp the night before and found tracks of a big moose stepping into his tracks coming toward camp and the other scent bag. We figured that that bull moose more than likely came to Sagen’s call the evening before and then picked up the scent. He then went to the second scent which was close to camp, spooked and then crossed the river and found the other scent bag. Crazy! I guess it works.

It rained most of the day so we hung close to camp glassing the hillside occasionally. During the rainy periods the guys taught me to play cribbage. My friend and pilot Gary Bishop had tried on numerous occasions but it never stuck. I finally got the hang of it. Gary would have been proud.

Late that afternoon Thad Phillips, Sagen’s business partner, Thad’s son and a friend came by and told us they were leaving that evening because a storm was brewing. They were camped about a mile down river and hadn’t seen many moose and the water level had dropped more than they liked so they decided they could do better in another area. It was up to us now.

During the last four days all of us had some sort of cold/sinus/allergy symptoms leaving Nate and then Jared weak or just tired. It was Friday morning and when Sagen got up he asked me if a sore throat was symptoms of Covid. I told him I thought so but wasn’t sure. When Jared finally got up Sagen and Nate had already been out glassing. I could tell Jared wasn’t feeling well and I saw him checking his Fitbit. I asked him what he was looking at. He said his heart had been racing and while sitting it was 120 BPM. I told him that wasn’t good. It finally dropped down to 110 which was still way too high. Something was going on. I went out and told Sagen that I thought we needed to get Jared out of there and that I could drive him to Anchorage and come back on Sunday to help him and Nate load the boat and motor for the trip home. He went in the cook tent and then came back out and said to be on the safe side since we all had some of the Covid symptoms we needed to bag it and head for Anchorage. Everyone agreed and we started taking the first load out around 11 AM. I hadn’t mentioned it but I had been concerned that the water level had dropped about six inches since we arrived. Even when it rained it had only held steady not going up so that was also a reason to get out of there.

I went out on the first load and within a half mile we hit a sandbar the first on this trip. It took Sagen and I about 20 minutes to get the boat into a 6-inch channel to float in to get to deeper water so we could get on step. We had many close calls while running in two to four inches of water but we made it without getting stuck again. Sagen made two more trips and only got stopped one more time with Nate on the last trip.

We broke the boat down, loaded three trucks and headed for Anchorage. When we called home and told Karen and Michelle said she would get their travel trailer set up for us to quarantine in. We decided to stop by Anchorage International Airport to get tested since that testing station was open all night. We got there around 12:30 AM. Jared was first in line and told them that we were going to Hawaii on Monday so they would rush our results. After testing we headed for the trailer for the night.

The next morning, we had some left-over food that was packed in the truck along with some food Michelle had put in the trailer. It was great that we had the trailer to stay in. Around 5:30 PM or so we started getting our results which were all negative. All of us got tested again on Sunday and all received negative results.

So, in a normal year we would all have said we had a cold that happened on the hunt and that would have been it, but because of all the Covid stuff going on and to be safe we cut our annual moose hunt short. I guess there is always next year!