We finally committed. It was winter of 2014 my friend and I were planning on a fly-in moose hunt out of Dease Lake for the fall of 2015, a life long dream for me. There were many emails and phone calls back and forth with the air charter company working on location, weight allowances and dates. After hours upon hours scouring maps and google earth, I was as tuned in with a location as is possible without actually being there. The thought of having a remote, northern lake all to our selves for a week was intoxicating! We wanted to fly in with the Beaver in one trip, and out with all of our gear and a moose in one trip as well. So everything was weighed and we kept to a fairly minimalist camp. Off we headed for the North country!
We camped by Kiniskan Lake on the way North and were scheduled to fly 8am the next morning. Of course the weather was poor so we fished the local holes until the clouds cleared off in the afternoon, then we loaded the Beaver and were off. The flight in was beautiful, with snow in the high country and rich colours everywhere. As we could see our lake in the distance we were giddy like school girls. Imagine how our spirits dropped as we circled the lake and saw a large, well equipped camp set up in the best location. This was not part of the plan!
We kicked around the idea of moving to another lake but the pilot assured us there were one or more parties on any lake in close proximity, so we decided to stay. There were no other obvious locations to set up a camp, and as the pilot was in a rush we just got dumped out in a swamp with a little hill in behind. I immediately soaked one of my boots in the swamp, and we set up camp.
As we were getting set up I hear my buddy say "Oh shit. Oh shit." Turns out he had his trigger lock on, with no key. Oh shit! To make a long story short, I went for a scout while he used the file on his leatherman to file it off. Crisis averted. We could not legally hunt that day so we organised our gear and settled in for a few beers around the fire. It was a full moon, the clouds were racing by, and the wolves were howling. Life is good.
We awoke to snow and agreed to head into a swampy finger that extends behind camp for several km. We had gone about 200m when we heard a bull grunt. I at first thought it was some of the other hunters doing some calling but it was in fact a moose, 5 minutes into our first day. We tried to entice it with some calls but it ran around behind us literally into our camp and down the lake, giving us the slip. Good action to start things off.
We hunted hard that morning and were seeing sign, like this rut pit.
Meanwhile, the other party was doing their thing. We could see them zipping by in boats with little motors and hear the chain saw now and again. We paddled our little inflatable kayak to do a meet and greet. The 4 of them were not exactly happy to see us on the same lake but were polite enough. They had stories of 3 bulls coming off the very same lake 2 years ago but they had nothing in 5 or 6 days this trip. They eventually went home empty handed. It turns out they had flown in from Telegraph Creek so we had no way of knowing they were going to be there. There is a very nice moose skull in a tree where they were camped
Moose down, fading light, time to get to work. We did the gutless method and completely stripped the carcass of meat. We then transferred the quarters to a tarp and de-boned everything.
We put in a request for the pilot to pull us out, but because of weather and a backlog of clients we sat for 3 days waiting for our ride out, We settled into a comfortable routine of watching for grizzlies (never saw a sign), catching and cooking fish, and carving spoons. We went on a few short hikes and paddles but mostly stayed close to camp to guard over the meat. Temps were not as low as we would have liked but we built a platform beside the water and rigged an open tent to let the wind through and keep the sun off.
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hey had flown in from Telegraph Creek so we had no way of knowing they were going to be there. There is a very nice moose skull in a tree where they were camped
