Pack animal

Take lots of rest breaks

Aim for high tide at pickup

Hang meat to allow for air circulation

Last night we hosted half a dozen friends for dinner to enjoy some of last week's elk harvest. Master hunter Patrick, who was in town for a conference, even stopped by to help Meg with the roast and joined us for dinner. It was quite remarkable to see our quarry feeding so many people and it got me thinking about all the energy required to bring the delicious roast to the table. On Afognak after successfully downing the animal the real work soon began processing and packing out the pieces. For instance, it took three of us about three hours to process, pack up, and hang the remaining parts in a nearby tree (the animal was too heavy to carry out in one trip). With each of us carrying well over 100 lbs. our progress was slow and we decided to camp at the valley floor. We encountered a sow brown bear earlier on the hike and were a bit anxious about having to keep so much game in camp. Normally, an electric fence would be used to protect us from any opportunistic bruins. However, our fence was wrapped around the remaining meat near the kill site. After an uneventful night we set out to the bay to rendezvous with the fishing boat that served as our base camp. For five hours we bushwhacked our way to the bay, following game trails and an old logging road voraciously overgrown by alders. We arrived to find the water at high tide - perfect for an easy pickup via fishing skiff. Once on board we were happy to unload our packs and enjoy a cold beer. Yet we knew that a full day of hiking awaited us the next day as we had to return to the kill site to pack out the rest of the quarry.