# POW Island Blacktail Hunt



## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

I am officially booked for a solo trip this August, my first trip to AK. I only have 10 weeks to prep as I was waiting for the Colorado draw result.

Who has experience climbing to the alpine on POW or any of the surrounding islands? 

I will most likely leave my fancy rain gear at home and get either some cheap gear or the rubber type like helly hansens. Is it even possible to stay dry between the rain and wet brush? 


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## The Doob (Mar 4, 2007)

Had a buddy go last year and it was miserable as it rained 95% of the time. Spent two weeks there and did not come close to tagging a bruin.
He and his Dad hiked up to a FWS cabin and that trek took a couple of days as they had to retreat once due to impenetrable cover.
They got to the cabin and were bound in for two days due to pouring rain. To be fair, the locals had never seen it rain that much for that long.

Sounds like good rain gear is your friend


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

South east AK can be miserable. Plan on being wet. I would have a dry set of clothes and good rain gear and a tarp in the pack for glassing. 
When I went bear hunting in south east I was glad we had a stove in the tent for drying out. Alaska can be down right wet and miserable and I've spent several days holed up in a tent before.
Devil's club is nasty in the south east and can rip clothing to shreds. 
Do you plan on hiking up everyday or you gonna spike camp on top?
Those mountains are steep and slick. If it was me I would camp on top and have dry clothes to get into back at camp and a good synthetic bag. The clear cuts on the island are pretty much inpenetrable. The forests are full of huge blow downs, were talking 3-5 foot in diameter. The forest floor is spongy tongass and muskeg, once you make it to the top the ground is wet sponge and slick rock. It's a gorgeous place but the conditions are rough. I would have a set of HH rain gear also besides a light weight set.
Building a fire is pretty tough in the SE bring some good fire starter like waxed cotton balls or Vaseline cotton balls. 






















And when you bust though the jungle tangled tongass forest and come to those muskeg openings don't get too excited, those openings are like giant bogs with deep wet holes. Haha.
It's a going to be rough but what a place though man. It's an extreme environment but it's absolutely gorgeous once you make it to the top.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

I've spent time in Ketchikan, Sitka, juneu, Yakutat, cordova, Kuiu, Petersburg, kodiak and prince William sound, it's all a giant rain forest.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

brushbuster said:


> South east AK can be miserable. Plan on being wet. I would have a dry set of clothes and good rain gear and a tarp in the pack for glassing.
> When I went bear hunting in south east I was glad we had a stove in the tent for drying out. Alaska can be down right wet and miserable and I've spent several days holed up in a tent before.
> Devil's club is nasty in the south east and can rip clothing to shreds.
> Do you plan on hiking up everyday or you gonna spike camp on top?
> ...


That’s a good idea, I will have my lightweight first lite raingear in the pack and will get some HH gear. Everything else I am squared away on. Thankfully my one year old at 30lbs is the perfect pack training weight 

I will spike out and plan on being at each location for no than two or three days. I am buying one tag so hopefully I only have to hike up once. I am renting a suburban and will live out of that for over a week and have an airbnb in Craig for the last night.

Brushy, what kind of fish can I expect in the rivers in August? I hope to spend a couple days just fishing. 


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## Cat Power (Jan 6, 2013)

Doesn’t sound fun at all


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Cat Power said:


> Doesn’t sound fun at all


The best kind of fun sucks while your doing it 


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

steelyspeed said:


> The best kind of fun sucks while your doing it


I was just thinking, if it's that miserable I want to go!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

steelyspeed said:


> That’s a good idea, I will have my lightweight first lite raingear in the pack and will get some HH gear. Everything else I am squared away on. Thankfully my one year old at 30lbs is the perfect pack training weight
> 
> I will spike out and plan on being at each location for no than two or three days. I am buying one tag so hopefully I only have to hike up once. I am renting a suburban and will live out of that for over a week and have an airbnb in Craig for the last night.
> 
> ...


Cohos( silvers) will be in thick, there's quite a few places near and around Craig. I heard they will be in any flowing water, even ditches along the road.
You're going to have a blast man, wish I was going!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

A word on devil's club.
It sucks! It's everywhere and it grows in dense clumps or all by it's lonesome. Thorns are on the leaves and the stalk. It can reach 7 feet tall. It's usually the only thing to grab ahold of when going up steep in-climbs. Thorns are barbed and hard to remove from skin. If they are left in they hurt like hell. Something to hack it out of the way helps as well as wearing insulated leather gloves. My








tent is surrounded by it this last April in Yakutat









The picture with the green leaves is what it will look like in August. This was in Cordova.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

brushbuster said:


> A word on devil's club.
> It sucks! It's everywhere and it grows in dense clumps or all by it's lonesome. Thorns are on the leaves and the stalk. It can reach 7 feet tall. It's usually the only thing to grab ahold of when going up steep in-climbs. Thorns are barbed and hard to remove from skin. If they are left in they hurt like hell. Something to hack it out of the way helps as well as wearing insulated leather gloves.


You are really selling this place Brushy! lol Yea I noticed in most videos of alpine hunts that guys are wearing the insulated fishing type gloves for the climb, I have two pairs on order. 

I really hope that I luck out with one sunny day while in the alpine, the clear days look incredible! I am not going to hold my breath though...

Thanks for the information!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

I've been extremely lucky on some of my trips there.
The trip to Cordova we had one day of sprinkles and the rest of the time were blue bird days.
Kodiak was 2 days of wet snow and the rest of the days were exceptionally clear and sunny.
This year's trip to Yakutat I had one day of sprinkles. When it's nice in the South east it's unbelievable!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)




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## WMU05 (Oct 16, 2004)

Sounds like some ass-kicking fun. If it ain't hard, it ain't right. 

I've got no useful advice to offer, only a hearty good luck!


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## Aukebay (Jul 25, 2020)

steelyspeed said:


> I am officially booked for a solo trip this August, my first trip to AK. I only have 10 weeks to prep as I was waiting for the Colorado draw result.
> 
> Who has experience climbing to the alpine on POW or any of the surrounding islands?
> 
> ...


You will get soaked from sweating wearing rain gear. Polyprop better. Alpine Will be socked in if it’s raining And he will not be able to see anything until it clears up set up


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Well on my way home with a five hour layover in Seattle. WHAT A TRIP! This was my first trip to Alaska and SE did not disappoint.

I successfully hiked to the alpine which is one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. 2.6 miles took 5.5 hours with 2000 ft gain and 1000 ft loss from all of the rerouting due to cliffs, creeks, blowdown etc. It was the perfect day to climb as it was socked in all day and I knew the next few days would be mostly clear. I emerged to an alpine paradise, I later found out that the local alpine hunters call this area paradise. I got my camp set and spent the rest of the day in the tent because of the rain and fog. 
The hunted the next two days with beautiful weather and intermittent fog which caused the deer stay out of the timber most of the day. I saw 15 bucks and at least 30 does and fawns. I really wanted a 4x4 and found one on the morning of the second hunting day. I couldn’t get closer than 400 yards due to the number of deer around I so watched him feed out of reach with the hope of getting him the next morning. On the next day I crept over a closer ridge to where I spotted the buck the previous morning and saw him creeping through the timber at 250yards on his way out, I no doubt spooked his as it was such a still morning. I attempted to get set up for the shot but he was already out of site. With only a day of food left I decided to take the next buck that got me excited. About 20 minutes later I looked down at a different saddle and saw two bucks sparring about 300 yards down hill. I hustled down using a smaller ridge as cover and popped up at 185 yards away from the bucks. I shot the bigger of the two and he made a couple bounds then fell into some brush. I sat next to him and took in the views, what an unbelievable place.



























































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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

I took the time to first debone then trim all of the meat to get it as light as possible. I should have taken pictures of it but I have never seen fat on an animal like that. Jim Baichtal calls these alpine areas of POW like “giant deer salad bowls”, the perfect blacktail habitat.
The pack out was unbelievable…. I ran into one other hunter in the alpine and he said he had a trail that was much better than where I went up. Well I followed his trail as long as I could then had to start bushwhacking and attempting to avoid cliffs as best as I could. The hike out took 4.5 hours, and I had to take of my pack many times to carefully “slide” down steep areas. When I got the rental truck I told myself that I would never do that again 
The next night I spent the night at the trophy inn, a nice little bed and breakfast in Klawock with reasonable rates owned by Don Busse. This is Don’s garage, he has about 40 B&C blacktails…. He is also 69 and been up three mountains so far this year and taking a break as he has a sore knee. He told me most nonresidents that come stay with him are never able to make it to the alpine and showed me how I climbed wrong and what to avoid if I ever do it again.


















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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

I spent the last couple days exploring the island and fishing. I didn’t find any Dolly’s but found some really nice cutthroats which I failed to get pictures of. There were no silvers in the rivers yet, just dogs and pinks.


















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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Last night I stayed at a cheap Airbnb in Craig hosted by Aubrey, a simple room with awesome views. Her family was all together for a few days of smoking and canning sockeye caught offshore. The smell of the burning alder was incredible.


















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## sparky18181 (Apr 17, 2012)

Great story, pictures and trip. Probably closest I ll ever come to Alaska is by reading some of your adventures there. Thanks


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

All in all a great trip, here are some logistic details that I would recommend to anyone interested in this trip:

I originally was booked to take a float plane from Ketchikan to Hollis. I ended up cancelling due to the weather and took the ferry. The ferry is a better way to go as you aren’t charged for additional bags and you can take on a heavy travel rifle case.

Hollis Adventure Rentals - I had a perfect running Tundra with a topper which I slept in a few nights.

Trophy Inn - Don and Teresa are great people and Don is an avid outdoorsman. They have a designated freezer for guests, boot driers, and Teresa even did a load of laundry for me. Really reasonable price as well.

The Chop Shop fish processor in Craig- they charged me $25 for four days of meat storage and packed it in a freezer box for the flights home.

If I think of anything else I will add it!


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Also, you can successfully steam cold leftover pizza with a Jetboil. Who knew?!










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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

Awesome trip and a well earned buck! You did it right! So has the Alaska bug inflicted you?


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

It's surprising to me how the run time for the salmon differ in SE from the mainland. Where I'm going on Saturday the Silver run will be trickling down.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

steelyspeed said:


> Well on my way home with a five hour layover in Seattle. WHAT A TRIP! This was my first trip to Alaska and SE did not disappoint.
> 
> I successfully hiked to the alpine which is one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. 2.6 miles took 5.5 hours with 2000 ft gain and 1000 ft loss from all of the rerouting due to cliffs, creeks, blowdown etc. It was the perfect day to climb as it was socked in all day and I knew the next few days would be mostly clear. I emerged to an alpine paradise, I later found out that the local alpine hunters call this area paradise. I got my camp set and spent the rest of the day in the tent because of the rain and fog.
> The hunted the next two days with beautiful weather and intermittent fog which caused the deer stay out of the timber most of the day. I saw 15 bucks and at least 30 does and fawns. I really wanted a 4x4 and found one on the morning of the second hunting day. I couldn’t get closer than 400 yards due to the number of deer around I so watched him feed out of reach with the hope of getting him the next morning. On the next day I crept over a closer ridge to where I spotted the buck the previous morning and saw him creeping through the timber at 250yards on his way out, I no doubt spooked his as it was such a still morning. I attempted to get set up for the shot but he was already out of site. With only a day of food left I decided to take the next buck that got me excited. About 20 minutes later I looked down at a different saddle and saw two bucks sparring about 300 yards down hill. I hustled down using a smaller ridge as cover and popped up at 185 yards away from the bucks. I shot the bigger of the two and he made a couple bounds then fell into some brush. I sat next to him and took in the views, what an unbelievable place.
> ...


SWEET!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

Boy I tell ya, I wouldn't trade these DIY trips for a guided trip for anything. These type of trips were you pick a spot on a map then take your knowledge and determination and go make it happen really seperate the men from the boys. Well done sir!


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

Thanks for the write up and pics. Sounds like you had a great trip!


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## WMU05 (Oct 16, 2004)

Outstanding! What an adventure Steely. Well done!


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

brushbuster said:


> Boy I tell ya, I wouldn't trade these DIY trips for a guided trip for anything. These type of trips were you pick a spot on a map then take your knowledge and determination and go make it happen really seperate the men from the boys. Well done sir!


Thanks! I completely agree. I love the planning and prep almost as much as I love the trip  

I would like to go back in a few years for a spring bear hunt.

Where are you going next week?


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## Stubee (May 26, 2010)

That does sound great!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

steelyspeed said:


> Thanks! I completely agree. I love the planning and prep almost as much as I love the trip
> 
> I would like to go back in a few years for a spring bear hunt.
> 
> ...


I'm going on a wilderness float trip down the Aniak river and float out to a village on the Kuskokwim river. Just a fishing trip.


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## brownty1 (Mar 31, 2012)

Great write up and congrats on the buck! I am headed to SE Alaska in exactly 3 weeks and can’t freaking wait. I’ll have a moose tag and my 3 buddies will have black tail tags. Been to this spot before but this will be the first time with tags in our pocket


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

brushbuster said:


> I'm going on a wilderness float trip down the Aniak river and float out to a village on the Kuskokwim river. Just a fishing trip.


Sounds great, are you using a pack raft?


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

brownty1 said:


> Great write up and congrats on the buck! I am headed to SE Alaska in exactly 3 weeks and can’t freaking wait. I’ll have a moose tag and my 3 buddies will have black tail tags. Been to this spot before but this will be the first time with tags in our pocket


Awesome, let us know how it goes! Which area is your Moose tag for?


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

brownty1 said:


> Great write up and congrats on the buck! I am headed to SE Alaska in exactly 3 weeks and can’t freaking wait. I’ll have a moose tag and my 3 buddies will have black tail tags. Been to this spot before but this will be the first time with tags in our pocket


Good luck on the SE moose!
I want to go back to kuiu and hunt them there.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

steelyspeed said:


> Sounds great, are you using a pack raft?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


2 of my buddies are I'll have my inflatable tandem kayak.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

In Seattle now, waiting to fly to Anchorage.


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## brownty1 (Mar 31, 2012)

steelyspeed said:


> Awesome, let us know how it goes! Which area is your Moose tag for?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


Unit 3


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