More than 24 hours after I woke up that morning, we finally landed on Ugiak Bay and got base camp set up, aided by the lengthening Alaska days. I almost went right to sleep, but figured I should take some pictures of the sunset - good thing, too, as we didn't get these lovely colors again!
Our first full day we climbed up a little knob. The hillside was steep and thick with alders and willows. It was hard going, but worse going down. We also decided that we couldn't see well enough to make that our glassing hill.
Day two was dead wind so we stuck near to camp and the beach. There were a bunch of old shrimp pots piled up nearby.
Dream Kitchen, Base Camp edition
Sitka deer lurked on the beach at low tide, snatching up kelp after a long, hard winter.
Seals followed us whenever we walked the beach. It was a bit creepy!
Home Sweet Home, Base Camp edition
Down booties kept us cozy warm on day three, which was our one really rainy day.
Day four started off drizzly but looked to clear up, so after a hot breakfast and some tea, we pushed to our new glassing hill.
View from our glassing hill on day three.
Sunset on day three.
We spent the next bunch of days up on the hill at spike camp, glassing from dawn to dusk.
Spotting scope, our constant companion!
Dream Kitchen, Spike Camp edition
Home Sweet Home, Spike Camp edition. Yes, it was that steep!
Oh, the Places You'll Go
View up the Wild Creek drainage.
When we finally broke spike and headed back to base camp, the meadow was full of buffalo.
They cleared out after we hung around for half an hour or so.
...But they still didn't like us!
Buffalo tracks on the beach.
I have more pictures coming, but it will be a few weeks. No, we didn't get a bear, but I think we did everything right. We were just unfortunate enough to have four other hunting parties dropped off in the same drainage who were not as scent conscious as we were. Still, it was a blast and quite an adventure!
