Prince William Sound Deer Hunting Tips 12.27.12

Every year I get to see the latest and greatest in high tech camping gear and I also hear the feedback on how well this gear worked in the Alaskan environment. The first item I saw this year was an Inreach satellite text messaging unit by Delorme. http://www.inreachdelorme.com  We picked up a couple of hunters who got stranded for several days when their fly in service could not pick them up during the big storms in September.  After they were several days overdue and stuck in the Shrode Lake Cabin with no fuel or food, we were contacted by the fly in service. The hunters were in communication with the fly in service using their Inreach unit. After passing word to the stranded hunters through other hunters in the Long Bay area, we were able to coordinate a pick up at high tide near the lagoon at the end of Long Bay. From there we returned to the Cathy G as the weather was too bad to go to Whittier. The hunters were from Oklahoma and they could update their family back home using their Inreach unit from the Cathy G, even though we were without cell coverage. They were impressed with their unit and so were we! It is even water proof. This is a great alternative to buying to satellite phone.

As the days get shorter during the fall deer season, out come the headlamps and lanterns. Nowadays most of the camp gear manufacturers are making LED lanterns. They are much more durable and safer than the old gas lanterns with no mantels to fuss with or gas to lug. With the old gas lanterns, you had to hang the lantern in a central place and work around it. Now with the new LED lanterns, there is no problem moving it around and they are affordable and light enough to have more than one. My favorite is the Coleman  4AA pack away lantern. This lantern collapses to fit in a cargo pocket in your backpack and puts out quite a bit of light for its size. It is also very durable, affordable and easy on the batteries.

http://www.coleman.com/product/4aa-pack-awayreg-lantern/2000009291?contextCategory=10454

Gone are the days of lugging around a hand held flashlight! Most hunters nowadays carry a headlamp so they can keep their hands free. Whether you are trying to dig through your gear in the dark, eating dinner or trying to find the last beer at the bottom of the cooler, a headlamp is essential on your hunting trip. Now headlamp technology has gone a step further: the Pelican 2720 motion activated LED headlamp just takes a swipe of the hand to turn it on or off. This is very handy if you have your hands full or you don’t want to take your gloves off to fiddle with a switch - it also has the option to use the manual switch for when you’re hiking through the brush. They are made by the folks that make Pelican cases. http://www.pelican.com/lights_detail.php?recordID=2720

Plastic buckets are not very high tech but they are great to pack gear in and haul to the bush. They are waterproof, have a handle and make a good seat. Every year I have hunters that save their soap buckets for packing camp gear in and to use for storing their gear in at home. They also make loading and off loading the boat very quick and handy.

Old water proof bags that have a couple small holes in, which you don’t want to put your sleeping bag in anymore, make great bags for hauling fire wood and kindling. This is much better than showing up at the dock with loose bundles of firewood stacked up in your truck! The loose firewood makes loading and unloading the boat tedious and during transport the wood gets rained on or splashed on if the seas are rough. Then once you get to the drop off spot you must cover the wood to keep from getting it even wetter. It is really great to show up in the field with enough wood to get a fire going the first night. Then you can gather wood for the next and dry it ahead of time. Often the wood in Prince William Sound is damp and hard to get burning. You will need to plan ahead if you enjoy a nice fire to dry off with and to cook on.

For camping on a late season deer hunt, I recommend bringing a canvas tent with a portable wood stove. You can expect a dump of snow in the middle of the night when you’re out there and every year I hear of a tent threatening to collapse on its occupants or onto the wood stove. A good way to prevent this is to tightly stretch a plastic trap above your tent at a steep angle to catch the snow and dump the snow off to the side. But careful of the stove pipe: you might not be able to deflect all of the snow because of the stove pipe position but you will be able to deflect enough to prevent your tent collapsing in the middle of the night! I have also used tarps to deflect gusts of wind to prevent breaking poles and to help stop the wind from zapping the heat from the tent.

DURAFLAME DISASTERS:

Every year I have hunters who try these fire place logs out in the wood stoves in the US Forest Service rental cabins and in their wood stoves in the tents. This is bad news - these logs are made for fire places not wood stoves. Several hunters this year had their new portable wood stoves clogged up while using duraflame logs. They will clog the spark arrester and will put out fumes in the tent. In 2011 I had duck hunter who tried duraflame logs in the Harris Lagoon cabin and he got sick on the fumes and had to put out the fire and air out the cabin. The fumes lingered around the cabin for a few days and made the guys nauseas when they were in the cabin. Read the warning on the wrapper - fire places have lots of draft so air, heat and fumes are drawn up the chimney. Wood stoves restrict the draft keeping the heat in the stove and the chemical fumes from the duraflame logs will leak out the stove once the draft is closed. We have even seen people recommending these on the Outdoorsdirectory forum this fall but this is definitely not advisable!

My final tip for this blog: if you are tired of lugging and maintaining all that camp gear, loading it into your truck, loading it onto the boat, off loading it in the bush then reloading back to the boat, back to the truck then back home to clean (my back hurts just writing about it!) If you haven’t got a good night’s sleep on the best of cots. If cooking up dinner on the camp stove in typical fall weather after a day of hiking through the woods takes a little bit of fun out of the trip. If you’re having reoccurring nightmares of being stuck in a cramp tent during bad weather with your hunting buddies who haven’t showered for days and you’re out of beer. Then when the hunt is over you drive home to get the third degree for smelling like a camp fire while you clean and pack away that camp gear. After that, you need to get busy processing your game before you have to go back to work tomorrow. If it was fun 20 years ago but now having a nice warm bed and a hot shower would make that hunt more enjoyable, check out our web site www.princewilliamsoundlodging.com  For the 2013 season we have 4, 5, 6 and 7 day hunting and lodging packages which will include round trip transport from Whittier to the hunting base camp, comfortable warm dry lodging, meals, hot showers and daily transport to and from shore. This year we will start with Spring black bear & shrimping in North West Prince William Sound. There are still a couple of packages left but guys are snatching up their preferred dates already. We still have some openings for water taxi drop offs. Call Heidi for hunting base camp deals (907) 362 1290 or Matt on (907) 362 1291