THE GREAT HUNTER RETURNS

My husband returned yesterday from a week long

hunting trip to Adak. That is on the Aleutian Island

chain and a long ways from nowhere if you look at

a map of Alaska.

He went with a group of 7 guys and they had a

very successful hunt with 11 total caribou taken.

They worked hard for the meat, having to carry it out

on their backs. My husband said he made 2 trips with

his bull, with 100 pounds on his back both times

going down terrain like this:

Then they had to load everything onto the 4 wheelers

for the trip back to the house they stayed at. He said

it is beautiful country, a lot like you would picture

Ireland and Scotland with rolling, grassy hills and

islands everywhere. The only problem with all

grassy hills is there is not one single tree

anywhere and the herds of caribou can see

you for miles. So there was a lot of hiking

along the ridges to get above the herds and

upwind. He had a painful night after packing

the large bull because his legs were cramping

so bad from carrying the weight down the

hills.

Adak is extremely windy and if you look closely

you can see Alaska Airlines coming in over

this runway. He actually took a short movie

of this plane coming in to get them and part

way through the plane goes sideways from

the wind shear! They only come in twice a

week, so if they can't land you get to wait

4 days for the next flight.

Adak has an interesting history that you can Google

and read online. It is an abandoned naval base and

only 150 people live there year-round. It is a huge

island and the caribou herd was planted there

back in the 60's for the officers to have fresh

meat. They started with 25 animals and the herd

is up to 3000+ because there are no predators.

There is no limit to the number of caribou you

can kill and without hunters removing them

the herd would slowly expand and eat them-

selves to starvation.

He brought the nice weather back with him; we have

had a couple of nice, warm days to enjoy. Our last

Farmer's Market for the year is this weekend and

I am headed down to the kitchen to start the

decorated cookies I will be selling. The meat

should be coming in today, so I am looking

forward to tasting the caribou. The group he

was with ate some steaks while they were

there and every one of them said it was the

best meat they had ever eaten. With no

predators and unlimited food the animals

are fat and happy up there, so the meat is

fork tender like grain fed beef only no

antibiotics or hormones!

Well, off to the cookies....