I concluded my last post with the harvest of our goats and the sense that we were short on daylight. A sense of urgency tugged at us to complete skinning our game and start our hike back to camp. That haste possibly lead to one of the scariest moments of my outdoor adventures. I lead the descent down the steep slope covered in short wet grass. Suddenly, I heard a yell from behind me. Herm had lost his footing and began sliding down the mountain. He was ten feet above me one moment, and twenty below me the next. In trying to slow his skid, his left shoulder became wrenched in manner that wasn't intended for the human body. He had dislocated his shoulder. It only took seconds to get to him, but thoughts of having to use the satellite phone to call in a helicopter forced it's way into my mind. One thing about shoulder dislocations, if you get on them soon, they're easier to reduce. I was able to get his back in with relative ease. No rescue from this mountain! We had come to Kodiak with hopes of taking a goat each, and we did just that. And so, with packs exceeding a hundred pounds, full of meat, capes and skulls , we started the long march back to camp. One of us with a sore shoulder. Any time your carrying heavy, I get into the mindset, "one foot after the other". No matter what muscle hurts, or how bad your dogs bark, or how heavy the pack, that gets it done. But you have to be able to see. The sun seemed to be streaking for the horizon at an unreal speed. We walked in the twilight with the hopes that each ridge line would reveal our tent. Herm fell in the alders and in trying to catch himself, he dislocated his shoulder again. Another thing about shoulder dislocations, once you do it, you're prone to do it again. We decided it wasn't safe to continue, and as much as I NEVER want to "bivy out", we were going to have to. Ideally, when you bivy, you have a bivy sack, and if your smart, a sleeping bag that goes in it. We didn't even fall close to the smart category, we had some warm clothing and rain gear. To make things worse, we're walking in waste high bushes past piles of bear scat as big around as a beer can. But what would you expect, we're on Kodiak Island, the home of the biggest bears in the world. Did I mention we're carrying bags of goat meat? The night past slowly, the clouds stayed away for the most part, revealing the most incredible view of stars I have ever experienced. We took turns napping and keeping a small, 9 inch fire going through the night. When the sun hit us in the morning, my water was frozen, but that was all. I could still feel some of my toes. We had made it. This is one of the last pictures I took before we decided to hunker down. It's pretty, I hoped to see it on my computer at home.
It took us another two hours to get back to camp in day light. We spent the day fleshing out our capes. Took turns napping in the sun warmed tent. Herm woke me with an urgent call that a bear was running towards our camp. I snapped awake and grabbed my revolver. We yelled at the bear that was 120 yards and closing, right at our camp. You could almost see the bears expression as it got closer, "What are those two yahoos yelling at me for?" It finally veered of course at 85 yards and kept running. It stopped about a half mile down the mountain and grazed on berries. We watched it for nearly half an hour before it finally meandered out of site. It wanted nothing from us. Neither one of us even thought to grab a camera. We slept well that night in our warm sleeping bags and dry tent that was surrounded by a fence just waiting to knock the snot out of any curious bears that may wander by. We needed rest, for the next day, we would have to pack everything off the mountain, back to the lake where the plane would pick us up. It took two trips, but we got it done. This isn't a cliff, it's the edge of the "flat" ground before we start bushwhacking again.
This was on the last pack out. Pretty, but it was on the front of the heaviest rain we got.
This is the only picture I have of what we had to bushwhack through in beer can sized pooping bear country. I look like I ate the wrong berries and just discovered my hand.
We finished the last half mile in heavy rain. It dried up shortly after we reached base camp. By now it was too late for the plane to pick us up, so we set up the tent and bear fence for one more night in the Kodiak wilderness.
The next morning, a welcome sight indeed.
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