Northern hunting adventures

[Richard Flanders]

When most people are smart enough to be sitting around the fireplace and Xmas tree petting the hound and sipping some form of good single malt, Trigg and his buddy Derek go out into the wilds and chase grouse. I was in Anchorage and didn't want to seem a wimp so tagged along; I tried of course to talk some sense into them but to no avail and away we went to one of their favorite drumming count areas. Trigg and I walked along a glacial moraine ridge with decent spruce cover and good feed-- buffalo berries, rose hips, high bush cranberries and aspen. Shine got all birdy in one area so we let him sort it out for a bit and I finally went into the untracked snow on the hillside and found a fresh track to follow. I followed it right to the bird and made a decent rising straightaway on her with the beat up old GHE12 I got from Dave Miles... and just when I was going to make a lamp out of it! Guess that will have to wait since it obviously has a few birds left in it.... The snow was knee deep and we only have around 4 hrs of daylight now but it was a good refreshing walk in 25deg temps. Afterwards I made the 350mile drive home in 6hrs. What a great day... and still lots of season to go.