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4 days 6 people one moose

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So for the long weekend we decided to go for a short lake base camp canoe trip with the family, that would be me my wife my 11 years old daughter, my wife sister her husband and there 12years hold daughter. We picked a lake I know really well since I go hunting moose there every fall for the last few years or so.

So Karine(my wife(we are not married so I guess it makes us common law partner...)) had a day off on friday, she teach outdoor ed so she was just getting back from a trip and had a comp day, so we decided to leave earlier than the rest that were stuck at work and in school. It's a 3hrs for drive on the Alaska Hwy south. then to a couples of lakes connected by a narrow section so no portage for that trip if no one is on the lake before us... Sometime if there is other people we go up river and then portage to a lake and up that lake to an other portage that brings us above a set of rapids to the up part of the river where it is pretty dang nice too!! But not this time!

Anyway, we get to the put in and loaded the canoe and made our way up he lake for five ish km and reached our camp spot within the lodge pole line trees on a nice spit of land! We set up our campfire tent at the usual spot(I'm the only one who has been there before) and started on fire wood and camp set up to get supper ready. Had some wine(was my BD after all) and chewed the inreach for a message from the rest of the group that was supposed to meet us later that evening... They ended up getting to the put in lat so they decided to stay there and camp for the night.

Next day we paddle back to the put in to meet with them and made our way back to camp! The girls were paddling together there own loaded canoe, it was awesome to see them!! We had a easy relax afternoon and an early supper then, I decided to bring them up to the portage trail to the second lake. we played around that area a bit and then made our way back to camp as the sun went down.

Next morning I was up early cause I left the back windows open on the cam fire tent and rain had started and well, water came in the tent so I had to deal with that... In the mean time my brother in law was up and started his day going down the lake back towards the put in to see if he could find a moose.... I staid in camp to take care of the north end of the lake, glassing in between camp chores, fire, boiling water, glassing, glassing.... and then 8am, 3 consecutive gun shots... I recognized the sound of my brother in law canon of a rifle 3+km from camp... Woke up every one got a thermos of coffee and some food, and started our way down the lake to find him!

We found him an hour after the last gun shot on the first lake 3+km from camp working on getting a young bull moose from the water onto the bank... So we went to work all 6 of us after the congratulations and a good look at the young male!

Field dressing isn't a big deal to us anymore, but we had the girls with us and wanted to get them involved as much as they wanted so it took a bit more time, but 4 hrs later we were back in camp cooking a huge breakfast and drinking coffee!!

We all agreed earlier that we wanted to stay one more night and leave the next day, monday! Would have been easier to leave the same day.... During the night the wind picked up gusting to 50-60km/hr. So around two I woke up and decided to make a round of camp to see if everything was secured and all was fine, went back to bed and in the morning the wind was still howling, we had breakfast of bannik and crow berries( on saturday the girls and the wife picked up 15 pounds of it) and coffee, then started to pack up and getting ready to leave hopping the wind would die in the mean time! Not so much so we hit the water in a bit of whitecaps and made it to the narrow where the second lake was a bit rougher yet so we waited 2 hours, had such and naps... Left in still lots of head winds but the lake wasn't to bad, especially the further we got from the shallows. we stayed together and all went really well. Loaded all the gear and moose in the trucks and back home we went!!

P.S. as usual the pictures don't up load the way I wanted but hey that is life!!
 

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What a perfect way to spend the long weekend, and you got a moose! Congrats for that. Great seeing the girls in their own loaded canoe. I will have to find out what crow berries are, my wife asked me what they were when I showed her your pictures. Love the tent. That's living. And Happy Birthday, I wish you many more trips just like that. Thanks for sharing it.
 
Wow, moose season is early up there! NIce job, looked like a super weekend! Wish I could convince my wife to move up there, she would be good friends with your pals, as elle est française, of the fired-up, have fun type.
 
That was great, really nice that you got a moose on top of a neat family trip, and on your birthday! Thanks for posting that, I enjoyed all of the pics, that campfire tent looks great, the girls paddling their own canoe, the waves on the trip back, made my day. Thanks
 
That looks like a great time, thanks for sharing the pics. Was wondering how you store the moose in the backcountry to protect it from predators and keep them out of camp? or maybe it's not an issue?

Cheers,
Barry
 
That is plain cool !

OH how my oldest son would love that, as well as well as me !

Blue berries ! Moose , and paddling with friends and family !

It doesn't get any better !

Congrats on the Moose !

Jim
 
wow, awesome family outing. I bet those kids will never forget the experience and hopefully continue to have more in the coming seasons. Not enough kids really know where meat comes from these days. Great to see them willingly involved in the process.
 
Details man!!! How do you pack out a moose in a canoe? How many pounds of meat did it yield?
 
What a perfect way to spend the long weekend, and you got a moose! Congrats for that. Great seeing the girls in their own loaded canoe. I will have to find out what crow berries are, my wife asked me what they were when I showed her your pictures. Love the tent. That's living. And Happy Birthday, I wish you many more trips just like that. Thanks for sharing it.

Empetrum nigrum that is it scientific name... In french we call them Camarise/Camerise.... there is little seed in them.
 
Wow, moose season is early up there! NIce job, looked like a super weekend! Wish I could convince my wife to move up there, she would be good friends with your pals, as elle est française, of the fired-up, have fun type.

Hunting season for all species start august first. we usually go mid september. but to be hunting with family we need to get in the bush before school start or during long weekends!
 
That was great, really nice that you got a moose on top of a neat family trip, and on your birthday! Thanks for posting that, I enjoyed all of the pics, that campfire tent looks great, the girls paddling their own canoe, the waves on the trip back, made my day. Thanks

Robin, thank you and I'm happy you enjoyed it, lots of your trip report made me happy, trad gear, taking the time, wood canvas canoe!!! One day I will have one!!
 
That looks like a great time, thanks for sharing the pics. Was wondering how you store the moose in the backcountry to protect it from predators and keep them out of camp? or maybe it's not an issue?

Cheers,
Barry

Well, depending how many days we are from the take out if on a river, or if we hunt on the lake, depending on weather... If we are on a lake and we only have a night to spent before getting out and not to many bugs, we lay a bunch of willow saplings on the bottom of the canoe to keep the meet off the bottom, we then place the bagged(canvas game bags) meat into the boat and that boat become our dedicated meat boat. when black at camp, if the weather is nice we keep the boat in the water and when possible in the shade, the water act as a cooler and keep the meat cool and the willows take care of making sure there is good air flow and that the meat doesn't sit in it's blood. At night or in bad weather we would cover the canoe with a tarp making sure it is a bit off the meat!!

If we are a few days from the take out, we usually hand the meat at night on a pole between trees and cover with a tarp for the rain or dew to stay off of it! monitoring for flies is the most important and making sure it stays dry! We usually clean the meat with a solution of citric acid and water that we spray de meat with and wipe off dry then it goes back into game bags. The idea behind that is to prevent the fly to lay there eggs into he meat!

As for critters, we never had a problem, but usually we hang the meat a ways away from the tent area. Sleep with one eye and keep bear spray and guns close by!More and more hunters will carry electric fence just for that purpose!!
 
wow, awesome family outing. I bet those kids will never forget the experience and hopefully continue to have more in the coming seasons. Not enough kids really know where meat comes from these days. Great to see them willingly involved in the process.

These girls are continuously on trips, we did a 17 days fly in fly out river canoe trip(TP coming up at some point this winter) in the north up here, then we did a 3 days down the Yukon river, lots and lots of weekend paddling ww, biking and hiking... This was there first hands on moose hunt, but not there first hunt lol.... When Sophie was 7 months old and her cousin 1 1/2 year old we did a 10 day canoe trip down the Teslin river and got a moose on day 6.... So they would rather be in the bush than in town most of the time!
 
Details man!!! How do you pack out a moose in a canoe? How many pounds of meat did it yield?

See my response a few reply up regarding packing it in a canoe!! as for amount of lbs of dressed meat, it all depends, the smallest I shot gave us just over 250lbs and the biggest was just over 750lbs of dressed meat....
 
Thanks for taking the time to post and share! I loved the photos and your description of the trip. It's heartwarming! The girls are lucky to have such an experience. Well done!
 
Great report, CR. Nice to have family around and participating in your hobbies. What was the red and white ground cover around the pine tree? Looked like a magical fairyland.
 
Great report, CR. Nice to have family around and participating in your hobbies. What was the red and white ground cover around the pine tree? Looked like a magical fairyland.

The white stuff is lichens, the red stuff I'm not sure I think wild blue berry plant...
 
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