SAVE THE MOOSE CAMPAIGN 2023
I wasn’t going to post anything this year from our weekend canoe/moose hunt, as I may as well just repost last year’s report. Same place and even very similar pictures. But Chainsaw Rob came for a visit, and his stories alone made it worthwhile to post something.
I’m back to work full time, so not much time for hunting, but we got up early on a Friday morning, packed the truck, and were ready to go when we got off work later that day. Thirty minute drive to the put in, 43 minute paddle, and roughly an hour for complete set up. Camp “Chugabrewski - light”, (stealing the name from Gamma’s Steel report) was now in business.
The 20 footer fully loaded.
Paddling down to the secret lake.
After chugabrewski-ing two beers, it quickly became camp snore-a-bunchski. We had been up since 4 AM packing, and then worked a full day.
Last year had shown promise in this area, there were fresh tracks all over the place, lots of moose sign. It was too dark to look by the time we were set up, but we had high hopes.
The morning brought mixed weather, and we decided to walk the perimeter of the lake. The water was so low, that we probably could have walked the entire route that we had planned to paddle. After hoofing it for a couple of hours, we saw absolutely nothing, not even a track. Weird.
Early morning view in front of our campsite.
In the afternoon, we walked the other way, with similar results. By 4:00 PM we decided it was time to enjoy the finer things in life, and we talked about how much work it was to shoot a moose. Our plan if we got one was to field dress it and then transport it back to the truck, drive back to town and hang it, and then I would return the next day to take down camp and bring it back. Sure sounded like a lot of work. There might have been a mention of sour grapes or something as well.
The finer things in life.
I’m not one to promote any particular bush item, and I’m certainly no social media influencer who is given things to try and then writes about them in my myriad blogs. LOL. However, I helped out a party of fellas with maps and advice this summer. They ran the lower part of the Kapikotongwa river, had a good time. The guy who had been emailing me revealed that he had something to do Agawa Gear, and that he would like to send me one of their saws. I’m always a bit uncomfortable with this kind of thing, but I accepted. This trip was the first time I got to use it. I was hoping to cut open the rib cage of a moose with it, but instead, I used it for it’s intended purpose, and cut a lot of firewood with it.
It’s a very well thought out and hardy little tool. It packs into a narrow case, and when you open it, there is a spring like mechanism that allows you to set it up in under 30 seconds. I’ve been a silky saw guy for the last few years, but is was fun to use a quality bush saw again.
Chainsaw Rob had said he would paddle in this night to visit us, but he had also just got off a very grueling trip way up on the Albany river, so I wasn’t sure if he would make it. I told Irene if we didn’t see him by 5:30 he probably wasn’t coming.
5:37 on the secret lake. Chainsaw Rob, where are you?
I checked again around 5:45 and I saw his Clipper Caribou speeding down the lake. I was excited to see him, because he had told me that he had some stories to tell.
Rob’s Caribou beside the Beast.
Over the next hour or so, Rob kept us entertained with his far North moose hunting adventure.
Chainsaw Rob spinning a yarn.
He had gone way up on the Albany River with his wife and her family, and they had actually got a moose.
He then told us that you could walk across the Albany river where they were, the water was so low. Everyone agreed they had never seen it that low before. The island campsite they stayed on was almost part of the mainland.
High and dry on the Albany. Starting to sound like global warming is kicking in.
Well after dark, Rob hopped in the Caribou and paddled the three miles back to his truck, and we called it a night. When we woke up, the weather was turning for the worse, so we decided to pack up and head back to town.
All in all, a good trip. It’s nice to get the snowtrekker tent out on a fall trip, and I’m happy just to be able to spend some quality time in the bush with my wife. She’s still keen on getting a moose, I’m somewhat ambivalent. Maybe next year.
