And just like that, the fun was over. I emptied out my bag getting my knife and sharpener out and ready to roll. We all took a deep breath in paused, looked at each other then got down, and started cutting. Processing a moose is no easy task, a big-bodied bull can weigh up to 1500 pounds. Their racks act as a big anchor and make it almost impossible for a guy by himself to roll a moose around once it’s on the ground. Luckily there were four of us, we were able to skin and quarter the moose in about an hour. After we took care of the moose and my tag was punched we went back into the woods to see if my uncle could get one now. 

That night in the tent there was a lot of talk about sore backs and cut fingers. We woke up to the sound of the tarp slapping in the wind. We put on our warmest clothes and walked out to the meadow we were going to hunt that day. To say it was miserable that day would be an understatement, it was blowing about 40 knots the whole day and dumping rain. After running out of Ark jokes and not seeing anything for two days we decided to get into the boat and boogie. It was still blowing hard when we left shore, we were only able to make it about a mile before we had to turn around. 

We saw smoke coming from a cabin on the lakeshore, being wet and cold we decided to go check it out. James knocked on the door and while we were waiting I was a little nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. I think we have all heard at least one horror story about remote cabins in the woods. But when Constantine and April greeted us at their door, I was no longer nervous. They were some of the nicest people you will ever meet. The hospitality we were met with was as good as it gets, they brought us food and coffee and let us come into their home and dry our clothes out. After swapping stories for a couple of hours they asked us if we wanted to follow them back,  we quickly agreed that would be best just in case something happened.

Coming back across that lake was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life so far. It was blowing so hard that water was coming off the lake and into the air like mini tornados. At one point there was so much force on the boat that we were only doing about two knots with the throttle wide open. The scariest part was when we had to cut across the lake to the other side, once we broke away from the shore I bet some of those waves were 6ft tall. Being in a little skiff and looking at waves that are over your head coming at you is not a fun feeling. Once we reached the truck I had felt like I aged 10 years in the span of 2 hours from being so stressed out and tense. Before we left, April took a photo of all of us together then we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

For the next few days, we stayed at my great uncle Jeff’s house and hunted a few roads near his place. Before we knew it we were checking in at the airport getting ready to take off back to Seward. As we were sitting there, I was able to reflect on the trip and think about how lucky I was. Not very many kids are able to come to a place like Dillingham and harvest a nice moose and catch a bunch of monster trout. Even though there were a lot of lows and unlucky events during the trip, I wouldn’t want to have changed a thing about it.