Transcript for On The Wing Podcast Ep. 337: Alaska Ptarmigan Adventure: Conquering the Upland Bird Slam with Your Bird Dogs
Speaker 2 (00:50.592)
Welcome to On The Wink Podcast presented by Purina Pro Plan. Now there can be a lot of negatives out there when you're on the socials, when you're on social media in 2025. However, as we've explored over the years on On The Wing Podcast, there are also a lot of positives to be had on social media. One of those things is bringing the world of upland bird hunters closer together.
Such is the case today as I welcome Hunter Kamm, a guy I've never met before outside of the net last seven minutes, to the Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever headquarters office. You only live 28 miles away. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (01:38.35)
28 minutes. Western Wisconsin so the drive wasn't too bad
Very easy. And we're going to talk about a place farther away than Somerset, Wisconsin. We're going to talk about Alaska. I've been living vicariously through Hunter, his Instagram channel. What's your Instagram feed? Do you remember your handle? No? All right. We'll look it up. I've been living vicariously through Hunter's Instagram feed over the last few weeks.
Because Hunter has just returned from a bird hunting trip to Alaska. So today we're going to, I'm going to pepper Hunter with questions about his trip and a trip someday I look forward to taking with my own bird dogs. So we'll get into that conversation before we get a roll in. Another shout out to Purina Pro Plan, the national dog food sponsor of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. The presenting sponsor of On The Wing podcasts. All of my pups eat Purina Pro Plan, not just because Purina supports the Wildlife Habitat Conservation Mission of our organization, but also because Purina Pro Plan is the best team of scientists and nutritionists behind their dog food. You can learn more at ProPlansport.com. Purina Pro Plan nutrition that performs. All right, Hunter. Thank you, first of all, for coming in to the office and being willing to share your story. Give us kind of a little bit about your background to get us going, where you're from. Have you been a bird hunter your whole
Speaker 1 (03:30.092)
Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me. 34 years old, I live in Western Wisconsin and, I love all things outdoors. always have, fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, you name grew up in Western Wisconsin? I grew up in the Twin Cities. you do? yup, yup. So I'm upper Midwest. I lived in the Twin Cities really my whole life. Went to Iowa State. Then, and that connection will come a little bit later with, with my, my upland bird guide was actually, we had classes together at Iowa State, but.
Went to Iowa State and then my girlfriend and I live in Western Wisconsin today and pursue upland birds. Love the bird dogs and bird hunting. You know, you get older and you kind of fall into your, your, your passion. Some, some, some hobbies come and go, but the whole upland bird community hunting specifically for birds. I do do some other big game hunting, but I don't make much time for it today. I mean, I really love the bird dogs, dog training and, and, and pursuing birds in the uplands.
Did you grow up with bird dogs?
We, did, we've had small Münsterländers. have two today and a Black Lab today, but we, we have had a Münsterländer since I think it was 2002. Okay. and that was probably back before they were even, you know, call them somewhat popular today. They're still kind of a designer dog, breed today, but we've, we've had them and, I grew up bird hunting with my dad. You know, a lot of it was driving the grouse roads of Northern Wisconsin where, the family's from around Ashton, Wisconsin and, and, you know, road hunting and carrying a shotgun with my dad through the woods and shooting squirrels and you know, just being a boy with their dad in the Grouse Woods of Northern Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota. And one funny thing is, you I asked my dad, how did we get small Münsterländer? And we had this big dog book and I have, I still have it today and I think the little sticky notes are still in there. I have sticky noted, you know, 10, 20 different dog breeds I wanted, but the small Münsterländer Kamme up and my dad, think, had some interest too and then we will.
drove down to Mankato, Minnesota and met the dog breeder and got one. So that's, he claims it was me, you know, maybe it was just meant to be, but that's how I ended up with that dog breed specific.
And why do you stick with the small monster land? what about that breed?
I don't know.
I love all dog breeds and I do a lot of the NAVHDA testing, hunt training and just hunting with friends, family, et cetera. You, you, you, they're encircled with a lot of different dog breeds and I've hunted over quite a few. and there's so many awesome dog breeds out there. I am not wanting to say that I'll always have small monster landers solely. Cause I mean, I could go get a French Brittany tomorrow and probably love it and be, I thought about getting a specific, you know, northwoods grouse dogs since we live here in the Northwoods. mean, I've seen some of these German short hairs that are that are from awesome lines and I think you consistently know what you're going to get and even you name it. It's like I could see myself with all these dogs and they're cool. But where it stands today, we have three dogs, you know, traveling with three dogs is enough. And I'm at a good point right now with the dogs that we can pretty much do everything we want. And the small Münsterländer specifically for me has, you know done the water work, I do some duck hunting, it's done the field and upland work, and some people using a blood track, et cetera. They're a good size, they're pretty to look at, they're nice to pet, fit in a canoe well. So for me it works.
How's the lab?
Yep, we have a lab. My girlfriend and her family have all grown up with labs and we have a lab. He's a great dog. He's a small, hard running, about a 60 pound lab. We him in good shape, but you know, he hunts hard too. Labs can get hot, so he doesn't always get called in at certain times, and they're not designed to run all day long like certain other breeds are, but we use him and he comes along. mean, he comes to all the trips with me, excluding this Alaska trip. We didn't bring him on this trip specifically, but yeah, he fits into the pack too. He's part of the family.
Speaker 2 (07:29.454)
And you told me via email, I didn't know this, Vivian, through Instagram, that you're on a journey for the upland bird slam of the United States.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I call it the quest, whatever you want to call it. it didn't start from square one saying I'm going to shoot every upland bird. But I consume so much content of, know, even as a kid just wanting to go here and reading about sharp tails and reading about partridge. And, you know, one thing led to another. And it says, you know, I've hunted a couple of these states, you know, let's go shoot a sage grouse before, you know.
who knows what's going to happen in the legislature and that, you know, and the state of that bird, North Dakota just, you know, made some statements about their bird populations being completely extirpated from the state. And then, you know, we did this trip. I loved it. I loved the travel. And then one thing led to another. I did the Minnesota grouse slam, which is a prey chicken, a rough grouse, a sharp toe grouse, and a sage grouse in a season. Um, and then, you know, little hobbies and goals like that kind of consume you a little bit, at least for a type A person like me. And, uh,
I said, you know, let's give this dog, my older dog, he's eight and a half Tito. I said, let's give him, you know, let's see if we can do this with him in his lifetime. And luckily my job allows me to work, you know, semi remotely and have some flexibility. So I said, you know, let's do this. Let's make time for it. And, you know, we've been to a lot of States thus far and Alaska, you know, is on the bucket list. I'll tell you too, that a lot of people on their upland.
West or slam, you know, there's the North American slam. There's the upland slam, you know, the continental slam we'll call it. some will just check off the whitetail ptarmigan, which lives in some States here in the lower 48. There's three subspecies of ptarmigan, whitetail ptarmigan, rock ptarmigan and willow ptarmigan. Some people will check that off their list. Totally fine. It's a ptarmigan. can go hunt them in, you know, parts of Colorado, the Sierra Nevadas in California have them.
Speaker 1 (09:33.046)
New Mexico has some populations. I don't think you can hunt them there. And then they've been tried to be introduced in Oregon without success, but you can hunt them here in the, in the lower 48. I just chose to go to Alaska. It's kind of a bigger adventure and I'm glad I did it.
So you've checked all six quail species off your list as well.
Yes, we have. and I've, I'm trying to do, shoot a pointed bird. mean, I don't have super strict requirements per se, but shoot a pointed bird of each species. And I bring in both my monster landers along. So my younger dog, he's two and a half. has all the same species. The eight and a half year old dog has as well. And, yes, I've got all the species excluding the Valley quail or Valley quail, California quail, and then the mountain quail. And I have a trip planned.
Sometime in December, I think, to Oregon. Hopefully check that off. But you know, I can't control everything. Weather and whatnot.
Wow, that's pretty fun. How long ago did you decide, hey, I'm going to do this quest?
Speaker 1 (10:31.787)
man, like formally, like let's pursue it. Let's go after it. Probably two years ago. Okay.
And it's all been with Tito, this one eight-year-old dog.
Yeah, yeah. I told you my two and a half, my two and a quarter year old dogs, you know, got the same amount of birds per se, right? But, so they're both doing it, I guess, at the same time. And it's been a lot of fun. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
All right, so we're going to get into your Alaska trip. We're going to start, spend a fair amount of time on kind of your vision and your planning. Before I go there, I want to thank Grain Belt Premium and Premium Light, the pheasant friendly beer. Pheasants Forever Camo Cases are available in stores right now in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota. Good land, good beer. today's...
The Greenbelt Premium Moment comes from Tim in Minnesota on Facebook. So this is little bit longer premium moment, but it is definitely worth it. Here are Tim's words. In October 2020, my lifelong best friend Joel passed away just eight days before the pheasant opener. We had been friends since preschool. We talked every single day.
Speaker 2 (11:53.23)
The night before he died, we were texting about dog collars, training, and our plans for the pheasant opener. I had gotten Joel into bird hunting just a few years before and he was hooked. He had poured his heart into training his new German wire-haired pointer, Ira. This was going to be Ira's first hunt. When I got the call that Friday morning, my world stopped. I could not make sense of the
my best hunting partner, my best friend, my brother being gone. The next week was a blur of grief. I wasn't sure I'd even go to the opener. But with encouragement of, with the encouragement of my wife and my buddy Pete, we knew we had to do it. We had to go. And we had to bring Joel's dog, Ira. I drove out alone that Thursday, just like Joel and I had planned. Halfway there, I broke down.
Everything we had talked about, the dogs, the birds, the friends, it all felt hollow without him. My wife, who was supposed to be on a work trip, canceled everything and drove to meet me that night. We ended up at a small town bar where we had been the year before with my buddy. Same bartender, same stories. It felt like Joel was right there. The next day, Pete joined us. We set up camp.
We let the dogs stretch their legs and we did a little scouting. As the sun went down, we pulled over on a gravel road, drank a few cold beers and watched the dogs run through the CRP. For a moment, everything felt whole again. The pain, the loss, the beauty, it all Kamme together in that quiet sunset. That was our premium moment. It reminded me that bird hunting isn't about limits or perfect shots.
It's about the people and the dogs that make it all matter, the memories we carry and the stories we keep alive. That weekend, Ira hunted hard. She got her first birds and five years later, Joel's memory is still with us every season. In fact, Pete and I are taking Joel's wife and his oldest sons on their very first pheasant hunt this year. His boy will carry Joel's gun.
Speaker 2 (14:18.508)
And I'll take him into the exact field where his dad shot his first bird. We'll walk those same areas, let the dogs run and know that Joel is right there with us every step, every flush, every sunset, every memory. Wow. Tim, that is indeed what it's all about. Thanks to Grain Belt Premium and Tim for bringing us that very special premium moment in the field. Grain Belt's got a prize pack headed your way. And that is what it's all about, chasing dreams with friends, with dogs, and that's what you did, Hunter. A dream of going to Alaska with your own bird dogs. So take us to the beginning. When did you decide you wanted to make this trip?
Yeah, so I guess formally, know, pen to paper, credit card swiped on the internet. You know, booking flights, you know, was maybe a year, year and a half ago, but I'd always wanted to get to Alaska, you know, as a kid reading the Greys Sporting Goods Journal. My grandpa had a subscription. I still have like 150 of them in my basement, but you'd see these, you know, pictures of these hunts in Alaska for term again.
I used to watch Dez and the Uplands. it was a hunting show on versus an OLL network back in the day. And I used to like Tivo it and watch it. And, and I, I, you know, I've, I've wanted to go on these. I still have all these hunts I want to go on, but I specifically wanted to shoot. Ptarmigan in Alaska for whatever reason, the Tundra, the terrain, the backdrop. and you know, you're a kid and you know, you get older and.
Now I'm on this pursuit of this quest. I said, you know what, let's do it. So I started consuming some podcasts, looking at pictures, you the content, et cetera. And I had heard via a, I think it was a Randy Newberg podcast that, know, a good way to get to Alaska is to open up an Alaska Airlines credit card. And, and, you know, I'm not wanting to start opening up credit cards here and there, but I figured, you know, and I'd been to Alaska one other time on a fishing trip.
Speaker 1 (16:39.822)
some guys and I took an RV for 10 days and it was like a frat house on wheels for fishing. so I'd seen Alaska. said, I got to come back. This is an amazing place. know, I, I, I've seen some of the Hills and looked at the tundra that you could hunt up there and open this credit card up. And, know, you get some bonus points and Alaska airlines is the premier. We'll call them airline for flying dogs up. Um, in fact, most airlines won't fly dogs in cargo anymore. Um, and I don't know about you, but my bird dogs can't be, you know, therapy pets on the plane. I'm not going to go that route. I opened the credit card up, got some free bonus mileage. My flight was paid for that way, right? And then Alaska Airlines, they have all the time. It's not just a promotional deal. It's companion fare. So you can always bring a friend. If you're not using points, if you pay for the flight in full, you can always bring a friend or a guest under your credit card via, it's $99. It's like $120 after taxes and fees.
So I'm thinking, you know, I can bring my girlfriend, a buddy, et cetera, with this credit card and help pay for some of the trips. So open the trip, the card up, got the trip booked. And then it really came down to, okay, how do I want to do this? Where do I want to go? And for me, it was, I would like to shoot all three ptarmigan species. I'll say out of the gate, if you're planning on going to Alaska, you know, really make that decision. Do you want to shoot all three species or not? Because I'll get into this.
The whitetail ptarmigan and rock ptarmigan live a lot higher in elevation than the willow ptarmigan. And the willow ptarmigan is what I had seen pictures and videos of. It's like sharp tails on the prairie. It's wing shooting. They're in the willow brush down lower, generally speaking and the tundra and the the golden red. Right, alders and willows. Imagine like a high alpine lake with tundra around it and then up, know, the tundra erodes away to like sheep country and shale and then snow at the tops of these peaks. The rock and whitetail live higher. Where I'm going with this is the rock and whitetail are, it's a lot more difficult of a hunt. It's almost a big game hunt, especially for the whitetail. It lives in broken shale, way high up.
a lot of people are using binoculars and trying to see these birds up in the rocks. so you need to determine, you know, am I going up and would I like to just hunt the Willow ptarmigan down lower? it's a little less vigorous. You maybe don't need trekking poles and you maybe aren't going to rip dew claws off your dog's feet going up that high, right? There's some risks per se. And then that, then you're limited at that point to, okay, the, the, the Willow ptarmigan is Alaska state bird. It's the most widely distributed ptarmigan. It's also.
You know, in highest densities across the state. So your chances of finding them in within the state are the greatest where the white tail is very limited to Southeast Alaska. So I was hunting the Kenai Peninsula. They are not in the Alaska range, but there's Kenai Peninsula to Southeast Alaska. so for me, it was let's plan a trip around getting all three of these species. I'd seen the flush Travis Frank. I've watched that episode many, many, many times.
And I ended up, you know, through my research and talking to people on social media, I made tons of phone calls to just bush pilots. There's a bush pilot everywhere in Alaska that can drop you off here and there for willow ptarmigan. You could do a willow ptarmigan hunt adjacent to like a fishing trip at an outfit. But none of these guides even knew what a willow and a rock ptarmigan or a white tail and a rock ptarmigan were. Ended up getting in contact with all Alaska outdoors.
They're the outfit that I specifically use to book my flights. Their pilot and owner of the company is Bob Letta. He's an amazing man. And when I spoke to him on the phone, I knew he knew birds. You know, when you talk to a guy that knows birds, he was talking about weather and hatch and recruitment for the year. And he told me you should be coming if you want all three species in September. So I had one phone call with this guy and I said, you know, this is the person I need to book. A lot of other...
Speaker 1 (20:46.232)
people that have pursued the slam will tell you that same thing. I'd spoke to Jim Sorensen, he's shot the Upland slam, I think a couple of times over. And he, he guided for this Bob Ludd at one point and he was up there so often, but he said, Hunter, you need to go talk to Bob. You'll, you'll know what I mean when you talk to him in his outfit. So I booked through, through all Alaska outdoors. I did a partial, I flew out for two, two days. So I booked two days of flyouts and then I did a little DIY, you know, hunting out of the.
rental car that we had as well. So that's kind of how it Kamme to be. through a lot of research, phone calls and planning, I ended up, you know, choosing Alaska outdoors and it's a, you know, guided fly out, ptarmigan hunt for all three species.
Curious about your dogs on planes. Was this the first time they'd ever flown before?
It was. Good question. I think that's worth getting into. A lot of the questions I've received are, I want to go to Alaska. I don't want to fly my dogs.
there is a decision to be made there about driving, right?
Speaker 1 (21:50.702)
And depending where you're, I think it's 67 hours from Wisconsin there. So, then you, know, firearms, dogs, borders, et cetera. It's a long way to drive, but you can do it. to me, it's like, you want to go do fun things and cool things. Sure. You're going to have to, you're going to just, you're gonna have to figure it out. Just decide if you're going to go or not. I talked to a couple of credible people that had flown dogs and they said, it's no problem. Once you do it, you know, no problem.
I called, I read the fine print on Alaska Airlines, you know, their long list of what you need to have, know, prerequisites to fly. You need to have a health certificate from a vet within 10 days of flying. So you need to have a vet appointment and get that certificate again, inside of 10 days of flying. Up to date on rabies vaccines, need to have all that paperwork ready. You need to call ahead and add the dog to your, to your travel appointment. You need to speak to someone about that.
And then the dogs are $150 each way. So to get from, we'll call it MSP to Anchorage, where I flew in was $100 each way, each crate.
What's that flight time?
Well, I'll tell you, so Alaska's busy time is the summer, the sockeye run. It really slows. And I don't know the exact cutoff, but I think it's right. Like it's called September 1st. MSP stops going direct to Anchorage. So I had to go through Seattle and up, which adds a little bit of time, right? Like we were on the tarmac. was another hour. The dogs are in the crate under the plane. But I think all in the dogs, you know, I set a stopwatch from when they took them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:22.19)
It was nine hours, nine and a half hours from the time I got them out in Anchorage. And that is with the layover. If you go earlier in the season, you know, in August, which the season is open, um, you can go direct. I think it's, I think it's somewhere around five, five and a half hour flight. you know, can your dogs, Bob, your dogs, you put them in a crate in the car. You've driven to Montana for eight hours straight, right? You know.
I think they could handle the time. What I'm also worried about different dogs have different personalities and level of comfort. Like I think they're comfortable in a crate, but just the bumpiness and the air pressure changes, the separation anxiety of going.
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:04.202)
So I went to my vet during this to get the health form. I mean, I talked, I have a good relationship with my vet and I said, I don't want to put them on trazodone. I don't think they need it. I mean, one doesn't for sure. The other one's questionable. He's got some, he's pretty attached to me. He's a great train, you when they throw them on the luggage cart and take them away, it's a different thing. But I gave them trazodone. I'd never done it before. I give them the...
Bulldog.
bigger and dog I wasn't worried about a half dose. In fact, I give them both a half dose and they were fine. one thing I will note as well, I use the feed dog collars that are the GPS dog collars connects to your phone. It's kind of a subscription. So your dog breaks the geofence at your house. You can find it, but I was pulling that up. I could see the dogs on the tarmac. They're with me. And then I used like an Apple air tag. It's a Samsung deal, but I clipped that to the crate. I had two redundancies like GPS, you know,
And then Alaska Airlines does a good job. They use like a ticket system, a sticker system. So they use a little thermal printers there and they print off your specific tickets and they put a little ticket book on top of your dog crate. And when you board the flight attendants, know, she comes down, she comes to your seat, she hands you a sticker that she peeled or someone peeled off and presented to her to hand to you. So you, it's, you know, if you didn't have those technologies, you know, you're getting a ticket with your dog on the plane. at each stop I was getting that.
one thing I do want to call out Bob is, is some of the inconsistencies. So on my flight, there are no problems on my flight home from Anchorage. I was actually denied and I had to do the red eye and stay. It was kind of a debacle. you know, you, you go to the clerks and there's some, there are people. Yeah. So someone might turn a blind eye to, okay, that crate doesn't have handles on it, but it's supposed to. That's what they're fine princess. Okay. I had a double door rough, tough, rough, count. door.
Speaker 2 (25:53.516)
can't read.
I prefer them. got better ventilation in the summer. The lady that I, the clerk, she said, no, we can't do a double door dog crate. And I said, okay, well you got me here. That's my problem. But it was, you know, here's the fine print. And then it kind of got into this little, you know, if we're going to follow the fine print, it says one singular metal door. You know, this is a glass filled nylon, heavy duty plastic door. The person next to me flying a dog just got a proof.
Yeah, yeah, he traveled here.
Speaker 1 (26:23.502)
You know, we're going to apples to apples. So what I would say to anyone flying is read the fine print. You need to have a dog crate with a single metal door. You need to have handles. You need to have a dog water in it. The dog needs to stand up and not touch, including the tops of its ears in the crate. So there was a border collie that they stood up and they were given a hard deal with because the ears were touching. They got cropped ears. again, it clerk to clerk, but you don't want to have an issue. did, I did have an issue and, uh,
You know, I missed my flight. I had to stay another day and-
I'm assuming you had to leave some ruffling kennels.
Nope, nope, nope. I had to go buy new dog cows, but you can't just hop in an Uber with dogs. So had to get on like a Hilton bus shuttle bus, go to a hotel, put the dogs in a room, get in an Uber, go buy two new dog crates. Alaska Airlines did take care of me. I was, you know, refunded. I, you know, I wouldn't say threw a fit, but said the inconsistencies there were frustrating. They refunded me. They flew all my crates home, all four of them. So now I've got two, two.
Brand new, lesser quality than the Ruff Land kennels. But flying the dogs, yes, it's a potential risk. My dogs were taken care of. I think they're climate controlled, cargo carry underneath the plane. And the dogs were safe and fine. And like I said, with the layover in Seattle, we're looking at nine-ish hours. And if you go direct earlier in the season, it's about, from MSB, about a five and a half hour flight. So I did it. I think it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (27:54.476)
It's a once in a lifetime trip, but I want to go back more than once in a lifetime, you know? Yeah. I'm planning on going back. I don't know when it'll be, but...
Any guidance on traveling with a fire?
Yeah, it's smooth. know, read your regulations. You need to have TSA approved locks. I flew, we flew two shotguns in one kind of called like a Pelican case. Ammunition was in there. needs to be in its own crush proof case. So I ordered a crush proof, you know, just a plastic shotgun shell holder. We flew our own ammo. I think each person's allowed 10, 11 pounds of ammunition each. But Alaska Anchorage has everything. You know, you can go to the Walmart and buy shells there.
But flying a firearm is very simple. It's almost hysterically simple. You fill a form out, they swab the thing, you take it to the oversized luggage and they put it away. Very simple. The dogs are just more of a thing you worry about.
Yeah. You talked, name the outfitter again.
Speaker 1 (28:51.358)
All Alaska Outdoors.
Alaska outdoor, it sounds like while it's probably possible to do the entire thing DIY, you would, at least on your first time to go in with an outfitter that knows what they're doing and help show you the ropes, it probably shortens the learning curve a tremendous.
Yeah, yeah, I'd be happy to talk about that.
This is the first time I've paid a formal guide. We'll call it for these hunts. I'm not against them. think you can shorten the learning curve massively on, anything, fishing, hunting, et cetera. But, uh, I'd been on a float plane one other time for a Canadian fly and fishing trip. And I'll tell you what this was worth every dollar. mean, the flyouts were amazing. were in, we were in some B a beaver plane. It's a little bit bigger. It holds between like four to six people. And then I actually flew out on a super Cub, uh, which is like,
You know, two guys front to back like riding on an ATV together, like an old school ATV and the dogs were behind me and one was in my lap. And we saw the glaciers we saw, we saw doll sheep. saw mountain goats, grizzly bears on the beach. We saw moose in the rivers. The pilot was flying low. We were flying through the clouds. It was unbelievable. In one of our flyouts, we had a, hour and a half long flight, which was great. you know, I loved every minute of it and we landed on a little lake.
Speaker 1 (30:14.648)
But back to the DIY versus hiring an outfitter, I did a combination on this hunt. I did two fly outs, which were great. And those were to target the three species. And then I did a DIY hike in as well. And I'd be happy to take you there, either side of that, if you'd like to know more about those.
I think we're going to get into that as you talk about each of the birds, Let's finish off kind of the planning piece of it, the logistics. What else should somebody know? Like if you think about, know, many hunters have kind of that checklist the night before, know, shells, boots, dog food. You know, what things are different on your checklist when you're going to Alaska for a trip?
Yeah, so if you're going to go full DIY, I think you need to have a sat phone and either bear spray or a 10 millimeter. We didn't see any bears while we were hunting, but I think that's smart to have. You can't fly with bear spray. On the float plane, it's strapped to the wing and you get into Anchorage, you're going to be buying that somewhere. If you go with an outfit, they're going to have that for you. Our guides carried the sidearms for us and I'm carrying a shotgun. So here we go.
I trekking poles would be very useful. I personally didn't have them, a gentleman in our group did, and it could be useful, 100%. Some of this terrain is super steep.
So was he carrying a shotgun on a sling and then the trekking?
Speaker 1 (31:44.834)
Yeah, so a sling absolutely I brought a gun with sling swivels on my myself because You got long hikes up and you might want to just put your your gun on your back and use your tracking poles Like I said a lot of it's just broken shale that you're hiking up on very steep steap terrain This again is for generally speaking the whitetail in the rock term again Gators very good layers, you know specifically for our fly-ins. I kind of had like a little go bag
and had a change of clothes. Apparently, some of these tarmac and trips, they've slept in the plane. They had bad weather come and four guys slept in the plane. So I heard that and figured it's low likelihood, but I better be prepared. So I had a down jacket and a water filter, because you don't want to carry around tons of water, but there's water everywhere. And personally for me, I just filter some water. But I kind of had a go bag at the plane with some snacks and food.
you're gone all day hunting. So I brought some, some smoked salmon, ironically in Alaska for the dogs. But, and then, you know, I brought a little anchor battery. I'm kind of a, kind of a prepper, but you want to stay light, but you're in the bush, right? We're, we're an hour and a half float plane in the middle of nowhere, right in the middle of nowhere. So I had water filter, you know, good layers, good thermal layers, a backpack with some, some food or water filter.
I had an anchor phone charger just so that I could keep taking pictures and keep my phone charged. A lot of gentlemen you'll see are using big game packs, not your traditional strap vest, just to carry more gear. A lot of those have like a nice sling strap system built into them, a scabbard for your gun in the back. You can easily use your trekking poles, just more space. A lot of guys. the buddy I went up with, my good friend Ben, he used a Kuiu.
up in packs, Kuiu Big Game pack, and I just had a finalized pack, and our combination between the two of us worked really well. And then just in terms of other gear, like I said, we flew the firearms, we bought the dog food at the Petco in town, wear your boots on the plane, kind of thing. But gear, yeah, and shells, I was shooting a 20 gauge with sixes.
Speaker 1 (34:02.092)
I'm sure seven and halfs would be just fine. Sometimes with the prairie birds, I like to go to like a six just to get a little more range. And yeah, that's really it. What about...
Temperature, you you talked about having, you know, parkas or heavy, you know, base layers and stuff, but I'm assuming you could get soup to nuts in terms of temperature.
Oh, yes. So funny thing is we landed on, we flew across the Cook Inlet. This is for our very first time and I want to have float plane past glaciers up. You know, it amazing. And we're down at me. I mean, call it a lake. This is a pond that we're landing on and it's half skim ice already. they said, Ooh, Yup. So I was up to 21st to the 30th. Okay. And the reason I went there is Bob led of the owner said, Hey, that's going to be your best option, your best time. The birds are molting. You know, they molt from, from a,
This is like September 10th.
Speaker 1 (34:50.232)
kind of a brown to a full on white. They're kind of half molt, so they're more visible. Again, why the binoculars can come into play for those birds. And he said, you're to want to come in September. Plus it's cooler. You know, I don't want to be in Alaska when it's warm. And we're doing these all day hunts. These dogs need to run pretty hard. But we're flying back and we see the pond and it's half skim ice. I think the temperature we were at was like 27 degrees that day. Up in the plane, it was 17, but we're at a little more altitude.
20s, you know, it's hard to say, but in September you can get below freezing. Absolutely. and in fact, that place we hunted, I think they'd hunted it one time that year, cause it's hard to get a weather window to fly there with low ceilings and whatnot. And they said it would be the last cause they said the next night, the next night that pond is going to freeze over. So these places we're going in and hunting remotely are, you know, they're, pretty much untouched and this is big country. Yeah.
I know I'm gonna cut to the end before we talk about the birds, but cutting to the end, I'm thinking about the birds themselves. I know you had some success. Did you eat the birds? Did you eat the birds in the field? Did you bring them home?
Of course. absolutely. And we love to eat everything we shoot and hunt as you should. So I'd heard they're kind of a, I heard they're like a sharp tail, right? They were more like a Hungarian partridge. Now these might've just been younger of the year birds, kind of like a sharp tail could be kind of more that translucent color. Yeah. Where maybe an older male is literally a dark purple.
Speaker 1 (36:27.118)
The funny thing is a lot of these birds and I have some pictures I could probably show you here is these birds had purple faces from eating crowberries, canik canik berries and blueberries. They had their feet, they're similar to a sharp tail. In fact, they have feathers all the way down to their toenails and their feet were purple. There's berries all across this short tundra what they're feeding on. And I said, these things have to be great. You you hear about black bears in the fall in Alaska, tasting completely different than a spring bear.
And they were great. you know, we, we, cooked them salt pepper and a little bit of sesame oil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rare, you know, at the kitchen back home where we were staying and they were wonderful. They, they were in between.
in Alaska.
Speaker 1 (37:13.346)
you know, mild tasting grouse and like a moderate duck is what it felt like. Very similar to a sharp tail. All three species. Yeah. Yeah. We had all three. I didn't notice a big difference between the three. were all, they were all, you know, kind of a, kind of like I said, like a Hungarian partridge color in me, but they are a dark meat bird given they do fly a little bit more. So great eating. And I flew that home along with some fish back home. So we'll be having some sharp, ptarmigan meals here in Wisconsin.
Awesome. All right. Anything we missed on the logistics part before we start talking about the hunt itself.
No, I think we covered it pretty well.
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Speaker 2 (38:52.942)
and in Michigan. So thank you so much to Onyx and please use that code PFQF to get 20 % off your membership. All right. We've skirted around the hunt itself quite a bit. Three birds, rock, willow, white-tailed. Take us through which one you hunted first and take us through the progression of the hunt.
Sure. So I don't think by any particular reason we got the Willow ptarmigan first. Alaska state bird, it's most widely distributed. It's the biggest of the three species. They can boom in population in a favorable way, the easiest. And granted where you're landing the plane is generally going to be lower country. So you're going to run to the Willow ptarmigan first. We landed that plane and I stepped out of the plane and it
It was no joke, like eight to 20 inches of sponge moss. It was tundra, right? The caribou lichens and the caribou mosses. And I had heard, you know, walking the tundra is difficult. Yeah. And it took me two steps and I turned around and said, this is what people are talking about. Granted, you know, you can get some firmer tundra and whatnot and where we were was near a lake, but it felt like we were post-holing through, you know, some crusty snow. So it was difficult walking even at the lor-
when you're pulling.
yeah, yeah, that's why I said you better have gators and some good oiled boots. It's wet, there's water, I you're going, mean yeah, you're gonna need some good footwear for sure. But we stepped out of the plane and there was two willow terns again. They're molted half white, half brown standing there. We were healing our dogs with Eric Locker who was our guide for the day. And he said, there's two birds. So I had my dogs at heel and.
Speaker 1 (40:42.126)
I said, Ben, he's in front of me. said, Ben, you you, you can take these men. And the air goes, it's just two and two flew up and he shoots and he missed and the whole Covey erupted. didn't see him and I took a swinging shot and missed. So I think the guy said, Oh God, these guys can't shoot. And then I think we rebuttled ourselves pretty good there, but we're walking Tundra. Like you said, with some alder patchy alder willow brush.
I mean, it's red, it's gold, it's unbelievable. There's mountains behind you. And the birds were pretty plentiful in this particular kind of valley that we were hunting. And the coveys can range from, you know, five to six birds like any sharp tailed covey can. And later in the seasons, some of our covey rises were 40 birds. And that flickering white wings, it was incredible. I mean, we saw triple digit bird numbers that day for willows and we're having a blast.
Obviously, and dogs are doing pretty well.
They adapted to a new bird, new terrain.
Yeah, you know they're a grow species, you know like a gallinaceous bird and so the dogs just you know that they're hunting a new place and they do pretty well. They did great on the full plane too, just stared out the window.
Speaker 2 (41:57.454)
How'd they do in the tundra with the you post-holing? Were they going through?
Yeah, they, they were moving effortlessly. Really? Yeah. I will say I booted the dogs, for the higher elevation, the rock and the white tail ptarmigan, about a third of the time. So, so talk about like our gear list again. Yeah. You better have booties, a couple different pair. if your dogs don't have super conditioned feet where we live here, we got loamy soil. if you live in Wyoming and hunt chuckar.
You might be able to, right? But you need to be conditioned to your dog better being in condition. but the dogs were running over the, the, tundra just fine. you know, we shot our term again, Willow term again, we admired the birds. took our pictures. you know, two, three hours had gone by and our guide, Eric, great guy. He he's one of the full-time guides at a lot all ask outdoors. He's the gentleman that took Travis took Travis. Yes.
And, uh, we went to Iowa state together and we didn't realize that. And we had a lot, a lot, a lot in common. Did you know that? Uh, I did. Cause I'd been messaging him about, what kind of dog booties do I need? We'd communicated kind of in this, in this planning phase. Um, he's a wonderful guy, big, strong dude, 260 pounds. And he's like a, he's like a sheep, man. goes, but he said, Hey, you know, I think this is awesome. The bird numbers are really good in this valley. Um, and we're in the Alaska range for this. And he says,
In.
Speaker 1 (43:24.546)
You know, we kind of need to make a decision now if we want to go up for the rock tarmac again. And my friend, Ben, he's like, this is wonderful. You know, I could tell in Eric said, well, we've never, no one's ever been to this valley across the way. You know, it looks great. And I said, yeah, I think we need to go up. Kamme here for the rock tarmac again. We could stay here and shoot a lot of bears. so we went up for the rock tarmac and at that point, mind you, the, limits are very liberal. Okay.
Generally speaking, they're between five and 50. Per person? Per person. Wow. You can have a possession limit of 100 in certain zones. That's up by Prudhoe Bay way in northern Alaska. But in the Alaska Range, it's 20 per day. We did not need that by any means. And the goal wasn't a tailgate shot at the end of the day by any means. So we shot our willows. We had a great time. And then we headed up for the rocked arm again.
So one quick question on willows, what I've heard from people that have gone is like, it's absolutely worth the aesthetic beauty. And they're very gentlemanly sporting dogs. But once you shoot one, it's kind of like, they're pretty easy.
God
Speaker 1 (44:33.538)
You feel that way about sharp tails?
I know early season sharp tales are easier than later season sharp tales, but...
Small sample size. I only went in September, right? Yeah. Are these birds pressured? No. Are they in bigger coveys? Because it's later in the season. Yes. I could do it all day. I've only done it once, two times, three times in my life. always, yeah. It's beautiful. I mean, it's, it's a painting everywhere I walked and just the lichens and the moss and the, the, the crowberries on the ground and just being there was incredible. Looking back and seeing your float plane, you know, like that's my riot.
So it lived up to your.
Speaker 1 (45:11.182)
So we headed up. I said, where are we going to go for the rock ptarmigan? And Eric pointed up. I it wasn't a literal mountain per se, but it was up the tundra faded to just broken shale. And the rock ptarmigan is very much the chucker of Alaska. And the willow ptarmigan trumps that. But they live kind of in the broken rock, very steep. I think they're using a lot of the rock, eroded.
what they'd call like rim rock in Nevada, four covered terrain wind blocks. The rock tarmac can eat, they berries as well. A lot of times you'll find them right on the, where the tundra and caribou lichens are eroding into just pure rock. So they'll be on that transition zone. Think of them as like the middle ground between, you know, willows and white tails. So we went up, the wind was blowing like a Sitka commercial at the top of this hill. mean.
You couldn't keep your hood on. You could hardly hear your buddy talking to each other across. And we kind of spread out. I found two caribou antlers. I mean, I'm having a good time. My legs are absolutely cramping. Another thing to bring is definitely bring electrolytes in your pack. You need to be in shape too. It's like sheep country up there. And Eric whistles. I hear some faint whistling. I'm actually sitting doing something, taking a break, I think. And I hear some whistling and I...
pack up and I can hear him and I hustle over. He's got, you know, wouldn't be calling me over for nothing. He said, there's two, think I saw two and we come around the rim rock. can't, we can't find them. Um, so we hunt around these kind of exposed mountain peaks. Um, and we ended up not finding these rock ptarmigan at this point. He said, I saw two. Let's spread out again, you know, and we're trying to cover terrain. The dogs are searching. Um, we're trying to keep them. You know, it's not super dangerous, but there are some, some spots you don't want the dogs to be.
And we ended up seeing what looked like pigeons flying, almost like stretching their wings kind of a couple of hundred yards out front. I called Eric over. said, I saw some white wings. have to be, there aren't pigeons up here. He said, yeah, the rock ptarmigan will stretch their wings and they're more flighty. So I said, okay, I think there's some on this peak. So we head over to that peak and we still are having a really difficult time finding these birds. And I'm thinking, this is the low.
Speaker 1 (47:35.414)
of every hunting story and every trip. We're cramping. Eric says we need to get going because there's a dinner at Alaska Outdoors at 6 p.m. and you can't be out there all day. He says, we really need to get going, but let's search this one. Let's give it a little more effort. And we're up way high on some rim rock and my dogs happened to, they got kind of sucked down, almost like a thermal, but they got sucked down and they were looking birdie, back and forth, any bird dog looks.
And they must have been 150 or 200 yards below me. And they're looking real birdie and they're kind of stopped and not super confident and that's not uncommon. And I'm literally standing on an outcrop and then we're just watching. And then the birds erupt. So I yelled, And they're so far down there. We watched these birds scoot around the corner to the right and...
And I said to Eric, Eric says, I think we can find them. They typically don't fly too far. said, I think I should go down to my dogs. You know, maybe there's a straggler, like a sharp tail. And on my way down, I'm kicking boulders that are flying by the dogs. you know, it's steep and the dogs are way below me. put them on a wall and it's, hard to get down to them. So I call them off and Eric and I are side-hailing to the right towards these birds that went around the corner of the mountain. And sure enough, there was another bird.
kid
I learned my lesson that comes up in a minute here. And you know this, you gotta trust your dogs. There's usually a straggler. It was how steep it was. If I lost elevation, I had to gain it back. My legs are cramping. It's, you know, I'm dislodging boulders going down towards the dogs. Anyways, we don't find these birds to the right. And Eric says, we need to head back, but we have a little fresh ground to cover. And that single that was holding flew towards the plane.
Speaker 1 (49:24.59)
So it was kind of a long shot to find him. And sure enough, we did. We're side-hailing. Dogs get birdie again right on that transition of kind of rock meeting tundra. And there was one little willow bush. And I wove him. I said, whoa. I said, he looks too birdie. I can't have this happen again. So I'm sneaking up to the dogs. I'm above them. And I'm coming down below. And I see the bird. He's kind of skirting out of the willow bush.
I crept in and I have it side by side. put my finger on the back barrel thinking, hey, this is gonna be a long shot. And he flew up and I got him. Eric Kamme and gave me a big hug on the side of this mountain. I thought he was gonna kiss me. It was unbelievable. And we high-fived and then that moment crescendo. That's what it's all about. It was this lull. We're cramping. We're not seeing the birds. We made the mistake. I should have trusted the dog. And then to come back and rebuttal like that was unbelievable.
Those were the moments he lived for. Took a couple photos and we headed back down to the plane and I actually gave Eric my shotgun. I said, you shoot some Willow ptarmigan. He hadn't been out all year, he's been guiding every day. He took my shotgun, he shot some birds over the dogs and we kind of like built a friendship there at that point. Took some pictures and flew home. It was incredible. At that point, we got the Rock ptarmigan and the Willow ptarmigan.
And if I recall correctly, you said you had two guided days total. Correct. So here you are day one, you've got two of the birds checked off.
Yeah, a lot of times speaking to this this outfit and the gentleman that guides us That's a lot of times the case you can shoot all three in specific areas I think Travis Frank might have done it on the flush. It happens a couple times a year. It's like anything marginal habitat you know, you might find Huns chucker and maybe a Pheasant right. Yeah, but are you in great habitat for each one one specifically generally know right so
Speaker 2 (51:15.896)
Random.
Speaker 1 (51:23.596)
with the whitetail term again, they're, like I said, they're distributed to the Kenai and the Southeast Alaska. So you generally, and we were in the Alaska range, which is Northwest of there. So we're not going to find whitetails there, but it's better for willows. Yep. With a chance of rock. And that's what we got. So the next flyout, we had a really bad weather day. And the night before we're talking to the pilot and he says there's low ceilings. I don't even know if we're going to get out. Like we're looking at this windy app and...
with a chance at right.
Speaker 2 (51:50.328)
So is this the very next?
No, no, I specifically booked the trip with two days of rest knowing it was hard on the dogs and hard on their feet. And you know, Bob and the team will say to book, this is your choice and your budget, but to book between two and three days if you want to get the slam because there's an and you might not fly out, he'll refund you your money, you know.
And this is when you went fishing too, right? You had some opportunity to fish.
you go fishing between the... We did. We did. it's Alaska. There's low ceilings. We're talking single engine planes in the bush. You you can't just fly out every day. So we got lucky and we're able to do that second fly out. But yes, we stayed with a good friend of mine, Aaron. He's Duluth resident. He lives in Alaska now. He's a full-time fishing guide. Chadwick's guide service. If you guys want an awesome place to fish in Alaska, look at them, look them up. They run an awesome outfit, but I stayed with him.
Okay. Um, it's good to catch up with him, see him, see my good friend. And, uh, he Kamme on the DIY hunt and then he took us fishing a few days and, and we had a blast. cut silvers, dollar Dolly Varden, rainbow trout. Um, it was wonderful. We fished, uh, the Kenai we fished and we brought home, you know, 50 pounds of fish as well. So those off days. Yes. And this is the thing about Alaska is you can drive to Denali national park. can do a DIY hunt. can fish, you can sight see, can hire an outfit and sewer or home or for, for.
Speaker 1 (53:19.384)
Halibut rockfish. mean, it's a playground up there. So our whitetail focused hunt, we didn't know what we were going to get. Bob said, I'll call you at 830 in the morning. We get a phone call from Bob and he's talking about this and that. We can't take you to the spot. We want to take you to, it looks like we're going to have really low ceilings of clouds. And I said, Bob, you're the pilot. You tell me what we need to do here. So he said, all right, meet me at the dock at nine o'clock. So we meet him at the dock and...
we had a bigger group. were some other charming and hunters there. we used the super come tiny little, tiny little airplane. a lot of times they're the plane you see with the big, big black wheels landing on, the sandbars for, you know, hunters. Gotcha. Super small, very small. And they're made out of fabric. I don't know if you knew this, Bob. I didn't, I didn't either. I didn't either. I touched it and he said, don't touch, don't touch it. I said, what do you mean? It's like, it's like stretched canvas.
It's like the Timu. It's like the plane from Michael's arts and crafts store. It's unbelievable, but they're light. They're what they are. And logistically, we had the other people in the cub and myself in this, or excuse me, in the beaver and myself in the cub. And I had the dogs, one between my legs and two in the tail of the plane. I mean, I'll show you pictures. There's no room, but that was amazing. It was a little plane.
that you can see better out of that plane. And we made it to this area in the Kenai mountain range. And we were going specifically for whitetails that day. Again, we get out of the plane, we shoot some willows down low, we're working our way up, we find another cover of willows. This terrain looks completely different. It's like a different type of tundra moss. They remind me of Lord of the Rings. There's low clouds, we're above the clouds. This shale is sharper. It's like...
It's like arrowheads everywhere you go up there and there's mountain goats. see mountain goats. So we're up with the mountain goats and we're not finding these birds. and the guy told us, you know, this is, this is a big game hunt today. We're going to try to find, you know, a bird for each of you. Ideally. don't expect to, you know, if we find a covey or, know, decimate that covey, but these white tails, we didn't have the wind. So maybe they weren't as jumpy that day, but when we did find them, they were.
Speaker 1 (55:41.848)
You know, absolutely above tree line, above the tundra in sheep country at the top. Seven ACE of the mountain. the dogs found them and flushed them, whatever happened. You know, we were walking for hours and hours and hours and I, in my periphery, I saw some white wings and I, I walled the dog and the birds didn't fly very far. And they're like barnyard chickens. They fluttered and landed. So we were able to approach and, their best bet is to, to, sit and hide.
They really camouflage and I don't think they have avian predators per se. I don't think there's a lot of fox predators. I think they're almost like, you know, almost like the woodcocks is just sitting wait, you know, this is their cryptic coloring to sit and wait, but that's kind of their strategy. And Nora's flying far away like a sharp tail. so I won't say they're super sporty to hunt. but we were able to move in and I, I, I healed my dog and shot to a white tail over each dog. My buddy Ben got one as well.
And that capped it off. was amazing. One thing I would say, though, they're not super sporty. The adventure is there, right? I don't think if I lived there per se, I would be hunting whitetails regularly. It's very demanding. It's very steep. My friend had a lacerated paw that he had to get stitches in the dog and put to sleep at the vet. Put to sleep? Excuse me. Sedated. Sedated for Excuse me. Correct.
city.
Speaker 1 (57:11.726)
It's not the willow ptarmigan hunt down Not as beautiful. It's beautiful. Always. It's beautiful. Okay. Here above the clouds. It's amazing. But it's just not super sporty. You're healing the dog around a lot. that's, know, we could see these birds and you're healing them. You're near exposed ridges and, you know, terrain that's steep. So if you're going to be going on this hunt, you need to have a dog that's in shape. You need to have tough feet. And I think you need to have a dog that can heal very, very well.
beautiful
Speaker 1 (57:40.566)
that's important for safety reasons. And then it comes into play too on these DIY hunts. You might have a 12 mile round trip hunt and you might not be in the terrain you want to be in for four or five miles and you're gonna burn your dog out at the beginning of the walk is probably not a smart thing to do.
So it sounds like white-tailed ptarmigan. You kind of checked it off your list. Maybe don't need to go do that again. Whereas willow ptarmigan, it's like you're hungry to go do. Where do rock ptarmigan fit into the...
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:13.582)
It's such a small sample size, Bob, I got one. And it was that story previously about getting it to the last minute. I don't have enough data on them. I think a lot of times you can find them in the transition zones and you occasionally can find them with the willows. I'll tell you in the full blown winter, they're all together. They come down and feed on the willow and alder buds and you can hunt them. All three species. All three. And they're very difficult to tell apart when they're all molted white.
Because they're subspecies, not...
And you can, know, the rock ptarmigan has a black eye crest all the way to its beak. The white tailed ptarmigan is the smallest of the three, has the smallest narrowest beak. So think you can, I haven't hunted them in the winter, but they are all together in the winter. The snow machinists sometimes pluck them off with their 22s and whatnot. but for, for like a, call it a fall upland bird hunter, I would love to go back and hunt the willows. The other thing is with the willows, if you're going to do a DIY hunt,
Or if you're going to maybe fly your dog up and bring your dog to a traditional fishing camp and you wanted to hunt willows up there on the tundra, that's more feasible. If you're going to drive the Dalton highway, you're going to be in willow ptarmigan country. Again, I've referenced the snow or the white tail ptarmigan being almost like a big game. You're going to be putting in a day's work to get up to the elevations that they're at.
It's dangerous-ish for the dog's feet and it's very difficult and the wing shooting wasn't particularly, you know, sporty per se, but it wasn't an adventure, absolutely. And I'm glad I did it.
Speaker 2 (59:49.08)
So how many days did you DIY hunt after these guided hunt?
So we only did one. We went up for eight or nine days and we had two fly outs, two days of rest. We fished a little bit. The gentleman I stayed at actually, we had to process a moose in one of the days. They're on like a moose list with the state troopers. If a moose gets hit, they call down this list. We're sitting on the couch and they said, can you get here in 30 minutes? So we hustled there. So we got to do a very Alaskan thing. We processed a moose. That was one day we were going to do our DIY hunt. So we pushed it.
But we did one day DIY and we went to an area that has rock ptarmigan. So we did not hunt the willows. Like I said, I would love to hunt more. The Kenai is very rugged and steep, lot of fjords, glaciers, steep terrain. It's not known to be the best area for willow ptarmigan. But we did an out and back on a specific trail I'm not going to name, but it was vigorous. It was beautiful.
And we hiked up, up, up, up, up a trail. you could take the shorter route, but there's a trail we were on. And we did find a covey of rocks and whitetails, believe it or not, up there. And I did get some good dog work. I got some pictures. The dog's pointed. The gentleman, Aaron, and his girlfriend that we're staying with each got a bird. So we did a DIY. It is feasible, 100%. I think the float plane is totally worth it, the sense of adventure there.
Hiking into the back country is doable as well. I would say if you're gonna go back, and this is what I'm thinking too, if I'm gonna go back, you can rent a U-Haul vehicle, a U-Haul. That's a little pro tip. People do a lot of the caribou hunters off the Dalton Highway will rent a U-Haul. We use the Turo app. It's way more affordable than an enterprise per se. can find pickups, trees.
Speaker 2 (01:01:43.662)
Basically somebody else's vehicle that you're renting from them. Yes. I've used it once. They leave it at the airport parking lot.
It's fabulous. I never used the app. was a little apprehensive. We were $400 for the week. And we had a Honda Odyssey minivan, stow and go, put the dog crates in. It pretty good. you can, know, there's Willow ptarmigan in the lower country, up the Dalton Highway, the Parks Glen, Richardson Highways, anywhere between Anchorage and Fairbanks and Tock, you can hunt Willow ptarmigan. So you could go on a road trip and...
you know, get out of your car. I haven't done this, but get out of your car and walk the tundra for these birds. Again, I called a couple, you know, outfitters for fishing, fishing outfits. There's a lot of them up there and said, Hey, would you allow a dog? Yep, absolutely. We have an ATV here. You could take out, you could do a fish, a cast and blast type hunt. I'd also fly you out, you know, to an area I know the caribou hunters see Willow ptarmigan and that. So you can make your phone calls and plan this trip the way you want.
I just think the overarching theme is if you really want the whitetail time again, you're in southeast Alaska.
What about sprucies, broths, sharpies?
Speaker 1 (01:02:55.918)
Yep. They're there. Alaska is extremely underrated. Eric Locker, who lives there, our guide, he just posted a photo the other day. He had a ptarmigan, a spruce, a rough grouse, and a sharp tail grouse in one walk. So it's very diverse, Alaska. I think you have to drive a good ways for a lot of those different species, but they're there. The waterfall hunting, we didn't get to do unfortunately, but it's exceptional with the sea duck hunting, the puddle duck hunting. You can hunt Sandhill cranes there.
I mean, it's an outdoorsman's paradise. And I just think big game is kind of what takes precedent there. But before we got on air, told you this trip is, you know, a couple thousand dollars. could be less. It could be more. But I felt like I got the sheep hunting big game experience to fly in the back country and to see sheep. And you know how much these hunts can be tens of thousands of dollars. So I went home.
totally elated, totally happy. My dogs were healthy and safe and I thought the trip was 1000 % worth it. And I'm planning on going back to some extent, maybe a little more DIY. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if it'll be next year or the following. We'll see. One, two, five years, we'll see. I would like to bring family and friends up for a fishing trip, sightseeing, whatnot.
before you go back.
Speaker 1 (01:04:21.408)
It's demanding and it's not for everyone, right? to, go on these backwards kind of bush pilot trips. you know, pick your group and understand that, you know, what you're getting into per se. I will say too, Bob. So we talked about like the liberal limits, to 50. It's important that your dog's in shape because these seasons can be really early. I went in September, a lot of these seasons open up in August. Yeah.
is fifth.
So you want to extend your season in theory. It can be warm, there can be bugs. You could go up in Alaska and ptarmigan hunt in August. You better have your dog in shape at that point. And some of these seasons go through March and June. There's an 11 month ptarmigan season in Alaska. Unbelievable. I mean, it's really crazy. I don't know, you know, right? But it's a long season. Alaska has a ton of upland game birds to hunt. And their seasons are advantageous for the upland bird hunter per se.
You talked about the next phase for you is this trip to Oregon. I think you mentioned Valley Quail, California Quail, and Mountain Quail are the next two. Tell us a little bit about where you're heading and what you're...
I think I'm headed to Oregon. I still might go to California. And been talking to biologists, messaging people through social media. Two of the gentlemen that I met at the Alaska Outdoor Lodge, one I knew through blind reach outs on social media. Funny small world, right? Yeah. He says, is that, are you Hunter? Are those monster landers? I said, yeah. And he goes, I'm Travis. We've talked on the phone. The other gentleman, Jeff, who I met, you know,
Speaker 1 (01:06:02.648)
He just got back from an Oregon mountain quail hunt. So you meet two guys at the dock that are, you know, like-minded people, but yeah, I'm planning on going to the call at the Northwest, Pacific Northwest and, going after those birds. I'm excited to see the terrain. I've never been to those, that part of the country per se. And it's always an adventure. My plan is canvas tent, kind of dirt bag it a little bit. Winter weather could potentially change those things, but yeah, that's what it.
You know, don't know much about those birds. I think the valley quail is much more widely distributed. I think we can find those in the lower grasslands and riparian areas. And then the, the mountain quail is, it's a hard bird to find. I hear it lives in some nasty tangles and some steep terrain. but excited for it and excited to take that on.
We will stay in touch and be back early, 28 minutes away. we'll get you back after you knock those two birds off the list. What should I have asked you about this trip to Alaska that I haven't or what, is there anything that I, clearly you're a guy that does your research, know, plans, he consumes a lot of content, anything we missed.
Don't be afraid to use an outfitter, especially if you're flying dogs and going this far and committing. I think that it was a wonderful experience to use an outfitter.
You know, they, you learn a lot. Um, you're in good hands. They're going to shorten the learning curve for you. I think the last thing you want to do is go up there and try to DIY it and this and that something happens. Um, so I think don't be afraid to use an outfitter. Um, you know, maybe don't be afraid to fly your dog. If, if, if you want to go bad enough, you'll go read the fine print, make sure you got your dogs in the proper crates. But I felt confident flying the dogs up there and, uh, you know,
Speaker 1 (01:08:00.622)
Plan an itinerary, plan some days of rest, because there's going to be some bad weather. But I mean, Bob, we covered a lot, I thought.
Are you comfortable giving your Instagram handle for this? I know we touched on that. We looked it up in the meantime.
Yeah, so it's hunter.Kamm.5. So Hunter Kamm. There aren't too many hunters on Instagram. K-A-M-M, yep, hunter.Kamm5. You can follow me. I mean, I post here and there, try to make it a, you know, it's just an outdoor feed of my life, really.
Speaker 2 (01:08:34.318)
Yeah, that's true of many of them. Thanks for doing this. All right, folks. Hopefully that inspired you to look at a potential Alaska trip. I know I certainly have renewed interest in going to chase willow ptarmigan, rock ptarmigan, white tail ptarmigan, and really just get into Alaska and seeing the beautiful scenery. Thank you.
Yeah, I appreciate it, Bob.
Speaker 2 (01:09:02.423)
for listening to this episode of On The Wink Podcast. I'm Bob St. Pierre reminding you to always follow the dog. Something good will arise. Thanks for listening, folks.