This nearly didn't get going lol, as I awaited the line to get into the US i got asked what I was doing and if I was staying with anyone, my answers didn't meet approval so got hauled off to talk some more with the police staff, after producing my tags and certs they were happy to let me go on my way to the adventure that awaited.
I missed quite a bit out of the story to get to the wilderness but on route I visited a few local gun stores and boy I wish we had the same ethos and mentality when it comes to hunting and shooting, I was in awe, even a full section for the kids, people actually stopped to talk as i wanted pictures of the kids guns, the replies were don't you have anything like this back home?.
The game weigh in stations had years of history of every animal being brought in the little grocery stores all had mounts and history of hunting and it was such a way of life it was very nice to see.
finally once into my first hunt the sheer vastness hits you, 30,000 acres of wilderness to just go off, without a soul around or to be seen just shows you how small you really are, The only thing I would do for my next trip different is have a satellite phone for an emergency, there really is nothing that could be done in the event of an accident some of the mountains that I climbed could very easily put you in a situation and in the case of something happening would anyone actually find you. this was on my mind and I was very careful but anything could happen.
I used onx which was superb to download maps and give you locations to plan and pull off, but I found sometimes on mountain areas with large rocks and steep inclines it sometimes gave inaccurate readings, you had to stop and wait for it to get a correct baring off the phone the battery was rubbish and I needed a power bank but still not enough so a dedicated gps is needed, I had to navigate a lot via compass and map but the onx was nice because you could see cuts in trees and features for animals a map just doesn't have so a few things to add to kit and a few things to ditch and i look ahead to next year, the bears will be again on the quarry list and once again head out into the unknown.