By Paul D. Atkins
When my good friend and longtime hunting buddy Scott Haugen asked me if I wanted to go to Adak Island to do some hunting and maybe film a TV show, I didn’t really think much about it. I was in of course, and just the idea of hunting with my good friend was enough for me to say yes. What I didn’t realize was the surreal, almost eerie experience I was about to have while I was down there.
Alaska is a big place, full of potential and opportunity and if you travel the state as much as I have you tend to see some pretty extraordinary things. Just about every direction holds something different and if you look hard enough and stay long enough, you’ll usually dig up something weird and unusual or at least see something totally new.
The Last Frontier holds many oddities and I’m not just talking about the people. Every town in the state is known for something, and most are usually based on when it was founded and/or what it was founded for. Of course, many started because of gold and if you've ever been on the outskirts of Nome, you know what I mean. It’s like going back in time. I remember clearly my first trip there to hunt muskox many years ago and the near-death experience of getting back home on snow machines. It was a brutal couple of days, but once we did reach civilization, I can remember seeing all those old abandoned gold dredges as we passed along the coast. It was like a history lesson in 3-D.
There have been other places, like the time I helped one of my colleagues build a cabin just north of Glenn Allen, Alaska. I was a greenhorn at the time, having arrived in the state only a few months before. I’d never been in that part of the country but realized immediately that it was quite different than the Alaska I was used to. It had an abundance of trees for one thing and it was green, plus it had mountains. Sharp jagged peaks, stretching to the heavens in what is known as the Wrangle St. Elias National Park. It was breathtaking.
We built the cabin and then took a few days to explore. We visited McCarthy, Alaska, a backwoods off the grid town located 60-miles into the wilderness. Very unique in both people and culture and the surroundings were beautiful. We also visited the famous Kennicott Copper Mine, which was built back in 1903. It was definitely unique and from what I was told it was haunted. I didn’t see any ghost, but I did get to walk on my first glacier, which was scary enough.
There have been other places, like Juneau, where I stopped over on my way to Haines to hunt goats and bears. An iconic town, Juneau has a lot of history, especially downtown where I spent a little time at the famous Red Dog Saloon. You know the one that is in all the songs. It was not until I returned to Juneau after a near death experience on an airplane in a blinding snowstorm, that I really appreciated the place.
Kotzebue has its stories too. From the arrival of Russian traders to the big rendezvous’ that were held in the village of Sheshalik, which lays across the sound. People and cultures would meet there and share in the bounty of the land. Kotzebue was also, once, the Polar Bear hunting capitol of the world, back in the early days of big game trophy hunting. This place was a legendary stopping point for some of the greatest hunters, guides and pilots of our time. From 1950-1970 they came from all over the world, it what was what many considered the wild, wild, west in those days. I sure would have like to have been there to see that. Adak was no different.
The Aleutain Islands are a small chain of islands that separate the Bering Sea from the main portion of the Pacific Ocean. They extend in an arc for about 1,100 miles from the Alaska Peninsula. They are unique in every way possible, especially the island of Adak and more specifically the town of Adak, which we were headed to on that fateful October day.
The plane ride down was like any other ride on Alaska Airlines. Normal with full service and we were traveling on a regular 737, a big plane to be going to such a small place. What I didn’t realize at the time, was how long it took to get there. From Anchorage to Seattle it takes approximately 3 hours, to Adak it takes 3 ½. Yes, Adak is a long way from anything, but without the flight there is no way to get there. It reminded me of getting to Kotzebue, where there are no roads, but unlike up here, there are only two flights per week instead of two a day we get here. You miss one flight you’re stuck for another week.
We arrived and I was immediately in awe of the place. I hadn’t done any research, so to be honest I had no idea of what to expect. All I knew was we were going hunting and would be filming while we were doing it. It was only after arriving that I got the scoop.
During World War II Adak was a military base and continued to be so until end of the cold war, when it eventually was closed down in 1997. However, during the 1950’s the Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced caribou on the island as a means of providing hunting opportunities for soldiers, plus access to emergency food rations. It was a winning move and the herd flourished, making Adak Island a prime habitat for the prolific game animal. It still does today and that was the reason we were there. A unique opportunity for the traveling sportsman and for me another opportunity to chase “tutu” in a different place.
The hunting was hard to say the least. With minimal roads and access, we rented an Argo and cruised the countryside looking for the herds that call this place home. There were no trees on the island, which reminded me somewhat of the arctic, and the tundra wasn’t really tundra, more like moss covered gravel with stands of high grass. The rolling hills were steep too and a lot of the hunting was done on foot, which at time took us up high into the rocks. Each day was unique and for me personally, a little weird.
We searched high and low each day, but with little luck. It was only after a few days and many hours of glassing that we found them. Small bands of caribou here and there, but nothing compared to the large herds I was used to. They were in difficult places, more so than expected. High up in the mountains, that from down low looked accessible, but once you got closer it became quite difficult. Hard climbing with unsure footing created problems and once we did get to them the shots were long, sometimes over 400 yards.
Luckily, we were able to catch our breath and make the most of it. The pack out was treacherous as well. Heavy packs loaded down with meat were back breakers, and trying to maintain your footing wasn’t easy, but we were able to pull three caribou off the island. Besides caribou there is an abundance of bird life, specifically ptarmigan. They were everywhere, even more than I’m accustomed to here in the Arctic. We spent three days chasing them and took as many as we wanted. It was a great time and we got some great footage.
It was a lot of fun, but what really intrigued me this hunt was the town itself. Abandoned sure, but it was like something you would see of “The Walking Dead”. A town that time forgot is the best way I can describe it. An old McDonalds, plus a Pizza Hut still reside in town. They’re empty of course and surrounded by weeds, but it looked to me that with a little cleaning and a few implements it could be up and going in a matter of hours. Churches, dormitories, stores and even the school looked operational other than the rain-soaked ceilings, moss covered floors and the occasional bird that flew overhead. It was surreal to say the least. It looked haunted.
The housing in town was the weirdest though. Perfectly built condos lined the streets in a variety of colors. Bright reds, blues, green and tan houses, like you would see in most towns down south, sat next to beautiful paved driveways. There were cars and trucks too, rusted out with flat tires sitting on those same streets, looking as if they were left as is when the plane showed up. Empty playgrounds with the latest equipment filled backyards as well, giving you that eerie apocalyptic feeling. It was a pretty cool to see.
Adak has its historical history too, especially back when war was the cause for being there. The old rusted out Quonset huts and bomb shelters we passed each day on our way to our hunting grounds reminded us of that. Soldiers lived there, stored gear there and prepared for the Japanese just in case they made land. We were also warned about unknown ordnance that were buried around the island and to make sure we watched our step. This added a whole new level to the hunting experience believe me. Some areas were no man zones, depicted by the signs and flyers stating so.
Overall it was great time and one that I can mark off my list as another unique experience in Alaska. I saw things that boggled my mind, plus participate in some really great, but hard hunting. Saw active volcanos and even got to shop at the local store, which by the way was the only one and more expensive than you can imagine. The sad thing is that the week we were to fly out a storm moved in and canceled our flight. Oh well we got to spend another week. I wasn’t complaining.
Paul Atkins is an outdoor writer and author from Kotzebue, Alaska. He’s had hundreds of articles published on big game hunting throughout North America and Africa, plus surviving in the Arctic. His recently published book “Atkins Alaska” details his life as hunter and survivor in the far north. It’s available on Amazon and at http://www.paulatkinsoutdoors.com