Flying to Boston in the morning. I will overnight there and fly to Iceland Sunday afternoon. Spend Monday in Iceland and fly to Greenland on Tuesday.
It will take awhile for this thread to get complete considering I don't get back stateside until Aug 21st. But I promise I won't leave it hanging without finishing it.
Looking forward to following along.
Mountianman, try to get on some Cod fish while your there up in Ikka Bay.
You will eat like a king with Fredick's cooking.
Bou'bound's Link
I spent the afternoon walking around the harbor in Keflavik. Small place, but I always enjoy walking these small ocean towns. Food is expensive( as expected). My fish and chips( fresh cod) and Ice Cream cost about 35 usd. Nice little restaurant called Rain.
The boat is a fishing boat that was the first kind of its design. It's on display along the harbor.
The walrus tusks were hanging in a local restaurant. No idea what it says.
I fly to Greenland this afternoon. So I'll have no service for about a week. I'll update when I get back to Iceland.
Tons of pictures to sort through. Got some great pictures in Iceland as well. I'll start sifting through them tonight. Got some good video too.
I'll start posting soon.
Mark
I spent a fair amount of time in Iceland as well( 2 days on the way up and 4 on the way back) and I am going to include those pictures too. This hunt was definitely more of an adventure that is only limited by your time and wallet.
I am going to start with the Iceland stuff and end with the hunting stuff. I hope you guys don't mind. I figure anyone going on this trip would benefit from the Iceland info/pictures as well.
Turned my lips numb in about 10 seconds after entering the water. But very cool experience. This is me and one of my buddies that flew up from the states about to head in.
Something else to note,the food in Iceland is EXPENSIVE. Your average fish and chips lunch would cost us 30-40 dollars. Dinner time is even worse. If you are there for a few days it can easily push into the hundreds for food. But you can try smoked puffin(I didn't care for it), mink whale(not bad) and horse(excellent).
The picture is my mink whale appetizer in keflavik.
Here is a shot from Greenland. Such an amazing place
While checking in at the airport I ran into 2 other hunters in my party. They were a father and son from Michigan, Charles and Cameron. The delta airlines meltdown had affected them and they had their bow cases in tow, but no other bags. They were working on getting them but it became obvious that they would have to head to camp with just their bows and the clothes on their back.
The plane took off from Keflavik in the evening headed for Greenland. It’s about a 2 and a half hour flight. The plane comes in over the water and lands in a huge valley where the small town of Narsarsuaq is situated. It’s always a great feeling stepping onto the ground of some exotic place you’ve never been.
All my bags made it along with the two bows of the other hunters. The forth hunter got messed up even more by the delta thing a was still a couple days from getting to camp. I would suggest arriving early to Iceland on this trip to let your bags catch up if there is an issue.
We got checked in to the hotel and had dinner. Very simple rooms but they worked just fine. The hotel used to be part of an old army base.
We had several hours of day light left so Frank suggested we go for a musk ox. The other hunters let me go first considering they didn't have their hunting clothes.
A side note on that. They let Frank know their situation and he managed to get together enough spare clothing for each of them to have a water proof outer layer and something for some warmth. I offered socks if they needed them. What they really needed was boots, which there wasn't any extra around.
We load everything into the cabin, unpacked and got ready. We each shot our bows a few times to make sure nothing got goofy during travel.
It's nice when a camp has a GOOD target to shoot at. This one was an 18-1 rinehart in really good shape.
As we slowly boated into the bay we spotted several small groups on the hill sides. Most of these were cows and calves. But with this many animals around, the mature bulls can’t be too far away.
We spotted a couple ox in a draw that we thought may have been bulls so Frank and I take off on a quick stalk to close the distance. This area is excellent terrain for bowhunting, lots of draws, rocks and willows. We get about 30 yards from the OX in the willows before they walk down a trail and give us a clear view. It was 2 cows and their small calves. It was cool see one close up. And the fuzzy calves were cute little things. We let them go on their way and returned to the boat.
We closed the gap to 18 yards with the bull just over a rise, broadside. I readied for the shot and slowly crept up to get a view of the vitals. That's when I hear Frank whisper ”don’t shoot”.
I relaxed the tension and the bow string and glanced at Frank. “Needs another year” he whispers. This one gets a pass. I still drew on him just because there is likely not many times in your life you’ll look through your pins at a musk ox. We back out and returned to the boat.
I will give Frank ton of credit for being able to judge these things. I looked at lots of pictures before I left but I was still light years away from being able to judge them quickly like he did.
He could call out a mature bull from several hundred yards away, while I couldn’t even for sure tell if it was a bull or cow from that distance. You’ll be glad you have him there to judge the size for you.
In one of the areas closer to camp, a bull is spotted.He is alone. He is mature. The stalk is on again.
We pull the boat to the rocks and climb up. On this stalk I gave Charles (one of the other hunters) my video camera and told him to follow if he could and record what he could.
The following stills were pulled from the video.
We eventually ended up on a big rock with him slightly below us in the depression.
He bull is 17 yards broadside. Although he is in the willows slightly and I can't see his legs at all. But I have a clear view of the body.
Frank went over how to use the hump as a guide for fwd and aft arrow placement. I'm not sure if it was the fact this bull had a pretty shaggy mass of hair coming back from the hump that was deceiving or just the fact that your staring at such a huge mass of broadside hair trying to pick a spot.
But whatever the reason, I put the arrow perfect up and down, but about 10 inches back from where it needed to be. Basically a gut shot. It was so deceiving that I thought the shot was good until Frank told me it was back.
I knocked another arrow and was waiting for another shot opportunity. By this point Frank let me know the arrow was too far back. No way could you see the entrance/exit wound with all that hair.
The bull started to move so I drew. But the bull took off at the fast, bouncing trot that they do and didn't offer me a decent shot.
I'll spend another hour or so posting tonight. This definitely takes some time. Makes me appreciate even more the folks that write up their hunts on here for us to read.
We circled around above him and sneaked up to about 25 yards. I drew my bow and took a step up the hill and my foot slipped and down I went. On the fall down I let the bow down so fast that my QAD rest dropped. Luckily I got it let down and hit the ground without damaging myself or the bow. Since I was on rock I didn't make much noise when I fell and the bull didn't spook.
The issue was he was facing straight away. I slowly stood up and waited. He took a few steps and turned to where he was quartering away at 30 yards.
I drew the bow, picked a spot and let the shot go. This arrow flew true, entering behind the near shoulder and exiting between the opposite shoulder and neck.
Here is Frank and I discussing what just happened.
Here is Kunuud(spelling?) carrying some meat and the rib cage down toward the boat. Everybody pitched in and grabbed a chunk to carry out.
I'll give these two tons of credit. They hunted hard in basically tennis shoes and plastic bags over their socks.
I'm not posting their musk ox kills in case they want to post it elsewhere.
On Franks website it says to be in excellent shape. This is no understatement. Getting up into these mountains is no joke.
I suggest a walking stick if you can bring one.
We didn't see any caribou the first day I hiked up. But the second time, after hours of hard hiking, we did find some.
We sneaked up above them at the top of the mountain. I started a slow belly crawl down the mountain. It was slow and tedious, sometime in full view of the caribou. But I kept it slow and stayed on my belly and made it down into the herd.
I had cows and calves feeding below me and upwind of me. Some as close as 25 yards. At one point I looked over and saw a spike dead asleep 25 yards from me. I just couldn't get to the bull. He was bedded about 100 yards away but blocked by several bedded cows.
I didn't end up getting a shot, but getting in the middle of that herd unnoticed and getting to watch them all up close was a very cool experience.
I walked back up the mountain toward Kunuud with a smile on my face and thinking "now THAT is what bowhunting is all about!"
The fishing was incredible. We would catch a char every 2-3 casts.
You don't realize how big these things are until you get up close. Unreal.
The cook was getting in and he had to go pick him up. He asked if I would like to ride along and I jumped at the chance to see another part of Greenland.
He was a cute little guy and loved being on the boat. He stayed on there the whole time we were waiting.
This ride we just as great as the one out. We arrived at Narsarsuaq at around 10 am and our plane didn't take off until about 6 pm.
For a fee the boats will take you across the bay to some old viking Ruins where Eric the Red had his settlement.
Excellent story and pics.
my best, Paul
This trip was a truly amazing experience.
Thanks to Randy(chief419)for the call when he got back. A couple of your tips really helped out(like the hiking pole).
If you are on the fence about this hunt. Trust me, do it! You won't regret it.
Going to display the skull for awhile and then get a shoulder mount at some point.
Congrats again!
Frank tries to get his hunters an ox around 100 inches or better. He called this one within an inch while it was on the hoof.
