A 75TH BIRTHDAY BULL THREE GENERATIONS AND FRIENDS HUNT MOOSE ALONG ALASKA’S YUKON RIVER BY DAVE GROVER
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n early February 2019 I had committed to a hunt that would occur close to my 75th birthday. I knew that if I didn’t go, I would most likely not have the opportunity again. That being said, I spent the next eight months trying to back out and sell my spot, but family and friends would not accept or cooperate with my efforts. They stayed on me and I’m grateful they did, but at the time I was thinking, “What
in the hell am I doing, going on a moose hunt at age 75?” My knees are not what they used to be and I knew I had a challenge ahead of me trying to survive a two-week moose hunt in Alaska!
I HAD ONLY BEEN moose hunting once before, back in 2004 with my son Rick Grover. We did a do-it-yourself float trip down the Koktuli River into the Mulchat-
na River, which is a 110-mile drift as the crow flies. We had a combination moose or caribou tag. When being dropped off in the middle of nowhere and watching your lifeline fly away, you get a knot in your stomach and that’s when it all sinks in; it’s just you and the vast Alaskan wilderness! That year the river was low. After dragging rafts for three days down a trickle of a river, we finally got into flowWhen he was about to turn 75 years old, Dave Grover got a chance to harvest his first bull moose on a Yukon River hunting adventure with friends and family. (DAVE GROVER)
aksportingjournal.com | AUGUST 2020
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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