Big Brown Bears of the Aleutian Islands

By Craig Boddington 

Originally publishes in the July 2024 edition of Safari Times. 

The southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula isn’t quite the end of the earth, but you can see it from there. 

Part of the magic of our hunting world is the wild and remote places we are fortunate to see: Gobi, Kalahari, Pamir, Serengeti to name a few. Many places on our North American continent are as famous as the Alaskan Peninsula, but few are as remote. Airstrips and small villages at Cold Bay, King Cove, Nelson Lagoon and Port Moller are the last stops. It is not reachable by road, only by boat or plane. I’m not certain all these strips were active when I first hunted the Peninsula in 1981.

Next land is the Aleutian Islands, the site of the only WWII engagements fought on North American soil. Just up from the tip, in the Izembek Refuge, Mount Pavlof periodically smokes and belches, one of the most active volcanos in North America. Wind-swept and harsh, the bottom of the Peninsula isn’t known for a profusion of wildlife, but what is there grows large. 

There are big caribou, moose and giant brown bears. Seasons are short and carefully managed. Not all areas are open for either caribou or moose. Famously, the Peninsula brown bears are hunted only in odd-numbered autumns and even-numbered springs. I just finished a spring 2024 bear hunt, so my next season will be fall 2025.

The Peninsula, Alaska Game Unit 9, also has one-bear-every-four-years law. I was fortunate and took a nice bear, so I am not eligible to hunt bears there until the fall of 2027. Since I don’t buy green bananas anymore, I’m not making plans. I don’t need to; the Peninsula has been good to me, yielding some of my favorite memories, which are not always of successful hunts. 

Alaska isn’t quite like that, and the Peninsula certainly isn’t. I’ve been beaten, usually by the Peninsula’s notoriously fickle weather, but I’ve also won. The Peninsula has yielded my best moose, a good caribou and two big brown bears taken 43 years apart.

I didn’t know all the outfitters there and still don’t. Back then, Don and his son Warren Johnson at Bear Lake Lodge were among the best-known outfitters. There was also Keith Johnson (not related) at Wildman Lake and Dick Gunlogson at his David River Bear Camp, all famous names in Alaskan hunting history. Sadly, Don and Warren Johnson and Keith Johnson are gone, and Gunlogson retired, but their old areas still produce big animals.

In the fall of 1981, I did my first hunt on the Alaska Peninsula with Don Johnson. I took a huge bear, too big to beat, so I hadn’t tried until recently. I did other Peninsula hunts, taking my best moose out of Wildman Lake with Keith Johnson. Lately, I’ve done several hunts out of the David River camp, now owned by veteran Alaskan outfitter and old friend Dave Leonard of Mountain Monarchs of Alaska. Caribou hunting was closed in this area for years. When it reopened, several giant bulls were taken. Mine wasn’t one of them, just a nice caribou, but that hunt gave me the itch to do just one more brown bear hunt.

I tried in the fall of the 2023 season and got beat. I would like to blame the weather, which was terrible. The truth is, I got beat fair and square by a bear. Despite the weather, my guide Peter Mayall and I saw a big bear — more than once. I made multiple stalks on him but couldn’t close the deal. Unfortunately, getting beat is part of hunting, certainly part and parcel to all northern hunting, where weather plays a critical role. I understand this and can deal with it, but that doesn’t mean I like getting beat. When it happens, instead of giving up, I tend to get stubborn and keep trying. So, I returned to the Peninsula for the May Spring bear season.

As proof that I really am an optimist, I expected mild spring weather with male bears cavorting with female bears on every slope. Fortunately, I’m enough of a realist that I brought more cold and wet weather gear than beach wear. Sandwiched between the Bering Sea and the Pacific, the narrow lower Peninsula and Aleutians beyond are best known for wind and rain. These I got in plenty, as well as the coldest spring in decades, snow still deep in denning areas and bears late in coming out.

Naturally, all the guides and outfitters down there know each other and gossip back and forth. All camps reported slow initial results. I got to David River camp a few days into the season, expecting half the hunters to be filled out. Not in this spring — no bears yet. A short break in the weather got me into spike camp sooner than expected. Once there, all information came sporadically through Garmin inReach and satellite phones. As we neared the halfway point of the short season, there was not a single bear taken by our outfit and few were reported by neighbors. For a spring Peninsula season, it is unprecedented and depressing.

And yet most camps saw bears, so it was a matter of time. Somebody needed to break the ice. Honors went to Mountain Monarchs’ only lady hunter this season, Frankie Hutchinson, hunting with her dad, Mike. She did it in style with a 10-foot-plus boar. It seemed like she turned a switch, and the bears came to life. Five more good bears, including mine, were taken in the next couple of days. A couple (not mine) were in that magical 10-foot class, including a marvelous bucket-headed bear taken by my young camp-mate, Matt Balise.

Sadly, it’s not going to be a 100% season, and not every bear taken can be a giant. This spring, with such a slow start, is not possible. As I write this, a couple of days of the season remain. I have high hopes for hunters still in the field. The last day is as good as the first. This spring, it’s better, with the big boars out and cruising. 

Keep hunting until the last possible moment. Then, it will be time to start planning for the fall 2025 season. I won’t be out there. I’ve most likely done my last brown bear hunt, but I’m not sure I’m done with the unforgiving Alaska Peninsula.

Col. Craig Boddington is an author, hunter and longtime SCI member. He is Past President of the Los Angeles Chapter, a decorated Marine and C.J. McElroy Award winner.