To start with, let me back up and correct an error. In the last posting I mentioned the natives in the village of Ekwok and spelled it as "Upic" wnen it should be spelled Upik. Don't want to upset any natives that may be reading this. - To continue. The next morning we were up and went to the house in a pickup this time and had breakfast. The outfitter and one of the guides had already left and were making one last trip to the three camp sites with supplies and would be back about 1 pm to take us up to the individual camp sites. When the outfitter and the guide returned we loaded all of our stuff in a 19' boat and my guide took that boat and left to go upriver. Just to make the numbers work out, they had set up three camps and with Tom and I that still left one camp not accounted for. For this I apologize as I forgot the other hunter(s). The third camp was for a couple from Arizona who were in their 70's (which isn't that far from those of us in our late 60's). He was going to hunt and she was along for the trip and to accompany him. Their hunt would be from a boat in the swampy areas instead of tromping around like the other two of us. He really was not all that physically fit and was recovering from a staff infection in his right hand. As it turned out they left early becaouse it got too cold for them and being from Arizona they were not prepared for 40 degree nightime temps. Now really, you're from Arizona and you are going to Alaska and you are surprised at 40 degrees at night! Anyway back to my part of the trip. Tom and I and the outfitter loaded in a second boat and started out up river. If you look at a map of Alaska and find Dillingham which is on the West of Alaska above the Kenai Peninsula you will find it on the coast. The large river that starts at Dillingham and wanders off east and a little south and goes about 90 miles to Ekwok, this is the Nushagak (nush-ah-gak). We left Ekwok and travelled east upriver for another 50 miles or so to the mouth of the Mulchatna River (mul-chat-nah) and followed it for about 20 miles to my campsite. When we arrived it was late, probably 8 or 8:30 pm. We unloaded out gear and as I was leaving the boat I saw a fresh bear track that was the largest I have ever seen right where we got out the trail was just walking along the edge of the river. I had on insulated rubber barn boots which are about 14" long and made a track alongside it. That hind foot was as large as my bootprint and half again as wide. At that point I was just glad that I was armed and I had that little hair on the back of my neck raise just a little bit. We were set up about 100 yard off the river and when we walked into camp there was a set of fresh cow moose tracks walking right through it, that had happened since the guys had been there about 8 hours earlier. The outfitter and Tom left and headed on up the Mulchatna to where their camp was set up. The night was clear and the moon was pretty full and not a good sign for hunting as moose are nocturnal and feed at night, if its light enough, and since we aren't nocturnal it meant they probably wouldn't be out and about the next day when we were. We had dinner and turned in about 10:30 as it was dark and no movie. The next morning we were up about 6 am and had breakfast and they loaded in the boat and drifted downriver about 2 miles and poled the boat into a couple of sloughs off the river and found a place to set up a call station. Having found a couple of different places for the evening hunt we spent the rest of the morning checking for signs of moose and found the only fresh sign around was bear and lots of them. We never actually saw a bear but boy were their tracks all over the place, big ones, small ones and even mama bear size ones. As we found out over the next couple of days the bears had pretty well left the area as the red salmon (sockeye) run had ended and the silver salmon run was on but not as large and none of them spawned in that area so the bears were off looking for berries and such. whew!!! Over the next couple of days we called and checked out more of the area in about a 5-6 mile radius around camp and found nothing in the way of moose and no caribou on the tundra. The only thing we found in abundance were mosquitos, gnats and other flying-biting insects including black flies which I can tell you have even bigger mouths than I do. The only way to hunt is with a nylon bug headpiece on as they tell me the bugs use "Off" and such for a condiment. We had a really big storm come up the 3rd night we were there and it blew up that river valley hard enough that the sound was like a turbine engine and rain was in the horizontal all night and into the early morning hours. We got up the next morning and had to re stake the tents and retie all the lines. It blew so hard that it beached the boat and left it high and dry. The fourth day there we broke the starter rope for the boat motor and so we hunted and called from a place just behind camp which had a slough and wooded area behind it. The area we were camped in was covered in willows which is what the moose have as their main staple. We didn't get any response so we went back to camp and as we were going into our tents you could hear a moose splashing through the slough, timing is everything. About a quarter to 4am I got up to pee and after I got back in bead I heard a moose coming through the willows toward our camp and all of a sudden there was a large explosion of breath, kind of a surprised "wha" and then the sound of the moose running in the opposite direction and accross the slough again and then all got quiet. When we got up we found the tracks of a cow moose who almost ran through the tent area and must have had quite a shock to find us there. This is the closest to a moose I had come so far and it damn near ended up in the tent with me. - Will end for now and continue later. bob