“How to NOT let Alaska Beat you up!”
Congratulations! You just drew your first Sitka Black-tailed Deer tag, and you are headed north for an Alaskan adventure. “North to Alaska” by Johnny Horton is playing nonstop in your head and you have packed and repacked your gear four times prompting several new purchases of the newest rain jacket, sleeping bag, or gloves. I get it, you’re excited, and you should be, Alaska is a great time and an incredible adventure, but let me clue you in on a little secret… No matter how expensive or new your gear is, part of you will always be cold and wet. Alaska will beat you up!
If you want to succeed in Alaska, you need to master two tasks:
Get Comfortable being Uncomfortable
First, being comfortable while being uncomfortable. There’s not a lot me or anyone else can do to help you with this. You must learn this skill on your own. Do your research on frostbite, cold water emersion, and the signs of hypothermia. Build your mental toughness around identifying those symptoms and recognizing when you are in danger vs. when you are uncomfortable. Your hands/feet are cold even in your sleeping bag, you will probably be fine. Try to sleep with your feet downhill from your head and tuck your hands in your armpits, you will be fine. You are having trouble holding a thought and have the urge to dig a hole and crawl inside for a nap, you probably have hypothermia and should light a fire, get warm, and seek medical attention.
Physical Fitness
For the second piece, physical fitness. Good news, there are a million resources and social media gimmicks for this. Bad news, there’s no product you can buy to make it easier, and it probably won’t be fun like buying new gear is. Find a program 4-5 days a week and stick to it. Consistent medium workouts are better than fewer high intensity workouts. The goal is overall fitness, so don’t focus too heavy on one muscle group or exercise. A lot of folks will tell you to put on your pack and start walking, that’s not bad but doing a three-mile lap in your subdivision every night won’t build your knees, and ankles the way Alaska will test them.
Look at programs that will mimic the conditions of the Alaskan mountains or the tundra. One of the most effective workouts for Alaska is the single leg squat and standing from a seated position. You should focus your energy on building your balance muscles and climbing on uneven and inconsistent surfaces. The program I do every spring and summer is the 30-30 program by Mountain Tough. It runs through an app on your phone and gives you five workouts a week all focused on common hunting muscle movements. None of the workouts should take more than an hour out of your day and you will absolutely feel the benefits while you are in Alaska.
Mountain Tough https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=mountain+tough&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
The last tip I have that will help you not get you up beat by Alaska is to bring Imodium. Dehydrated or freeze-dried food affects everyone differently but for me popping an Imodium after day 4 or 5 helps make days 5, 6, and 7 more enjoyable.
Congratulations on the tag, I wish you nothing but success and if you have fun and recognize Black-tailed deer as a key piece of the Alaskan wild, go ahead and send $35 dollars over to us and help us keep these iconic species of the north on the landscape.
Good luck this fall everyone and remember to send any success pictures or stories from the field to Web@muledeer.org and you could be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article or any of our articles have helped you become a better hunter or conservation steward, consider becoming a member of the mule deer foundation for only $35 dollars a year. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/
Trevor J Hubbs @TrevorHubbs
Trevor is the Communications Manager for the Mule deer Foundation. He grew up hunting and fishing the eastern edge of the ozark mountains for quail, ducks, and bucks. Trevor is a contributor for “Fur, Fish, and Game”, “Lethal Minds Journal”, “Strung Magazine”, “Fly Fisherman”, and “Shooting Sportsman” among others.
