As the float plane banked, our first look at the large bay we’d found on a map months prior was a welcome sight. The plane passed over the Forest Service cabin before touching down on the water. My friend Jesse Tillman and I unloaded all our gear onto a gravel bar at the head of the bay. This would be our first Alaskan hunt. Excited as we were, there was work to be done; we needed to inflate the Alpacka rafts and shuttle all our gear over three miles to the cabin we would call home for the next nine days.