Dear Friends,

In September I was on a dream hunt with friends in Alaska, hunting the Alaskan/Yukon subspecies of moose. They are known to be the largest moose on the planet, weighing in at around 2000 lbs of pure muscle, legs, and antlers. 🫎

We each had our own guide and packer. On the first day of hunting, my guide, packer and I climbed a ridge and glassed (looked through binoculars) for moose to either track down or call in. About 20 minutes into the hunt my packer, Tait, spotted a “shooter moose” (a moose that we could legally hunt). A legal moose has antlers that are at least 50 inches wide or have 4 brow tines on one side. 

Meaning…they are BIG. This bull fell well outside that criteria. He was 600 yards away, then ducked into some shrubby willows. How a shrub can hide an 8 foot, 2000 lb animal is beyond me. But they truly disappear. We moved into better range and waited, waited, and waited…all of the sudden the bull reappeared 800 yards further down the mountainside, following a cow. 

I wanted to chase him. But my guide, Colman, explained that you only chase after moose when they are coming towards you or have bedded down. They move much quicker than you’d think…and by the way, the ground is tundra. Tundra is like walking on a marshmallow. Better yet, it is like walking on a Tempur Pedic mattress. With each step you sink down 4-6 inches!

The high followed by an immediate low of a missed opportunity is a constant in hunting. Onto the next. The following three days we embarked on some tough stalks. I saw some moose that looked enormous to me but my guide deemed too small for this outfitter. Eventually, we decided to move to another camp, but bad flying weather necessitated we return to the main lodge for the night. The plan was to fly to camp the next day in a Super Cub plane (basically a go-cart + wings on steroids. They are a blast). However, there is a law in Alaska: you can’t hunt on the same day you fly. Doing so would give you an unfair aerial advantage.

I didn’t want to lose another day waiting. Instead, we opted to drive an Argo (essentially a mini tank) about 4 miles over rivers, through forest and tundra (to grandmother’s house we go) to a spot a couple miles from our new camp. We hunted some nearby ponds first. No luck. At 2 we decided to start the trek to camp. Just before we did, Colman glassed one more time. I heard him say “Oh boy!” 

“What?!” There was a big bull bedded down around 2 miles away. Remember, this is 2 miles of tundra, plus three ridge sides to climb over. He asked if I wanted to go after him. I told him, “I didn’t come here to glass.” So we took off. I was the same age as my guides – if you added their ages together🙂. 24 and 33. I kept up as we chugged along under dense shrub, marshy tundra and steep hills until we reached the farthest ridge, still about a quarter mile from the moose across the valley.

He was gone. Ugh! 2 hours of misery for nothing. Colman scanned with his binoculars and caught sight of our moose again, now 500 yards across the valley. Our view was a bull’s massive antlers facing directly towards us, sticking out from either side of a tree. Luckily, he was busy chasing a cow (always one thing on their minds 🙄).

As the bull followed the cow into a grove of alder trees, Tait looked at me and said “This would be a good time to get your gun.” Yikes, this is happening! The moose entered the alders and we moved into position, now about 300 yards away. I lay on my belly with the gun propped on my bag. First, the cow emerged. Then, my shooter moose finally followed; within a few minutes I took the shot and saw this massive bull fall to the ground.

Colman was a first year guide; you wouldn’t know it from his wisdom. Tait was also a knowledgeable 24 year old, having guided in Wyoming. We were all celebrating our first harvest. It was fabulous, but our work was just beginning. We had to quarter the moose and pack what we could 2 more miles to camp. (We hadn’t even been to our new camp yet!) To get to the bull, we had to scramble down a scree field and up another ridge. As we climbed, I said to Colman, “If we had shot the bull we saw on the first day, it would not have been nearly as gratifying.” The true blood sweat and tears that followed to reach this magnificent animal and make this 17 hour day a success were that much more rewarding. The teamwork it took for the three of us to harvest this moose created a bond that was way stronger than if the bull had simply landed in my lap.

The one constant in hunting is that there are ups and downs. Just when you are about to quit when you are down…well that’s right at the base of where the up begins.

Health and life are like this, right? They take resilience. Your life and health are not defined by the easy moments, but by the difficult ones. The pleasure I took in the physical exertion and mental rollercoaster of this hunt reminded me that life’s zest is best felt with a challenge, testing and creating with the tools God gave you.

If I had shot the moose I saw the first day, or reached camp when I wanted to;  had Colman not glassed one last time before we hiked or or decided that the bull was too far to chase, I would have been robbed of one of the most impactful days of my life. In other words: If everything I wanted to happen would have happened, I would not have experienced self-growth and discovery.

When struck by the barrage of experiences life throws your way, you are either going to grow or wither. Find a passion in your life and live with a fire of exploration. It will keep you healthier and younger.

As we walked up to the bull Colman said to me, “You’re a tough old Mother F#$&%er.”  It was a great compliment…well not so much the old part. If you want to stay in the game, you can’t get comfortable on the sidelines! As we approach Thanksgiving, make sure you give gratitude for your hardships – for it is those hardships that mold you!

Here are some tools that we use to adapt amidst life’s highs and lows:

For the stress – Ashwagandha Forte: this herb is an adaptogen for adrenal glands, meaning it helps cool down overworked adrenals and build them up when depleted. We use it for prolonged stress support, sleep, and metabolic issues. A safe herb, it’s one of my favorites for its support of overall balance and wellbeing.

For the zest – Rhodiola and Ginseng Complex: another adaptogenic herb blend that promotes vitality, stamina, physical endurance, and mental clarity!

God Bless,
Dr. Dan