Alaska State Troopers are describing what sounds like a weekend moose hunt from hell along the Chistochina River about 200 miles northeast of Anchorage.
Problems, according to a trooper dispatch, started with some partying, which led to some shooting -- maybe -- which led to two would-be hunters being hauled off to jail.
Troopers reported they received a 911 call at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday from 35-year-old Jeremy Rutherford of Eagle River. He told the dispatcher he'd set out on a hunting trip up the Chistochina with 29-year-old Robert Edwards and a friend troopers identified only by the last name "Eversmeyer."
The three men made camp somewhere along the river, and then the craziness began.
"Rutherford (in his 911 call) indicated they were intoxicated and that he shot Edwards in the face after Edwards pointed a pistol at him," the trooper dispatch said.
Given that report of shots fired, troopers hurried to the scene by snowmachine. There are no roads up the Chistochina.
At the hunting camp, they found "Rutherford, who was observed to have several cuts and abrasions on his face and neck and had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath and person," the dispatch said.
Troopers then checked Edwards for the gunshot wound reported by Rutherford but found none.
"Edwards was observed to have a bandage on his head, two black eyes, dried blood and swelling on his face," they reported, but no bullet holes.
Troopers added that Edwards, like Rutherford, "had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath and person."
Both men were hauled off to the Cross Road Medical Center in Glennallen, where it was confirmed, according to the trooper dispatch, that "the injuries Edwards sustained were not as a result of a gunshot wound. Rather the injuries were sustained during a physical altercation."
Edwards and Rutherford were subsequently charged with assault in the third degree, assault in the fourth degree and misconduct involving weapons in the fourth degree, though it was unclear from the trooper dispatch if any shots were ever actually fired during the altercation at the hunting camp.
The three hunters were among a small mob of people that converged on Glennallen for what was to be a monthlong winter moose season in the area.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which had been expecting only a handful of hunters to pick up permits, cut the season to one day on Monday after hunters picked up 350 individual registration permits and 1,200 community harvest permits.
The quota for the hunt was 15 bull moose. Given the number of hunters, wildlife biologists expected at least that many to be killed in one day of hunting.
Rutherford and Edwards were not among the hunters when the season opened. Instead, they were being held in Glennallen.