2009 moose caribou hunt

[RANGER RICK]

Ok guys I thought I would post my hunt from 2009 that my wife and I went on hope you do not mind .
RR



Moose hunt 2009 WITH NEW PARTNER

Well looks like I have some time to share my 2009 Moose hunt so here it goes .
Like most trips planning starts a year in advance or more and the hunting partner I had planned to go along decided to do something else at the last moment so I was pissed to say the least .
Over the last 10 years or so I have had family members go along on these hunting trips I have put together and I have picked up the tab as at that time I did not want to do solo hunts here in Alaska for safety reasons .
On every trip we did they were chronic complainers from being cold , to hot,to many bugs ETC you get what I am saying .
So here I am at plan B because my hunt partner/Brother-n-law decides to back out on plan A .
So I tell my Bride of 29 years that I am doing this hunt alone and that's it ,I am not going to miss a Float hunt due to no partner.
My bride suggests that she would like to be my Partner on this Float trip !!!!
My Bride is not new to hunting as she went with me Elk and deer hunting when we lived in Oregon and deer hunting on Kodiak she is very tough to say the least .
I thought about it for awhile because I have been on this Float before and it is not easy due to Float Dragging boulder filled skinny shallow waters .
So I agreed and she was smiling ear to ear .

I had already talked to Larry Bartlett at Pristine Ventures and bought a second Pro Pioneer early in the year for my brother-n-law to use so I kept with the Idea of two rafts on this trip.
The trip was for 10 days and about 120 river miles so my planning of getting my Bride outfitted for this hunt top to bottom went into gear .
She already has a 338 Win mag so I needed to get her good hunting clothes and some river gear .

She already had stick time on the Pro Pioneer on the Kenai River and local lakes so I had all the confidence in her to handle the raft.

Fast forward to launch day .
We arrive at Wright air field for our flight . We were able to both go on the same plane to the river and our gear followed us on the second flight in.

I will take a couple days to fill in the whole story but to start it off here is our landing site on &^%$)*&^ river with about 200 Caribou all around us and walking through camp .

The day we arrived is was drizzling but I knew the weather would change as I have been watching the weather channel .

Second day starts out about the same with drizzle but come that afternoon a complete change in weather.
Here we are at our first crossing of a Beaver Dam , one of many and a log jam .
My Bride was having a great time and we have only been on the creek for a couple hours !!!



RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

Some more of the story.

The first night on the landing strip we were watching the Caribou and I was going over my maps and GPS spots I liked from the first time I did this river and told my Bride that the first 3 days I wanted to get river miles behind us so we could hunt in some great spots plus we had 10 days to go and I did not want to take any game before that because the meat would not last .
We both had Caribou tags and in the morning the bou was still around but did not take any cause we had a very long way to go .
So latter on the first day around 2 pm after we went over a couple Beaver Dams my Bride is in the lead and we come around a bend and the biggest Moose I have ever seen ( except for pictures and forums ) It put it's front legs up on the bank and turned his head to look at us as were were about 30 feet away .
He had 6 brow tines on the left side not sure on the right and looked to be about 62-68" across and he just shed his Velvet and his rack was a pinkish color , very nice looking .
I drew my 500 S&W and put the cross hairs on the desired spot and watched it jump the rest of the way up the bank and slowly walk away !!!!!!!!
That was the hardest thing to do is let it walk but I knew in my mind I would not be able to keep the meat from spoiling !!!!
My Bride turned and smiled and said that was huge and good for you to let it walk and she said look at your hands , I looked and they were shaking really hard , boy was I pumped .

Second and third day we seen Bou and herd moose grunting in the early AM and late PM .
Here are some pictures of Bou being pushed down the creek in front of us and some shallow and narrow water .

RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

More story in a bit.
here are a few snap shots of us and the scenery along the way and a few in the morning and evening shots .

RR

 

[nidahunter]

Great story.....keep it coming!

 

[RANGER RICK]

Here is more of the story

The first three days pass and now the hunting caps are on but not much in big game just some small Caribou and a Grizz that was on a 100 yard dash to get away from us .

As we round a corner my wife is free floating snapping pictures and I pass her up and a few minutes latter she says Bear , I snapped my head around to see where she is looking .
She had stopped and was out of the raft so I tried to stop myself but both side of the creek was encased in foliage and the water was to deep to jump out so I grabbed some hanging branches with my right hand and I came to a sideways stop .
As I was watching my wife and straining to see the bear I hear a splash and I look to see what it was and my oar on the right side of the raft was floating away so I switched hands and grabbed the branches with my left hand leaned over the raft just a little to far and the branch snapped and I did a flip right out of the raft and went completely under .

As I am getting my footing and standing up I am in water up to my chin and I have my arm on my raft and my oar in the other .I make my way from the center of the creek back up towards my Bride were the water is shallower and a little patch of gravel.

My bride is just starring at me to see my reaction before she lets out this laughter that could be herd for miles and she about wet her self she was laughing so hard .
She said she seen the whole thing and she gave me a 9.5 as my legs were completely vertical in the air before I slipped beneath the cold cold water .She actually got me to laughing after a few minutes .
This was the first of two dunking I had on this trip .She was a newbie and barley got her feet wet !!!Go figure ...

The patch of gravel was just large enough and had a slight slope to it for me to lay down and drain out .The rest of the day was not a lot of fun being wet but that is float hunting at times .

That was the only bear she saw on this trip and I never saw it as I was under water .


Here are a few shots of the river and the rack of shame.
My close and waders drying !!!!

RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

Some areas on the river/creek was quite low ,narrow and clogged with down timber .
Note # HOW LOW CAN YOU GO ?????

RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

More river scenes

RR

 

[leadingedge]

RR, Keep the pics and story coming. I keep checking back every few minutes to see the new post, not getting much work done Great thread.

 

[RANGER RICK]

We never did connect on a moose or a Caribou after day three .I sure second guessed myself many times but when the trip was over out of 10 days 9 was completely sunny and very warm and for sure I would of lost the meat .

I have to say on all my trips I have done with many people my Bride never not once ever said anything negative or complained about anything the whole trip .She had me put stick on medicated patches on her back and that told me she was in pain but not one word .
She just loved the whole fall colors , the water and the animals .
She did not even mind that I lost our lures , I think they flew out along with my knife when I was being acrobatic !!!!!

I did find one bare hook in some of my gear but no bait . Tried some mountain House but the Grayling did not like that but I did see two dead long tape worms in the water so I fished them out and cut them up and used them , yep we started to catch grayling !!!!
Who knew !!!!

RR

 

[Amand]

Looks like an amazing trip and some great pics.

 

[psemuleys]

That looks like an awesome experience!