Caribou hunt 2010 North Brooks Range

[RANGER RICK]

I would like to start off in saying a great big thank you to Larry Bartlett from Pristine Ventures out of Fairbanks Alaska for another great float hunt planned by him. It was an outstanding float and it was everything he said it would be , again .

The hunt started way far on the north side of the Brooks range , my wife and I were so far north their was a Polar bear in our area !!! Seen and photographed by a group of naturalists with cameras ( no guns what so ever other than the guide ) also on a float hunt in front of us .We did not see it but talked to the guide in charge of the float .


Here is our landing area that our epic hunt would start at way high in the Brooks Range.
The first two pictures is of our trip in .

After getting camp set up for the night we started to ferry our raft gear to one of the deeper braids of the river/little run off that was about a half mile away , whew .After a night at the landing spot my wife tried her luck on sneaking up on a marmot ( I think it was a Marmot ) that was in our area . I told her that critter might get upset and go Rambo on her if she got to close as it was chattering away at her!!!! She was winded and it took off .We packed up what was left from the night before and took it to the raft gear and started to assemble our river ride.

 

[RANGER RICK]

The fist day was absolutely great , we must of counted over a 100 sheep on the mountain sides as we rode our way through the wonderful rock gardens at 9.5 MPH .

I have never worked a set of oars as I worked them on my raft that day .I think it was almost 12 continuous miles of these wonderful boulders till we was through them .


The second day of rafting started out like the first ,just wonderful to say the least.

The weather as for most of the hunters this year was sunny and warm. We now are on the lookout for Bull Caribou and good fishing spots .Later that evening right around 4:30 PM my wife spots a Bull off in the distance so we pull over and I get set up for the shot. She ranges it at 270 Yards so I adjust to the distance and blammy the 338 barked to life and the hand loaded 210 Grain Nosler Partition did it’s job and the bull dropped out of sight .

My wife says where did it run off to ?? I said it didn’t it dropped right in it’s tracks.

We packed our gear and headed off to field strip the Bou .As we get closer we see it is on the other side of a braid . Did I mention there was 100’s of braids to pick through ??? Anyway there was no way we could cross anywhere close so we went back to the raft and pulled it back up stream to the connecting braid which was about 600 yards away , wow that was not fun at all !!!!


We get to the bou and make short work of cutting up the bou and get it loaded on the raft . It was a perfect meat bull, not huge but very nice.

Hit the river again and after a couple hours we find a high spot and make our patch of land home for the next couple days .

We enjoyed the scenery ,fished and had the scope out looking for other prospects .My wife did a lot of rock hunting and at the end of the trip she had about 40 pounds of rocks !!! No kidding. She does this on all of our hunting trips .

 

[RANGER RICK]

Hit the river again and within a couple hours is when we met the raft of naturalists and the guide .They were packing up their camp .After a quick chat that is when he let us know of the Polar Bear . When we get back on the river my wife says GREAT not only do we have to watch out for brown bears we have to look out for Mr. Big and White.

So for the next day and half my wife is looking through the binoculars and says I see something white but it’s not moving ,I’ll watch it to make sure it’s not Mr. nasty .All of the white spots she was watching turned out to be big white rocks as we floated by.

Found a water fall of sorts coming into the river we was on and boy that area was full of Arctic Grayling , can you say Bou and fish for dinner does it get any better !!!

Back on the river again after a great night of sleep and a very good breakfast. According to our maps and GPS we was about 25 miles from our take out so we decided to push for it and stay at the take out for a couple days , so the push was on to get to out temporary patch of home . As we pull into our pull out area I climb the embankment to take a look around and as I look at our area I see a set of racks running , can’t see the bou at all as it is on a slight hill only the racks can be seen so I get my rifle and set up again and wait till it is a ways out from our area I do not want a gut pile in our camp. I watch it cross a small braid and my wife says it is 165 yards out so I tell her to holler , she does and the bou stops to take a look at the funny noise ,my 338 comes to life again and 2nd bou is down , no wait it is back up again and heading to the river ,tht's all I need is to chase a floating bou down the river so second shot rings out and the bou is now taking a dirt nap.

My wife and I start again with the gutting and cutting and wouldn’t you know it the raft with the naturalists come floating by with eyes as wide as dinner plates. They were not happy to see a piled up Bloody Bou !!! I felt kind of bad that they had to see the dead Bou and My wife says they paid for their trip and we paid for ours so keep cutting , Did I say I love my wife !!!

We had a great time on this trip as we do on all of them .we love spending time together on these hunts .After 29 years married we still love each others company.

Thanks again Larry for a perfect planned trip and thanks to my wife for being the best hunt partner I ever had.



RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

Here are a few more pictures of the hunt.
RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

Here is some views from the river and one can not forget to post a picture of fresh Bou in the pan .

RR

 

[RANGER RICK]

Ok a few more and then I am done

RR

 

[WV Hunter]

Nice pictures and story. Great looking country.

 

[RANGER RICK]

A few of our camping spots along the way.

RR

 

[Buschy]

RR,

Great post and great pictures. A wife like that is a real prize. I hope you two enjoy many future adventures together! Thank you for taking the time to write it up and share!

 

[Sytes]

WOW! Thanks for posting up the pics and story of your adventure! Looks like it was an incredible trip.

My wife did a lot of rock hunting and at the end of the trip she had about 40 pounds of rocks !!! No kidding. She does this on all of our hunting trips .

Reminds me of that lucille ball movie - The long, long trailer. Lucille kept collecting rocks and hiding them in the trailer... until...

Inspiring adventure, to say the least! Something I have always wanted to do - trek down a river for a few days in Alaska.

 

[Goldtip]

Looks like a great trip and sounds like you and the wife had a great time. Great write up as well!

I've thought about a trip like that many times, mind if I send you a PM and pick your brain?

 

[Dinkshooter]

What do you have taped to your oars?

 

[Oak]

Sheep? Did you say sheep?

Looks like a fun trip.

 

[BOWUNTR]

Absolutely incredible. Great post. I want to do a float hunt. Thanks and congrats. Ed F

 

[IdahoBugler]

Wow that is a great story with great pics. Congrats on your success and thanks for sharing. You have a special women there, that's for sure.

 

[ashersdad]

Now that's an awesome trip! Great pictures and story.

 

[Big Fin]

That is a great story, RR. Great hunt, great pics, and looks like a great time for the two of you. Congrats.

 

[RANGER RICK]

What do you have taped to your oars?

The Raft and gear was new back in April and over the course of the summer I worked the raft and gear on a couple nearby lakes and the Kenai river a few times.
The Kenai river from where we put in is about 3-4 hour trip . I did not like the length of oars I had they were short so I purchased another longer set .
Well I did not test them out like I should of like I do with all new equipment.I used them on the lake which is not much of a test for them.
Long story short the oars were too long and after the long streach of navigating through the Rock gardens my arms were shot .
So that night around the camp fire I was talking to my wife how heavy the oars were and she said I need counter weights and thought maybe I could tape a river rock to each oar.
I always carry a roll of magic fix all duct tape with me and the chore was done and the oars were balanced out .
She comes up with some good ideas .

RR

 

[SagebrushSlayer]

Great post hunt story and pics. It looks like a fun time. Thanks for sharing.

 

[stillkickin]

AWESOME! What a great post, thanks.