My Last Remote Alaska Hunt

[mdhunter61]

At the end of August, I flew to Alaska for one last remote caribou hunt; remote AK hunts have been a huge part of my life for the past 21 years. I would be hunting with my closest friend, who has hunted remote Alaska with me 4 times before; on this hunt we also brought his son, who is 18 and recently graduated from high school. Although not related by blood, his son has known me as “Uncle Mike” since he could talk.

We drove from Anchorage to Tok on August 29, checked in with 40 Mile Air and weighed our gear, and flew into the bush on the morning of August 30.

 

[mdhunter61]

After shuttling us and our gear to a remote strip in the larger plane, we went the rest of the way via Super Cubs. We would be hunting a spot that was new to me, nestled between ridges at about 3800 feet. After the cubs dropped off the three of us and our gear, we set up camp, had a late lunch, and glassed quite a few caribou that were moving through the area. Several nice bulls were among the groups that moved through.

 

[mdhunter61]

 

[mdhunter61]

Somewhere along the way to Alaska I had caught some type of cold/flu, and hadn’t been sleeping well; between our night in Tok and our first night in camp, I probably got a total of about 2 hours sleep. So the first morning of the hunt, I told the guys I needed to lay in my sleeping bag for a while, even if I didn’t sleep. They got up and started glassing, and eventually hiked over to a couple of ridges just across the saddle from camp.

I got out of my bag about 10 AM, got a snack, and started glassing from camp. I saw the guys about ¾ mile away on one of the ridges, and saw a few small groups of caribou wandering throughout the area. Around 11 AM, a group of about 30 caribou wandered past camp on the ridge behind me. One bull was big enough to shoot, so I made a quick decision and said “I haven’t really started hunting, so if you keep walking, I’m gonna let you go. But if you stop and get clear of the other caribou, I will take you.”

They kept moving across the ridge while I watched them from near camp. When the bull was about 250 yards away, he cleared the other caribou and stopped to feed. One shot from my .338 Winchester ensured that my family in Anchorage would have caribou meat at the end of the hunt. A good meat bull, and a really easy pack to camp!

 

[mdhunter61]

On the 2nd and 3rd days of our hunt, we got about 3” of wet snowfall over the course of 30 hours or so. No visibility and wet snow meant that we pretty much stayed in the tent throughout the storm to keep warm and dry. I was pretty impressed with my nephew, at one point we were in the sleep tent for 22 hours out of 24, and not a word of complaint from him. He was a little bored, but so were we.

 

[mdhunter61]

This was the toughest weather of any of my 12-15 remote Alaska hunts since 2002. We were in the field for 7 days, and it either rained or snowed every day except for the day we flew back to Tok. We spent a lot more time in the tent than we would have liked, as the low cloud cover at 3800 feet kept visibility below 150 feet much of the time. I’m curious if other hunters in the 40 Mile area encountered the same weather? The funny thing was (as shown in one of the pics above), there was a higher ridge about 5 miles away that didn’t get a flake of snow while we were getting ours.

On the 5th hunting day, my buddy and his son shot 2 caribou about a mile from camp, at about 3 in the afternoon. That’s when the real fun started – soon after they shot them the rain and the wind commenced in earnest, and we dressed and quartered the 2 caribou in a driving rain. After both caribou were dressed and quartered, we started the process of packing the meat back towards camp.

We got all of the meat about halfway back to camp, and placed on our Tyvek sheets in a spot that we could see clearly from any direction when approaching. We took the first load of meat back to camp, arriving just before dark cold, wet, and tired.

 

[mdhunter61]

The next morning I rousted the guys out of bed and told them we had a busy morning ahead of us. We had planned to fly back to Tok the following day – but with the weather we had encountered, I didn’t want to chance any weather delays if I could help it. My plan was to get all the meat packed back to camp and bagged up in the morning, call 40 Mile for a meat pickup, and inquire about potentially flying back to town that evening if it fit their schedule.

It has truly been my privilege and good fortune to fly out with 40 Mile Air from 2006 to the present day. They have always been very clear with my group on what they plan to do, and have been flexible in terms of our flyback days when their schedules allowed. On this occasion, they flew in with the Cubs, and took both caribou and young Mike back to Tok, while Mike Sr. and I broke camp.

A couple of hours later they returned to get both of us and our camp, and we were all back in Tok by about 5 in the afternoon. I was glad that we had been successful on the early out – although 40 Mile was able to fly the next day, it was raining steadily and we would have broken camp with everything being a wet, soggy mess.

After a long rainy drive to Anchorage, we were able to drop off about 350 pounds of meat and quarter bones at my sisters house; within 2 days all of the meat and soup bones were cut up and divided among 7 different families. Not the Alaska hunt finale I had envisioned, but a successful one! The weather was the clear winner this year, as remote AK reminded us that she’s the boss, and we’re just temporary visitors to the wild mountains.

 

[JCS]

Thanks for taking us along

 

[knute78]

Congrats on another successful hunt, Michael. Curious to why you say it's your last remote Alaska hunt. I have been tossing around the idea of going with 40 Mile again and doing a caribou hunt.

 

[mdhunter61]

Congrats on another successful hunt, Michael. Curious to why you say it's your last remote Alaska hunt. I have been tossing around the idea of going with 40 Mile again and doing a caribou hunt.

Hey Knute! Good to see you still on here.

I am 62 now and have been doing these since 2002...I dated my girlfriend coast-to-coast (she in CA, me in MD) for 20 years before I retired in 2020. She and I have a ton of places we want to see, so I'm not willing to invest the 2-3 weeks each fall to go somewhere on my own.

Costs are higher now than your last bou hunt, insurance rates have been going through the roof. Still wild country and good hunting.

 

[Rzrbck918]

Congrats, thanks for sharing!

 

[Bambistew]

Thanks for sharing, glad you had a good hunt. I think that green tent might get used this weekend.

I miss caribou hunting, glad you go out and had some success. All these closures suck.

 

[duckhunt]

Great last remote hunt.

 

[Pahoundsman]

Congratulations on your last remote hunt.

 

[mdhunter61]

Thanks for sharing, glad you had a good hunt. I think that green tent might get used this weekend.

I miss caribou hunting, glad you go out and had some success. All these closures suck.

Hope it treats you as well as it treated me Ivan! Good luck this weekend.

 

[knute78]

Hey Knute! Good to see you still on here.

I am 62 now and have been doing these since 2002...I dated my girlfriend coast-to-coast (she in CA, me in MD) for 20 years before I retired in 2020. She and I have a ton of places we want to see, so I'm not willing to invest the 2-3 weeks each fall to go somewhere on my own.

Costs are higher now than your last bou hunt, insurance rates have been going through the roof. Still wild country and good hunting.

Totally understand, Michael. I would like to go again, and even though I feel I'm in good shape, I know that my age is an obstacle on very remote DIY hunts. I did get my moose 2 years ago, and would like to do it again, but damn....they are a lot of work! I would like to go back in the 40 Mile area again for caribou, where did they drop you, it looks a lot like the Joseph Creek area. Good luck and enjoy retirement and your lucky lady.

 

[Salmonchaser]

My ex called Alaska my evil mistress. If she gets ahold Of you she's never letting go.
Sounds like a great hunt, thanks for sharing.

 

[brownbear932008]

The amount of joy you had in remote Alaska can never be replaced. I agree with the above statement. Once Alaska gets a hold of you she won't let go. I've really been wanting to make my 5th trip back up myself for a while now.

 

[mdhunter61]

The amount of joy you had in remote Alaska can never be replaced. I agree with the above statement. Once Alaska gets a hold of you she won't let go. I've really been wanting to make my 5th trip back up myself for a while now.

If you can make it happen sooner than later, that would be good...the game populations are not growing, the predator populations are really growing, and the number of units that NRs can hunt seems to be shrinking (resident hunting opps are shrinking too based on game populations). From all I read it may be quite a while before moose/caribou/sheep populations have good numbers again.

 

[Salmonchaser]

2023 was the first year since 1959 I haven't lived in or visited Alaska for a month or more. Alaska is the canary in the coal mine folks, we need to be paying attention. The degree of change is quite remarkable.