Second times a charm, AK treated me well!

[gonhunting247]

I'll start by saying I've been blessed to hunt the great state of AK a fair amount. With 3 sisters living in AK, I have more hunting opportunities than a lot of folks. I have successfully hunted sheep, goat, moose, grizzly, black bear etc.. That said I have been successful on small caribou, but never a really nice mature bull. I drew a a special hunt tag in 2018, but struck out on caribou after a long grueling adventure. We saw a grand total of 2 caribou on the last day, but they were a few miles and a couple drainages over and we were down to our last day. I did luck out and shoot a nice blueberry fed black bear on the hike back out. I wouldn't want to come out without something to pack on our 7+ miles out .
Fast forward to this years draws and low and behold I drew it again! After a few calls and some conversation with folks here, we decided we'd try to access some area quite a ways up the drainage from the first go around in "18"
The area we would be hunting is a restricted travel area, with no use of wheeled or tracked vehicles to access or for retrieval of big game. We would be using my brother-in-laws little plane, which are allowed with the mandatory wait time before hunting after flying, and then hiking in. We knew from the first trip this was going to be physically challenging. But, I was determined to make the most of the opportunity.
Some pics from trip #1 and the fat little blueberry fed black bear that took the place of my missing caribou!

 

[elkhuntinfool78]

Can't wait to hear the rest of the story.

 

[gonhunting247]

It will take me a few days to write the story and round up the pics, but I will try stay at it through out the next few days.
As it always seems to be when hunting AK for us, we had a ton of anticipation and preparation before even setting foot in the unit. Randy (my brother-in-law) was all in to help me find a nice mature bull and I can't thank him enough for always being game to participate in these adventures whether it's my tag or his!
Dates were confirmed for the trip and airline tickets were purchased. I'd arrive in anchorage August 25th and have until September 7 to be ready to catch the plane home to Oregon. We were skipping the first two weeks of season to leave Randy an opportunity to try and get out on a sheep hunt he'd been thinking about, but we were trying to get there early enough to have some top quality meat before the rut really kicked in. I was optimistic and brought a big cooler with a fish box and my clothes all stuffed inside it. Hopefully I'd need all the room for meat, cape etc. on the way home. I stuffed all the gear I could in my rifle case also. I definitely need some work on the lightweight packing . At the airport I took a pic of my parking spot so I could find my car when I got back and I was off on another great adventure!

 

[perma]

Following!

 

[gonhunting247]

The area we would be hunting is about 4 hours from Randy's house in Palmer, so after a quick stop at Fish and Game to purchase my locking tag and make sure all my paperwork was in order, we went right to work on getting gear and supplies sorted and packed. The biggest project would be breaking the plane down to load it on the trailer for the trip up north. Randy has built and rebuilt this plane several times it seems with each time making marked improvements on horsepower, landing gear upgrades wider fuselage, bigger wings, prop pitch, belly pod etc. etc. To me it's a work of art and I am amazed at the engineering every time I ride in it. That said it is a small plane and with the ability to fold the wings and trailer it, we can usually save some time and alleviate some of the stress that comes with unpredictable weather in the passes required to cross if he flew all the way. Not to mention we can bring a lot more back up supplies to leave at the truck!
We would trailer it to base camp (public strip) put it back together, then fly in to a remote strip as close as we could find to our desired destination, put up the bear fence around the plane, tie it down and travel on foot from there, the rest of the way to the area we wanted to hunt.

 

[gonhunting247]

We made great time and with just a little delay to visit with a AK State Trooper about some trailer lights that were being finicky. We visited with him a bit about hunting and were on our way. After a good sleep for the night and some freeze dried breakfast and coffee, it was time to set the plane back up, sort gear for the trip in and get ready for the next leg of the journey. But, as AK weather has a way of doing, we were grounded. The wind was pretty bad and after checking the weather, visiting with a guide at the strip and talking with another pilot that was gonna wait it out for the day; we knew the smart thing to do was just hang tight for another day. We had a good time visiting with the guide and his successful client and the other pilot that was grounded. My excitement was definitely building after seeing the hunters (clients) beautiful bull caribou and hearing that at least there were some caribou around this time.
After a restless nights sleep, with wind and rain slamming the truck most the night we woke up, had breakfast and by noon it looked like it was go time. Randy hauled the first load of gear to the remote strip, which was about 40 minutes away and returned to pick me and the rest of the gear up. I would be lying if I said I didn't have some major anxiety, wondering if this trip would be different than the last and I'd finally get my chance at a mature bull. We did have a back up plan if the caribou were non-existent, since Randy had grabbed a registration moose tag just in case! The scenery on the flight in was great as usual and we even spotted 4 different black bears along the way. Unfortunately no caribou were spotted to ease my anxiousness .

 

[gonhunting247]

All the conversations (some with folks on here), research and visiting with the guide we had met pointed to the fact that we needed to be much farther up the drainage than the first trip. The consensus was they were much higher in the foot hills than we were camped last time. Of course caribou being caribou, who knew when and where they could be!
We were going to try and start where we had spotted the 2 caribou on the last day of our 2018 trip. This would be all new unexplored area to us, on this trip. One quick loop up the drainage and we picked a spot that would be our target destination for camp. Once on the ground we went to work tying the plane down, putting up the bear fence and loading packs for what we guessed to be about a 4 mile pack in.
Tomorrow we could hunt !
Did I mention we need to work on the light weight aspect of this packing in thing! 4 miles turned into 6 miles with 4 creek crossings. It was obvious at 58 years old that I should prepare harder physically for these trips! My pack seemed to be trying to cut my shoulders off and make me a few inches shorter. Luckily, we are both stubborn and didn't want to let the other know we were about to collapse . Thank goodness the footing was actually amazingly solid. Finally after what seemed like forever we made it to the target area. From here we could access a ridge on each side of the drainage with fairly solid ground, to allow us to gain elevation for glassing and hopefully be in a good position for a stalk. By stalk I mean allow me to get in the way of ones travel; oh man they can cover the ground in that squishy stuff! We would try to avoid the tundra as much as possible until crunch time.
Our camp was tucked away with a beautiful view of the drainage. The fall colors were incredible with a back drop of snow capped peaks. A little creek trickled by for easy water collection and a nice place across the gulley to make a cache for the food and hopefully the meat. This would be home for the next week and I was on cloud nine. It was time for some food, liquid, ibuprofen and some sleep!

 

[pabearhunter]

GREAT pictures thank you. Living the dream.

 

[elkhuntinfool78]

Great story thus far, anxious to hear the rest

 

[gonhunting247]

The next morning we got up a bit late, but got some coffee and breakfast going. I was feeling a bit under the weather and was feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous. I think my brain thought my body could do more than it could on the way in . I thought I'd get up and walk it off a bit, then come back and finish breakfast and coffee. I climbed up on a little mound of grass to sit and glass, when I immediately spotted a nice black bear. He was running straight in the direction of camp. He would stop, raise up and sniff the wind then head are way again. It seemed as he was coming for breakfast. Not sure what to think I motioned Randy over to be the shooter since he had multiple black bear harvest tickets at his disposal. We really didn't want to shoot a bear the first day,but if he kept coming we would just adjust our plans . About a hundred yards from the bottom across from us he finally must have caught our scent and headed back the other way just as fast as he came in. We no longer smiled at each other and said that was a good stert when I looked up canyon and only about a quarter mile away was a nice bull caribou feeding quickly sidehill and away! I took one look and said lets get closer. It was a little rushed and we just took the bare minumum. With the wind blowing up canyon we would need to cross the bigger creek, rush up the bottom and head straight up through the soft stuff and bluberries until we could see enough over the rise to get a clear shot. Did I say these darn things can cover the ground while feeding? If not, make no mistake they are incredible!
As I started up under where I expected him to be, I stopped and to calm my heart rate and breathing so I'd be ready to shoot. As we came up a few more steps, all of the sudden, I could see the tips of his antlers. Randy looked up over my shoulder and said he's a nice representative, but not huge. My reply was "sounds perfect" or something of that nature. The shot was no more than 60 yards and as soon as he cleared I shot and he dropped out of sight. As we moved up a bit we could see him laying in a depression stone dead. He was a big gorgeous bull with the beautiful white mane that I pictured for so long. His antlers didn't have the palmation on top, but I really loved the points all over the instead. He was perfect for me. Randy offered to go back and grab game bags and phone/cameras that we'd rushed out without. So I was able to just sit and take in everything that had happened to get to here!

 

[gonhunting247]

After we took some pics, we went to work on the cape and meat. It was great to have all day to visit, laugh and enjoy an amazing place that we had to ourselves, as far as we could see! It was plain to see the velvet was ready to go and that I'd need to strip it when I had the opportunity. We had everything prepped, bagged and packed back to camp in time for an early dinner. We cached the meat of the ground on a mesh of dead trees for good air circulation!

 

[MtsPSU]

The next morning we got up a bit late, but got some coffee and breakfast going. I was feeling a bit under the weather and was feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous. I think my brain thought my body could do more than it could on the way in . I thought I'd get up and walk it off a bit, then come back and finish breakfast and coffee. I climbed up on a little mound of grass to sit and glass, when I immediately spotted a nice black bear. He was running straight in the direction of camp. He would stop, raise up and sniff the wind then head are way again. It seemed as he was coming for breakfast. Not sure what to think I motioned Randy over to be the shooter since he had multiple black bear harvest tickets at his disposal. We really didn't want to shoot a bear the first day,but if he kept coming we would just adjust our plans . About a hundred yards from the bottom across from us he finally must have caught our scent and headed back the other way just as fast as he came in. We no longer smiled at each other and said that was a good stert when I looked up canyon and only about a quarter mile away was a nice bull caribou feeding quickly sidehill and away! I took one look and said lets get closer. It was a little rushed and we just took the bare minumum. With the wind blowing up canyon we would need to cross the bigger creek, rush up the bottom and head straight up through the soft stuff and bluberries until we could see enough over the rise to get a clear shot. Did I say these darn things can cover the ground while feeding? If not, make no mistake they are incredible!
As I started up under where I expected him to be, I stopped and to calm my heart rate and breathing so I'd be ready to shoot. As we came up a few more steps, all of the sudden, I could see the tips of his antlers. Randy looked up over my shoulder and said he's a nice representative, but not huge. My reply was "sounds perfect" or something of that nature. The shot was no more than 60 yards and as soon as he cleared I shot and he dropped out of sight. As we moved up a bit we could see him laying in a depression stone dead. He was a big gorgeous bull with the beautiful white mane that I pictured for so long. His antlers didn't have the palmation on top, but I really loved the points all over the instead. He was perfect for me. Randy offered to go back and grab game bags and phone/cameras that we'd rushed out without. So I was able to just sit and take in everything that had happened to get to here!
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Awesome hunt and story. Thank you for sharing.

 

[gonhunting247]

The next morning I caped the head out and turned lips, nose, eyes and ears. We went straight to hauling two meat loads to the nearest spot the plane could possibly land. We figured we'd get camp and the rest of the meat, head and cape the next day. I was sure wishing my feet could cover ground like these about now!

 

[gonhunting247]

Awesome hunt and story. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for reading so far. Sorry it's a little long probably! It gets a bit better for me yet though!

 

[gonhunting247]

As we ate breakfast the next morning we laughed about what we'd do if we glassed up and saw a bear at the kill site. Did we want to pack another critter back to the strip to ferry out? But, even though were somewhat joking we kept glassing from the mound across the stream every chance we got. All we were seeing was the local ravens, magpies and a bald eagle enjoying the leftovers We'd had such a great hunt it seemed hard to call it quits . As we were getting ready to shoulder our packs for the last load out, I said I better take one more look.
I almost had to rub my eyes as I looked there was a beautiful gray wolf almost to the kill site. I quickly ducked out of site, even though we were quite aways away and somewhat hidden. We grabbed our gear and knew exactly the stalk to get close. As we crept over the rise it looked like the wolf had sensed us and vanished, but as a raven spooked and flew over the site, the wolf sat up and I quickly made good on the 60 yard opportunity before things went South. I was in awe, as I'd just got an animal I'd dreamed about having an opportunity at every since we'd (Randy) got one while dall sheep hunting close to 30 years ago. After a slight delay of pics and skinning for a rug, we were on our way again. The plan would be for me to finish packing meat and gear to the pick up location while Randy went out for the plane. The weather turned bad and just kept getting worse. On my last load to the spot we thought would work for ferrying meat and gear we decided it was to dicey for such a short strip and we'd need to wait for a better weather window. With the mountains all socked in randy headed out to the pick up for fuel, while I took the essentials and continued on out to the main strip where we stayed untill the weather broke about noon the next day.

 

[gonhunting247]

As soon as the weather broke Randy made quick work of ferrying meat and gear to the main strip and the truck, while I broke camp and took down the bear fence about the time he dropped and we made the last trip out. We made fairly quick work of breaking the plane down to trailer mode and made it home to Palmer about midnight. The next 4 days were spent cutting and wrapping meat, prepping cape/hide and cleaning/bleaching skulls. Along with a trip to fish and game to get the wolf sealed and turn in my caribou harvest report
I couldn't have asked for a better trip. It had just enough suck (bad weather/delays/exhaustion/soreness etc.) to make it memorable and I wouldn't have it any other way .

 

[gonhunting247]

Other than a slight hiccup with my antlers coming home on the wrong airplane causing me another couple hour trip back to the big city the next day; all the rest of the meat, hides, rifle and gear made it home on time!

 

[elkhuntinfool78]

Great story and amazing trip, congrats and thanks for sharing

 

[gonhunting247]

I forgot to mention. I only saw 2 other caribou the whole trip. The one in the pic below is probably bigger and more of the typical configuration on the antlers that I had in my mind!
and a couple more pics I forgot, Thanks for following along. It was fun to relive the trip!

 

[F250]

Great story ! Thanks for sharing !