Alaska Caribou Hunt

[Stripa Swipa]

SS-
What are the DOL laws on bears for non residents? Our mutual friend had an encounter that I re-tell often for both its dramatic affect and the reminder of how dangerous a hunt can be. He was with a guide though.

Pride, I know the story you're talking about. That was in the Northwest Territory I believe which has no hunting for brown bears. Those bears are more curious and less afraid of people which makes it a different situation.

Alaska has a DLP policy and basically, you have to report any bear you kill and turn it over to a LEO and get investigated. The tough part of the deal is that most bear charges are bluff charges. How long you can stand your ground without trying to fill one full of lead I guess depends on the size of your nad sack.

[Stripa Swipa]

Are you staying with that woman on the Alaska show who has a place in Kavik? I'm jealous as well.

Didn't plan on it but Jeff fly's out of her place. I didn't know anything about Sue until I booked with Jeff. I did end up spending some time there and will cover that in the story.

[MolliesMaster]

This is gonna be the highlight of my week, I can guarantee it. Can't wait to read on.


Thanks

[DMP]

Awesome read Swipa. Looking forward to more....

[everlast]

Define solo hunt. You just referring to non-guided or you went all by your lonesome?

[SCWoody]

This is great. I plan on getting up there one day. My wife has a good friend that just moved up there with his wife for work. They have invited us but we haven't made the trip yet. I can't wait to read this story.

[Stripa Swipa]

Define solo hunt. You just referring to non-guided or you went all by your lonesome?

alone

I'll try to get some installments up today and tomorrow. Headed to Miami for Orange Bowl Wed so not sure what I can do later this week. There will be some good hunt stories in here but I want to get the details out that will help any of you do a similar hunt if you choose. This stuff is very much in reach for anyone that wants to do it.

[everlast]

alone .

Wow. That is impressive. I would love the solitude and independence of a solo trip. Don't know if I have the stones to be in bear country by myself, though. I will work up to it. Kudos to you, though. I'm in awe.

[trkykilr]

alone



I'll try to get some installments up today and tomorrow. Headed to Miami for Orange Bowl Wed so not sure what I can do later this week. There will be some good hunt stories in here but I want to get the details out that will help any of you do a similar hunt if you choose. This stuff is very much in reach for anyone that wants to do it.

I applaud and envy your sense of adventure. I don't think I have either the skills or the stones. I have planned several DIY turkey hunts in different states out west, and it is a very difficult thing to do. I can't even imagine it in days before the Internet.

The hardest thing for me to always try to prepare for and what I spend the most time on is the actual physical visual conditions I will encounter when I see the place for the first time. I think knowing exactly what the landscape will look like and being able to accurately visualize it before you are actually there gives me such a sense of confidence.

And that's hunting a dumb ass turkey. I can't imagine what it would be like with the stakes higher. Good on you for being willing to put yourself in these situations and be successful in not just surviving, but successfully harvesting animals.

I can't wait to read about this adventure.

[Strick9]

Stripa, smart call on not soloing a moose hunt lol. One Elk pack out alone will damn near make a man not want to kill another animal over about 50 pounds ever again.

Now if one could set up camp at the kill site thats another story and the stuff dreams are made of..

Keep telling.

[Stripa Swipa]

No doubt the internet and satellite technology are two modern realities that make this kind of trip possible for someone that lives behind a desk on the east coast.

More gear thoughts:

Footwear is actually an issue that can be uniquely challenging in Alaska and I should have listed it as #5. Heading to the base of the Brooks Range raised the possibility of being dropped high in the hills and needing mountain climber footwear or being dropped out in the “swamps” which would require slogging through standing water, crossing streams etc. Jeff told me that the location of the caribou at drop time would dictate the terrain I’d be hunting and his recommendation was to bring good hunting boots and some Lacrosse hip waders. Well, I’ve spent time in rubber hip waders and I hate them. Like bear protection….there’s no consensus to be found on this issue either, but lots of preferences to sort through. I wanted to get some of the Cabela’s hib boots that are lace ups with roll down light weight hippers. They have been discontinued and I never found any on ebay like sites. I finally decided on my regular mountain hikers, gaiters, packable stocking foot waders and neoprene flats boats. That decision wound up being put to the test in a very real way.

[everlast]

This feels like watching a good show and getting left at a cliff hangar each episode. Going to wait until the whole season is finished and watch in one sitting.

[Stripa Swipa]

Yeah….this is going to be a piecemeal deal, unfortunately.

I’ll jump into the hunt a little and we can touch on some more equipment details later. I booked the dates with Jeff on the early end of things for a few reasons. I knew that the later you go to the Arctic, the crazier the weather could be. I also wanted to get back home by the time school starts for personal reasons. The challenges with going early are the bugs can be unreal and meat care can be more challenging. Jeff lives in Fairbanks but flies the North Slope in Aug mostly dropping sheep hunters into the Brooks. He has caribou hunters too, but probably a 2 to 1 sheep to caribou hunter ratio on the slope. In September, he flies hunters out of Atigun Pass to areas on the South Slope of the Brooks….both for caribou and moose. At the time I chose the Aug hunt for the reasons I just mentioned.

I flew to Anchorage on Aug 7th and then to Fairbanks and Deadhorse on Sat the 8th. Since Jeff was staged in Kavik River, I had to find a charter flight to get there. Like I mentioned earlier, the guy that Jeff had used in the previous season for this crashed his plane in Montana the previous Dec and didn’t survive. There is a small air service out of Deadhorse called 70North that I booked a flight with to Kavik. They were the only game in town for getting around on the slope and boy did it feel like it….very backed up and charging everybody through the nose.

It took most of the afternoon to get out of Deadhorse and was about an hour flight to Kavik. Like Leghumper said, Kavik River Camp is owned by a lady that is now on some reality TV show. She had actually flipped a snow machine and broken some bones before I got there, so she was down in Fairbanks getting operated on while I was there. Can’t say that hurt my feelings any. The original plan was that I might have to spend a night at Kavik River before Jeff would fly me out for a drop or maybe I’d get to go same day. Said we’d just have to see how things were going when I got there. The two hunters on my flight to Kavik were a father and son. The son was stationed in Fairbanks and since active military get resident hunting privileges, he and his Dad were hunting sheep for the cost of the bush flight.

Some pics from Deadhorse and flying out of Prudhoe Bay to Kavik River.

[Calibogue]

alone

I'll try to get some installments up today and tomorrow. Headed to Miami for Orange Bowl Wed so not sure what I can do later this week. There will be some good hunt stories in here but I want to get the details out that will help any of you do a similar hunt if you choose. This stuff is very much in reach for anyone that wants to do it.

Love it,.... My wife even knows I love to be alone!

[Stripa Swipa]

I wasn't necessarily hell bent on being alone but I am quite happy that way. When I decided I was doing this hunt, I made sure I was planning something that I was comfortable tackling solo and that's just how things shook out. This is a great hunt for 2 to or 3 guys, though.

[Stripa Swipa]

Flying into Kavik River Camp...the weather was getting kind of nasty.

[Stripa Swipa]

When I met Jeff, I also noticed several other hunters looking pretty impatient as we got off the plane. Jeff said the weather had kept the flying backed up and now he had hunters that were out past their pick up dates. Some by several days that were running out of food and losing meat to bears. I felt kind of silly when I asked if I should pitch my tent since it sounded like I wouldn't be getting out this evening...but I did ask. I pitched my tent and got settled in. Ice started accumulating on it pretty quickly and I started to wonder if Murphy had made the trip, too.

[Stripa Swipa]

This is Kavik River Camp from the ground. Jeff's got a Super Cub and a Beaver. The Beaver in the pic might be on skis, floats, or tundra tires depending on whatever. Jeff would often shuttle 3 to 4 hunters out to a river bottom, then fly back, get the Super Cub and shuttle the hunters one by one into the mountains dropping them on mountain tops.

[Calibogue]

Just straight up awesome.... Looking forward to seeing this primitive archery story unfold!

[Stripa Swipa]

Jeff got some trips in the cub early on Sunday. He picked up a few hunters and some meat and horns on another trip. He told me to be ready and late that afternoon he told me he wanted to try and get me out and pick up another hunter on the way in. This guy's brother was already back in camp and they were already out of food. Jeff gave this guy a candy bar or sandwich or something when he'd picked up his brother. Well, we flew for about 10 minutes and met a fog bank and had to turn around and head back to Kavik River. The weather forecast predicted more of the bad stuff and things were starting to look bleak. I was anxious to get out there but realized other folk's safety was rightfully becoming a higher priority.

The next couple of days was really the same story. I passed the time glassing the surrounding area. Say grizz, wolf and caribou while glassing across the Kavik River when visibility was decent enough.