Pics from an Alaskan Hunt

[MOBow]

Great story.  Caribou is on my before I die list.  Thanx for carrying me until I can get it done.  keith

[BigRonHuntAlot]

Awesome Pics and Story. Thanks for Postin  

[BillW]

Woody, Excellent job at capturing our hunt on camera. As to your assessment of our outfitter you were being kind. Fact is if he offered me a free trip (he would never do that) I would really have to think about it.....

I relived a few great moments (thank you) as I read along and looked at the pic's.

Again nice job my friend!

Bill

[varmint]

Beautiful,beautiful pictures!!

[Killdeer]

You tell a story well, Mr. B, and I enjoyed muchly every  "@$%*&% picture"! I still say that if you had taken a camera bearer, perhaps you coulda arrowed that  realllly  huge bruiser while the camera drudge took pics of the stupid moss.

The colors in your photos are so intense, so warm, it is difficult to imagine the hard white world that will be there in a month or two. The time is fleeting, the hunt, though, is magic and eternal.

Killdeer  

[venisonburger]

Almost feel like I was there, you definately have the ability to convey a story. It's been my dream for years to take caribou with a bow, glad someone is doing it.
VB

[Ray Hammond]

Knifey,

I gotta tell you that camera is worth its weight in gold in your hands....nice photos and good story as always, friend.

[Osagetree]

An experience of a lifetime!

Excellently told!

[el cazador]

Awesome story and pics, I was right there with ya holding my breath. Gotta love it! Thanks for sharing in a way that took us with you!

[pete p]

thanks for sharing, and thanks for being upfront and honest on the outfitter, id never use him now

[Jim Moore]

Woody, just got back from the Copper Creek country about 100 miles north of Tok.  Bush fly-in drop camp thing like you had.  Super-Cubs.  Wish I had my pics back.  Hopefully there are some good ones to post.  Maybe by friday.  I had a film camera (point and shoot) but my associate had a digital and took a ton of pics.  

I took some similar photos as you.  I didn't score on a caribou...with a bow, but did hunt for them for 8 straight days with my recurve.  It was kind of an 11th hour decision to use alternate means, but we did get some meat.    

I can fully understand about the beasts just "showing up" out of nowhere when you are not ready.   :eek:  

We used 40 mile Air out of Tok.  Pretty good outfit, though we were hunting very hard for a scattered group of animals.  We came in after a group of 4 rifle hunters.  Saw some nice bous, though and I would use them again, but would change my times, either earlier or later (when they started to gather).  Great experience though.  I would use them again.

[Al Kidner]

Super pics mate, just plain ol super! Thanks for posting your story and the review on the outfitter. I plan to hunt Alaska one day and will need all the help I can get on what outfitter to run with.

 From Oz, alan

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Great Pic's

[redskin38]

Great pictures and story............keep it coming.

By-the-way, how did your equipement hold up, arrows etc., with the rain?  What bow are you using?

[knife river]

Jim, I'm eager to see your photos!  This was my fourth visit to Alaska, including a year I was stationed at Galena (out in the bush, 400 miles west of Fairbanks on the Yukon River).  I haven't been to the Tok area, though, or to SE Alaska.  Someday soon, I hope.

Tom, I'd planned to use my Blacktail t/d recurve, but a crack in the riser prompted me to send it back to Norm for repairs (he did a great job, by the way).  Here's a pic of the bow I hunted with.  It's a Border Black Douglas with the mid-length riser, called the Super.  The limbs were the double carbon models called XP-30.  It's a great shooting bow.

 

On wet days I carried arrows fletched with goose feathers.  BryanB, in typical Trad Gang fashion, heard I was in need of goose feathers for the hunt and rushed enough to fletch a dozen arrows.  Many thanks again, Bryan -- they performed beautifully!

Ray, Killie, and others -- sell a kidney if you have to, but get to Alaska!  It's never cheap and often challenging to get there, but the rewards are huge.

[Carcajou]

Excellent pics and story...you lived MY dream!  

[John/Alaska]

Knife - great pictures!!

Jim Moore - Nice to have met you. Yep 40 Mile Air is a good outfit. There are a couple of other TG'ers that use them and are out in the bush now chasing moose as we speak.

[RayMO]

Well..lets see, selling a kidney how much do you get?

That Douglas bow is a beauty.

RayMO

[highcountry]

You take great pictures!  My siter-in-law lives/works in Kotzebue. My brother is going in next week to help her with the winter meat supply.  They say 50% comes from air, the other 50% is fish or what they shoot.  Any more pictures?  Thanks

[knife river]

Highcountry, here are a few more pics.  If you've been to Kotz, you've probably gawked at this roofload of bones.

 

And again from a different angle.  I counted about six enormous whale skulls arond town but lost track of the vertebra and ribs.  There were a couple moose racks that had to go B&C.  Only one walrus skull, though.

 

Here's another photo from the flight to main camp.  Beautiful country, but not a place I'd want to pack out a moose.

 

This was pretty typical of where I found a lot of caribou.  They browsed hard on the bushes and small trees.  Good bedding areas, too.

 

Toward the left of this photo you can see a mid-sized bull heading for the next township.  He'd grazed to within five or six yards before noticing me.  He circled close a couple times, inching in to fill his nostrils with strange new smells, then half-bolted, but crept back for another "taste."  He finally had all the fun he could stand and aimed north.  

 


This was taken my last night in Kotzebue at the Nulligvik Hotel, $180 a pop, and no hot water that night.  Nice view but it still smarted, knowing that I would have been gone two days earlier if the outfitter hadn't forgotten to pick us up...  Griping aside, there were seals in the water.  They'd hold their heads high and look at the town.  I don't think I ever saw one looking out to sea, always at the town.  After a minute or two, they'd flare their nostrils, point their nose to the sky and slide back down in the water.  

 

There were other many other scenes that I didn't photograph.  Like the little Inupiat girl's birthday party -- pinatas in the arctic.  And it was a Sponge Bob pinata, at that.  And the old lady at the store in a traditional parka trimmed in wolverine fur.  After she bought a pack of Marlboros, she played the universal "peek-a-boo" game with a toddler.  And at our drop camp, the short-eared owl that was mesmerized by our little campfire.  It dove at the flames six or eight times, flaring away at the last second.  I tuned on my head-mounted flashlight and it was very interested in that, too.  Lots of wonderful things, lots of valuable memories.