Moose hunt 2010 Alaska

[wingnut]

Here we go!

After days of travel we arrive in Tok, Alaska and check in with 40 Mile Air.  We pass the weight test and have all of our stuff (50# each and two gear loads of 250#) organized and ready to go.  Dick tells us to call at 07:00 the next morning to get our flight schedule.

We get a bite at Fast Eddies and hit the rack.  I don't think any of us slept much as we were all excited.

Anyway in the morning we call and Dick tells us we are scheduled to go at 2:00 that afternoon.  So off we go to breakfast and head over to the sports store to pick up so last minute items.  John's phone rings and Dick says get there ASAP as plans had changed.

We get back to the motel and throw everything in the van, swing by and drop the keys off and head to 40 mile air accross the street.  We hit the door and Dick says get our gear on the 206 on the runway.  Two guys and two personal loads and one gear load.  Jason and John jump in and are gone just that fast.

I'm set for the turnaround trip on the 206 and no sooner set down when a Cub lands and Dick wants one of the gear loads on it fast.  So we back the van up and load the other gear load on the Cub and he's gone.

I'm there now with my personal load waiting for the 206 and 45 minutes later he was there and ready to take me and another hunter into the distribution airstrip.

When I land a Cub is waiting for me and we load and are back in the air in minutes.  40 minutes flight time and we are landing on the ridge.  

Here is Jason right after they landed.
 

The gear load I put on the Cub coming in.

 

And me arriving.

 

[wingnut]

It takes a lot for a guy my size to get out of these little kites.

 

 

[wingnut]

The weather was perfect for getting camp set with no wind and 60 degrees.  In no time we had John's TeePee up and our bedrolls in place.  

 

Next we grabbed the pistols, the dromadary water bags and our packs.  Headed over the hill to get water.  It's about 1/2 mile and 400 verticle feet to the stream so it was nice to have four of the 10 liter water bags.

[jcar315]

[wingnut]

Here is a view of camp from up the ridge a bit also beyond the camp is the runway and on the very end of the ridge our spotting location for hunting moose.

 

[bohuntr]

Great pictures ... looking forward to more pics and the full story!!!

[wingnut]

As you can see the area is huge and with good optics you can see moose way too far away.  But even before I landed the guys had seen four bulls and had a large caribou on the ridge alongside of camp.  It turns out that caribou would be our neighbors throughout the hunt as they fed and migrated across the ridge above camp.

 

[wingnut]

Gotta run too town but will try and finish this up tonight.

Mike

[Kevin L.]

SWEEET!! Keep it comin' Mike.

[rastaman]

Beautiful country!  

[BrianP]

Oh my, looks to be a Kifaru Tipi...4 man or 8 man?  You all lived in style while there!

Brian

[stik&string]

I can't wait for the rest of this one.

[Davt]

I also would like to know what tipi that is. Thanks for the pics, they are fantastic.

[Steve O]

That is at LEAST an 8-man, it might be 12.  I have a 4-man for sale in the Camping section of the classifieds here if anyone is interested...

[Keefer]

Mike,
  I just pulled up my Huntmore 360 and ready for the rest of the story...Figure I can't go huntin yet so why not enjoy your hunt "brought to you by the fine makers of Dryad bows"...O.K. the commercial is over now lets continue ...  :rolleyes:

[cacciatore]

Too cool,love the country.Keep it coming.

[Stickbow]

Did you fly with John or Jake?

They are my friends step kids.

[wingnut]

This beautiful golden eagle spent time looking over camp before sliding off towards the sunlit ridge in the previous pic.

   

BTW the tipi is the 18 ft and is the largest that they make I believe.  John also has a titanium 4 dog stove that keeps it very comfortable and has an oven so we could make bisquits.

Jake was flying the pale yellow cub and John was on one of the 206s.

[wingnut]

We got into camp on the 6th and the season didn't start until the 8th.  We did this so we could do some scouting and get camp setup the way we wanted.  The 7th we cut wood and did some glassing.  By the end of the day we our bull moose spotted count had risin from 4 to 19 with some very big bulls.

Needless too say the evening of the 7th was filled with anticipation.

Morning came and we quickly got coffee and some bfast bars down before heading to the end of the ridge too spot.  It was incredible with us seeing 21 different bull moose including a group of 8 bulls traveling together.  Unfortunately the closest ones were 3 plus miles away.  We could only hope they would respond to John's calling and head our direction.

At about 11 am storm clouds came rolling over the mountain behind us and we hauled butt for the tent.  We made it just as the wind and rain began.
Two days later the storm subsided and we got out of the tent again.  

This fellow was up the hill from camp.  Pic is through Johns spotting scope.

   

[wingnut]

We headed down to our spotting locations and began looking for bulls again and were not disappointed.  This time we had some on our ridge in the burn about 1 1/2 miles. Two bulls but neither appeared to have the 50" or 4 brow tines to be legal.  But a good sign.

Also further down the ridge was a truly big bull with some cows.  A bit out of our range but closer then before.  At 6:30 we headed back to camp for dinner and to get ready for the next day.

We felt that the bulls were headed our way so that morning should bring an oppurtunity to go after one or more.

Here are some pics of us back at camp glassing caribou up the hill from camp.