A Novice Caribou Hunter Returns from Alaska

[Cari-bow]

Randy I thought you didn't fly!!
Looks beautiful.WOW!          
Abe

[JEFF B]

that is awesome Bro  

[rastaman]

Hey Abe!  i got over my fear of flying!  Been having photobucket problems but let me try a few more..

 

This is what i packed up with every morning.

 

The first couple of days the brush was still wet.  Look closely on one of my arrows.  That is a baby bottle liner slid over the point end of my arrow down to the feather end to cover the feathers and keep them dry.  i kept three covered the first couple of days.  You just pull it off the end over the feathers when you need that arrow. i spray painted them and let dry a few days before we left.  They worked great.

[rastaman]

We did a lot of this, and we wore waders a lot the first couple of days cause the creeks and rivers were raging.

 

There is pretty fair moose hunting in the area also.
There were acres and acres of blueberries and cranberries.  They made for good midmorning and afternoon snacks.  Luckily, i only saw one grizzly bear and he was about a mile and a half away in the river.

[rastaman]

This is the view of our campsite about half way up the mountain we climbed almost every morning.

 

Learning to glass properly was something i had to do also.  Greg usually spotted stuff way before i did and had to give me directions on finding them.

[jcar315]

[rastaman]

 
 
 

These are what we came after...

[rastaman]

 
 

And a few more...

[JJB]

Good stuff Randy!
-Jay

[rastaman]

The first three days Greg was bound and determined to get me a Caribou.  The first day of hunting i was able to crawl 100 yards to within 20 yards of a nice bull.  He was facing me just on the other side of a knob coming to me slowly. Instead of being patient and letting him come, i pushed a little too agressively and blew the encounter.  My heart was about to jump out of my chest.  i have never hunted anything larger than a whitetail and to me these animals were huge.  
The next day i was able to get in position ahead of two nice bulls.  i needed to make it to one more bush to have a 10 yard shot.  i didn't make it to that bush and ended up with a 35 yard shot that went right under his belly.  Another awesome encounter!

[rastaman]

 

These markers were at the top of several of the highest ridges about 1 mile apart.  We figured it was some form of early gps!  They were marked east to west.

[kennym]

Very cool Randy!! Thanks!  

[rastaman]

 
 
 

Some more random photos..

[Pat B.]

Looks like a great trip!

[rastaman]

 

Thank goodness we brought waders.  We had to do this more than once!

[rastaman]

 
 
 
 

This is what we were dropped in with to last 8 days.

[stocker56]

Now this is an adventure!    

[rastaman]

 
 
 
 

Some random sunset pictures..

[rastaman]

 
 

And a few more...

[rastaman]

 
 

The bottom picture is what caribou, onions, and potatoes look like.  i finally told Greg to shoot a Caribou and then we would try to get me one.  His was with a compound so this is the only pic of that i can show.