A Novice Caribou Hunter Returns from Alaska

[rastaman]

 
 

And this is Mike from Ram aviation coming back to pick us up after 8 days.

[rastaman]

 

This is a picture of where we stayed in Kotzebue for one night after we flew back in.  The other picture is what the Inn faced...Kotzebue Sound.  About 60 miles due west i think is Russia.

[rastaman]

I regret that i waited this late in my life to take a trip like this.  i wouldn't have attempted it on my on, and i am thankful to have a friend who was willing to give up shots on huge animals to teach me the ropes.
i consider this one of the most successful hunts i have ever had even though i personally did not kill an animal.
i still can't put into words the sheer beauty and wildness of this country.  i am going back next year, but i will stay 3 weeks then.
This trip wasn't a bank breaker.  One thing to consider when figuring your budget is that everything in Alaska costs a lot compared to where i am from...hamburgers are 8 to 9 dollars.  And it goes up from there.
Thanks for allowing me to share my adventure with you.
Good luck to you next week John  (rolltidehunter)!
             

[Geezer]

Thank you for bringing us along and sharing this trip with us.  Three of us are scheduled for late August 2013 and I start shaking when I think about it.  I'd like to learn more about what type of clothes and footwear you chose, how they worked and what you would do different.  Did you experience a lot of wind and rain?

[BMN]

Great stuff! Thanks so much for sharing.  

[yellow bow]

Thanks for all those great pics.

  :cool:

[rastaman]

I used a combination of kuiu and sitka base layers and outerwear.  We did a lot of hiking and glassing..5 miles on a slow day..8-10 miles on a long day. I used lite longjohn bottoms and lite weight pants on too of that. I wore a lite weight top, vest, and jacket on top of that. We would layer up and down from there as we hiked. We kept our rain suits and waders in our packs.  Footwear was asolo hiking boots, muck boots, or wader shoes over neoprene footies if we wore waders.  We were lucky with the weather..light rain for a day or so with light winds.  Go expecting rain and wind everyday.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great stuff!

[Bjorn]

What a hunt!!      

[Anointed Archer]

Great story and great pictures!

[slivrslingr]

Fantastic!

[Alvey]

THat's some good stuff!!thank's for posting.

[KSdan]

That was awesome.  Thanks for taking the time to share with us.  Most of us only dream of such an adventure.

[Sean B]

Thanks for sharing!!

[Hopewell Tom]

Man, a hunter's life is great isn't it?
What country and a real adventure.
Thanks for sharing.

[dragonheart]

Thank you for sharing your adventure!  Awesome.

[pbr]

What about bears? How did you handle the food? No trees to hang in etc?

[rastaman]

We packed caribou to about 200 yards from camp and had it in mesh game bags. We cooled the meat overnight in the stream before moving. Temps were lows in the teens, highs in the high 30's to low 40's. We kept the food in camp in clear plastic bins with tops but no meat in camp.
We saw one bear about 1 1/2 miles away by the river.  Most of the bear sign was down by the streams in the brush. We were about a mile away from closest big stream with brush.

[GRINCH]

Excellant adventure Randy,thanks for taking us along.  

[wooddamon1]

Good stuff!