Rolltidehunter (John Whitten) is about to leave for his Caribou adventure out of Kotzebue so this is to get him fired up!
A couple of things i would like to say first...this was the hardest hunt physically that i've ever done and the most rewarding even though i didn't take a Caribou. You guys that live and hunt in Alaska, and you guys that go annually have my utmost respect.
Nothing is close in Alaska. What looks to be 1/2 mile is 1 to 2 miles. Something that looks 2 miles is 5 miles, etc.
This hunt wasn't suppose to happen til next year as a 60th birthday present to myself. Greg Campbell had agreed to take me and show me the ropes since he has done this trip 3 or 4 times already. Some of you Georgia guys may know Greg...he was the first president of the Traditional Bowhunters of Ga. and he is a phenomenal hunter. His elk hunt fell thru for this year so i twisted his arm and begged him to take me this year. I am forever greatful to him.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/350_zps710733d1.jpg)
We did a fly-in drop camp with Ram Aviation out of Kotzebue.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/205_zps4e5845b5.jpg)
We flew 97 miles (via my gps) out of Kotzebue northeast close to the Noatak river.
More to follow...
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/202_zps3ccd5ff9.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/227_zps8b85e46a.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/247_zps1aa7a7fc.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/270_zps4fa78bb9.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/297_zps23cbf0d4.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/301_zps375354ad.jpg)
Some random pictures on the fly-in...
:campfire:
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/311_zps22157f7b.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/326_zpsdea7f9e5.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/331_zpsd014feab.jpg)
The scenery was awesome. After about thirty miles out, there were no trees...just tundra and mountains and stream and rivers as far as you could see.
Beautiful pics Randy!
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/047_zpsf3c6e859.jpg)
This was our humble abode for 8 days. We were right next to a small lake. We had a small stream next to us to get water for drinking and cooking.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/004_zpsac75a655.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/014_zps55df9fea.jpg)
This is the lake in front of our tent.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/031_zps3c548257.jpg)
We had to bust ice out of the small stream every morning to get water. Temperatures ranged from about 15 degrees for the lows to highs in the high 30"s to low 40's.
We were lucky. The previous 10 days the weather was horrible with high winds and rains. We had a couple of days of light rain and then sunshine for 5 days. After we left the weather got horrible again (ask John Havard!).
AWESOME!!!! :thumbsup:
wow - keep it coming!!
Very cool!!
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/118_zps0e703988.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/119_zps56ada364.jpg)
We had a small mountain behind the tent. It took us 3 1/2 hours just to get to the top so we could start glassing.
That is my dream hunt! Thank you so much for the pics, please keep them coming :campfire: well and an elk hunt of course...and a moose...brown bear...dall ram lol. anyways I am immensely enjoying "going" with you just beautiful scenery up there!
How SWEEEEET it is :thumbsup:
wow - keep it coming!!
wow
Beautiful........ :campfire: :coffee:
randy!!! thanks for Uploading pictures keep em coming!! i cant freaking wait!!!!
Very nice! I sure do miss Alaska!
Good Stuff Randy! Please keep it coming...
Keep it coming!
Randy I thought you didn't fly!!
Looks beautiful.WOW! :scared: :campfire:
Abe
that is awesome Bro :thumbsup:
Hey Abe! i got over my fear of flying! Been having photobucket problems but let me try a few more..
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/070_zps032fe28d.jpg)
This is what i packed up with every morning.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/069_zpsd9a726c7.jpg)
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.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/275_zpse04787ce.jpg)
We did a lot of this, and we wore waders a lot the first couple of days cause the creeks and rivers were raging.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/276_zps85eedb67.jpg)
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.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/281_zps5ba002d9.jpg)
This is the view of our campsite about half way up the mountain we climbed almost every morning.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/291_zps9125a6b8.jpg)
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.
:campfire:
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/303_zps51585479.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/304_zps17e51f17.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/305_zps829ed541.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/343_zpsa3d76956.jpg)
These are what we came after...
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/339_zps7c75c326.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/340_zps73943425.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/343_zpsa3d76956.jpg)
And a few more...
Good stuff Randy!
-Jay
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!
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/327_zps75e3317f.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/331_zpsc0d3b505.jpg)
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.
Very cool Randy!! Thanks! :clapper:
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/338_zps1a921073.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/337_zps15ffe9f5.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/336_zpsaef193fc.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/335_zps37f47a7e.jpg)
Some more random photos..
Looks like a great trip!
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/357_zps2e0f89f1.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/360_zps5af36e89.jpg)
Thank goodness we brought waders. We had to do this more than once!
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/271_zps030fbd60.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/263_zps623702d3.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/248_zpse49c0a14.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/249_zps44ddb18b.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/250_zpsfdd2a151.jpg)
This is what we were dropped in with to last 8 days.
Now this is an adventure! :campfire:
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/004_zpsbeac97f1.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/139_zps8d9877d9.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/136_zps84d6ba5e.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/130_zps018e1e2c.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/116_zps059d7211.jpg)
Some random sunset pictures..
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/086_zps322d7dfb.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/087_zps6a07080a.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/090_zps7bdec5f9.jpg)
And a few more...
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/065_zps18d03cd0.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/074_zpsd6a0417a.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/092_zpsfc8a3b93.jpg)
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.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/180_zps147d26c7.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/185_zpsa2751274.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/199_zps5b799d41.jpg)
And this is Mike from Ram aviation coming back to pick us up after 8 days.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/353_zpsf424cf83.jpg)
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/rastaman1953/352_zps154d7d99.jpg)
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.
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)!
:wavey: :wavey: :wavey:
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?
Great stuff! Thanks so much for sharing. :thumbsup:
Thanks for all those great pics.
:cool:
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.
Great stuff!
What a hunt!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Great story and great pictures!
Fantastic!
THat's some good stuff!!thank's for posting.
That was awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share with us. Most of us only dream of such an adventure.
Thanks for sharing!!
Man, a hunter's life is great isn't it?
What country and a real adventure.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your adventure! Awesome.
What about bears? How did you handle the food? No trees to hang in etc?
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.
Excellant adventure Randy,thanks for taking us along. :thumbsup:
Good stuff!
Randy,
All great hunts are about the hunting experiences, not the killing of animals. I have hunted in that kind of country before, and from your pictures it is obvious that you had amazing experiences that added great richness to your life and the memories of being in wild places and chasing wild beasts. Congratulations on your successes that all the rest of us wish we could have also experienced. Those pictures are the best trophies you could bring home, and everyone gets to enjoy those! Thanks.
Allan
Great stuff Randy .... I really enjoyed the pictures and could feel your excitement in the story. Caribou are my favorite animal to hunt bar none ...
Best to ya, ken
That's some good hunting stuff their, thanks for sharing! You'll get one next year.
Beautiful area! I really enjoyed your hunt through your great pictures! Thanks for taking us along. :thumbsup:
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
Great story! Looks like an outstanding adventure!
Great story! Looks like an outstanding adventure!
Thanks for sharing your hunt and you did a great job of taking pics. Any hunt in Alaska with the weather you enjoyed is a hunt of a lifetime!
Great photos and adventure.
:thumbsup: Those pic's were outstanding. Its great to shoot an animal of course but we can easily have a blast as you did without shooting one.
Great story and pictures Randy! They really made me long for another trip to Alaska. I've only done it once, and sure hope to get back there someday.
Awesome pics and read along!!
Wow Randy!...a hunt I dream of doing! It would truly be an adventure a man would not soon forget.
Thanks for showing that to us...good luck next year!
Yep one of these days!!!
Good stuff Randy.
Thanks, Randy, for such a great story and pics. Maybe someday !
Great pics.Thanks for taking us along.
Randy ,I truly enjoyed that. Thanks so much for sharing it.
God bless you, Steve
Awesome pics and story randy. thanks for taking me along for the ride.
Great stuff Randy....thanks for sharing....LOVE the pics!!!
:campfire:
Wonderful adventure. Someday....and like you said, I shouldn't wait till later in life.
Thanks for the story and pics.
Randy,
Your story and Walt's are killing me. I need to get back to Alaska before it's too late! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing,glad to hear you had a safe and enjoyable hunt.
Leland