Part 1 in the 2009 series:  Semi-Live on Kauai'

Part 2 in the 2009 series:  Alaska Muskox

Part 3 in the 2009 series:  SOLO Alaska Brown Bear

And so begins part 2 of our series.....

I applied for an Alaska muskox tag last Spring and drew my tag #18 of 18 which was my third choice unit.

The units I applied for all had a fall season and I wanted to hunt muskox in the fall.  My tag was for the Seward Peninsula outside of Nome.

Well, I hunted for a full week in September and saw ZERO muskox!

The End.

WHAT?  The End?

Well, it would be the end except for the season ran until March 15 so I located an outfitter (Brian) that works with an Eskimo gent named Cliff out of the village of Shishmaref, that pull off the logistics for winter ox hunting.

I taught myself to shoot my longbow with a monster-sized arctic glove on.  I arrived into an icy-cold Shish on Feb 10.

We went to Cliff's house and got my gear ready to slide!







Brian waiting.




...and here is Cliff in between cigarettes.

At least one of us is out here waiting.  The one who saw a musk ox on the Parks Highway one day and nearly drove off the road.  (Yes, it was an escapee from Palmer . . . )

We were joined by Cliff's son-in-law or grand-cousins husband or some such kinship-Jim.

Now I was born just days apart and in Nebraska just 75 miles away from Larry the Cable Guy BUT Jim here, Jim "IS" the Real-Life "Larry the Cable Guy".

Cliff took off ahead of us and hung out at a cabin about 15 miles out in the white and Brian, Jim, and I lagged behind.

I hadn't ridden a snow machine in 25 years but in no time at all I was an expert and Sarah Palin would have been giddy if she'd have seen me.

When we had just gotten into sight of Cliff's cabin my machine seized up and died.  I borrowed Cliff's machine and off we went.

Now it was cooold out there!

How cold was it Steve?

Something like -30 which is cold to everyone but polar bears, Eskimos, Canadians, and Minnesotans.

It was so cold I had icicles on my eye lashes.

Keep it coming!

Get-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-DONE!

Sorry about the delay.

I would like to say it was cause my wife had brought home some new eatin' britches (cherry 's my favorite) but no such luck.

To make sure this was as fair-chase as possible I would only use snowmobiles for transportation/hauling and approach no closer than about a half mile.  This may be a law in Canada but it is not in Alaska.

Also sled would not be used to herd or maneuver animals.

"Sorry about the delay.

I would like to say it was cause my wife had brought home some new eatin' britches (cherry 's my favorite) but no such luck."

LMAO!  

About 25 miles out we crossed the tracks of three ox in the snow.  Brian had recently seen another group in the area so we pressed onward.

We eventually located the herd and it had about 2 dozen cows/calves and one mature bull.

I approached on foot as the herd backed up against a small butte.  The end animals leap-frogged behind the others and I almost had a good shot when the bull moved behind the others but they took off instead.

I dogged them on foot for quite awhile and got close a couple times before they cleared out.  I met up with Brian and Jim and we brought the sleds forward before I set out on foot again after the herd.

I got back in close and the bull gave me an instant of exposed ribcage and I snap shot quickly with my big ole' glove on.

!)*@&&#^^@&&@@@)@*&^&#&*&@  ***The Internet is Experiencing difficulties, please log back in tomorrow***  )&@#^*(@*(#**@*&@*&

 Everything is fine on my end keep going!    ...only kidding

The bull galloped off with the herd and quickly laid down for the last time.

We rolled the bull on a sled and pulled it back to Cliff's cabin where we warmed up and cut it up under lights powered by a generator.

It was nice throwing a quarter down on the ground and not having to worry about dirt and sand getting on the meat.

Wem got back to Shishmaref very late, around 11pm.  My eye froze shut on the way back it was so cold!

Awesome Awesome Awesome!
way to go Steve