At a new camp and seeing more caribou our hopes were high to get opportunities but time is ticking…
Day 9: With more caribou in the area we made a plan to spot the herds and make an aggressive move to get in front of them. At this point we needed to make something happen today and give us the last day to pack caribou back to camp if we were lucky… We got to our vantage point to find caribou early and finalize the plan. We spotted a couple herds off in the distance and based on the previous day’s movements we set off to cut off the herd. After a river crossing and a 4 mile trek through the river bottom we crested the small ridge and spotted the herd. With 4 caribou tags to fill, 4 miles in would be a tough job to get all the meat back to camp. However, that would not be a task we would have to endure. After spotting the herd we estimated that they were still a mile out on the tundra. We looked the herd over pretty good and could not spot any sure bulls. The caribou did not have large enough antlers to determine that they were bulls. We decided at that point we were not going to pursue the herd and started the hike back to camp across the tundra and river. After 8+ miles round trip and multiple river crossings the feeling of defeat started to set in. Back at camp we regrouped and started to discuss options. Then the snow started to fly…
Day 10: We woke up to about 4 inches of snow on the ground and we knew that it would take a miracle for us to harvest a caribou bull. The caribou would need to travel very close to camp in order to get the meat back to camp in time to be transported out the next day. The weather forecast did not look favorable for the next day either. Our group decided to contact the transporter to come and get us out. The current weather was clear but another storm was headed our direction and could prevent us from getting out as planned the next day. Our Alaskan caribou adventure was coming to an end. Our transporter picked us up and took us back to Kotzebue…
Final Thoughts: Looking back at the experience and adventure I am happy that we took the trip. Experiencing the Alaskan wilderness was amazing. We saw animals but did not get the opportunities to harvest caribou that we expected. This is hunting and harvesting is not guaranteed. But I look forward to the next opportunity to go back. There are a few things that will do differently on my next hunting trip. Prior to the trip I would identify “what will make this trip successful?” Then at the end of the trip we would be able to say this trip met our expectations. I would also share this info with our transporter to make sure we are clear on expectations and have the same goals. Another aspect of the trip would be timing. We were the last group of hunters for the transporter and our group felt that we would be placed in better locations earlier in the season. The transporter could have been just trying to finish up the season. The reason for this thought is because our camp moves. We felt that the first two locations were selected because of convenience for the transporter. The first location we were dropped off at was also a pickup location for other hunters, and we did not see many caribou. The second location was also a pickup or staging location for other hunters. Two groups of hunters were being transported to the location to either be moved or to go back to Kotzebue. One group and husband and wife team were successful and harvested two bulls. The second group, a film crew, had successfully harvested bulls and had one tag remaining to fill. They were being moved to a new location. With all of our moves we burned three days of hunting because you cannot hunt the same day that you fly, but our second location was a wasted day of hunting so we burned four days of hunting because of being in poor locations. Our last location had the most animals and if we had more days to hunt we would have changed our approach and possibly had more opportunity.
We had a great time in Alaska and we were able to experience something new. Our flights to the back country were safe and the scenery was amazing. I would say that our trip was successful although we did not harvest a caribou. But hopefully we get another opportunity in the future…