2014 DIY Moose and Caribou Hunt

[mdhunter61]

I did a DIY flyout hunt for moose and caribou this fall with one of my best friends – he was after moose, and I had both a moose and caribou tag, but wouldn’t use my moose tag unless he got one. We flew out of Tok with 40 Mile Air, always enjoy flying with those guys.

When we flew in on September 7, there was lots of snow on the mountains around Tok – the first time there has ever been snow on those mountains on my fly-in day! Were we in for early snow and cold weather??

When we were dropped off on a remote ridgetop, we had some visitors curious to see who had dropped into the neighborhood.

 

[mdhunter61]

A few pics of our camp and the surrounding area.

 

[mdhunter61]

We were primarily trying to get a moose for my buddy, and would take a caribou if the opportunity presented itself. While we saw 11 bull moose, and called several in from quite a ways out, we weren’t able to determine that any were legal before running out of light on a few different nights.

On the 8th day we saw a nice group of caribou on a distant ridge, and my buddy wanted to go after them. I told him it would be quite a pack back to the airstrip if we got one, but agreed to make the chase. In our haste to make up ground on the caribou (they’re famous for wandering off before you can get to them) we descended this steep rock slope; we took pics at the bottom and agreed that we wouldn’t be returning to camp that way!

 

[mdhunter61]

After about a 1.5 mile jaunt we snuck to within 275 yards of this nice bull, and I was able to get him. Possibly my largest caribou to date, this guy had a lot of fat and lots of good meat!

 

[mdhunter61]

My buddy with my caribou, and getting his packframe ready for a 2-mile jaunt back to the airstrip that included a stream crossing and about 1500 feet of elevation gain. After 2 loads apiece, we had all of the meat and the antlers back to the ridgetop.

 

[mdhunter61]

A few more pics of the area we hunted. We had great weather after seeing the early snow in Tok – it rained some on 2 different nights, but we didn’t get any rain during the daylight hours and had lots of sunshine.

 

[JCS]

Looks like you had a great adventure.

 

[1_pointer]

Super! I so need to get the scratch together to do that. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

 

[kansasdad]

A wild wilderness adventure. Thanks for the share.

 

[mixedbag]

Nice pics Mike.Thats a nice caribou!!The one we messed up on last year was an absolute giant though.Still can't believe that happened.Looks like the 2 of you had a great trip.What were the temps in the am??Ridgetops seem like a little better walking.Did you guys have to pack thru the tundra grass?

 

[redwoood]

Awesome pics and story!

 

[MT_elk]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on some grat Bulls!

 

[sluggo6850]

sounds like a great hunt and cool pics!

 

[Kaitum]

Congrats on the hunt. When 40 Mile picked me up in the field on Sept 9th they said a number of their caribou camps got hit with 60-70 mph winds. Hopefully you guys avoided that weather.

 

[mdhunter61]

Nice pics Mike.Thats a nice caribou!!The one we messed up on last year was an absolute giant though.Still can't believe that happened.Looks like the 2 of you had a great trip.What were the temps in the am??Ridgetops seem like a little better walking.Did you guys have to pack thru the tundra grass?

Hey Scott! Morning temps got as low as the teens on a couple of nights including a good hard frost, were in the 20s most mornings.

The ridgetop is definitely better walking...but to get to the caribou we dropped down a ridge, crossed a stream, and did have to traverse about 3/4mile of tundra - no getting around that stuff, although it would have been nice.

We used a plastic sled for about 1/2 mile of the pack back, but then the rocks tore it up and the alders wouldn't let us use it anymore, so it as backpacks the rest of the way.

 

[mdhunter61]

Congrats on the hunt. When 40 Mile picked me up in the field on Sept 9th they said a number of their caribou camps got hit with 60-70 mph winds. Hopefully you guys avoided that weather.

We had strong steady winds - probably about 25 - 35 mph - but I don't think we ever got the really strong ones that some guys experienced this year.

Kaitum, hopefully you weren't the guy who was stuck on the snow-filled ridge and had to shovel out a runway for the plane to land?

 

[Kaitum]

Kaitum, hopefully you weren't the guy who was stuck on the snow-filled ridge and had to shovel out a runway for the plane to land?

No, I was about 1,000' lower in elevation than that guy. He was to be picked up the day I flew in. Leif didn't get him till the day before he picked me up! Jake pointed out the runway he shoveled as we flew over, crazy. But, he did harvest a ram. He earned it.

 

[Bambistew]

Good stuff! Congrats on the bull, he's a dandy!

 

[fishing4sanity]

That's an awesome trophy, congrats!

 

[knute78]

Good job, Mike. Nice bull. Sorry the moose didn't cooperate. My hunt this year was successful, as all 3 of us got a caribou. Our trip had its challenges, mainly due to bugs and warm weather, as it was an early August hunt, but it was beautiful country. Time to start planning the next trip! Knute