Daily Journal
Expectations: We read the books and watched the outdoor channel and were prepared to kill it all and be picky about the ones we did shoot. We have plans on seeing moose and grizzlies’s and maybe even a wolf or two. It is going to be a slaughter house out there!!!
Day 1, Friday:
0400 – Dan picked me up at my house and we were ready to go. He forgot something at the house so had to stop back by there and then off to the airport. I said my goodbyes the night before and my daughter sent me off with a “Go get caribou daddy”, she is 3.
0445 – We arrived at airport and Dan went to deliver the truck to long term parking. There were a couple of other vehicles that pulled up as I tried to get the bags inside. All the guys were wearing camo, just like us. We had heard that it wasn’t a good idea but figured we wouldn’t be in Kotzebue that long so it would be easiest. When Dan got back from the long term parking we checked in and had to do some weight adjusting as we could only have 50lbs in 3 checked bags. I checked the guns (1 case) and brought them to TSA where they checked it and I had to lock back up. The case wasn’t mine so the lock didn’t actually fit were I wanted it to but luckily there was a spot on the corner to lock it up. We were ready to go.
0520 – Boarding started with a number of guys in camo but we waited a bit until Burger King opened and we could get our last fast food action until we would get home.
0535 – We boarded and were ready, most guys on the plane looked like they had hunting on their mind but the plane looked only about 1/3rd full.
0600 – We arrived in Kotzebue with no pickup from Mavrik Aire. There was another charter there to pick up other guys and said there was no sight of Mavrik all week and they didn’t even think that he had come into town and set up. The only other float plane service said there has been no site of him and the last reports they heard was that the plane was in Anchorage with problems. The lady told us that 6 guys had come in looking for him and actually turned and went back home when they were no where to be found. The lady mentioned that they could possibly get crews out in the field but it would be a couple days before that would happen. She also said that she knew of some other services that were picking up the work load for Mavrik. At the airport we met up with Jim and Paul who were also looking for Mavrik and had a moose trip scheduled with them today. We waited around for a bit and then decided to call the main office in Keni where Melinda told us to be prepared for a small delay but he will be in town today and should be here by noon so if we wanted to leave our stuff at the conex we could do that. We decided to take a cab to the conex where their office was. The cab ride was about 1 mile long and it cost $30 but we couldn’t stay there so we asked the cab if he could take us to the restaurant. We all hoped back in and on the way there we stopped to talk to 4 other hunters were also looking for Mavrik. Jim knew the guys so they shared their frustration but we told them the news about noon and to put the stuff in the conex with ours. Jim jumped back in the cab and it was off for a hot breakfast which cab cost another $25. The food was real good, pancakes and only about $10 for that and coffee. There were more hunters in there that were just waiting on their charter to get prepared to take them out, but their service was in town and they had talked to them. After breakfast we walked to the store for some fuel for the camp stove and some other things that might be nice. We took a cab back from the store to the conex ($25) and there we met up with the other 4 guys. These guys had been waiting a day in Kotzebue but got a hotel room with a little wait for it to get ready but no rudeness that we had heard about. They also had talked to Melinda who told them there were some mechanical problems in McGrath and Anchorage and that was the reason for delay and also told them he would be there by noon.
1200 – No Mavrik Aire to this point, it is raining a slight drizzle and the wind is blowing but I guess this is normal for the area. All our stuff is inside the conex staying dry but we are just sitting around wondering if we are even going to go out.
1230 – Mavrik Aire arrival (Craig) with an Otter but that was not on floats which Jim thought that it would. The Cub (185) arrived shortly after and looked like we would actually be going today. We helped Craig get some stuff together as he now has been a week late coming into town. He rolled this old ford out of one of the conexs and we had to help push it to try and get it started (gas would help). One of the helpers went to get some gas to get the truck going which is used to help with gassing of aircraft and running people around. It was quite the show to see all of us. (2 groups of 2 and 1 group of 4)
1:55 – It was time to load the plane. The 4 guys that were waiting since yesterday go first and Jim and Paul wait to go on the moose hunt in the cub which was on floats. Craig says he will be back in about 1 ½ hours and if we would wait right here on the flight line he would take us up. We wait in from of Mike Spezack’s and Northern Air Trophy’s operation and talk with the other hunters coming in. Some of the other hunters are Mavrik Aire’s that actually were taken into the field with another service and were successful. These other hunters say they saw grizzly and moose so we are pretty excited at this point.
4:00 – Craig arrives, a little later than expected but we are just happy to be going out today. We have spent some time on the tarmac looking at the other operations and admiring the setups that they had over ours. Craig comes out to talk and check on the refueling operation, (110 gallons). We are met by a trooper coming out to give a reminder about proper meat transport with transporter cards and proper meat care. Craig does not appreciate being greeted by a trooper with a gun like this and asks why he is being harassed. Trooper is just doing his job but talks about meat being found in a dumpster today and wants to make sure all the transporters know of the rules and wants to keep clients out of trouble. They exchange some good words as me and Dan look at each other and wonder if we will be going out in the field today. They finally get done with a heated discussion and Craig asks us to hold a little while he goes and makes a couple phone calls and gets his pilot set up with some paperwork. Before Craig leaves, Dan asks if there is a contact number he has if we need to get in contact with him. He reply’s just contact the main office in the Keni and she (Melinda) will get a hold of him. Craig leaves to take care of what he needs and Dan follows the trooper over to his truck to get a contact number, just incase. We wait.
5:30 – Craig arrives back and looks ready to go. There is a slight rain in the air as we load our gear into the big plane; it looks to be just the two of us and our gear to be taken up that day, this is nice as there is no rush to get to the spot.
5:45 – We take off flying over some pretty beautiful country. The colors are good and Dan and I are really happy to be getting on our hunt and start the slaughter of innocent animals. We rode for about an hour seeing Moose, sheep and a bunch of caribou. Craig dipped the plane to the side so we could get a good look at the animals and he seemed to be in no hurry to get to the location. I don’t know if he was taking this time to scout the area as it was the first time in the air above Kotzebue this year.
6:45 – We touch down on a gravel bar and Craig is off. He says pick up is on Saturday right? We have to remind him that it is on Friday and he checks his book and agrees. He picks some rocks and mentions to us to look for the river crossings and hunt there, and advises to put the meat pole near the strip for easy access back to the plane.
7:15 – We get all the gear across 1 small stream and to a grassy area where camp will be. After looking around we start to put up the tent and get the camp area ready. There are no animals in the river bed but we have already seen moose, caribou and wolf tracks right in front of the camp area. We set up the tent and crapper area. We find a spot to put the camp water station and also where to hang our food. We are on the bank of the squirrel river in the middle of no where waiting on a huge herd to come by. There is a slight rain in the air and we use the tarps to get things into place and get what we need out of bags.
9:00 – Camp is set; for the most part, and we boil some water and have a Mt. House (freeze dried food) for dinner. We boil some drinking water so we can stay hydrated. The river is pretty fast flowing but we don’t know what beaver water we have in front of us so we have to make sure we take care of the water and don’t get sick.
10:20 – Time for bed as it is dark now and we have a bunch of water boiled to this point. Climb into tent (Eureka Assault – 4 Person) bed, Dan picks his side and I take the other. It is fast to sleep as it has been a busy day. I soon find out that Dan is a snorer but I am tired so it doesn’t bother me that much.
Day 2, Saturday - Hunt Day 1
07:00 – Wake up and time for coffee and snacks. We really don’t do much of a breakfast as today is the day that we start our slaughter of animals. It is a little chilly but the rain has stopped which is a good sign.
08:00 – We head off for the start of our hunt. Our hip boots are on and we hike a mile up stream to see what we can see (nothing). We take a right and head ½ mile east into the spruce. Through the spruce we say a winter killed caribou so we know there is good action in there. There is a lot of moose droppings so a chance of taking a moose is going to be good for Dan. We walk back in the direction of camp but this time on the other side of the river to some nice flats where there are some animal paths so we know there is action. We decide to walk up the hill in front of camp to get a birds eye view. We tell each other that the top is where we want to be and we head in that direction. There are lots of blueberries on this side of the hill but it is pretty straight up and the sun is out. The weather has be hitting 55 already today in the sun and we realize that the hill is not cresting and we might not make the top. We are geared for the cold weather and start to shed cloths as the under armor is really making us sweat. We decide to stop where we are and glass (look around through binoculars) where we see no animals.
09:00 - We decide to head across the hill in the direction of down river and then finally down the hill. We hit the bottom of this hill and find a number of tracks leading to a funnel point. We walk the path across the running water (rock face on the left and river bed on the right) and look behind us. We spot two caribou moving, this is it. Dan tells me first shot is mine so go get them. I drop my pack and take 10 steps forward and look trough my binos (Binoculars), one small bull (cow is really what it was) and 1 calf looking straight at me. We watch for a bit and then decide to early to shoot such a small animal. We trek about ½ mile back across drainage and up to camp.
11:38 – It is very warm and has to be 65 in the sun. We are sweating and realize this isn’t the weather that we were thinking we were going to have. Down to under armor and t-shirts which was great because if gave the under armor a chance to dry out (which it did quickly).
12:00 – Constructed a huge meat pole in the middle of the river bed, Dan’s idea. We figured the wind would be mostly North and south so we built it with good air ventilation and in direct sight from camp for the bears that might want to get into it.
1:00 – Dan went fishing up river at a spot that he spotted coming in on the plane. I guess this spot was a deep hole and he was going to find out if there were any fish in the area.
1:30 – Dan comes back with a 22 inch Arctic Char. He says this is pretty big compared to the ones that he has seen caught in the Anchorage area. Dan fried it up for lunch and decided that it was not Mt. House today for lunch. He said that the hole has many more and it was pretty easy to catch.
3:00 – We left for more hiking and hunting. This time we walked in the back of camp through some alders and on the edge of some spruce. We walked down river and back in the direction of the funnel area where we spotted the other caribou. We have still yet to see the big herds of animals that we expected. Back of camp, saw lots of moose tracks and looks to be great country for it. At the funnel area we stopped and glassed. There we saw some caribou on the hillside that we hiked earlier and it looks to be the two that we spotted on the riverbed earlier. We glassed for some time up and down river and then decided to head back home.
6:00 – It was hot and buggy so we started a small campfire to keep the bugs away and glassed from the camp. It was a pretty good area and could see about 1 mile up stream and ½ miles down right from the tent. We spotted a cow and calf walking 300 yrds from camp and it got within 100yrds. We had a fire going at the time and wind blowing in that direction and they didn’t look to be bothered by it.
7:30 – We spotted smoke what looks to be about 4 miles up river. We think that this smoke is coming from the party of 4 that we saw at Kotzebue that Craig took out before us.
7:45 – I (Wink) went fishing to Dan’s hole to see if I could catch something for dinner while Dan cooks Mt. House stew. I came back with nothing, just a rod and reel. Dan made Mt. House and ramen mix which was pretty good. We just glassed from camp until light went away at 10pm.
10:30 – We went to bed and prepared for rain overnight so we made sure most of the stuff was covered.
Day 3, Sunday – Hunt Day 2
07:30 – Woke up and waited for the sun. Looks to be no sun today but high clouds and windy but there is no rain so that is nice. We had oatmeal for breakfast with coffee and that warmed us up a little from the morning chill.
09:00 – Started hike in direction of down stream. We have a pretty easy time walking but we are in hip boots most of the time (glad I spent some money on getting a tough pair). We walk 2 miles down stream and ½ mile over hill and up on the tundra plane. Along the way I found a cow shed that I held in my hand as we hiked. We spotted a herd of 5 walking away from us about ¾ mile away going over the hill. We found a big cattle path moving East and West. At this time we were buzzed by a Blue and White cub plane (N23J??) which landed at camp about 4 miles up from us. We came back down the hill and across the riverbed heading toward other ridge which had 7 more caribou there. We walked through spruce for ½ mile and kicked a grouse up which landed 10ft away. Hillside was very far away so we turned back to river. Once we reached the river bed a yellow cub buzzed (N53JC??) and lands at strip of the camp to the north. We headed back to camp for a little snack.
11:30 – Arrive back and decide to fish for lunch. I caught another 22 inch Char. On the way back right before we enter camp Dan spots a herd of 6 walking in the direction of camp (1 bull, 1 calf and the rest cows). These caribou were about 300 yards and Dan says that he wants shot at bull. We drop poles and fish and take our guns to dry riverbed right by the crapper. We peer around corner and they are headed this way. Dan takes a spot on some river wash trees and gets ready. I stand behind watching using my scope to see what he hits. All is quite and then BANG!!!! There is no movement and they continue looking around like nothing is wrong. The cows surround the bull so Dan doesn’t take another shot as they disappear into the alders. Dan walks up the dry bed to put a stalk on them but they are gone. It looks like Dan’s gun’s sights are off from the trip up, this could be a problem. We head back to camp to eat. I fillet the fish out by the meat pole, leaving the scraps for birds to pick. Dan is ready to cook this fish on tin foil over the fire pit coals. We are buzzed again by the yellow plan over camp and 30 minutes later we are buzzed by a blue and white plane over camp. We think they took clients out in the morning and then putting another set in this afternoon. We talk about the planes and think they were the ones from Northern Air Trophies that we saw on the tarmac waiting for Craig to take us in the field.
1:00 – Nice day starting to form as we glass from camp. The sun is starting to come out and think it is about 47 degrees.
2:30 – Dan goes to check shot sight (223 yards in finder). I watch 2 caribou 1 mile away on hillside across from camp (no bulls). I continued to glass from camp and nothing as the two disappeared over the top of the hill. The river bed is empty and pretty quite.
5:00 – We decide to split up so we could see more. We anticipated on hunting together because we thought we would see a whole bunch, which we are not. So we grab packs and head out. I head to the center of the river so I can see all sides and Dan goes 1 mile down to cattle path we saw earlier.
8:00 – I see nothing where I am and Dan reports he saw one lone bull heading east (on his arrival), and one cow and calf down on the paths heading West.
8:30 – Dan cooks stew (Ramen, Diced chicken and chicken casserole) Mt. House style. We glass from camp with the little bit of sunlight we have left. Dan heads to bed early after a cup of coffee at 9pm as he is not feeling well. Dan takes some Alka Seltzer for his stuffy head. I only stay up until 9:30 and hit the sack. Tonight it is a little colder from the clearer skis that we had today.
Day 4, Monday – Hunt Day 3
0630 – Dan is ready to go for this morning, must have been the early bed time. It is still a little dark. He leaves at 07:00 and tells me to come down the river 1 mile when I am up and ready. I am up, dressed, and boil a cup of coffee and packed. I am just as ready to hunt as the next so I bring breakfast (power bar). We haven’t seen much so it is time to hunt a little harder.
07:30 – I walk a mile down stream to Dan’s position. He tells me that there is an older spot of his 500 yards up the stream and I should sit there and we can cover the entire path headed into the tundra. Dan reports nothing this morning.
09:00 – Here I sit writing this after a power bar and trail mix with thick jacket and boots, no hip waders today. I still have not seen anything up to this point and all is pretty quite. It is chilly this morning as I need a skull cap and a jacket. It is a little windy with the temp probably being around 42 degrees but maybe a little higher. It is now our 3rd day of hunting and nothing, I think Dan is a little upset he missed the other day.
1030 – Dan walks up to my spot and says we should hike to the back hill as he spotted some huge bulls. We think that it can be no more than 1 mile away through the alders and spruce. We start on our way and hike through the alders and spruce and start up hill. We hit the hill and hit the muskeg, which are like walking on basketballs and it is very difficult moving. The day is turning out to be a sunny hot day, 65 degrees in the sun. We pack to almost the top building a bridge along the way for me because I didn’t bring my hip boots or my gaiters. Dan used his gaiters but I think they didn’t help much as he says that his legs are wet but the water didn’t fall into his boot. We get to nearly the top, tough, real tough hiking and couldn’t imagine packing out a caribou on this hill. We can see a bunch from this point and this is the territory that we thought we would be hunting in. We are trying to survey the land and wonder if we are doing the right thing on the method of hunting we have chosen. It is a total of 1.4 miles to this point on the hill but we have not even hit the top and it is probably another ½ mile to that point. We walk horizontal to camp in the back of it now a ½ mile and then downhill to camp. There is a small lake in the back fields and lots of wet ground and without hip boots it is really risky. All in all we hiked 4 miles today and walked through lots of moose country but no animals, just a partridge that scared the crap out of us as we know we are in bear country. Days are passing and nothing! Dan talks about killing cows..
1:30 – Back to camp for lunch. I make beef patties and mashed potatoes; we call its Wink’s Special. It is time for coffee and drying out from the sweat as it is another hot day and that under armor is working pretty well but it dries out real nice.
3:00 – Back to our old locations 1 mile down on the cattle paths. We figure we tried all the hiking and have been in ever directions so we should stick to the crossing paths.
3:45 – We arrive to my spot and Dan spots a cow and calf. He says “shoot?” and I say NO it is too early to be taking cows. I sit and watch as he keeps walking south and we experiment on what they will do while seeing the movement. They watch him move and then scoot back to the alders but they don’t look too scared and just mosey in that direction.
4:30 – As I write in the journal I spot 2 walking in my direction (cow and young bull, not much bigger horns then cow, so we thought). This movement is right in the same spot as Dan said he saw the small bull. They spot me; well smell me as the wind is blowing in their direction about 500 yards away and turn for the cattle path. I realize I am to far away from their crossing path and decide to move up that way.
7:00 – Dan arrives to my spot. Sounds like he hiked to hill we did on day two through the muskeg and saw nothing so decided to walk back to me. He saw lots of land but nothing on it. He walks toward camp and says he will go beyond, maybe as far as the other camp. I sit for another hour.
7:30 – I can spot smoke from camp up above. I also spot a helicopter that isn’t like fish and game. I decide to depart at 8:10 thinking on my way home how much this is sucking. I begin looking at the sky and asking “Lord, I need some animals here, help me out”. I get halfway home and see herd coming down from tunnel we saw on day 1 of hunt. I drop pack and watch from a river bed washed tree as they head right for me. The wind is blowing upstream and they are on the east side. I can see cows and a calf in a herd of about 7 and what looks to be a small bull (no full points on top just nubs). I watch, now put them in the scope which is a lot smaller hole than the binos. The whole time I am wondering, do I shoot? For one, it is late and the other is I am not sure if it is a bull or a cow, horns are small. I say to myself that I can’t leave this hunt with nothing because the wife would kill me, I repeat that a couple time. I decide to, if a clear shot to take it. They turned more down river and I have to react as they are directly in front of me (150 yards). They bunch up so it is hard to tell and I wait. I picked the one that was in clear shooting range and pulled hoping that my gun would be on and I would hit. I controlled my breathing and pulled the trigger. BANG!! They all moved back in unison 10 yards and stood looking and wondering where that shot came from. 10 more seconds and they start to move and one starts to hop, I hit him. I wait a second and he falls and the other herd heads up stream. I only have hiking boots on so I wonder if I can get to the kill. I find a path after looking for my shell and get close. DAMN, I wish I did miss, it is a COW!! Now I am cussing up a storm, I killed a cow and it was a ½ mile from camp, granted the river bed is easy packing but a damn COW. As you can see I am having a little shooters remorse. I had big expectations of big bulls and now I have taken a cow. I decided to let her bleed and headed back to camp for hit boots. Dan meets me half way with just a pack. We unloaded his bag from his frame and he heads to the animal while I go to camp for rope, tarp, sharpener and boots.
9:10 – I am mad the whole way, I tell him not to shoot a cow and I do. When I get back he already has guts out and cape cut. So the four hands work together. Dan does most of the cutting and I do the washing in the river bed as Dan made an error in the cut and crap is everywhere. We are greeted by a porcupine that passes no need to break out the pistol for that. We get her all cut up and put on 2 packs (amazing, it was even a light load). I not only killed a cow but a small cow. We pack back and string up on our pole which works great but by this time it is pretty dark. We leave packs by the pole and head up to the tent. We are going to have some of the meat but it is too late. So we had taken care of the cow and packed the meat back to camp and all strung up in 1 ½ hours. It is about 10:40 and we go right to sleep. What a day and we ended it with a cow. You can tell I’m not happy but brought an extra $300 just in case so that makes me feel a little better, we might call this cow a $300 mistake. $300 is what it will cost if I choose to take an extra.
Day 5, Tuesday – Hunt Day 4
07:30 – Woke up to a thick fog and chilly weather and start to get ready. Coffee and oatmeal again. We hook bags to packs and head out for another day at our spots down river. It is chilly this morning so we pack coats and gloves and wait a little for the fog. Depart at 09:05 and arrive at 09:25. I sit and wait and write in my journal. Wind is blowing up stream which isn’t good. I pass the time by writing and thinking about all the stuff we brought.
10:15 – The fog is lifting but a little windier and chilly and still no animals.
11:00 – There are some big bulls in the field that we walked to yesterday 1 ¾ miles in spruce and muskeg. I am not sure if we are supposed to go but all we are seeing in the riverbed is cows and small bulls. I would hate to come on this trip and not be doing what we needed to do.
11:30 – Dan passes, says he is going ¾ miles up north of site to cattle path he found yesterday. He says that we should meet at camp at 3pm.
1:00 – Planned to sit until 3pm but it started to sprinkle and did not come with rain jacket. I hadn’t seen anything so I thought I would take it nice and slow home. Stopped off at the gut pile of the cow and took the horn plate, nothing chewing up the pile yet. By the time I was done and in camp I can see Dan. By that time at camp it is time to get out the Helley Hanson (HH) rain gear.
2:00 – Dan arrives and talks about great spot where it all funnels to one river pass and major cattle paths with lots of old tracks and some fresh too. He also said he found footprints that did not belong to us; maybe they belong to other camp to the north where we saw the drop off. It is rainy and cold so we start a little fire and have lunch (Beans and franks). Wink’s special #2 isn’t that great but the coffee is always good. We wonder about keeping gear dry so Dan takes the extra tarp and makes a lean-to. We should have done this before but the weather hasn’t been that bad but now the ground is wet. We sat around and talked about the game plan for the afternoon hunt. I check the meat and all is good, drying nicely and meat pole is great in the wind. The air is under it and I rearranged the tarp so the blowing rain didn’t get on the 1st bag. Dan talks how he started a fire at his last sitting spot with carmex and tissues.
3:30 – We gear up and head out. This time I go south 1 mile to same old spot but Dan travels north ¾ mile to river crossing. We talk about how to contact each other incase of shots. We just say if shots fired we will come as the other starts working. We agree to stay in spots till 8:30pm because I shot my cow at that time and they are moving. While sitting I get buzzed by plane, they have to see me. I watched them come over the ridge and then come right over top. It is raining and I have my blaze orange cover on my bag. I wonder why they fly right over top, it might be so their clients don’t see that there is someone else out here.
6:00 – I think I hear shots fired (2) but sound a distance away and toward the lake behind camp. I am unsure with clouds and rain if it could be Dan so I set and wait. I figure if he shoots at something the rest will still have to travel my way. I see nothing
6:45 – I decide to make my way towards him as I have seen nothing and I can see 1 mile up and 1 ½ mile down river and am sitting in a major crossing section.
7:20 – I arrive, after taking my time to find Dan who is in a nice section. I walk the center of the riverbed which was a high traffic area (old). It looks like they were traveling right up the middle of the alders of the river bed then crossing to another section right below camp and then would cross to tundra down where we sat. Dan mentions that he thinks about walking to camp for a fire and warm his feet. It is a little early and the spot looks real good so I say I will stay a little. We walk and he shows me the fresh tracks and where boot prints were. I guess he is warm so we both stay and glass. NOTHING
8:10 – Dan says lets check out this other side of the river and climb to the top of the rock cliffs. We take just guns and no packs and cross hard flowing water and climb through spruce to the top of the cliff. Looking down we can see quite far up and down river. We get to top and look up stream to see a major tunnel if the herd is traveling down stream. We look to the other side of where we are at and we see a blue tarp. We look in the binos to see movement, blue jacket and camo jacket. Looks like in all this land we are close. Dan marks the location with GPS and it is 1.2 miles from our camp. We walk the ridge to get better look up stream and it is very nice site. We look back to camp and see we are right in the middle of path to hill crossing and right below it is the switching of alders (the tunnel from day 2). We watch the movement in the camp and notice they are in a great spot, a little valley coming from east and the main river bed (1 side rock face, other spruce, where camp is and landing strip right in front. We climb to the back of this hill to see what is there and just more fallen spruce from a fire long ago. We decided to head back to camp. We talk about wanting to shoot one from the cliff while they were in camp 400 yards away. I am not sure how ethical that would be but we didn’t see any so we didn’t have to find out. We head back to camp picking up the packs along the way.
9:30 – We start a fire back at camp. I try and work on old coals as Dan is on a mad search for some fire wood. He is getting a big pile for something. We get the fire going and Dan loads the wood. There is a slight drizzle in the air but not bad. He takes hip boots off and mentions how socks are wet and boots are wet and he wants to set by the fire. They sit by the big blaze and you can see the steam rise from them. My boots were the same but first wanted to check meat and skin the horn plate and get the goods out. We put everything under the lean-to and admire how clean camp looks because of it. Dan brews water for coffee and we pass on dinner as not that hungry. Dan mentioned that we didn’t walk that much in hip boots today (only 6 miles, up and back). We agree, up at 6am to get read as 2 more hunt days left. We talk about asking outfitter that has camp above about ethics of placement and to find out success of last people as we heard shots day before they flew out. It was fast to sleep in a warm sleeping bag. I woke up a bunch due to heavy rain and thinking what will tomorrow be like.
Day 6, Wednesday – Hunt Day 5
06:00 – Alarm goes off at 6am. 6:20 I hear Dan move and mention we should get up. Agreed, and also agree it is hard to get out of a warm sleeping bag. There is no rain so that is good and we hope to open the tent to a parade of caribou, not the case just cold wind. We make coffee and get our stuff out and ready. Game plan is to go to same old spots down 1 mile, if we hear shots from up north we will then think about that.
07:50 – We are in our spots, wind to my pack and HH on as it is chilly, my guess 43 degrees. This is the hunt weather I expected, light rain and enough to put a shiver into you after 2 hours of sitting. There is no sun so it is staying a little dark. It is kind of nice in the sun and wish we had it a little bit to dry up all the dampness. This is perfect hunting weather but herd doesn’t seem to be here. I think we are in a good spot just wrong time.
08:40 - It stops raining so I can break out my journal and document everything from yesterday at noon. I sit here on game bags (cushion) with the wind to my back, Dan is to the south and I see writing takes a little chill off. Still no shots from the North camp.
09:10 – I see Dan coming this way. He has seen nothing but the toilet seat is calling him and has to go back to camp. I guess beans and franks caught up or it was the breakfast power bar. I stay seated and wait. Dan said he wants to walk back down but will glass from camp and he also mentioned that my hunter orange rain cover for my bag can be spotted probably many miles away. I sit and write and glass while I finish writing at 10:10 and I wonder what will keep me warm at this point
11:18 – I hear 4 shots and they are in the direction of camp. I know Dan is there glassing and immediately I think he took a cow and like he thought his gun was out of alignment so he’s shooting until it goes down. Either way it is time for me to head back so I take a straight line and see major cattle paths looking like they would come from cliff and straight to camp so maybe he got lucky. When I approach I see him up stream with just pack and caring game bags so I start to tear down my pack. I look through binos to see a big set of horns, he did get a bull. I get all my stuff and head that way. Looking again it looks to be alive. When I show up and see the bull, Dan has stabbed it in the neck and is heading back with his hands in the air. When I get to him I kid about 4 shots and then he tells me there are 2 bulls over there. Sure enough, he had shot one smaller bull and one big one (40 inches wide, 40 inches high). Time to get started. Dan said they came straight down the river bed next to the alders and he spotted them from sitting at the campfire, 3 bulls total. He got in position behind a stump 100 yards from camp. When the bulls got within 150 yards BANG!!! He saw rocks scatter; his gun was off so he shot again and aimed for the head to compensate on the next shot. He missed again and would try one more time and HIT, it was a neck shot. The other bull looked at his partner and wondered what he was doing lying on the ground. Dan turned to the other smaller bull and BANG!! Dan connected, he hit the other in the neck and that one went down. Now that I got the story it was time to start the butcher process.
1200 – Before we start the process we have to get a number of photos as this is a nice bull that Dan got. We start the cutting. Dan again is doing most of the cutting and I am doing the holding and separation.
1:05 - We were all done cutting the first one and it was time to start on the next.
2:14 – We are all done with both now and the hard part is here. We put it all in bags and then have to pack both bulls 300 yards to the meat pole in front of camp and go through some strong water to get to that point.
3:00 – We get it all back to camp except for one load. Dan decides to go back for the last load and the head of the big bull. I head into camp to get a bite to eat and hit the road hunting as I am a little behind right now. Now I am really determined as my little cow horns are looking pretty small compared to the massive rack that Dan has now. As I eat we here a plane in the air. Dan has a cigar while I get lunch together. He returned with final load at 3:30pm. The plane above is Craig with Mavrik Aire. He flew right over the North camp and over us tilting to see our luck. Dan is working on putting meat up so Craig is seeing that this river is a good spot, I don’t know about that though. We hear him down river and think he is flying low to drop another crew off but not sure, to far away.
4:00 – It is time for me to head out. Going north to the “S” in the river, not to far from other camp. Leaving camp I see herd of 5 directly in front of camp. Looks to be small bull but as I write this I think that it is the one I was shooting at last time. There was one bull in there with no velvet on the horns (Dan’s third). We are guessing at this point that all the males’ horns are clean and the cows have the velvet. These animals spot Dan working and spot me walking and trot away down river. I was trying to get Dan’s attention and I spooked them.
4:20 – I arrive at spot and wait; it is windy but not raining which stopped right after Dan’s shots. So now I sit with a slight chill waiting.
5:00 – Still nothing
8:00 – I see a speck in the alders. It is the North camp getting water. They look to be done hunting. I think that if they are done a couple might sneak by. I also think again, is it right to be hunting this close to them. I can look back at Dan and see fire and see him working away, it is only ¾ mile.
8:30 – Still sunny (it did come out) and I think that even if I did shoot it would be 1 hour to butcher and 1 hr to pack and I am looking for 2 bulls. I decide that I should go home regroup and hit it early. The North camp has a big fire going as I can tell by the large amounts of smoke.
8:35 – I decide to leave but walk center of river bed in the alders again. Again I see major paths. I am walking down what looks to be an overgrown runway to a location in front of camp. Now I am thinking camp is actually better because if any squeeze through the spruce that we saw tracks on I could see them also. So, I like Dan am thinking that we are working to hard and plan not to sit next to North camp but 400 yards in front of ours in the middle of the river bed so I can catch ANYTHING coming down.
9:10 – I arrive at camp and Dan has cooked caribou stew with a piece of neck meat and a tender loin. Man it is good but wish I had dental floss with the neck meat. We have coffee and he tells me story again of kill. He talks of how it was cartoonish of how that big old rack was coming down the way. We talk plans for our last day. He doesn’t want to cut me off but may take trophy if he sees one. I am going directly out and he talks of locations behind camp where we built a bridge on a journey to high hills. We stay up till pretty much the rest of daylight gone. Dan also mentions that he might start packing a little for Friday. We hit the hay about 10:15pm. It is a windy night. I woke up at 3:11 wondering if meat pole is going to make it through the wind.
Day 7, Thursday – Hunt Day 6
06:00 – Alarm goes off; it is very windy and chilly and dark. My last day!! I get out of bed at 6:20 for coffee and oatmeal. The wind is blowing hard so it is difficult to light the stove. The direction of the wind has changed and now it is blowing south for the first time and I will sit facing it today which is a good thing.
07:20 – I leave for the location straight out. It is still a little dark but clearing fast. It looks like it will be a nice day, wool hat day but still nice. I find a location that looks to be good in some alders for cover and on the highest spot on the river bed. I am equal distance from camp to the hill side so anything that passes I will see it and hopefully get a shot off at. I hope I don’t have to readjust when full light comes out. I sit in a rigged up chair. Dan sat in the other camp chair and broke that as he did the first one (he says manufacture defect) but he fixed this one with rope. I wait for full light and movement as I write in my journal wondering if I put to much time into this journal and not enough glassing. I keep telling myself I can see 1 mile up and 1 ½ miles down and all the way right and all the way left. I can also see camp off to the left of me.
08:14 – I put journal away as pretty good light. Still no movement from Dan in camp, sleeping bag must be warm. Must be nice to have both bulls! I just have one cow and even after he cleaned his up for a European mount and took pictures of all three, mine looks pretty tiny. My attitude would change completely if I could shoot one like his big one, well any bull.
09:00 – Dan is up and looks like he is moving. The wind is strong and I wonder if we could even be picked up in this wind. I see 7 caribou in the muskeg field but they are heading North 2 miles away (through swamp). I watch a helicopter, not fish and game but it is moving from North to East, most planes come from totally different areas.
11:00 – Still nothing and no shots from North camp.
11:30 – I walk back to camp and Dan has been there all morning I think packing some stuff and dealing with the wind which crushed the lean-to and made him look twice at the meat pole. I leave my bag and only take gun. I have seen nothing. I am thinking my luck really sucks and why continue to stand in this wind tunnel. I think 35 mph gust. I get back to camp. Dan saw me walking so he made water for chili Mac and coffee. I had a shot of each and then talked game plan for the next kill. It is amazing that I can think so negative but still plan for the best.
12:20 – I leave back to spot. When I get there I see blue and white cub flying south to East, then in the next minute a Green and white flies right over camp and up the small gully by the North camp. With all this flying I am pretty sure we will be picked up. This is the first time we have seen aircraft that look to be scouting herds. All geared up for windy weather and now the rain has started (sideways). I am ready for the last 8 hrs of hunt. I see 4 caribou in muskeg heading south this time on the hills.
2:00 – I watch 4 (2 cows and 2 calves) walk right by old spot I was sitting in. I wouldn’t have shot anyway. I watched them go up and over hill across from camp. Dan is busy at camp area, looks like gathering wood and cleaning up.
2:30 – The rain is coming down good now. I watch the green and white plane come back down the river but this time from the main river channel and not the gully at the North camp, they are probably scouting.
3:45 – I see Dan moving around tent and catch movement next to him. First I see a calf but then they see Dan’s movement and head for flats to the right of me. I can see 2 bulls, OK size but at this point any thing is good. I try to set up in a dry stream bed to the right of where I was standing for a shot of 200 yards. Lots of alders and they spot me and book over the nole to the flats and look to be heading for the hill. I decide to see the direction that they are going. I hit the bank and peer into the flats and see them on the bottom of the hill. I have no cover but try and sneak to shooting range. I stop, can’t find them, think that are gone. Ready to turn back, I decide to wait a couple minutes and glass. Through binos I can see white fur, it is a calf. I search some more and see they are in a little depression on the flats and mulling around. I have no cover so I wait. I am about 225 yards and I can see bull, just shoulder and when he moves a head but shoulder is gone in the brush. I am also looking through the alder so don’t think it would be a clean shot. Horns aren’t too big but high and no velvet. I sit and watch, looking at an antler less cow who spots me, wind is to my side and she turns and heads back to the spruces and behind her a bull follows. I try to move to a better spot (low walk) and another cow spots me and they all book to the river bed in the same direction they came. I jog through low thigh high alders to cut them off in the river bed. I can see them turn down, right where I want them. As I jockey into place with the steady stick I look and they are at full speed right by my spot. I look behind them and there is camp so decide not to shoot. They cross the river and I am killing myself with “the one that got away”. That is the first set of real bulls I have see that I could shoot at. I head back to my spot (4:15pm) for a bit to cool my frustration with myself.
5:00 – I head to camp for dinner (Powerbar) and coffee and to tell Dan what happened. He told me I should have been in camp as they were just standing 100 yards away when he spotted them. Again more bulls he spotted right in front of camp. I think all the bulls we have seen this trip, except in the field, have been from camp.
5:45 – I head back out. It is raining hard still with wind. I have blown my shot but am determined to be there if another arises.
9:00 – Still raining and my second chance hasn’t come. I think about what this trip has got me. One cow, that I didn’t take pictures with because I was pissed. So, I think about the metal plate that will go on the bottom and not sure what to put “$3,000 and this is it” or “reminder of why I shouldn’t spend big money on hunting again”. It is over!! All the planning, money and anticipation leads to a camping trip. I should have bought a 4 wheeler and done this on the chicken trail. All this thought and I decide to head back to camp.
9:10 – Dan has cleared land as he has spent all day in camp burning wood. He has a lot of things packed and ready for morning. We have late dinner and talk plans on packing in morning. It is off to bed and sleep at 10:47. It is still raining and rained all night and sill pretty windy. Tomorrow is going to suck if we have to pack in this.
Day 8, Friday
06:00 - Alarm goes off but stay in bed till 7:20 and then get around. Gun is still loaded and will shoot if there is a good chance and it is close. We pack in the same drizzle that we flew in with. Most of the stuff is a little wet but Dan’s lean-to is holding pretty well.
10:00 – Everything is ready to go, meat out by the runway and all bags covered with tarps ready for pickup. We figure he could be there any time. We make bets, I say 1135 and Dan says he will be pessimistic and say 12:55. We burn some left over paper trash since we have a nice fire. We sit around fire gathering wood to keep it going.
11:30 – Still no plane. Dan shoots 6 rounds through the pistol at his walk bridge he built yesterday. I take the next six, my aim isn’t that good. Shot 6 now and I can’t hear a thing, I might be deaf. We sit and wait. My gun is still loaded but not sure what we will see after firing but I still have hope.
12:50 – Still nothing. It has stopped raining and we have burnt a lot of wood with a big fire. We sit around talking about the trip. We start to see blue skis and wonder why no Craig yet. Dan puts 6 more thorough the pistol to burn ammo but no more grizzly loads for a bear if we need it. 15 minutes later we hear 4 shots from the North camp, not sure if they shot anything of they are answering our guns. My gun is still loaded and I sit and wait.
2:00 – Still no plane, everything still packed and we have gathered more wood. Dan is out in the river bed kicking rocks around, looks like he is panning for gold. Sunny skies are above so we go check the meat. Some water got in the tarp so we move meat around and fix tarp. It is time to go back to the fire to play around.
2:35 – I call the wife to tell her we are probably not going to make it home and tell her happy anniversary. SAT phones are a good thing to have
4:00 – Still no plane, blue skies. We play in the river bed redirecting the flow and making little streams. We see movement on ground by gut piles and looks like a red fox, but he quickly disappears.
5:00 – See the fox again. I take the gun to the same spot Dan was at when he killed his bulls. I wait for about 10 minutes for him to come through the bursh. I see red furry at about 150 yards away and take shot, BANG! Stones fly and furry tail goes right into the alders. That will probably be the last shots for me. I head back to camp where Dan is running out of wood and makes the suggestion to burn the log that we have been sitting on all week.
6:00 – Still no plane. Craig gave us window of 10am – 9pm. We start thinking of camping for one more night. It is about dinner time so we head to the runway to break out stove and Mt. House. We also find sandy area and kick it around for tent spot on the river bed. We break out the tent and lay it out for it to dry and possible set up if needed. We start the water and tear open the Mr. House at 6:30pm. Just at the time of boil we hear plane and it is Craig.
6:35 – Craig lands and we start packing all the stuff and repacking stove and food. I don’t say much to Craig as I am a little disappointed that I only got a cow and didn’t even fill my tags (glad I didn’t have to pay like an out of stater). Craig offered for one to sit in front. I tell Dan to take it. We load meat first then gear and lastly the racks. Craig asks how we did and we ask how others did. He said others haven’t done that well but some did good but had to work very hard. I set the watch to see how long of a flight it really is to home. We close the doors and drive to the other end of the runway and up a small hill, which I think we are going to get stuck. Craig turns it, punches it and we are headed down the runway. Up we go!! I look at river bed to see movement, nothing! I am looking for the North camp but we turn and bank left before we get that far. I am a little disappointed at this point but I do have some meat. We fly for about 9 minutes and looked over our spot and it looks to be pretty good area to be hunting just wrong time of year. While flying we fly over another camp. There are two guys standing looking at plane when Craig does one small bank to see if they have much. There isn’t too much to the camp and don’t see meat or horns. Craig banks around again lower and looks like he is prepared to land. He lowers and looks to land on the gravel bar. We land and turn around. Craig jumps out and asked guy if they called for early pickup. They said they called for a pickup on Wednesday but today is Friday. They asked for 20 minutes to break camp. We jump out of the plane at this time and help out. We grab the mean, not much. I guess a grizzly took a quarter and had lunch. Walking to the meat we see areas these guys were in. I look at Dan and we smile and say “I guess we didn’t have it that bad. They were camped on sand with a string attached to a bush so that the tent didn’t blow away. Trees were in the distance through muskeg and standing slough. They were right on the river and it looked deep and fast. All their stuff looked wet as it hung over a alder bush. I keep telling myself I guess we had it good with everything we needed. We break their tent down, 2 season 6 person tent, nothing for this weather. Man we had it good I think. Talking to them they shot 1 cow 4 miles away in the muskeg. They didn’t see hardly any animals and couldn’t even cross river. They attempted to cross, stripped down to skiveys and crossed chest deep water, very dangerous and not worth it in my mind. Again, I have to reevaluate my thought, maybe I thought to big for our hunt. We load them all up, their gear, meat and all our stuff and 2 more big guys. Amazing we all fit in the Otter and off we went. We flew 17 more minutes back to Kotzebue, total 6u miles from camp (per GPS). Beautiful sites but no animals just some sheep trails high in the hills and caribou paths but no caribou. We land and load everything into the truck to go back to the conex where other hunters were.
7:15 – We arrive to the conex where Dan rides in the back of the truck (that is legal in Kotzebue). Who is there? Jim and Paul and the crew of 4 that we met on the fly out day. Jim and Paul didn’t have luck either. They said something about a mix-up with the coordinates and the location they were suppose to be going. They saw lots of caribou but only one cow moose. They didn’t seem very happy with the whole ordeal, but seems like they had an OK time in the filed just wish they would have seen more. Again I am thinking that I was coming here for killing not hunting and might have thought to big. My attitude is changing a little. Craig and crew have a deboning station set up now and there is a big pile of meat bags in there with some nice size racks. These racks are about the same size as the ones on the tarmac at Northern Air Trophies and look to belong to the crew of 4 we met on day one but they were off to the hotel to get one of the last rooms. Craig calls on rooms for us and nothing, no hotel, no B&B, nothing. I guess it is time to pitch the tent one more time. Craig says it is OK so we find a spot between an old ford and a conex and set her up. Jim and Paul are on the other side of the conex in their tent and the 2 guys we picked up find a home in a truck on jacks. Craig offers a ride in the truck to the store where we get some soda and chips. No bad looks with six guys in camo from the locals. We head back for dinner, Mr. House one more time. We had to buy water at $5 gallon for the kettle. We get back after exchanging more hunting stories and my attitude is changing with every story.
Jim and Paul called for early pickup also because of no animals so I guess our trip wasn’t that bad just my luck wasn’t that good but at least we saw stuff.
8:30 – After the tent is up we boil water and sit around and make some Mt. House. As it is sitting in the pouch we head to the deboning table to share more stories. The crew of 4 is hard at work by lantern deboning. They had some pretty good trophy bulls, probably put more hiking time in than us, well up hills that is. They filled their tags with each taking 2 caribou bulls. We went back to eat Mr. House and then bed. It has started to drizzle a little. I have went and got a business card from Northern Air Trophies and the name of the other guy we hung with on day one, Mike Spzack. It is off to bed. Craig allowed us to use cots for the tent which was nice. We thought the tent would dry along with the rain fly but it rained hard all night. The cots fit in the tent but it was tight with a small walking space.
Day 9, Saturday
07:20 – Woke up in the morning to slight rain. Dan was out the door to find transport for our meat. I picked up bags and cots and got them all ready to pack. Everyone was up and more hunters were showing up waiting to go out. Dan showed back up and had arranged for meat pickup with Lyndon air. I guess Northern Air Cargo wasn’t flying until Tuesday and meat would be bad by then. I guess Lyndon would do it but fly it to Fairbanks and it would sit in freezer and arrive on Tuesday in Anchorage, which was good. Crew of 4 is also looking to ship as they are on the same 12:30 flight as us. Dan took care of this early as they must have been in the showers. We got our stuff out of the conex where we put it to get it out of the rain. There was a lot of stuff in there meaning there were many in the field. We exchanged more stories and hope there is time for breakfast but we think not. Dan talks to crew of 6 who showed up from Montana. They seem to have high hopes of big bulls but one guy states it right. Come in with low expectations and just a hunt, if you come home with something it is a plus. Lyndon arrives to pickup our stuff and take to the staging area. That crew of 6 waits as we still see no sign of Craig this morning as they get their stuff weighed (100 lbs under weight) but no hip boots and offer to buy ours but Dan has put them on the meat pallet.
11:00 - I ask if the truck can take us to the airport with our bags. The truck is gone to the hotel to pickup Craig. Cab arrives bringing other people in; we take it to the airport (another $10 to Kotzebue). We leave others who don’t have flights till later. One guy has a flight this evening and the other Monday but all flights are booked. Dan said one guy at the airport was trying to buy someone’s seat for $100. We arrive and check in bags without a long line as we are pretty early. We head over to coffee shop for Mocha Grande ($5 each) and sit and wait. There is a lot of hunter activity around with big racks. I am a little disappointed in what I got but attitude has changed and I am saying to myself “I learned a lot”. We run into more hunters and hear more stories. One guy coming in on Alaska Air lost all his bags and he can’t go on his hunt, and has been in the airport for 2 days. I think of how lucky we are, we left on the day we were suppose to and were picked up on the planned day and all has gone smooth. I keep saying it could have been worse. We talk with a guy that few in with us from Michigan but went with Northern Air Trophies. He heard of reports of a crew that was in the field for 2 days with rain and called back to get picked up early because they weren’t prepared. In other stories we heard of one crew to be picked up early from field but was delayed due to weather and didn’t have a phone and couldn’t change his airline flights. I guess it was going to cost around $1,000 to get to the lower 48 with problems like that. Again, we had it pretty good. The guy from Michigan, near Dan’s home town, talks about his trip, having to hike high to get to anything and how they didn’t even limit out and get what they planned for. He talked about price and how it can run you as it goes, outfitter cost, tickets to get there, gear, and get your meat back. It is an experience and one that is a gamble for the hunter. The charter service never loses, they got their money. While waiting in line for boarding, two fish and game girls ask us if they can ask questions about our hunt experience in town. We both say it was good but wish there was refrigeration trailer so meat wouldn’t go bad since there is a big problem with this. You take good care of the meat in the field just to have it go bad waiting on a pallet. Dan has a smile on his face as I say it was good and I would do it again. I laugh and say “yes, I did say that”. I could have been worse and I just had high expectations and it wasn’t like you see on the T.V. and read in the books. I guess it really goes by my old saying. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. I seem to forget this often but I keep going back to it. It was a hunt, not a kill and everything went smooth for us and compared to others it went a whole lot better. Granted there were a lot of big bull racks around town but they were just in the right place at the right time.
1:15 – We sit on the plane, 1 hr delayed but at least we are on it. We kid with the crew of 4 and ask if we are waiting on Craig the pilot. We are a little stinky but have fresh jeans and shirt on for a welcome home from the wife and Abby. It will sure feel nice to have a good shower and a nice dinner, the wife made anniversary reservation for this evening. It has been good company, good hunt and I just hope to have the experience again but would love for it to be with my dad who I know would love it.
Day 10, Sunday
Rest day
Day 11, Monday
Dan picks up the meat and it is time for the work. Spend most of the night deboning my meat at the kitchen counter and getting it ready for the Tuesday cut up and wrapping. Again, I am happy to be coming home with some of it. I am back at work now and find myself browsing the internet looking for prices for my next trip. Now I just have to figure when that will be, 08 or 09.
