For five days last week, two friends and I headed up the Dalton Highway 350 miles to the North Slope for a caribou hunt, in hopes of filling our freezers with meat for the year. I had been watching the weather the week before and expected highs and lows of 35 & 10 F, with a discontinuous snow covering, just enough to pull sleds loaded with caribou meat.
Following a bachelor party for a long-time friend and co-worker on Saturday night, I slept and puked for the entire ten hour car ride to the north side of the Brooks Range. I am now very acquainted with the dips and frost heaves in the road and only was upright for about ten miles of it.
Nonetheless, the next morning, Monday, I was rip-roaring, ready to go and we hiked out five miles to get beyond the no firearm shooting corridor. We had already seen about 1,500 caribou and at five miles from the road, we dropped our gear, hiked up a low ridge, and saw a herd, which we stalked and took two cow caribou from.
After gutting, quartering, and dragging them back to our camp we set-up at 5.5 mi off the road, it was finally time for bed. The next morning, we essentially did the same thing: hiked up a ridge, saw some 'bou, stalked them, and took three from the large herd, including two nice bulls. Both the cow and bull I shot dropped in their tracks. My shot on the bull was 275 yards and I anchored him with a spine shot, followed by a double-lung to humanely finish him off.
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| Nick & I with my first bull caribou and second big game animal taken in Alaska. The cow caribou was the first. |
More photos located here.
When we returned to Fairbanks is when the real work began, however, in cutting up and packaging all that meat. Two full days of a four to five man team and we're finally done, with over 100 lbs each in our freezers.
Also, snow greeted us in Fairbanks on our return to town. It's now a white world here and I hope it sticks.
That means time to start running the dogs and get the skis waxed and ready.
It's the best time of year!
