Flew to Fairbanks with my two nephews. Drove a van 10+ hours up the dalton highway. Loaded up the transporters floatplane and took off for an unnamed lake to camp for 10 days of hunting.
We covered about 7 miles hiking around the first day...lots lots of cows/calves.
Day two I struck out on my own and located this guy about 3.5 miles from camp. After a very long stalk I decided he was what I was looking for. At 155 yards and one shot with my 300 WSM he was down. I was ecstatic. Shot him at about 6PM.
About 8, I was on my way to camp with the first load of meat. Arrived to camp at 1AM.
The hike was not an easy one....one creek crossing...figure about an hour per mile +/- on the tundra with no load!
I was unable to find my headlamp in my new pack. thinking I had no light, I made great haste to get back to camp before dark, which didn't happen by the way... I don't recommend wandering the tundra in the dark with no light.
It was a good birthday though.
It was not typical for me to knock something down on day two of a ten day hunt. I knew what I wanted and I wasn't going to settle.
Lots of things went through my mind before I pulled that trigger.
Not even close to the largest bull there ever was, but he met my requirements and he was pretty!
The next day myself and both nephews left camp to retrieve the meat at about 10AM and got back about 9PM.
All three of us put a great stalk on a smaller bull that one of my nephews ended up taking with a great shot on the morning of day 6.
The caribou numbers were dropping every day. It was a hard hunt. It went from about 300 per day to about 10.
The transporter stated by sat phone, that it was the worst season in 37 years.
We endured rain, 2 days of snow and 24 straight hours of what was probably 50 mph winds, steady, not gusts. one of our tents nearly collapsed..It was getting close to a serious situation.
Two of three of us got bulls. My bull was the largest seen by any of us.
Not exactly what we had envisioned..but thats hunting.
The meat care on this trip was of upmost importance...Very challenging in the field but doable. Thankfully we had cold temps.
The worst part was arriving in Fairbanks to a town sold out of dry ice. Saturday late afternoon, Labor Day weekend. 36 hours till my flight leaves.
I called the North Pole...they were out of ice too!!! Seriously!
UPS was the only option. They had a freezer and could ship next day which would be Tuesday because of the holiday.
This may be the most expensive meat I've eaten. WOW!
Not super stoked with the transporter...they did what they were supposed to for the most part, poor communication. and if I do another unguided hunt like this there will be many more specifics asked/answered.
Overall, I had a really good time. Just a few disappointments with the service, like I said.
We saw muskox, grizzly, moose, fox, wolf, wolverine, Dall sheep, ptarmigan, geese, ducks, swans, cranes. a huge variety, but not numbers. The arctic is a huuuuge area with not a ton of game.
Do it if you can!
