Arctic Caribou Canoe

[Shawn Ryan]

I spent 10 days canoeing on the north slope in search of wildlife.  We had a great time with great guides. I had encounters with bears, wolves, foxes, muskox, and caribou along with many birds I'm just beginning to know. The scale of the landscape is not understandable until experienced; what looks close is miles away.  About 93 river miles of canoeing and about 70 tundra hiking miles for me.  Learned that tussocks really are hard to walk through.  In the 24-hour sunshine, I ended several hikes well after midnight. I filmed a bear hunting and killing caribou, a herd of muskox, and in excess of 100,000 caribou. A bush pilot suggested that it was almost the entire NW caribou herd of 200,000.  We could never see them all at once the herd was so expansive.

[Shawn Ryan]

More pics.

[Shawn Ryan]

[Shawn Ryan]

[Wanttohuntmore]

Nice!  Thanks for sharing.   Would love to do that.

[Axle]

Nice!
When were you there and how bad were the mosquitos and black flies?

[Machias]

WOW, awesome!!!  Thanks for sharing!!

[actionshooter]

That's awesome!! Jealous for sure! What river?

[Shawn Ryan]

Rest of the bear and caribou interaction.

The bear stumbles upon a calf in the tundra and stops to eat.

[Shawn Ryan]

We were there June 9-19 on the Kokolik River.

As long as the wind was blowing, which was most of the time, there were no mosquitoes to worry about. By my standards, when the wind was not blowing, they were bad.  By Alaska residents' standards, they were not an issue.  I got bit on my scrotum, penis, and buttocks.  After doing my business, I'd pull up my shorts as fast as possible, pat myself down all over and kill the mosquitoes caught in my shorts.  At the end of the day--in the tent--I'd dump them out.  No black flies.

If a guy could get used to them buzzing around and not scratch the bites, they are bearable.  If not, they addle you quick. When the wind was blowing lightly, the mosquitoes would hover downwind of my head.  If I turned into the wind, they would be behind me and no issue.  But walking with the wind at my back meant that I was walking into the cloud of mosquitoes that were attracted to my breathing and sweating. Ugh!

In July the mosquitoes get worse.

[Shawn Ryan]

Muskox herd.

[jackson7]

Absolutely awesome. Cool Trip! thx for taking the time to post.

[Stein]

Looks amazing, thanks for sharing.  I would certainly enjoy seeing the migration some day.

[Shawn Ryan]

Caribou on the move.

[TommyH]

  beautiful country up there.

[sjhgraysage]

Great post! Thanks!
Do any fishing? 

[Shawn Ryan]

I took my fly rod, but only spent 30 minutes or so with it. Lots of wind made casting difficult and a knotted mess of leader.  Most all of my available time was spent hiking and searching for large mammals.  My buddy caught one grayling, which was tasty! Saw some 8-9' grayling in a creek.  The river mostly freezes solid in the winter, so its hard on the fish.

[bearpaw]

thanks for sharing, great stuff