To address a couple of questions:
Michelle - We used Alaska Air Cargo as mentioned before and had an employee discount, which was a HUGE savings. We shipped 650 pounds of gear up, 1200 pounds of meat back as well as 690 pounds of gear and antlers back. Altogether we only had $1,000 in freight charges (normal would be in the $3,000 range I believe). Also, there are freezers at Alaska Air Cargo EXCEPT FOR IN PORTLAND. I have no idea why this is, but we know people who have not been notified in the past and lost meat. We tracked our shipment online and met the shipment in PDX. Meat was still mostly frozen and we were able to process it later that day when it was nice and cold.
Highcountry is right, only Grizz, Sheep, Goats (AND MUSKOX) are required to have guides or kinship.
Longashes - yes, just the two of us. In the picture with both of us you can actually see our float plane coming in to take a load of meat out. Pretty lucky that the timer went off at the right time and caught that. It has to be my favorite pic from the trip.
Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Nobody really understands everything that goes into a trip of this magnitude until they actually do it themselves, I thought it was going to be way easier when it all began. We adapted to the changes and made it a very successful trip for the both of us. My buddy said on the second night that he would never go back, mostly because walking/hiking on the muskeg/tundra absolutely killed his feet, ankles, and knees. I didn't have any issues and had a blast. Hard being away from my 8 month old son tho, that is for sure.
