Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:37:51 PM
https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,200485.msg2661410/topicseen.html#msg2661410
Well, last June, my youngest son, (Little Pathfinder) graduated from high school and signed with Eastern Oregon University to play baseball and major in education. I had been planning a trip for him as well and we just returned a few days ago, so I thought I would post our story, particularly for those who may want to plan something similar. My sister and brother in law decided they would come on the hunt as well, since caribou is on their bucket-list, and neither of them had ever hunted them before.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:39:03 PM
Apparently, the numbers in the 40-Mile caribou herd have suffered and due to the 2023 winter counts, the decision was made that in 2024, they were not going to issue any non-resident caribou tags for that herd until the 24-25 winter count was done, and bios could assess the health of the herd. 40 Mile Air explained the situation, and said they would take my number and call back in March once the winter count was complete. So, we were stuck in limbo until March, waiting for Alaska F&G to release tags.
In March I finally did get a phone call from 40 Mile Air: Good news and bad news.
The good news was that fish and game decided that the numbers were good enough to sell us caribou tags. The bad news was that we were number 12 on “the list”, and there were no more spots left for the year.
Feeling pretty bummed out, I started calling around to other outfitters and air taxis. Of course, being March, everybody was booked solid. We had just about resigned ourselves to the idea that we were going to have to wait and do this another year, when we got a call back from Trace at Willow Air. He had an opening, as long as we could go early. That worked great for me, since I was going to have to be back in Walla Walla by the 13th of August to start work. We booked our hunt for the very beginning of the season; August 1st.
We would fly from Walla Walla to Seattle to Anchorage to Deadhorse, with plans to get dropped in the next day by Cessna on a lake in front of the caribou migration. The plane had floats, not tundra tires, so we would have to go in on water, somewhere between the north slope of the Brooks Range and the tundra that stretches to Prudhoe Bay. Trace said they would drop us based on where they were seeing caribou.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:40:14 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:41:14 PM
If you have never been to Deadhorse, you might be under the false impression (since it has a name, and it’s on a map), that it is a “town”. It’s not. It’s a work-camp for oil workers. There are no stores, no homes, no businesses other than companies that cater to what oil companies need to operate. The “Hotel” is basically a barracks (very similar to what you would find on a military base) that you pay a nightly rate. There are very few queen or double rooms, most of the 500 or so rooms in the hotel are singles with a single twin bed. Roughly $200 each per night, with meals included. The food is good. Served cafeteria/chow-hall style, the food is good, and it’s plentiful. Honestly, reminded me a lot of the Army. Hard not to “over eat”. Kind of like having Golden Corral for every meal, just not “fancy”. LP has been trying to put on weight to play college ball, so that part was great for him. We were originally supposed to stay for one night, then get put into our hunting spot the next day.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:42:09 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:43:18 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:45:29 PM
That was when everything started going haywire.
The plane damaged a wheel/tire when it landed. The pilot is not allowed to fix it (FAA rules), so it was going to take a mechanic. And parts. They had to be flown in from Anchorage. Okay, no problem, right? A flight every day into Deadhorse…
But it was right at “shift change”. Most oil workers in Deadhorse work on a two-week rotation. Fly in, work for two weeks, fly back out. It was fly in/out day, so everything is booked. And then to make matters worse, the flight out the next day got cancelled for weather. So everyone got shifted by a day. It was Sunday. No way to get a mechanic and parts in until Tuesday.
Here’s the worst part. It never occurred to us that our party could get split up, and I had the Garmin with me. My sister and her husband had been dropped off in a remote lake, at the foot of the Brooks Range, and no communications. And with the plane grounded, no way to get to them. And no way of communicating to them where we were, and why we weren’t coming. Honestly, this was our fault. Ron asked us if we had communications and I said yes. It never occurred to me to toss my In Reach to my brother in law since they were getting put in first…
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:47:05 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:48:13 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:49:51 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:51:41 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:53:30 PM
Ron was up against a tight weather window to get back to Prudhoe Bay, but he promised that as soon as he could get to us he would move us to where we had spotted the herds on the flight over. LP and I set up our tent and settled in for a wet night. Something that was different than my hunt 9 years ago in Tok; it never got dark. The sun set around midnight, and if you got up to pee at 2 or 3 am, it looked to me like it was still pretty much “shooting light”. When we hunted in Tok, it actually got dark for a couple of hours.
The next morning we awoke to fog and rain, so instead of hunting, we broke out the fly rods and sampled the fishing. The lake trout all were carbon copies of each other; about 15-17 inches long, and hungry. If you could get a wooly bugger in front of one, he usually hit it.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:55:44 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:57:05 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 02:58:14 PM
Muskeg: The whole place is built on a sponge. Some of it is soaked, some if it less soaked, but either way, you sink down at least 4 or 5 inches with every step. Sometimes, past your ankles in water. And that is the “dry ground”.
Tussocks: Balls of grass grow across the tundra in the muskeg. Too tall and wobbly to step “on”, too close together to walk “between”. Basically, in most areas, you are walking like you are drunk. You are going to fall sometimes. It’s always wet, but at least when you fall, it’s a soft landing. Imagine walking across a waterbed with volleyballs anchored to it…
Bugs: The mosquitoes were ridiculous. Headnets, pretty much the whole time. Big mosquitoes, like Boone and Crockett class. You swatted them, and they just flew off, not even acting hurt or offended… We doused with buy spray (the 98% Deet stuff that makes your lips go numb) and treated our clothes with premerethen and it helped some, but you still needed a headnet to maintain any semblance of sanity. Mornings weren’t bad, but as the day wore on, the bugs got worse.
I’ve been asked by a few people “did the premerethen treatment on your clothing work?”. For those that don’t know; you buy a spray bottle of this stuff, lay out all your clothing and gear, spray it down and let it dry a (we did 2 coats). It’s supposed to keep the bugs off. I think it kind of helped, here’s why; a couple of time, I was wearing a shirt that I know mosquitoes could easily “get through”. And I didn’t get bit through my shirt. Bugs still swarmed me. Still landed on my shirt. But never stung me through it. It doesn’t make sense, since they were sitting on my shirt, and I know they could have stung through the light fabric, but they didn’t. Can’t really explain it… but I think the stuff worked to some degree.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:00:36 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:02:08 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:03:29 PM
I should have known better.
While my brother in law and sister started breaking down her bull, LP and I took off after the bulls. Rounding the arm of the lake we got another look at them. I ranged them at a little over 1000 yards. Stationary. Feeding. 15 minutes later we stopped to catch our breath after fighting through muskeg for several hundred yards. I ranged them again. Still stationary. Still Feeding. 1000 yards.
We played this game for the next two hours until they disappeared and we found ourselves about 2 miles from camp. I had “relearned” the lesson I had already learned 9 years ago; you can’t catch caribou… We never got closer to them than 1000 yards. We stumbled back into camp around noon, soaked, starving and exhausted.
After some Mountain House and a rest, we helped my sister pack her bull back to camp, then climbed the “ridge” near her carcass to survey the area. The “ridge” was probably only 30 or 40 feet high, and didn’t offer us much of a view, but we got an idea of the topography and did spot some feeding caribou in the distance. After watching them for a while, we decided they were heading in a different direction, so we hiked back to camp for dinner.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:05:01 PM
We had just finished eating (about 9 pm), when LP spotted a bull across the lake. We set up the spotting scope and were sizing him up, when we spotted 3 more bulls off to our west. And they were “kind of” headed our way. Close enough for us to try to get in front of them. So, LP, Shawn and I took off to try to cut them off.
As we started to fight through the tussocks up the ridge we passed my sister’s bull’s gut pile. It had been scattered and buried. Yup. That mamma grizzly hadn’t been on her way “to” the carcass. She was on her way back from it when we saw her.
Yes, we had been eating dinner and lounging in camp, with a grizzly and two cubs feeding on a carcass 167 yards away. That’ll put some extra goosebumps on ya.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:07:27 PM
I say “we think” the bull was 500 yards, because we were having a devil of a time getting a range on him, due to the flat topography and the tussocks and bushes that he was feeding through. After getting about a dozen ranges (that came up everywhere between 700 and 6.1 yards), we finally got a few readings that were more or less consistent at just over 500. LP pulled his bug net off his face, got steady, and squeezed off a shot.
A miss.
Could have been the range. Could have been the bugs. Could have been LP pulling the shot, I don’t know. We couldn’t tell if it went high or low, but it was a clean miss. Then the unexpected happened; the spooked bull must have thought the shot had come from a different direction, started running right towards us. At about 350 yards, he stopped broadside and LP decided that was close enough for another shot. Just as he steadied, the bull started walking again, so LP led him and squeezed off another round.
“I had to have hit him that time.” He said.
But the bull showed no signs of being hit. Except that he trotted another 100 yards closer in our direction.
The next shot broke both of his shoulders. He trotted a few yards (somehow?) and went down. Hugs and high-fives for all. The only downside was that while walking up to LP’s bull, we spotted movement in the big draw that the bulls had initially disappeared into. The biggest of the bulls trotted up on the ridge, over it, and off into oblivion. He had been within rifle range the whole time. We don’t know where. Maybe bedded down in the brush, maybe hidden in some fold of topography that we couldn’t see. LP had shot a decent bull, but unfortunately we had made a common mistake. We had been so fixated on getting on the bull that we hadn’t really stopped and evaluated him again. Caribou all look “big” on the hoof because they are a deer-sized animal will “elk sized” horns. We had shot one of the smaller bulls in the group. If they had all stayed together, we’d have clearly seen the difference, but looking at that bull by himself, 500 yards away, we thought he was the big one.
When we walked up to him, we found the second shot had blown his windpipe out. It must have happened when LP “led” him for the shot. Funny that he hadn’t shown any signs of being hit. If you blew my windpipe to shreds, I would at least give you the satisfaction of letting you know…
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:08:44 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:10:21 PM
The next morning, while I was skinning out the skulls of the two bulls we had down, Shawn spotted a couple of really good bulls in about the same place as the bulls the night before. He and my sister took off to get in front of them. LP and I watched through the spotter from camp. After a while, we saw them pop up on the tundra. The bulls were working towards them and disappeared. Then they all disappeared. Then the bulls popped back up. From our perspective, it looked like the bulls were standing right where the hunters had been standing a few minutes before (that was an optical illusion, they were actually several hundred yards different).
“What’s going on?” LP hissed from behind his binoculars “Why isn’t he shooting?!!”
Just right then, while he was looking at the bull through the binos, he saw the bull drop. A half second later we heard the shot. Big bull down!
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:12:01 PM
“You can’t go around it.” Shawn yelled “It’s a stream between the two lakes. Try to find a place to cross that’s only waist deep”
Not realizing it, he had shot the bull on an “island” of sorts. The 200 yards that he had shot across, wasn’t tundra, it was a swamp. The bull dropped on dry ground, but it was the only dry ground near it. It was a great bull though, the biggest one of the trip.
LP and I slogged through the waist deep marsh for the last 200 yards. It took us nearly 15 minutes.
Helping Shawn break down his bull, we discussed what to do. 200 yards of waist deep swamp with 60 lb meat packs was not an appealing prospect. LP solved our problem.
“We don’t have to get the bull back to camp.” He said “We only have to get him to the bank of the lake. The plane has floats. I’ll see if there’s a path to get to the lake.”
And he trotted off on a recon. A half hour later he was back. He had found a route that would keep us dry all the way to the bank of the lake we were camped on. So we loaded up packs and cached everything on the lake bank, praying that the swamp would keep a grizzly from discovering it until we could get picked up.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:13:29 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:16:18 PM
Best.
Steaks.
Ever.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:17:27 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:19:24 PM
We did have to chase the mamma grizzly out of camp again. She showed up that afternoon at the top of the ridge, cubs in tow. Not acting aggressive or anything, just stood up on her hind legs and looked to see if we were still there I think. We yelled “hey Bear” a few times and she loped off, in the direction of LP’s gut pile. From the direction she was running, I don’t think she could have missed the scent line, and we didn’t see her again, so I assume she found it and camped out there until she was satisfied.
If I had elected to stay a few more days, I am sure that a big bull would have wandered into a place that I could have killed him. I think Trace would have been happier to say that his hunters had gone 4 for 4. But for me, I was happy that my son, my sister and my hunting buddy all got bulls they were happy with, and we had a successful trip. Between last year’s elk and the huge bears that LP keeps killing every year (another one the day before yesterday here in the Blues) another bull would have just created a worse “taxidermy problem” for me than I already have.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:22:18 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:23:55 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:25:53 PM
All-in-all, it was a great hunt. A once in a lifetime experience for my son, sister and her husband. Got to experience things that I had not experienced on my last Alaska caribou hunt, but I think we got the full Alaska experience this time. Muskeg, tussocks, bugs, grayling, musk ox, the migration, tundra, the Brooks Range, shed-hunting-Nirvana, Lake Trout, velvet bulls and grizzlies.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 23, 2025, 03:27:21 PM
Post by: redi on August 23, 2025, 03:35:37 PM
Post by: shootem on August 23, 2025, 03:42:39 PM
Post by: Bob33 on August 23, 2025, 04:03:47 PM
Post by: fishngamereaper on August 23, 2025, 04:47:52 PM
Good stuff man ..
Boy do I want to do another caribou hunt....pain and misery aside...best hunt ever.
Congrats to everyone...
Post by: Kingofthemountain83 on August 23, 2025, 08:08:07 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 25, 2025, 07:10:19 AM
Post by: milldozer on August 25, 2025, 09:04:39 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 25, 2025, 10:34:45 AM
Great story, thank you for sharing. Brings back fond memories of working in the Brooks Range and staying in Deadhorse. Was the "hotel" you stayed at called the Aurora? That place was a palace, by Deadhorse standards.Yes, it was the Aurora. And yes, compared to the other camps, it was the Waldorf... :chuckle:
On the way out we stayed the night at Elk Camp. $15 cheaper, but not quite as "fancy"... :rolleyes:
Post by: Wingin it on August 25, 2025, 06:39:02 PM
Post by: lewy on August 25, 2025, 06:59:18 PM
Post by: actionshooter on August 25, 2025, 09:34:25 PM
Post by: Gentrys on August 25, 2025, 10:33:32 PM
Post by: CamoDup on August 26, 2025, 07:12:36 AM
Post by: HillHound on August 26, 2025, 07:46:46 AM
Post by: RB on August 26, 2025, 08:55:55 AM
Post by: frazierw on August 26, 2025, 09:20:24 AM
Post by: wafisherman on August 26, 2025, 09:48:20 AM
Post by: Timberstalker on August 26, 2025, 10:14:45 AM
Post by: Dan-o on August 26, 2025, 11:35:56 AM
Little Pathfinder turned into a man.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 26, 2025, 12:18:42 PM
So cool!*censored* Dan-o. Made me actually tear up a little bit...
Little Pathfinder turned into a man.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 26, 2025, 12:20:12 PM
Awesome! I stayed in that same place in dead horse, still have the ice cream machine? :chuckle:Yes, they do. LP made good use of it, but honestly, their dessert table was more dangerous for me. Cheesecake every night. :bdid:
:chuckle: :chuckle:
Post by: Woodchuck on August 26, 2025, 12:22:09 PM
I remember both of your boys in little league. Man, time flies. Awesome hunt and story.So cool!*censored* Dan-o. Made me actually tear up a little bit...
Little Pathfinder turned into a man.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 26, 2025, 12:26:54 PM
Thanks Woodchuck. Yup. Time flies...I remember both of your boys in little league. Man, time flies. Awesome hunt and story.So cool!*censored* Dan-o. Made me actually tear up a little bit...
Little Pathfinder turned into a man.
Post by: trophyhunt on August 26, 2025, 02:10:06 PM
Post by: bearhunter99 on August 26, 2025, 02:22:39 PM
Thanks Woodchuck. Yup. Time flies...I remember both of your boys in little league. Man, time flies. Awesome hunt and story.So cool!*censored* Dan-o. Made me actually tear up a little bit...
Little Pathfinder turned into a man.
They spelled Little Pathfinder wrong :chuckle:
Great story and sounds like a great hunt! Thanks for taking us along. The tundra up there gives the legs a workout. Until you have experienced it it is tough to explain to someone.
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 26, 2025, 03:29:03 PM
Agreed! It never looks bad in the YouTube Videos. Mushy ground... so what... :dunno:Thanks Woodchuck. Yup. Time flies...I remember both of your boys in little league. Man, time flies. Awesome hunt and story.So cool!*censored* Dan-o. Made me actually tear up a little bit...
Little Pathfinder turned into a man.
They spelled Little Pathfinder wrong :chuckle:
Great story and sounds like a great hunt! Thanks for taking us along. The tundra up there gives the legs a workout. Until you have experienced it it is tough to explain to someone.
Stop being a wuss... :chuckle: :chuckle:
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 26, 2025, 04:05:30 PM
Love it. Pathfinder reports are always a good read. Sounds like an epic hunt with a lifetime of memories for all. I have a few trips on my radar in the coming years with my kids and I will certainly re-read these for ideas!There is some real value in seeing how your kids react in tense/stressful situations. On our 2016 caribou hunt my older son got lost. Him finding his way out of that by overcoming panic and using his head made me feel a lot better about sending him off to college on his own. On this trip we had to chase grizzlies out of camp.
It's a good feeling to have raised boys that know how to handle themselves.
Post by: bearpaw on August 27, 2025, 05:51:02 AM
Post by: Machias on August 27, 2025, 07:47:02 AM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 27, 2025, 08:34:21 AM
Except elk tags in the Blues. >:(
All the elk in the Blues are dead.
Apply for the Colockum.
:chuckle:
Post by: teanawayslayer on August 27, 2025, 09:09:03 AM
Thanks for all the kind comments everyone. When I first joined this site Doug (Boneaddict) told me in a post that "I try to treat this site like our own exclusive hunting magazine. If you have an adventure that you think folks would like to do, write about it." I try to do that whenever I can. This is such a great community to share with.thanks for the write up! And the Indians killed all the elk in the colockum! Better stay in the blues :peep:
Except elk tags in the Blues. >:(
All the elk in the Blues are dead.
Apply for the Colockum.
:chuckle:
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 27, 2025, 09:26:32 AM
It's true.
Look it up.
Apply for the Colockum.
Post by: Woodchuck on August 27, 2025, 09:33:59 AM
At the risk of derailing my own thread, I think it is important to note that it is already common knowledge that Bigfoot ate all of the elk in the Blues.He speaks the truth. :sry:
It's true.
Look it up.
Apply for the Colockum.
Post by: teanawayslayer on August 27, 2025, 10:00:39 AM
At the risk of derailing my own thread, I think it is important to note that it is already common knowledge that Bigfoot ate all of the elk in the Blues.:chuckle: :chuckle:
It's true.
Look it up.
Apply for the Colockum.
Post by: HillHound on August 27, 2025, 11:25:33 AM
Sorry, let’s get back on track now. You’ve taken both boys up now. Is the next trip with a friend, the wife, etc.?
Post by: Pathfinder101 on August 27, 2025, 12:27:09 PM
Go ahead and apply for the colockum But the big feet have moved up here and eaten all of the true spikes so when you don’t draw that quality tag don’t bother coming because there are no legal elk around for the rest of us common tag holders. I totally understand putting in for the highly sought after areas, I do not understand traveling across the state in droves to chase the handful of legal elk that are actually out there. They have affectively bred/hunted the true spike genetics out of the colockum heard. Definitely see way more crowned three and four point one year-old then True spikes .If I ever hunt Alaska again (which I hope to), it will be for moose. Waaaay more money for one of those drop camps.
Sorry, let’s get back on track now. You’ve taken both boys up now. Is the next trip with a friend, the wife, etc.?
The long pole in the tent (the thing "holding everything up" if you've never heard that Army term) is that being a teacher, it's darn near impossible to take off 10 days in a row after the first of September. Even if I figured out how to afford it, the length of time it takes to kill a moose might keep me out of this game until I retire...
Post by: Karl Blanchard on August 27, 2025, 03:18:02 PM
Post by: actionshooter on August 27, 2025, 09:23:34 PM
Oh the memories of the blisters on the ends of my toes in the muskeg :)
Post by: Whitenuckles on September 07, 2025, 02:28:41 PM
Post by: bearhunter99 on September 08, 2025, 09:18:16 AM
Isn’t that what substitutes are for?Go ahead and apply for the colockum But the big feet have moved up here and eaten all of the true spikes so when you don’t draw that quality tag don’t bother coming because there are no legal elk around for the rest of us common tag holders. I totally understand putting in for the highly sought after areas, I do not understand traveling across the state in droves to chase the handful of legal elk that are actually out there. They have affectively bred/hunted the true spike genetics out of the colockum heard. Definitely see way more crowned three and four point one year-old then True spikes .If I ever hunt Alaska again (which I hope to), it will be for moose. Waaaay more money for one of those drop camps.
Sorry, let’s get back on track now. You’ve taken both boys up now. Is the next trip with a friend, the wife, etc.?
The long pole in the tent (the thing "holding everything up" if you've never heard that Army term) is that being a teacher, it's darn near impossible to take off 10 days in a row after the first of September. Even if I figured out how to afford it, the length of time it takes to kill a moose might keep me out of this game until I retire...
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