Packing Up and Heading Out!

[tjfslaughter]

Very nice area to hunt.  My first big game hunt was near just north of Anaktuvak Pass, AK back in 1993 for Caribou.  I have been luck to hunt in many areas of the state.  My Grizz was taken with a rifle.  

[Integracingsr]

great pics and stories, Woodsman.  I enjoyed following along.  Sounds like one hell of an adventure, with or without a bear to bring home.

[Wfelegi]

Amazing pictures!

[Woodsman416]

Scenery was amazing.

 

[Woodsman416]

This sow stepped out of the alders and started digging pea vine. This is a NICE bear! I stated moving down the bank and out popped the two cubs. She had me fooled.

 

[Woodsman416]

The last two days were nothing but snow. Serious white out conditions most of the time. Three was not much accumulation in the valleys due to ground temperature. But we couldn't glass 100 yards!

 

[Woodsman416]

We had our eye on a pregnant cow, kept checking up on her looking for bears in the area. We had seen her about two hours before and next time we check the area she had given birth.

[Woodsman416]

Heading home.

 

[Sotaroas]

Awesome photos , definitely Gods Country , good luck , stay safe !

[Woodsman416]

Storm over the pipeline.

 

[Silver Belly62]

Some great pic's, really like the way those clouds are between the road and the Mtn in the "heading  home" pic.  Will you be heading out to try again sometime ?

Edited August 29, 2017 by Silver Belly62

[Live to Hunt]

Looks like you had a lot of success. Awesome trip. Don't always have to kill to be successful. Many would love to have the opportunity you had. Looks beautiful

[Woodsman416]

Reflections

 

 

My first night in Alaska I had to overnight at a hotel in Fairbanks. It had a sports bar attached and I went there for a burger and a beer. I sat down at the bar next to a drunk eskimo. He saw my UBNJ hat and asked "you from New Jersey?" When I answered in the affirmative He gave up a thumbs up and said "ALLLLRRRRRIGHTTT!" Kinda like you would expect The Fonz to say it if The Fonz was a drunken eskimo. So we talked a little and he asked why I was there I told him I was hunting and heasked "Grizz?" I said yes and he asked what I was packing. "Packing?" "yeah, what kind of gun are you shooting? 375?" I told him I was bowhunting. He dismissed me with a wave of his hand "You F&?$in' crazy!" Priceless!

 

 

On the third day (night) I ambushed a grizz on the pipeline. I hid next to a stantion and it walked by me at 15 yards. I'll never forget watching the long ivory claws on it's front feet as it walked towards me. I knew it was small, probably a little over two hundred pounds, but it was legal and I could have ended my hunt successfully right then. Honestly, I wasn't even tempted to kill that bear.

 

 

One night we spotted a white wolf near the river just north of the town of Wiseman. I stalked down to the river. The wind was gusting right in my face. I peeked around some brush and there he was, facing away from me, looking towards the river at 12 yards. As soon as I started drawing my bow he bolted. He never even looked in my direction. It was awesome to get that close to a creature like that.

 

 

Time is different in the Arctic. First, there's the four hour time difference from home. Second, you have 24 hours of day light, so other than a couple of dusky hours you really have no sense of what time it is. Third, we usually slept from around 8:00 AM to to 1:00 or 2:00 Pm and hunted all night. That really screws with your internal clock. So, when we were coming back into Fairbanks and my phone started working again I was surprised to get a four hour old text message from the limo company telling me they had arrived at Newark airport to pick me up. I had missed my plane by 24 hours! It cost me $300 to change my flight and I caught the same flight I was supposed to be on the day before. $300 for an extra day in the Brooks Range seems like a pretty good deal to me!

 

 

Trips like this are EXPENSIVE. How expensive? I really don't know. I've done wilderness trips before and my rule is that I never add them up. It does me no good to run totals. When people I know would find out about my trip they would mostly say one of two things. 1) "How much does a trip like that cost?" Answer " A lot."  2) "You must have a lot of money!" Answer "Not anymore I don't!" There are ways to keep costs down though. When I booked this trip two years ago I got an Alaska Airlines credit card. The way I use CCs is to pay everything I can on it and never carry a balance. Every other Sunday I sit down at my computer and pay it off. I never pay interest and I never buy anything I can't afford to pay for in cash. So after two years of using my Alaska card my total cost for Airfare was $10.60 round trip. ...except that $300 dollar error that is.

 

 

Would I do this trip again? I'm already planning it!

Edited August 29, 2017 by Woodsman416

[bruiserbucksoutdoors]

Wow, what a great story! Thanks for sharing and congrats on a successful hunt, That had to be one hell of an experience. I would love to do something like that one day!

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Those mountains are breathtaking! Very nice trip! Thanks for sharing!

 

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