Caribou Hunt

 We had a successful first caribou hunt!  We arrived in the area on Thursday afternoon to glass for bou and set up camp.  The hunt started Friday---we got our caribou the first morning.

The pictures are frustatingly out of order and it is even more frustrating to try to rearrange them... so bare with me!  Also-- Adam and I were goofing around at the airshow which resulted in my camera being slammed to the ground.... now broken.  These pics are with our other camera--- not quite the zoom.  Shopping for a new camera now!

I am standing at my caribou--- this large group just came up to check things out-- including a bigger bull!  Who woulda known?!?!

 A bunch of small bulls, cows, and a few calves.  (Females get antlers too!)  There is a large bull toward the left end.

 Adam with his share of the first pack out!

 Our 3rd flat tire of the trip.  We have bad luck with the shale in the gravel when some people have yet to get 1 flat tire out there.  We are up to 8 flats from that darn road!

 Beautiful sillouettes on the mountain ridge!

 the "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES" pic!  Had to represent Iowa with my hat! (even though you can't even tell in the pic!)

Our camp.... I'm sitting with a mosquito net on--- for the flies!

 MY FIRST CARIBOU!!!!!!!!!!!  Not the biggest and not the smallest.... just right! 

 A group on the edge of the morning fog.... cows and calves

 We woke up to nasty fog..... terrible hunting conditions!

This mountain side may look familiar... this is the spot we had scouted with Brandon and Deanna.  I have posted a picture of Brandon making a snow angel over there!  Well-- caribou were traveling right through that area (now melted)

 A great view... small bull going through the night before the hunt opened.  It was nice to observe their patterns of travel!

 The 2nd flat tire....Adam is not happy!

 What beautiful weather for hiking and hunting!

 This cow and calf ran right past our truck when we were parking to start the hike!

 Our set up for the 5 day hunt... we were only there 1 day and didn't even get the wheelers off the trailer!

 The first flat

 Another view of the set up... with our customized meat wagon! 

So this is where the zoom woulda been nice.... the brown spots in the snow are caribou. The night before the hunt opened- hundreds of caribou lined the ridge.  It was quite the sight!  Hunters were just drooling and anticipating the next morning like it was Christmas morning! ;)

And a couple pics from dipnetting.  We hit the red salmon run just right again!  We were in and out with 35 fish in 4 hours!  A-MAZING!  Unfortunately the work had just begun... cleaning and vac-packing took more time than actually netting them!

We took our neighbor out the next day.... got 17 fish in no time!  (he usually dipnets from shore but took up the offer to try from the boat to get the rest of his fish since he'd never netted from a boat before.  Let's just say 17 fish in 3 hours was easier than 3 fish in 8 hours!----the time of the run makes a different too)

YEAAAAAAAAH for a successful summer of visitors and a packed freezer!  Since we got back early from the hunt- we spent a day unpacking and prepping the meat.  The next morning we took off silver fishing on the Deshka with our boat-- we caught a couple.  Today was a day of resting and taking care of tires!  Tomorrow we will try hunting for ptarmigan.... our goal is to replace chicken with ptarmigan so that we are buying ZERO meat from the store.  It feels amazing to know we have supplied all of our meat and are eating that much healthier! 

Adam is in one of his best buddy's wedding this weekend in Chicago.  Teachers go back to school Thursday.  Danae and Tyler will be visiting and come in Thursday night!

A video of the group that came up after we started cleaning my caribou... check out the nice bull!  DANG IT!  It was cool to hear all of their hooves hitting the ground and... they smelled our campsite before running over our tent! :)  They actually turned and went WAAAAAAAY out into the valley- opposite direction of other hunters.