Caribou Yet?

We didn’t do too much during September due to it being my on-call month for deployment (the reason I also didn’t have any hunts planned). We decided that the camper had been sitting for too long, so a camping weekend was agreed on… but we didn’t really have a plan. A couple days before the weekend, Alaska Fish and Game extended the caribou season a week. Why not camp while hunting? Well, the main deterrent was the 5.5 hour drive. After discussing with Danielle, we decided just me and Ashton would go for a guy’s camping/ hunting weekend and the girls would stay home to do girl stuff.

Since Danielle wasn’t coming with, we didn’t have to wait for her to get done with daycare before we left. I decided to work extra-long Thursday and finish my work halfway to our hunting area so we could leave early Friday.

Ashton was psyched after he heard it was just going to be us hunting for caribou… he wouldn’t stop asking if I was excited about it and kept reminding me of the day we were leaving. In preparation for the hunt, I took him with to the grocery store to have him decide want he wanted to eat during the hunt. You can imagine what we got… Doritos (he tried the Cool Ranch kind and those are his new favorite), Sour Patch Kids, bubble gum, Scooby Snacks, Donuts, kitkat, snickers, jerky. Those were just the snacks, we got real food too for meals.

Friday morning came and he shot out of bed before the alarm went off. Ashton takes forever to eat breakfast so I had plenty of time to get some work done before he finished. I was already packed, so once breakfast was done, we hit the road at 9AM.

Ashton talked my ear off most of the way, until he passed out at 10:30. He woke up when we stopped at Glenn Allen. Of course we grabbed some Tok Thai. Ashton’s new favorite dish there is the Thai BBQ Chicken (three large strips of tender chicken and lots of sticky rice… with peanut sauce dumped on it). I got my standard chicken pad thai.

We got back on our way shortly after and ate on the way. An animal Ashton has been asking to see in person for a while now is a fox. We were lucky enough to spot a fox in the middle of the road on our way there and it stayed put long enough for Ashton to get a good look at it. He was excited to cross that off his viewing list. Three hours later (with a 30-minute construction delay), we rolled into our hunting area. There was a small bull moose near the road and Ashton was able to see and admire it too.

Luckily it wasn’t raining, so we decided to get a hike in to see if could find a caribou before dinner. I wanted to show Ashton where Danielle shot her first caribou. This spot was located a short mile hike away on the other side of a hill/mountain without the highway in sight. Of course, we were hoping to see caribou, but I took my .22 handgun with incase some ptarmigan showed up. This was also a great time to have Ashton practice his hunting voice, aka whispering so animals and other things couldn’t heat him.

We got to Danielle’s kill site and decided to keep moving south to another hill. We stopped and setup on a glassing hill. Ashton then let me know… “I’m hungry.” DAD FAIL. I of course forgot to pack snacks. That’s okay though, I just dug into the kill snacks (I always pack a full-sized candy bar for each person to devour after an animal is dropped and before the field dressing starts). I pulled out the Milky Ways and handed him one. This was the first time he tried one and he loved it.

I gave him the job of holding onto and using the range finder. He treasured it! He had that thing around his neck and was looking through it nonstop. I’m surprised he didn’t use up the batteries with how much he was hitting the range button. He was looking at some bushes and let me know that he thought he saw a rabbit. I knew he didn’t really see a rabbit (since the bush was 5 feet away) but we decided to walk in that direction to check it out.

We circled the hill and didn’t see a rabbit, or caribou, but we spotted three moose! There was a very large bull with a couple cows hanging out on a ridge. We watched them for a while before we returned to our packs to glass some more for caribou.

It was starting to get late so we packed up and headed back to the truck. We found an old moose kill skull along the way and Ashton decided he wanted a couple teeth. He couldn’t pull them so I was asked to smash them out… mission accomplished. On our way down the mountain, we came across a pika. This was the first time Ashton saw a pika and loved watching it. I had to pry him away to stop watching it. Shortly after we walked away he asked me if we could shoot it. I asked him why we would want to shoot something like that, to which he replied, “because I want to know what a pika’s heart tastes like.” For some reason, Ashton is obsessed with tasting the heart of every possible animal! He knows we don’t kill animals without the intent of eating them, but we reviewed the need to eat all of them, not just specific parts. I let him know that we probably won’t shoot a pika because there isn’t much meat on them and they likely don’t taste good. He then replied with something I say a lot, “How do you know they won’t taste good, have you tried one before?”… NO … “Then you won’t know until you try it. You might like it!”

During this evening hunt, Ashton had a VERY hard time remembering to use his hunting voice in the appropriate places, but he got better at it. Caribou don’t really care too much, but in preparation for our bison hunt in October, if one of those guys were to hear even the slightest peep out of him, they would be miles away in a heartbeat.

We got to the bottom of the mountain and raced to the truck to see who would get there first. I won this time… another thing we are working on is to channel his competitive spirit and a resulting loss on not whining, but congratulating and trying harder next time. It didn’t matter though; he was having so much fun I don’t think I could have upset him even if I tried.

We packed up the truck and drove west to find a camping spot for the night, looking for a place overlooking a field to watch while we hung out around the fire and did the truck camping stuff. We found the perfect spot, but it didn’t have any caribou.

I got a fire started while I tasked him with digging a deep hole in the ground. I knew he would have to poop at some point, so he was digging his own outhouse. Of note, I didn’t take any toys with on this trip, but he did fine playing with anything he could find.

The fire was blazing and we sat around flames joking and enjoying each other’s company. I cooked up four hotdogs, one for him and three for me. He then opened his bag of blue Doritos excited to try another flavor. He instantly fell in love with them and declared the red Doritos as far inferior to the blue. We lounged a while stuffing ourselves with chips until I introduced him to toasting. I told him how toasts work and when you do them. He loved the idea. He proposed his first toast… “We had a good day hiking, the hotdogs were yummy, I like doing stuff just you and me Dad, aaaaaand caribou hunting is fun… Cheers!” NAILED IT! He then asked to do a toast every 10 minutes after that, except he kept forgetting what the word “toast” was so he called it, “the cheers thing”, “bread”, and “drinking words.”

The sun went down and it started to get cold. We put everything away and jumped into the camper for a movie on his tablet before bed. He was excited to sleep on the big Queen bed with me because he is usually forced to sleep on the foldout bed with Tundra when the whole family uses the camper.

The plan for the next day was to wake up early, drive further west, find a trail to hike north and then go from there. I explained to Ashton that when we hunt, we wake up before the sun and get ready to hunt once the sun rises. I let him know that when I tell him it’s time to get up, he can’t fuss and we need to get ready fast. He understood

 

Just before bed Ashton looked over at me and told me he was sorry we didn’t see a caribou today. He then gave me a big hug and let me know we will probably see one tomorrow. This kid is the sweetest… but he was a liar!

It got fairly cold overnight and even snowed on us. Thank goodness for a cozy camper with heater!! Ashton popped right out of bed at 6:45AM when I poked him to get up. I let him know we don’t have time to do our normal morning camping routine of watching a cartoon show and playing with toys. Instead, he had to down our breakfast and get going. He then asked if he could have Doritos for breakfast. I said no, and then put a gigantic chocolate donut and milk in front of him 😊

We hit the road shortly after, keeping our eyes peeled for any movement along the road. We didn’t see anything during our drive. I got a message from Kevin that they dropped a caribou a couple days ago so we decided to stop by and chat for a bit. The bull was taken by Brittany and it was a dandy! They were on their way out so we told them goodbye and planned out where we would hike.

 It rained overnight so all the brush was soaked, leaving us with the need to stay on a trail for a long hike in order to stay dry. The trail we started on was a small game trail that eventually puttered out. We were then forced to hike through the brush, and to my surprise, the brush was dry. The unfortunate part about this kind of hike is that the brush is as tall as Ashton. He had a hard time pushing through the vegetation, the limbs poked him in the face, and he needed to high step over branches. I ended up putting him on my shoulders for most of the hiking when there was no game trail to follow.

We got about a mile into the alpine and found a small hill to setup on. We decided we would hang out on the hill for a while and see if a caribou ventured close to us. We spotted a couple moose, and other hunters, but no caribou. The lack of action and it being close to noon made Ashton tired. I put all his layers on and made a tundra bed for him to take a nap. I glassed all around us for two and a half hours while he was sleeping and again, saw zero caribou.

Ashton woke up ready to hike, so we made our way back toward the truck. We took a different route hoping to spoke a caribou, but only saw hoof prints, bones, and game trails. We did see a duck on a pond and decided we would try to go after that once we retrieved a different gun from the camper. Once we got to the camper, we realized the duck was a diver and not ideal for eating, so we left it alone.

Rain was moving in and that meant poor hiking conditions. We decided to drive and road hunt by slowly moving along the road and stopping often to glass open areas. Ashton loved it because I didn’t make him buckle up (we were moving at a max speed of 10mph). He was bouncing all over the truck trying to find something moving in the fields outside. He also waived at every single ATV and vehicle that passed us, filling with joy when they waived back.

We drove quite a ways through some torrential down pours and beautiful rainbows. We didn’t see a single caribou but of course, we saw a handful of moose. We also didn’t see any meat in camps, which indicated poor hunting everywhere. Right when we decided to turn around, we noticed that almost every vehicle in a parking lot had caribou meat hanging. These cars were parked at a trailhead with ATVs on their trailers, most likely shooting the caribou dozens of miles off the road.

It was close to 6PM at this time so we needed to find a place to camp, cook dinner, and settle down for the night. We turned around and found a great place overlooking a large lake with terrain that would filter caribou in front of us if a group moved our direction. The rain stopped as we pulled in and the skies cleared up. I got the fire going while Ashton tried catching bugs and digging holes.

Dinner was the same as the night prior and Ashton didn’t care at all. The conversations were great and the 20 or so toasts Ashton proposed were all amusing. After dinner, we checked out another lake on the other side of the road. This lake was beaming with life. We saw a beaver, ducks, and tons of musk rats. One duck was very close so we went back to grab the gun, but upon our return he vanished.

The fire started to dwindle and darkness began creeping in on us. We spread out the fire as the moon peaked over the mountain. Retreating to the camper, we initiated the typical nightly routine of junk food and a movie. This night got a little crazy… we stuffed ourselves with Scooby snacks, sour bright crawlers, and sour patch kids. I ate so many my stomach was cramping!

Before dozing off, Ashton made sure to tell me multiple times that he loved me and that he liked doing things with just me (it melted my heart each time).

We woke up Sunday before sunrise. It dropped a little below 30 overnight and everything was crusty with frost. We spent the morning looking over the field in front of the truck while we ate our breakfast and prepared for a partial day of hunting before we drove home. I was hopeful the full moon allowed caribou to move overnight and since no hunters were out to impede them, perhaps we would get lucky with one moseying in front of our camp… no such luck.

We jumped in the truck to road hunt for a ways until we got to a new trail I wanted to check out for an AM hike. The plan was to hike a couple miles on the trail and hill ridges, glass for a few hours, eat lunch, and then return to the truck for Ashton to conk out while I drive. The new hiking area was very nice, unfortunately, it was more of a moose area than caribou, but then again, that was pretty much everywhere this year.

Ashton doesn’t really glass or look for game for much longer then a couple minutes. He does a great job of keeping himself busy though and never whined about staying in one spot for multiple hours. He would play with rocks, dig with the trekking sticks, jump on my back, and beat up bushes in the area. If he got a little too loud or crazy, it only took a small reminder to simmer down.

This was our last hope to see a caribou, and it didn’t pan out. We returned to the truck and headed home.

I promised Ashton that if he was a good little hunter, we would stop at Long Lake to look for baby fish. He earned that title and the promised reward that accompanied it. After a good three-hour nap, we stopped at Long Lake to look for the baby fish. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single minnow to be found. He was disappointed, but he understands that is part of fishing.

We decided to stop at one last trail for a quick hike and the potential to bring home a grouse. It only took 50 feet into the trail before a grouse flew in front of us. He sat on a log about 20 yards away and I pulled up my 22LR to shoot him. I released 5 shots and I couldn’t hit the damn thing! I was so pissed after it flew away from getting too nervous. I have no idea if my aim was terrible or if the gun wasn’t shooting straight. After that poor performance, I vowed to add different sights to the gun. Ashton gave me a good razzing too and kept reminding me about how I couldn’t hit the grouse… that turd. We hiked a little further on the trail without seeing another bird. Deflated again, we turned around to head home, empty handed.

We may not have brought any meat home, but MAN was that a fun weekend of hunting and hanging out with Ashton (huge success). It was probably one of my favorite hunts I have ever done, that’s how much I enjoyed it. I later reflected on how much fun I had with Ashton and realized that if I shot a caribou prior to this weekend, I would have never had that Dad/ Ashton time. No, we didn’t really need the meat, but it would have been nice to supplement our freezer and our neighbor’s freezer. I really wanted Ashton to see the whole process of shooting something, field dressing it, getting it home in perfect condition, and then processing it for the freezer. It’s OK though, we still have the bison hunt and I am very confident in our success probability for that hunt.

Farewell kisses for Mommy

Tok Thai deeeeeeeelish!

Looking for animals as we drive. 

The grass looked dry so he decided to water it. 

Our neighbor Ms. Debbie made us yummy chocolate chip cookies for the hunt. They were definitely Ashton approved. Danielle was a little upset we didn't save her any.

Glassing for caribou

Moose look like a caribou for half a second. Here's a bull moose courting a cow. 

Ashton hiking the mountain.

Ashton headed down the mountain. 

Pika Pika

Dinner and a view. 

Donut monster

One second he's stuffing his face with Skittles...

... the next second his face is stuffed into the ground.

My view during Ashton's nap.

This is currently his favorite weapon... slow animals and bugs beware!

Stoking the fire.

Staying busy while I glass for caribou. 

Ashton LOVES heavy machinery. He was excited to see these monsters in action preparing terrain for a future road. 

More equipment

The Unofficial End of Alaska Summer

We didn’t really have plans for Labor Day weekend. September was my on-call month for deployment so I didn’t plan any hunts or adventures during that time. The week before, we decided to take the camper and head north, with no real destination or plan in mind.

After work on Friday, we finished packing and hit the road. We decided to stop at a pull out near Bonnie Lake. We hiked a trail here before and shot a couple grouse in late fall, but we were unable to get to Bonnie Lake due to ice on the road. There wasn’t ice on the road yet, so we figured we could check out the lake now.

We found a pull out by a couple trails. We decided to get everything situated, and then go for an evening stroll in our mud boots. We didn’t hike far. We saw a bunch of caribou tracks on the trail, which was a surprise since we were somewhat far from caribou terrain. We also found a large group of wild raspberry bushes with berries ripe for the taking. We turned around with plans to come back the next day and pick a bunch of raspberries (especially since our raspberry bushes didn’t produce many berries this year).

Once back at the camper, we did our usual camping routine of goofing off in the camper, watching a movie, and snacking on junk food. Everyone went to bed happy 😊

The next morning we planned to walk the trail we previously shot grouse off of. Unfortunately for us, we have kids that like to sleep in, play with toys in the AM, and dilly dally around before the camping day starts. The typical slow start resulted in someone pulling up to the trail head with three hunting dogs, and head off onto the path nearly 15 minutes prior to us setting course in that direction. Oh well… that’s how it goes.

Instead, we decided to walk the same trail we took the prior evening. We didn’t see any grouse on the hike, but probably the most prized and rare find discovered on this hike was a $20 bill! I was shocked to find money on the ground in the woods, but I’ll take it (it actually went in Ashton’s piggy bank)! On our way back toward the camper, we stopped to eat lunch and harvest as many raspberries as possible. We filled a large Tupperware container before heading out.

Bonnie Lake was our next destination. We loaded up the truck/ camper and drove the gravel road to the lake. After we realized how far the lake was past the icy spot that stopped us last year, we were very thankful we didn’t attempt to push through then; we would have ended up stuck for sure!

Bonnie Lake is a beautiful lake. It is stocked lake, with a boat launch, scenic mountains all around, and private cabins surrounding most of the lake. The lake seemed like it was mostly used by the private land owners since there was only a small amount of lake access for the public. Without a boat, there wasn’t much to do or see. Regardless, we made the best of it and found critters in the water.

NOTE – Ashton is OBSESSED with catching baby fish. It is all he can think about and wants to do. If you told him he could do anything he wants, he would ask to go catch baby fish. This means taking a net, scooping them up, and putting them in a bucket.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any baby fish for Ashton to catch. We found many underwater snails, freshwater shrimp, and leeches to play with. Of course, Ashton was sad he didn’t find any baby fish, so we made plans to leave this area, and head further east, stopping at Long Lake first to see if there were baby fish to catch.

Josie fell asleep in the truck on the way to Long Lake. She stayed in the truck with Mom, and Ashton, Tundra, and I went looking for baby fish…. Thank goodness Long Lake had them! There were minnows everywhere. We quickly netted a handful and kept them in water in Tundra’s water bowl. The presence of baby fish meant he would stay busy for as long as we stayed there.

After a while, Danielle decided to come join the fun. By this time, Ashton was pushing the limits of the depths he could go without getting the inside of his boots wet. Luckily, Danielle brought water shoes so we rolled his pants above his knees and let him go wherever he wanted. It was a beautiful, sunny day so wading in the water likely felt great.

We decided to wake up Josie so she didn’t miss out on all the fun in the sun. She didn’t want to wake up but after I mentioned fish, getting in the water, and snack, she popped right up. I put her water shoes on stripped her bottoms off to only a diaper, and she was off to join the fun.

I was seeing grayling and rainbow trout swimming around so I was itching to try some fishing too. I decided to grab my fishing gear and walk toward the road where it was deeper. The one cool thing about Long Lake is how clear the water is, and because of that, I was able to see 7 giant trout hanging out in the deep water. This got my heart racing because the trout easily looked bigger than any trout I have caught before.

On my second cast, one of the monsters nailed my spoon. I called out to Ashton that I needed my netter, and he came sprinting over. The trout was fighting hard and once it got in the shallow water where Ashton was trying to net it, it would freak out and give Ashton a lake shower. The lake showers were even more numerous because Ashton’s net was not meant to handle anything of this size. We eventually got the trout to squeeze into the net and settle down.

While I was reeling in the fish, an onlooker approached to get a closer look. He was an older fella and super nice to converse with. After we released the fish, Danielle asked him if he would like a fish if we caught another. He quickly accepted the offer, which told me he likely wanted the first one. Luckily, the second fish I landed was even bigger than the first one and destined for his dinner table.

Normally, I wouldn’t keep a trout of this size nor would I offer for someone else to take it home. However, the fish in this lake are stocked and plentiful. I wanted to take home a fish to possibly cook over the fire, but this was the first time I had the problem of catching fish too big to cook whole over an open flame. It took many catch and releases to land a big fish small enough to be comfortable with cooking whole over the fire. I welcome the next time I am faced with this problem!

It was fairly busy at Long Lake so we decided to not stay the night. We wanted to hike and look for rock ptarmigan at some point so we took off further east to find higher elevation. We settled on a pull out just past Sheep Mountain near Gun Sight Mountain. I’m not sure how, but we stumbled across a place to camp with nobody around. The rest of the night was spent having foot races, huddling around the fire, and just relaxing.

After waking up the next day, we prepared our packs for a long day of hiking with a .22 rifle, lunch, water, berry picking items, rain gear, and bear protection. We started on an ATV trail but soon split off on a caribou trail. The start of the caribou trail was a little rough hiking since Ashton was on foot and the brush was above his head. We eventually got high enough to avoid brush and could walk through grass fields.

At one point, Danielle said she wanted to see what was on the other side of a hill. As she hiked up the steep side the rest of us stayed low on the trail that circumvented the hill. Right at that moment, Tundra flushed 7 ptarmigan and they took flight in the opposite direction. Luckily Danielle was high above everything and she kept an eye on where they landed. We hiked up to Danielle to create a plan. She pointed out where they landed and I figured out how I would approach them. Danielle kept Tundra to prevent him from flushing them again (we only had a rifle so without a shotgun, flushed birds were safe birds). I threw Ashton on my back and we were off.

I let Ashton walk once we got past the high brush and had an open approach. It was good practice being quiet and approaching game (even though we didn’t need to be too quite approaching ptarmigan). When we got closer to the bushes we thought the ptarmigan landed in, one immediately flushed. Luckily, there were still 6 more somewhere. I approached a small bush when I heard the classic “baluuh” of a ptarmigan. GOT YA… I knew right where he was now. I shuffled to the side to see his head poke out from the brush and put a .22 bullet in him. As he flopped in the grass, Ashton came over to finish the job while I went after the remaining birds. I didn’t think about it at the time, but this was the first time Ashton has seen a wounded bird that we shot. I didn’t tell him what to do with it but he knew it should be dead. I also didn’t see it, but he told me (and so did mom) that he tried to kill it so he was whacking it with his trekking stick. After he yelled to tell me what he was doing, I told him to step on the bird’s head until I came back. This finished the job more efficiently than a beating with a stick (especially with body shots), but I was proud to hear that he took the initiative. We then had a long conversation about shooting animals and how our goal was to end their life as quick and painless as possible. He understood.

Unfortunately, the rest of the birds were very skittish and all flushed before I could get close enough or within sight for a rifle shot. If I would have had our shotgun (which was in the camper), we would have easily had 5 birds down.

We decided we didn’t have enough time in the day to get high enough to find rock ptarmigan (the ones we shot were willow ptarmigan), so we side-hilled to a ridge that would lead us back down the mountain. Once at the ridge, we stopped for a very late lunch. We also found a handful of descent blue berry patches to pick as well. After the lunch and berry picking break, we shot down the mountain back toward the camper. We ended up on an old, unused ATV trail that appeared to go toward the parking area. We decided to take it and see where it went.

It was at this time that Ashton made his first unique joke. He asked, “Do you know what I would say if I saw a cool leaf on the ground? That’s unbe-leaf-able!” Danielle and I died laughing and praised him for his cleverness.

The trail ended up adding a couple miles on to the hike, but it was great terrain for rabbit hunting. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bunnies, but we will keep this trail in mind for future rabbit hunts once the population bounces back.

We got back to the camper, packed it up, and headed toward the same place we spent the first night. We decided to check out an ice cream place along the way with hopes of getting cones to ruin our dinner. The flavor selection was limited (likely due to being the end of summer), but we ended up with a couple flavors that everyone liked.

Our post-ice-cream plan was to enjoy a relaxing evening in the woods around the fire. We would then wake up the next morning, and head after some grouse. Luckily the rain held off until 10 minutes after we retreated into the camper for the night.

It dumped all night, but it cleared before sunrise. The rain left everything a muddy mess, but that wouldn’t stop our grouse hunt. Once we got through our typical, extended morning camper ritual, we hit the trail, this time with a shotgun in tow.

It only took 5 minutes before Tundra flushed his first grouse. It flew to a tree right above where it was feeding on the ground. We set the kids and Tundra by a tree, a safe distance away from the gun blast, and made our way toward the tree. Danielle had the shotgun and I had the rifle. I spotted the grouse on a limb and took a shot. It immediately flew to another tree deeper in the woods. It took a little while, but I eventually found the tree it was perched on. Danielle went around to a possible escape route and I took aim for a second shot. I nailed it and he dropped. Instead of going to find it, I turned around to let Tundra off leash. He immediately sprinted toward the shots and quickly found the bird flopping by a tree. He grabbed it and brought it out to where the kids were waiting. The grouse was still alive as well so I got to teach Ashton how to properly ring the neck of a bird.

Josie was excited and she kept asking to hold it (she got to pet the ptarmigan as much as she wanted the day prior). After praising Tundra for his great flush and retrieve, I stuffed the bird in my bag and we continued on the trail. We were now hoping to add a rabbit to the mix of harvested items.

We didn’t see another grouse or single rabbit the rest of the hike. The icing on the cake was the random blue berry patches we found at the place we stopped to eat a snack. There weren’t many blueberry bushes, but the few bushes there were stacked full of berries. Luckily we brought berry picking gear and quickly filled a Tupperware container. This was our turn around point in the hike and we headed back to the camper once it looked like rain was headed our way.

This was the last adventure of our extended weekend.

It was a very relaxing three-day weekend. Not having a true plan or need and just going with the flow was a good change of pace. The family time was amazing and we all had a blast!

Found a $20 bill on a trail, that's a great start huh?

Brought in some massive rainbow trout.  Found out brood stock had just been stocked the day before! Ha!  We gave one to an older gentleman who was observing and chatting with us, he was really looking forward to eating it for dinner.  He told us about growing up in a village and how fish and rice were a treat.  We also saved one for ourselves.  The rest went back in the lake. Long Lake

You may or may not recall a winter blog post with a frozen lake with ice so clear, you could see 8 feet to the bottom (12inch ice).  This is the lake. So clear out to Ashton

Here baby fishies

Forgot a bucket, Tundra's dog dish will do for a minnow bucket!

Our handsome little 4.5 year old

Amazing views this weekend, such contrast between summer and fall colors plus fresh snow on the mountain tops.

Matanuska glacier

Smoke goggles and pop

campsite#2

Ashton, our little mountain sheep, hiking up, up, up. Josie as content as ever to ride along with short "get down" breaks for snacks, blueberry picking, and ptarmigan hunting.  Tundra loving life- hiking with his people and got to flush and retrieve ptarmigan

King of the world

Muscles are out again

Our sweet babies

Bonnie Lake

Blueberry picking!  This weekend we brought home grouse, ptarmigan, rainbow trout, raspberries, blueberries, $20, memories and happy hearts.  We love Alaska!  Bye bye summer, hello Fall!

Consolation Caribou

The sheep hunt didn’t produce a ram. I had five days left before I needed to return to work. I had a caribou tag in my pocket, and a proxy tag to accompany it, so I planned to take advantage of those available days and try to bag a couple caribou. I wouldn’t take Tundra with me to optimize my chances of bagging some animals.

We got home late from the sheep hunt, but before dark. This gave me a little time to play with the kids before they went to bed. I then got busy unpacking from the sheep hunt and packing for the caribou hunt. I was up late, but had everything changed out and ready to go by morning.

Day 1 (Tuesday, August 25)

I decided to have breakfast with the kids and hang out a little while before leaving. I finally took off at 10AM with the ATV in tow. It was dumping rain the whole way, so I wasn’t looking forward to riding into my hunt during bad weather.

Along the way, there were two hitch hikers looking for a ride. My truck had empty seats, so I stopped to help them out. They were extremely thankful for me stopping. It was a couple from Colorado in Alaska to hike and explore. They weren’t going far, just to a trail head a few miles down the highway. They parked their car at the end of the trail and needed a ride to the beginning. We chatted for the short drive and soon parted ways, wishing each other luck on our adventures.

When I finally arrived at the trail head and parking area, I was pleasantly surprised to find it not raining there. I was able to unload and pack the ATV while staying dry. I hit the trail to find another surprise, it was actually in great condition. I was expecting it to be a swampy mess, but that wasn’t the case either.

The rain greeted me as I progressed on the trail. I spotted three moose early in the ride, a legal bull with a couple cows. As for caribou, they were absent. Toward the end of the trail, I stopped to talk with a lady and her daughter, glassing from a small hill. They let me know they saw a couple caribou each of the last three days, but no bulls and nothing allowing a stalk.

I got to the end of the trail and started establishing my camp. I planned on putting the tent up last in case it stopped raining. Luckily, that plan worked out perfectly. The rain stopped close to sunset, and I was able to erect the tent without getting anything wet that needed its protection. In addition to the tent, I brought a tarp to put over the tent and create an awning in front of it to create a dry area for sitting outside the tent. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out like I wanted and it literally took over an hour of trying different things and failing to put up a functional awning that would withstand the high winds of this mountain.

After setting everything up, I remembered that I forgot to eat lunch; this made dinner even more enjoyable. I ate outside under the awning, however it was extremely cold and windy heading into the nighttime. The campsite was beautiful, overlooking a massive valley with beaver dams and lodges, creeks, caribou trails, and plains before transitioning four miles away into massive peaks ending the other side of this valley floor. I was by myself because nobody else stays out here. Other hunters choose to sleep in comfort of their campers on the road. The best time to hunt is right after sunrise and before sunset, and there’s no better way to do that than to be camping in the area you are hunting.

I went to bed to the sound of ptarmigan calling all around me. I had high hopes of dropping a couple caribou and rolling out early on… I dreamed of that possibility all night.

Day 2

I slept great overnight. It was fairly warm, no wind, and very peaceful. My alarm sounded at 6AM and coincidentally, that’s also when the rain started. The rain didn’t damper my ambition though; I eagerly got up and ready to hunt.

The clouds were low this morning, sporadically covering the mountains and the ability to see much of anything. I decided to climb to the top of the mountain I was camped on (only about a quarter mile hike). From the top, I spotted two caribou down in the massive valley my tent was overlooking. I decided I would move and watch their movement from a rock closer to a pass on this side of the valley caribou typically accessed. This is when I spotted six more caribou deeper in the valley, behind these first two. Unfortunately, the two caribou joined up with the other six and all eight of them walked off in the opposite direction.

I sat on the rock longer, huddled in a ball and hesitant to move in order to retain heat. I then spotted a single caribou near the base of the mountains on the other side of the valley. He too was walking in the opposite direction of me. I then saw two more caribou close to the same spot I saw the first pair. I was unable to watch them for long because the clouds dropped and the valley floor was covered in white and grey.

I decided to hike for a while at this elevation in search of a clearing. During my hike, I could tell a huge heard of caribou were in the area recently; there was caribou poop and tracks EVERYWHERE. I couldn’t take a step without kicking up a pile of caribou poop, it was amazing. It made me wonder how many were here and when they left the area… if only that heard was here now!

The rain didn’t ease up at all during the day, and actually seemed to progressively get worse. This is when I discovered that my rain pants were starting to fail and soaking through to my clothes. Not surprising, my boots and socks were also soaked after a day of exposure to rain. I decided to retreat back to the tent to warm up and dry off. I could change and dry off, but my boots and rain pants had no chance seeing that we were camping in the middle of a cloud.

On the way back to the tent, I stumbled across a dead caribou. It was a young caribou and he was the victim of a hunter, likely over a week ago. This was close to a 100 yards from my tent. I dream of the day I can open my tent door, find a legal animal standing right there, and take it down while wearing my pajamas.

The rest of the day was shot. Once I got in the tent to warm up, my body shut down and refused to get back up. The rain never eased so I was fine with only hunting 8 hours that day, and decided to take it easy the rest of the night.

Day 3

It dumped all night. The temperature dropped low enough that it actually snowed. It wasn’t cold enough to stick near the tent, but the tops of the mountains had a fresh coat of white on them. My alarm went off at 6AM, and I snoozed it after hearing the rain was still present. Luckily, it stopped raining 30 minutes later at which time I got up to get ready for the day.

I had to put on my ATV riding gear because my rain pants and hiking boots were still soaked. Luckily, I could see some clear sky to the east, so that was promising for some descent weather. I then got ready for my morning bathroom routine, when I noticed something moving along the valley floor. I grabbed my binoculars and immediately saw a lone caribou traveling along what I call the parallel trail (a set of game trails at the base of the mountain and valley floor, about 1000 feet below me, that follow the path of the mountain ridge base).

The caribou was directly in front of me, so that meant if I was going to cut it off, I had to hurry up and outpace it to beat it to a spot. I quickly grabbed the items I needed and hurried down the mountain at an angle to where I thought I could cut it off. In my haste, I lost sight of the caribou, but I assumed I was moving faster than it was and it was going to stay on the trail. My assumption was wrong… I never saw the caribou again. Although I got to a place I knew I would intercept it, the caribou never showed up. I think it may have beat me to that spot and was already gone.

Defeated, I climbed back up the mountain to the tent to fully pack for a day of hunting. I decided to head back above the pass I was at yesterday in hopes more caribou were there now that the clouds weren’t obstructing the view. I immediate saw a solo caribou in the far distance by a lake, and then a group of four closer be a plateau type hill in the very middle of the valley. Three of those caribou started to walk toward my direction.

I decided to drop down to a flat area between the pass and valley floor, hoping to cut them off and have a good shooting lane. They continued walking directly to me, until all of a sudden, they made a 90 degree turn and continued their trek straight up the mountain! There is no way they knew I was there, but that’s caribou for you, often unpredictable.  As a result, I had to sprint up hill and out of sight in an attempt to catch up and possibly get a shot at one of them. Again, I failed to ever put eyes on them again. Adam - 0, caribou - 2.

I decided to sit down and watch the valley some more from this new spot. From here, I spotted a group of four about eight miles away across the lake, a group of two walking away from me a couple miles up the parallel trail, and a single caribou that I think was bedded down within earshot of me that likely heard me and started sprinting away. I saw all of this within an hour of climbing the mountain and failing to intercept that group of three. However, for the next four hours, I didn’t see a thing.

I decided to hike to the top of the mountain so I could get a 360 degree view of everything happening around me. From there, caribou were also nowhere to be found. I saw a couple ATVs on the horizon, but they turned around when they noticed I was setup at the end of the trail.

I could see heavy rain was blowing in from the east, so I made my way back to the tent. I decided I would glass for caribou from my tent area until I needed to shelter or the weather blew over. As I glassed the valley, a side by side drove the trail behind me to the top of the mountain. A few minutes later, he turned around and headed back down. I waved, but I was either ignored or unseen. It then started to rain so jumped in the tent to wait it out.

I emerged after the quick dumping passed. I noticed the side by side was now parked at the base of the mountain far to the east, near the valley floor. The driver pulled out a hunting pack, put it on, and began hiking up the parallel trail toward my overlook area and in the direction of the caribou area I was watching. The hunter had an icepick as a trekking stick, so I knew he was headed sheep hunting. I watched him as he hiked through the exact areas caribou were moving through (dang him). He eventually made it to the base of the mountains on the other side of the valley, where he then disappeared from the heavy rain that blew in. Again, I dove into my tent to stay dry.

The rain cleared late in the evening. I came out of the tent to fix dinner and glass the valley some more. I saw four caribou about 6 miles away on the other side of the lake. I watched them undecidedly move around while downed my dinner.

I could tell it was going to be a cold night. The skies were clearing and the clouds wouldn’t be around to insulate the air. I desperately wanted the clear skies to stay so I could have a day without worrying about rain. The plan for tomorrow was to hike down to the valley floor, and sit on the plateau type hill in the very middle of the valley. This seemed to be an intersecting area that many of the caribou were passing by. I knew that if I dropped a caribou there, it would be a ton of work getting it back to the tent, but that seemed like my only option since I wasn’t seeing anything remotely close to the ATV trail. To make matters worse, my boots still were not dry so I would have to make the hike in my hip waders.

Day 4

It didn’t rain at all overnight. In fact, it stayed clear, and as a result, dropped below 27 degrees. It was very chilly, but that also meant it would likely be extremely hot that day too.

I side hilled the mountain until I got to the pass. A quick glance through the binoculars didn’t show any caribou in the valley, however, it was still fairly dark and seeing much was difficult. I then dropped down off the mountain into the valley, and headed towards the plateau hill. I was about 300 yards from the plateau when I spotted a caribou stick up out of the brush only 100 yards in front of me. I quickly pulled up my rifle, but the caribou was mostly covered by brush so I didn’t have a clear shot. It eventually dropped over the edge in the opposite direction. I pursued it and once I got to the brush I spotted him on, he was already gone.

It took a little while of searching, but I eventually found him. He was drinking from a small creek about 250 yards away. I went to put my rifle on him, but the combination of looking directly in the sun and the zoom on my variable scope being dialed all the way, resulted in an impossible situation for locating it through the scope. By the time I finally zeroed it in, the caribou was trotting off and headed up and over the pass. Adam – 0, caribou – 3.

I made my way to the plateau and setup for a long day of waiting. Once the frost burnt off, it got hot and buggy. I ended up sitting there for 11 straight hours, and didn’t see a single caribou! Frustrated, I decided to make the long hike back to the tent for the night. On the way, I made a stop at the top of the mountain to get a glance of my surroundings. As I peered down at the base of the mountain where the ATV trail cuts through, I noticed a caribou butt. Excited, I sat down to get more comfortable while I studied it, but I couldn’t find it again.

It was cold, very windy, getting late, and I was hungry. I ended up saying, “oh well” and headed for the tent. I fixed some dinner and tidied up camp. While the freeze dried meal was rehydrating, I decided to see if I could find the caribou I lost track of. As I sat down on a pile of rocks to glass in that direction, I immediately spotted it. I was now faced with a decision… what do I do? The caribou was at the base of the mountain about a mile away. The sun already set, but there was plenty of daylight left. If I shot it before dark I could get my ATV and retrieve it whole. I decided to go for it.

I left my dinner, downed a snickers bar, packed a light bag, and started jogging toward the caribou. This time, I kept a visual on the caribou as I made my way to intercept it. The further I dropped on the mountain, the more I realized I wasn’t really gaining any ground. The caribou was heading in the opposite direction. Knowing this, I decided to call off the pursuit because chasing a caribou almost never works, and with a small window of opportunity, I didn’t have much chance of success. Adam – 0, caribou 4.

Bummed by missing another opportunity, I sulked back up the mountain and to my tent. I was fairly depressed by the small number of accessible caribou I was seeing, but the kicker was the few opportunities I had to possibly drop some meat, didn’t pan out.  Not firing my rifle at all this week was starting to wear on me. I was beginning to feel guilty not being successful while not spending time with my family. In other words, I could have had the same outcome if I was home spending quality time with my kids and wife. It really hit home when I realized that the next day was my daughter’s second birthday… and that’s when I felt extremely selfish.

I reached the tent, ate my dinner, and climbed into bed. It was going to be another cold night. Instead of hunting until Sunday, I made a plan to wake up at 4:30AM, head to the plateau (assuming today was a fluke since caribou were seen all around it days prior), and hunt there until the heat arrives (9ish). If I wasn’t pursuing anything by that time, I would plan on returning to camp, tearing down, and heading home to have ice cream with the birthday girl.

Day 5

Indeed it was another cold night getting close to 25 degrees overnight (I have a thermometer on my watch). I got up as planned, hiked to the plateau in the dark, and sat still the entire morning. The only difference this morning was my hiking boots were dry and I could finally travel faster and with amazing ankle support.

Similarly to the day before, I didn’t see a single caribou while I was sitting on the plateau. The only factors I could think of that may have caused this was either the sheep hunter that walked through the entire area the night before I decided to setup on the plateau, or the change in weather resulting in hot days and buggy conditions. Either way, I was on the losing end of the gamble.

I packed up my gear, and headed back to the tent a little after 9AM. It took me about an hour to get to the tent, and then another hour to tear everything down and load it onto the machine. On my way out, I stopped to talk to a guy day hunting. I told him about my hunt and where I was seeing them. He then pointed out a couple caribou… and go figure… on top of the mountain I was camped on. He said he was going to check them out. I wished him luck and I continued down the trail.

About 30 minutes later, I stopped to look around and noticed the hunter was at the top of the mountain. The caribou I was chasing all week never stood still, but for some reason, these two caribou didn’t more a single inch the entire time it took this guy to ride all the way up the mountain (even with the noise he made to get there). I was in shock as I watched him walk around the mountain, and get within a couple hundred yards of the caribou. I was frustrated knowing how hard I hunted and how bad I wanted to bag something, and this guy drives in on his ATV, sees something, drives directly to it, the caribou never moves an inch, and it basically begs for this hunter to take it home. Unfortunately for the hunter, he took a route too low on the mountain and came around a side, unable to see the caribou. The caribou were literally a couple hundred yards above him, but from his vantage point, he had no idea they were there. I think he believed the place he looked is where he last saw them, but in reality, he was too low. I then watched him return to his ATV and retrace back down the ATV trail.

I decided to stop my glassing pauses and just get the heck out of the area. My goal now was to get home as fast as I could to spend the rest of the day with my newly turned two year old. It took me half the time to get out than it did to get in.

Once in the parking lot, I noticed a blue truck with a familiar trailer behind it. That’s when it clicked… the guy on the side by side that was sheep hunting lived on my street three houses down from me! We don’t really talk much, but what a crazy place to see your neighbor without knowing much about them. I hope to one day catch him outside, ask him about his August 2020 sheep hunt, and drop hints about knowing where he went until it drives him crazy, and I’m forced to tell him I saw him in the mountains.

I got back to the truck and quickly packed it up for driving home. I accomplished one goal that day… getting home soon enough to spend some quality time with my daughter and stuffing ourselves with birthday ice-cream!

Loaded up and ready to go!

Home sweet home for a few days.

Gorgeous sunrise

Can you see the caribou below? I can't either in this pic, but it's there. 

There it is. This was the last time I saw it... silly me for thinking it was going to be predictable.

At the pass overlooking the valley floor. The plateau area is in the very middle of the picture.

Here's a pic of what I call the plateau, with two caribou behind it.

A couple more roamers

What a view

That side of the valley got dumped on... this side did to, but it was delayed.

Here comes the downpour.

My neighbor

There is a downed airplane in the middle of this picture.

Here is a zoomed in picture. It is facing directly at me. A wing is off picture a bit.

Another rainbow... from my last hunt, I know not to assume there's gold down there.

The weather is confused.

Boot dry rock

It was so cold, my olive oil was gelling.

Blueberries everywhere

Views from the plateau

The ridge and pass

Two love birds

My plateau buddy

It was a pretty hard frost

My leg left a good impression :)

Sunrise from the plateau. That bump in the upper left of the ridge is my camp.

Morning plateau views of the steaming lake

More camp views

You can't really see the blue, but the ground is covered in blueberries right under my awning. They were a great snack, any time of the day.