Arctic_Beaver
Lil-Rokslider
Now that I'm settling back into "winter mode" I thought I'd share a hunt recap my girlfriend and I did back over Labor Day weekend this fall. My girlfriend put in for the automatic Tier 1 RC562 tag. She had never been hunting before, or done much shooting even for that matter prior to this experience. Around 2 years ago, we went on a hiking date and looked for grouse. I later discovered her fear of birds a few months after this. She did not mention it to me at the time when I said we should go hike and shoot some grouse for dinner. She happily tagged along, and might have cringed a bit when I did the "step on their feet, pull on their wings" trick to clean them. Anyways, hunting was a new activity for her, but one in which she would be willing to experience with me, as long as no close bird encounters were involved.
During the summer as the hunting season got closer, we started going to the Birchwood range frequently and she practiced shooting quite a bit. After our first range session, she was consistently shooting about 1MOA prone from 300 yards (max distance at Birchwood). I was stoked for her! Plenty capable if we could get in decent position for a caribou. She also took the required DF&G Hunters Ed. Other preparations included watching a lot of hunting youtube videos, talked about shot placement, talked about cleaning a caribou, went on a few training hikes, etc.
I talked about two options I had in mind for her hunt, both in a non-motorized area. The first would be to hike in from the road around 3-5 miles and get up high above the brush line, camp out and hopefully catch some caribou traversing across the mountains in range of us, then hike back out. I had done this with success in the past with my Dad in years prior. The second option would be to hike in much further with the packrafts, around 10 miles minimum, then hunt and float back out. I explained we would likely have less competition and a chance for a bigger animal with option two. I was familiar with the general area I wanted to access and hunt far back from the road, but had never actually hunted it before. She was down for option two! This is a hunt that I had in mind for a few years, but was never able to draw the DC485 tag and I didn't put in for the Tier 1 hunts like her so I could apply for caribou/moose draw hunts elsewhere.
I got back home from my sheep hunt in late August and we decided to head out for her hunt the Friday after work before Labor Day weekend. I had about a week turn around time. Of course, I was not 100% packed and ready to go Friday after work for the planned departure time (very meticulous packer here). We got a late start on the drive north by a few hours but still decided to drive north from Anchorage and pull off and pass out in the truck around 1am. We woke to rain the next morning and completed the last hour drive to the trailhead.
One part worth mentioning here... I had my pack all loaded up with the packraft strapped to the outside and awkwardly resting on tailgate of the truck. I slipped one arm through the shoulder strap while I was sitting on the tailgate, then I tried to pop off the truck and get my other arm through simultaneously. I said something to the effect of, "Alright dear, let's do this!" I immediately hit the deck and totally ate it face first right in front of her as the awkward load took me right to the ground. What a great start to the trip...
After I pushed my face off the dirt and stood up, we started hiking and left the trailhead around 2pm. There were two other parties that started the hike in while we were parked and getting ready, the only vehicles at the trailhead. We passed the first group after about 2 miles, they set-up camp and were targeting moose. I chatted with them as we passed them, cool dudes. We past the second group a few miles later, turns out they were on a scouting trip and didn't have a caribou or moose tag in there hand. At that point, I was pretty confident that we wouldn't see another party in the area we had planned on hunting. We made it the 10ish miles back off the road and decided to set up camp around 9-10pm along a riverbed. I glassed some with the binos on the tripod as we were eating dinner after camp was setup, didn't see any caribou. She later told me that in her mind, she was thinking along the lines of why the heck are we hiking so far if we haven't seen jack squat yet...
During the summer as the hunting season got closer, we started going to the Birchwood range frequently and she practiced shooting quite a bit. After our first range session, she was consistently shooting about 1MOA prone from 300 yards (max distance at Birchwood). I was stoked for her! Plenty capable if we could get in decent position for a caribou. She also took the required DF&G Hunters Ed. Other preparations included watching a lot of hunting youtube videos, talked about shot placement, talked about cleaning a caribou, went on a few training hikes, etc.
I talked about two options I had in mind for her hunt, both in a non-motorized area. The first would be to hike in from the road around 3-5 miles and get up high above the brush line, camp out and hopefully catch some caribou traversing across the mountains in range of us, then hike back out. I had done this with success in the past with my Dad in years prior. The second option would be to hike in much further with the packrafts, around 10 miles minimum, then hunt and float back out. I explained we would likely have less competition and a chance for a bigger animal with option two. I was familiar with the general area I wanted to access and hunt far back from the road, but had never actually hunted it before. She was down for option two! This is a hunt that I had in mind for a few years, but was never able to draw the DC485 tag and I didn't put in for the Tier 1 hunts like her so I could apply for caribou/moose draw hunts elsewhere.
I got back home from my sheep hunt in late August and we decided to head out for her hunt the Friday after work before Labor Day weekend. I had about a week turn around time. Of course, I was not 100% packed and ready to go Friday after work for the planned departure time (very meticulous packer here). We got a late start on the drive north by a few hours but still decided to drive north from Anchorage and pull off and pass out in the truck around 1am. We woke to rain the next morning and completed the last hour drive to the trailhead.
One part worth mentioning here... I had my pack all loaded up with the packraft strapped to the outside and awkwardly resting on tailgate of the truck. I slipped one arm through the shoulder strap while I was sitting on the tailgate, then I tried to pop off the truck and get my other arm through simultaneously. I said something to the effect of, "Alright dear, let's do this!" I immediately hit the deck and totally ate it face first right in front of her as the awkward load took me right to the ground. What a great start to the trip...
After I pushed my face off the dirt and stood up, we started hiking and left the trailhead around 2pm. There were two other parties that started the hike in while we were parked and getting ready, the only vehicles at the trailhead. We passed the first group after about 2 miles, they set-up camp and were targeting moose. I chatted with them as we passed them, cool dudes. We past the second group a few miles later, turns out they were on a scouting trip and didn't have a caribou or moose tag in there hand. At that point, I was pretty confident that we wouldn't see another party in the area we had planned on hunting. We made it the 10ish miles back off the road and decided to set up camp around 9-10pm along a riverbed. I glassed some with the binos on the tripod as we were eating dinner after camp was setup, didn't see any caribou. She later told me that in her mind, she was thinking along the lines of why the heck are we hiking so far if we haven't seen jack squat yet...
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