40 mile herd

[rlmmarine]

How does the at thing work. Renting them or bringing them, can you take them any ware or just marked trails
Thanks robert

 

[280Ackley]

So how crazy is it going to be around the chicken area? Is there a place you can hike out and get away from the yahoos?

Justin

 

[Kevin Dill]

So how crazy is it going to be around the chicken area? Is there a place you can hike out and get away from the yahoos?

Justin

Alaskan members can advise you better than I. It's well known that every road in (season open) caribou areas will have hunters traveling it and using it as a jumping off spot. The 40 Mile area gets a lot of hunter attention and it seems like a sort of mania takes hold when caribou are around. That's probably because the season can be dramatically short if quotas are met. Alaskans are very, very good at getting to game and the road system is obviously Plan A for a lot of them. I was traveling the Steese last August between Circle and Fairbanks. There were unreal numbers of trucks, trailers, atvs, campers, suvs and anything remotely associated with hunting. Every pull-off was occupied with camps. I'm sure there are places where a guy could park and hike, but the truth is you wouldn't pack a caribou 5 miles in all likelihood. You'd be hunting fairly close to the road and probably have company. I'm not trying to dampen your expectations at all. The road system is very competitive in good hunting areas.

 

[Alaskan89]

It's been a long time since I've hunted the Taylor but if I didn't have an atv for access, I'd find a spot where there are no trucks and the surrounding terrain is fairly open. Hike in as far as you think is manageable in case you shoot a caribou and find a ridge to sit and glass. If there are any in the area let them come to you, don't try hiking all over the country to find a caribou, you'll just wear yourself out. Good luck.

 

[280Ackley]

So I have come to the conclusion that caribou don't actually exist!! So sightings from anyone in over a week except one small bull and a cow. Anyone have any current info on the herd movement? I have till the 10th.

Justin

 

[VernAK]

Caribou are an enigma.....where and when?

We are getting some weather changes that may cause an abrupt migration but weather is the next question.

 

[A7Dave]

Hotline was updated on 6September. No change. No significant (cold) weather yet. I'm hoping something happens soon. Want to go up next week before I run out of time. Been way too warm all summer.

 

[280Ackley]

7 days and never saw even a glimpse of one. Still had fun and shot a lot of birds!!

Justin

 

[Idaho CTD]

When we hunted out of Chicken we went back in about 32-33 miles on ATV's to camp and hunted from there. We went early due to the quota and shot rather small caribou but that is all we saw early. Just after the last tag was filled we spotted some big ones moving into the basin we killed a couple in. They were in a rather large herd too. We burned a lot of gas in the ATV's (30-40 miles a day most days and a lot of it in 4wd) and had to get more out of the trailer when we took some meat out to the truck. I think we took 8 6 gallon jugs of fuel in the first trip and 6 or 8 more on the second trip. I think I put close to 300 miles on my ATV that trip. You better have good tires on your ATV too. The muddy sections were pretty deep and the creek crossings were adventurous when it rained several days straight.

Some other guys were back in there and burned up a belt on a ATV. They had to leave it, go out on their other ATV, drive to Fairbanks to get another one, and then drive back in to fix it. They lost 2+ days screwing with it. I would take spare belts for every ATV I took in there next time.

 

[280Ackley]

When were you there?

Justin

 

[Idaho CTD]

It's been quite a few years. It was probably 2003 or 2004.