A great start to hunting season!

Mike and Travis headed down to the Tangle Lakes area on Thursday afternoon after school. They ended up getting on the lake about 8:30pm, but since someone was in the spot they thinking of camping at, they looked around the lake a bit but with loosing light they decided just to anchor in a nice cove, put up all the boat "curtains" and camp onboard. They said it actually worked great, they were warm and dry.

They hunted all day on Friday, but no luck with caribou, although they did see several moose and grizzlies. They also found a great camping spot up on the hill with access to a perfect spot to glass for animals. They picked Piper and I up at the boat launch at 8:30pm. It was a bit rainy but they had a fire going for us and it was a nice quiet evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning it was just sprinkling a little bit so after breakfast we headed up to the spot where we could really watch for animals. We saw a couple cow caribou with calves right off the bat, but they were pretty far away. We kept seeing animals on that ridge most of the day, but it was 2.5 miles away straight line distance.....not taking into account the UPs and DOWNs. We picked a couple gallons of blueberries and took some naps in the sunshine...Mike's recipe for success during caribou season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 5:30 the boys decided to go check out a nearby lake while Piper and I stayed up in the glassing spot. I was looking at the far ridge and spotted the biggest bull we had seen all day....Piper and I were watching him through the spotting scope, when Piper says, well what about that one right there....pointing. Sure enough a young bull caribou had wandered to a ridge close to us! This was the closest animal we had seen all day. With the direction the boys had gone I didn't think they would see it for a bit so Piper and I grabbed my gun and the binoculars and started out over the ridge to try and get a shot. Piper was SOOOO excited! We lost sight of him a couple times as he would dip into the ravines, but then Piper would spot him again. The wind was in our favor so he didn't know we were coming towards him. At one point we saw that he was heading directly towards Mike and Travis, we could see them watching too, but the wind wasn't in their favor and the caribou got a whiff of them then whirled around and came trotting back towards Piper and I. We kept sneaking closer and we finally got to within 225 yards with a clear shot....this is about the maximum distance I feel comfortable shooting. I found a brushy tree I could lean against to stay steady....tried to calm my breathing and took the first shot. BAM!

He didn't fall over, but I was fairly certain I had hit him, but it didn't dawn on me to use my binoculars to look for blood. So I tried to load another bullet and my gun jammed up, it was trying to load two at once....WHAT THE HECK! So I was fooling with my gun and I told Piper, "Keep an eye on him!" Finally I got another bullet loaded correctly, line up another shot and BAM....he still didn't fall over. Drat! But he still wasn't running off so I was thinking I HAVE to have hit him. I tried to reload again, but the gun jammed up AGAIN....I fixed it and took one last shot. He was stumbling at this point so I told Piper, Let's get closer....I think he is dying.

We crested to the next knob and he was GONE! Oh NO!! Then Piper points and says, I see his antlers behind that bush! He was on the ground...

We waited until we didn't see him breathing anymore then walked over, double checked he was dead then it was time for high-fives and hugs.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all headed back to camp to get the packs and have a snack. It took a little over an hour to clean the animal.....oh, and turns out I DID hit him all three times....all within a hand-size area in his lungs, he just didn't want to fall down...."nice shooting" Mike said. 

The kids were huge helps in getting the caribou out. It was about a one mile pack from the kill site back to camp.....it took a while because quite a bit of it was uphill, but everyone helped out and no one complained.


Me with two quarters & the antlers

 

Piper with the "dead sled"

It was a gorgeous evening.....clear and stars.....we ate diner about midnight.

Moose Season starts this weekend!

Boys Trip to Prince William Sound, August 10-13

Mike and Travis took a trip down to Whittier a couple of weeks ago....they had a great time fishing, shrimping and just enjoying "boy" time on the water with our friends Mike & Levi.

Prince William Sound - seine boat

First shrimp catch!

Cleaning shrimp

T with a cod

Dinner!

Cabin Visitors

This was Animal Planet weekend at the cabin. We saw a black bear on the boat ride in. He (she?) was in the woods, just on the edge of the river and he just sat and watched us go by. You could practically see his thought bubble: "There goes the neighborhood...."

Then there was another black bear on the trail camera that we have aimed at the porch. He was funny, you could see that he wanted to get on the porch, but he didn't want to use the stairs. He may have been one of the bears that had bit the full bleach bottle we leave on the stairs while we are gone. I'll have to see if I can upload the video here...

We saw a couple moose too, hopefully they stick around in September!

On Saturday we were just sitting down for lunch when we saw a big lynx come out of the woods onto the gravel bar across from us. He (she?) then walked down the gravel bar, took a drink of water, swam across the river and then disappeared back into the woods....very cool!

August already?

Yikes! Where has the summer gone?

In July I had quite a bit of field work up on the Goodpaster River (grayling population assessment). We were in rafts for the first stint and jet boats the second trip. The weather was mostly cooperative, but the mosquitoes were horrendous.

Goodpaster River from helicopter

There goes our ride!

Brandy & Jesse working up fish

Audra & Loren doing the same

Brandy with a nice grayling

"Survival-Off" at The Cabin

Over the July 4th weekend the kids had their "Survival-Off" they have been talking about for the last few months. They competed in building shelters, making snares, performed first aid on pretend injuries and building fires without paper or lighters. Piper beat Travis, but just barely, it came down to the fire challenge. It was pretty neat to see the ideas they came up with....I guess they HAVE been paying attention after all when we talk about wilderness survival.

Fire building skills

Piper squeaked this one out

This was how Mike cleared the oxbow trail, it isn't often that you see
someone mowing with a rifle & carpenters pencil.  :)