2015 Season in the Rearview Pic Heavy

[bigd87]

keep the pics coming!!

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Getting close was not hard.... But he was not too happy about our presence....

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Probably one of the coolest animals i've been up close to in the wild!

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Like the real intelligent people that we are we kept getting closer and closer until I could tell he has getting really nervous. He started raking his hooves on the ground and lowering his head. Jon was about 40 yards to my right and facing him straight on. I suspect he saw Jon as more of a threat being right in front of him. Next thing I know he's charging on at full speed head down! I look over and both the Muskox and Jon are both running at their max speed! I happen to take this photo just as the bull charged!

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

The next day we planned to float to the last camp spot before we would break out of the Brooks and onto the North Slope.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

We made it to our last camp in the Range and stayed there for another day hunting the drainages and glassing off the nearby peaks. No sightings of bou yet but we were staring to see sign that they had been through one of the drainages in the past week. We decided we would pack up camp and move down to the base of where the Brooks hit the Slope and use the last mountains to get a vantage point to glass the flats.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Up until this point the river was pretty narrow and the three rafts really only had one option in each area to go down because of water level. Now though we were getting into the lower part of the river where it really fans out and there are MANY different paths one can take.... My point being that we weren't always staying within sight of each other, which had not been a big deal. We had spotted a cow moose and her calf and were trying to get some photos Eli and I were in one raft, Jeremy and Kenny in one and Jon in his own smaller raft. Jon pulls up to our two rafts and we BS for a minute before taking off. We suspect Jon is going to take a few photos then catch up with us down river.... Not the case! Jon ends up going down a completely different branch of the river and ends up a good two miles away and farther down river than us by the time we realize something is wrong and hike to high ground with the optics to try and locate him.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

I try to fire my rifle to give Jon an idea of where were at but by the looks of him he cant even hear the blast from that distance in the giant drainage.

I convince Eli that Jon is plenty experienced and will be just fine. We will meet up with him at our next camp location.

We float down another mile or so to a good gravel bar with an elevated knob right next to it that we can glass off of come morning and make camp.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

The next morning we wake up have our coffee and breakfast and head up to the top of our glassing hill. We glass up Jon pretty quickly with his Yellow raft and his camp looks good so we figure he is fine. Within the next hour we spot two Grizzlies and a toad bull moose. Another half hour or so goes by and I'm starting to go back over everything I have already glassed and I spot a group of bou across the river and up in the rocks about 2000 yards away. We immediately get the spotter on them and right off the bat we spot 4 bulls in the group.

We had all wanted to stick a Caribou with our bows but at this point we just wanted something on the ground! Jeremy elected to take his bow and go into the drainage below them in case they spooked low while we were on our stalk or after we shot an me Kenny and Eli crossed the river and started the stalk with my Rifle.

The stalk went just as planned and before we knew it we were all three laying 350 yards out from the bedded group of bou! I had first shot then the plan was to pass the rifle to Kenny and then onto Eli if they gave us that much time!!

I got into prone position and fired the first round at my bou. Miss low!! They all stood up and I fired the second round and hit him good. I then put another in him before passing the gun to Kenny. The caribou started to move around in a frenzy trying to gather where we were as Kenny hammered his bull with one shot! At this point they all started to scatter and Eli took out the lead bull, just as the last bull was crossing over the hill Eli filled his second tag on that bull!

We couldn't believe it! 4 bulls down in a matter of seconds it seemed.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Kawabunga]

Awesome! Northern Lights are on my bucket list.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

I won the BHA photo contest this year with this photo. I didn't take enough with this back drop. All of the photos I took this directions turned out amazing.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[brewer427]

Great write up, really enjoyed it. Liked all the pictures but this one was my favorite.http://s1314.photobucket.com/user/craig4791/media/Alaska 2015/_DSC3686_zpscq9qwcre.jpg.html

 

[adventure907]

Awesome pics...I love seeing you lower 48's having a great time in Alaska. Thanks for sharing!!