2015 Season in the Rearview Pic Heavy

[Craig Van Arsdale]

We cut and packed meat back to the river all day until dark but we still had about 200 lbs of meat stashed at the creek near where we killed the bou. We went back in the dark to try and find it but it started to rain and then snow on us and we couldn't find the white game bags in the snow....

Note to self: Mark the meat with a GPS cause conditions change quick in AK! We ended up soaking wet and on the verge of hypothermia that night. The Sawtooth was a life saver once again.

The next morning we put on all of our wet clothes and went and retrieved the rest of the meat. Then spent the rest of the day drying out all of our gear, salting capes and cleaning up the meat.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[bigmoose]

Awesome adventure ! What a great hunt ! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

With everything taken care of and all of our gear dry and a good nights rest we knew we had to hit it hard in the morning to make it to the take out in the next two days. Really we were way behind. We had about 62 river miles left to float in two days! We also had to find JON!!

To make things worse a storm was moving in, temps were dropping the wind was starting to pick up and it was starting to snow.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

We found Jon about 30 miles into the float that day. We floated or I should say rowed our asses off for 16 hours that day and made it 56 river miles before dark! Setting up camp that night in the dark with 25+ mph winds and snowing was brutal!! We didn't really sleep that night just shivered in our fart sacks all night.

The next morning we woke up to even colder temps, higher winds and a deflated chamber on one of the rafts...

The spring that holds the check valve had lost its cap and got water in it. It then froze and let he check leak all the air out of the chamber. We were lucky and were able to boil water to pour on it and melt the ice allowing the spring and check to work freely again.

We got the raft pumped back up again and we were off.

The wind was probably pushing 30 mph gusts at this point though and at a cross wind coming at us and to the left. We'd row like hell to get out into the main channel only to be pushed back into the bank on every attempt!! We were 3 hours into it and could still see our last camp!

At that point we were walking the shore line dragging the rafts down stream with 5 or more miles left to go. At this rate we's be spending another night on the river if things didn't change.

About an hour later our luck took a turn for the better! A guide in his jet boat came hauling ass around the corner and we waived him down. He was super cool and offered to break us down and give us a ride out the last 5 miles!

If it wasn't for him we would have been stuck out there up to 3 more days as a bad storm front was moving in with up to 60 mph winds that would have surley left us waiting out the storm.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

We made it back to Fairbanks that night on schedule with a day to take care of meat and horns!

We got our moneys worth out of the Hotel that night.....

All in all this was one of the best adventures of my life! Cant wait to get up there and do it again for Moose one of these days.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Awesome! Northern Lights are on my bucket list.

One of the coolest things i've ever seen for sure!

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

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

Thanks! AK is an amazing place. If I could id hunt it every year.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Next up was Idaho for speed goats. I had drawn a great tag so I really was looking for something big on this hunt.

I scouted the unit in August for a couple days but didn't see any bucks that really stood out.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

On the third day of the hunt I spotted the buck I wanted. I got on him after a 2 hour stalk around the mountain he was on and popped over the other side on top of him. He had moved and when I came over the top the group of antelope were right there and had me pegged!! They started to funnel off onto the backside of the hill they were on. He was the last in the group and stopped for a split second at 350 yards. I took the shot off of my pack but missed him clean. Frustrated at myself I watched him run off with the group over a couple ridges and out of sight.

I made the long hike back to the truck and decided to go try and locate them again where I think they headed a few ridges over.

A couple hours later I spotted the group about a mile and a half away in a creek bed but the heat waves from the mid day heat were too great to tell if the buck I was after was still with them.

I parked the truck and went after them. To make a long story short I stalked the buck a total of 7 times that day before he broke away from the group just before dark after a group of cattle I was surrounded by spooked the heard when they had gotten tired of my presence!

I chased the buck over a mile, gaining on him every hill he went over until I finally came over the last knob and he was standing there at 80 yards. One shot from my 240 Weatherby Mag and it was over.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

He ended up going just over 78" gross and 15" tall

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

 

[live2huntelk]

Thanks for sharing! Love the photos and write up.

 

[Beastmode]

Looks like one hell of a year Craig great write up!

 

[g5bowhunter]

Awesome! Great read!

 

[Cripler]

The rafting trip looked like a out right blast. Great pics and right up