2020 BC Caribou

[Bruce Culberson]

The 2020 caribou hunt turned out to be a bit of an adventure with my brother. We hiked up into the alpine and set up the Black Diamond MegaLite in a high saddle (.....ie: wind tunnel). That night at 2:30am I woke to the tent flapping on my face. The two down-wind corner pegs (8" Y-stakes) had pulled out and the shelter was falling. I grabbed the centre pole and told my brother we had to get up. With headlamps on we found rocks to stack on top of the pegs. Next morning I was enjoying our commanding view of the valley, which is why we set up there. I was sipping coffee and glassing long with the spotter leaving my brother to glass the close country. Before he even got his binos up he hissed "caribou right here below us! Bring your spotter!". we weaved our way about 150 yards around a few knobs and there were the 5 caribou ~300 yards off. I put up the spotter and none were legal. We glanced around and didn't see any others. Made our way back to the shelter and just before I sat back down I spotted 8 more caribou high on the ridge above camp. They were 700-800 yards off and feeding away. One bull in the group was legal! In a frenzy I zipped shut my Bora bivi to seal up my sleep system, stuffed some snacks, water, spotter & rain gear into my pack and grabbed my rifle. As the caribou were feeding away from us we poured the coal to'er and booked it up to the saddle, they were just crossing the ridge above us at 300 yards. I had the legal bull in the spotter for 3 steps - then he vanished over the ridge. We kept wrapping around the backside of the saddle and after another 600 yards we had closed the gap to 485yards and were out of cover so set up for the shot. The legal bull kept feeding straight away, but after about 5 minutes turned broadside. My brother fired a 7mm 120TTSX and the bull humped up. He staggered facing away, then turned broadside again - boom! The second shot hit 7-8" in front of the first hitting the bull in the neck and sent him for a short tumble down the hill. More to follow....

 

[Bruce Culberson]

Next we skinned and quartered the animal. We packed the meat uphill back to the top of the saddle and stashed it alongside a snow patch. We covered the gamebags with an emergency blanket to keep the cold in and the rain off.


We made our way back down to the tent. The wind was holing thru the pass. The tent was laying flat, the downwind rope tie-outs had frayed against the rocks we piled on them. Upon close inspection my sleep system (bivi, quilt, & klymit pad) were gone! Also my crocs were gone. I normally throw a rock on my sleep system to hold in in place, but in the frantic exit that morning I had forgotten. I was dreading spending the night in my puffy pants and down coat. While packing up our stuff the wind blew my brothers pack and it started barrel rolling across the mountain. At 50 and 75 yards below our camp site I found my crocs. Fortunately 300 yards down the hill my brother found my bivi in a creek. It had about 30lbs of water in the bottom of it holding it in place. My quilt only got wet by the footbox as the pad was mostly floating it above the water. We dropped down into the scrubby balsams to re-pitch the mid where there was some protection from the wind.

The next morning we hiked back up the ridge to retrieve the meat. About 200 yards from the snow patch we spotted grizzly making his way up the ridge away from the meat. He huffed at us a couple times then bailed over the ridge out of site. We continued up to the meat fearing he had found it and got into it. To our surprise his track crossed the snow patch downwind, and downhill by only 63 yards. We hiked up to the top of the saddle and glassed a wolverine on the gut pile. We loaded up 1/2 the meat and hiked back down to the main camp where a tent and ti wood stove awaited. We feasted on fresh caribou fried in olive oil and steak spice.

Here are a couple nanny's we saw the first few days:





To be continued....

 

[Atlas12]

That country looks gorgeous. Looks more like Brooks Range than anything I thought we had here in BC.
Where abouts was this?

 

[Blockcaver]

Nice caribou! Congratulations!

 

[Bruce Culberson]

That country looks gorgeous. Looks more like Brooks Range than anything I thought we had here in BC.
Where abouts was this?

Atlas - there is a lot of country like this up north between Ft Nelson and Dease lake, and also west of Dease Lake to the Alaska border.

There is still more to this story....I need to get the rest typed up and more pics posted....

 

[Short Track]

I'm guessing no Americans are up there to hunt this season ?

 

[Bruce Culberson]

Unfortunately for the guides and outfitters - yea no Americans this year. Some outfits ran taking Canadian residents from other provinces.

 

[Bruce Culberson]

The next morning the mountain behind us (where 1/2 the meat was still stashed) was socked in with fog. The mountains across the lake had patches of fog moving around. I told my brother - well we could go get the meat in that fog or glass the other side that we could possibly hunt. After about 30 minutes of glassing a fog patch moved reveling 6 goats and 1 lone goat a couple hundred meters from the group. Thinking that goat might be a billy we decided to close the distance.
Halfway around the lake, hiking through chest high scrub birch, I saw a bull looking at me from about 180 yards. I ducked down, whipping off my pack and whispered to my brother "big bull". After freeing my rifle I stood back up. The bull was looking head on and neither of us could get a point count. After what seamed like minutes, but was probably 30 seconds the bull turned and started trotting away. I counted 6 points plus the rear kicker - boom...smack. Just as I heard the bullet impact the bull disappeared behind a clump of balsams. I told my brother - stay with the packs and i sprinted in the direction of the bull with just my rifle. When I got over there he was not lying there as I had hoped, nor could I see him escaping on any of the rolling terrain covered in the chest high brush. I turned to my brother and motioned a shrug and turn around away from him not knowing where he went....then I saw him swimming across the lake. I laid down prone and removed my binoculars & harness to use as a front rest. As he neared the far bank at about 300 metres away he was moving slower and as he was wading out of the water he was wobbling and laboring to move. I hadn't led him enough and the shot had taken him in the paunch and clipped the liver. In my head I was cheering him on " keep going, you can make it to shore! only a few more meters". I wanted to wait until he got to dry land before firing as it would make field dressing easier. Then when he got to shore & turned broadside a fired a shot to behind his shoulder. He fell down, I reloaded and stayed on him as his head was still up. Then his head fell to the ground, I jumped up and cheered to my brother "caribou bull down!". I turned around to see the tough bull stagger to his feet, so again i laid prone and put a fired a finishing shot.

 

[Bruce Culberson]

After some high fives with my brother, he decide to walk around the lake to the bull. I was going to walk back to camp to get the boat and waders that I brought. As the boat was pretty suspect he plan was to load the meat into the boat and pull it back to camp along the shoreline.

A week before leaving for the trip I pulled the boat from the woodshed rafters to find it had been attached by a pack rat. Every night that week I was patching holes and the next night I'd pump it up only to find more, progressively smaller in size. The last night i patched the last hole and finished off the tube of seam sealer.
As i was walking back to camp and looked back to where the caribou lay my heart sank. He was on the shore of the lake, but rather an island. I though to my self if this cheap. piece of chit boat doesn't hold air the caribou will lay there and rot. I had only brought the boat to paddle out 20-30 yards to try fishing. I loaded up the boat, pump, life jacket and waders.

I hiked back around to the point where i had shot from. My brother was on the far side of the bay, behind the island where the bull lay. He yelled to me "he's on an island". I yelled back I know, I'll try to come get you.

As i pumped up the boat I was pleased to not hear the familiar hissing sounds. I left my Scarpa boots & rifle on
shore and load up. No bubbles were coming around the boat and it seemed to be holding air - yea! I paddled up to the island and unloaded my pack, then continued on across the bay to get my brother. The boat had a 440lb payload, which I took as more of a guideline than absolute as my brother and I are over that.

After we got the caribou quatered and in game bags I ferried my brother back to shore, then took the meat, full cape, and antlers in 2 more loads. Once back at shore we loaded all the meat, cape and antlers into the boat and I piled in too. It was way over capacity but as it only drafted a few inches of water I just stayed close to shore for the paddle back to camp. That way if it blew a patch or a seam I could drag the works to shore.

 

[Voyageur]

I'm enjoying your story. Thanks for sharing it.
You mentioned your Borah Bivy...how do you like it? Does it perform as expected?

 

[Bruce Culberson]

I'm enjoying your story. Thanks for sharing it.
You mentioned your Borah Bivy...how do you like it? Does it perform as expected?

I like the borah bivy. If you slide down in the night and your feet are shoved up against the tipi wall for a long time and there is condensation it will soak thru. If you only brush up against the wall occasionally then it sheds the moisture. I don't pack a ground sheet and just use the bivy. It does a great job of keeping your sleep system together and helps keep you on top of your pad. It does have stakeout loops on the corners which I'll now be using in the future!

 

[Evan_35]

I know this thread is a bit old but I’m planning a hunt this fall NW of Dease and I was wondering if you think packing a boat is key? I wasn’t planning on bringing one but it looks like it worked out good for you.

 

[Bruce Culberson]

Hi Evan - for our trip the boat was key. Otherwise we would have been able to get to where the caribou died on the island. I'd say its worth it to take one. It could save a lot of walking and packing of meat. The intex seahawk 2 is about 18lbs and if you watch amazon can be had for about $80. I've been on several fly in hunts and never took a boat before this trip.

 

[Spotnspook]

Great story! These are incredible animals in some of the most beautiful country on the planet. Congrats.

 

[Sam G]

Hey Bruce, might be a little late to the party haha, but i was planning a caribou hunt into northern bc this August. Got about a month off and am trying to get into some caribou primarily and maybe some sheep. Got any recommendations for areas to hit? Willing to hike a ways and charter a bush plane not a ton of info out there. Appreciate it!

 

[Bruce Culberson]

Sam G - you probably already know, but it sounds like all moose and caribou is going to LEH this year.
We flew with BC Yukon Air. I would give them a call and see what lakes are available for the dates you have available.

 

[Sam G]

Awesome, ill look into that, thanks for the response.

 

[Brimel]

Thanks for sharing this amazing story! I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.