Airohunter
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2020
- Messages
- 104
I thought it might be helpful just to share some takeaways from my trip. I tend to research and plan at nauseam so I really like to reflect on what I had planned vs how things really work out.
I had established myself early on as a known shipper with Alaska Air Cargo. Overall this proved to be very valuable for my group. We shipped all of our camping and hunting gear up in totes ahead of our arrival for a cost of around $450, PDX to Bethel. Renfro's was great, they picked up our stuff and held it until our arrival. What I was most concerned about was shipping antlers back to PDX. There's lot of options out there but where I felt we got a win was our ability to wrap them and ship them back on AAC. I was under the impression that AAC would only take them if they were crated and that was not true. It cost us $1200 to ship all of our totes and three euro mount heads back to PDX, averaged $400/hunter and I was pleased with that. Renfro's was also very helpful in getting us and all the gear to the AAC depot in Bethel.
Meat was a little more complicated than I had planned for. I wanted to self process and ship our meat back AAC on the perishable side but after I harvested my moose I wanted to stay in the field with my group. With Renfro's assistance I sent my meat via Everts Air to Anchorage to be processed by Alaska Sausage and Seafood. Although this was never on my radar of options it worked out really well due to Renfro's established relationships. It comes with some added expense but on a trip like this it's really minimal in the big picture.
When we arrived in Bethel Renfro's had an employee ready for us, super nice young guy that was doing everything he could to make us feel welcome. We then went back to their hanger, collected our previously shipped gear and were taken to a B&B they arranged for us so we could begin to arrange our gear for the flight the next day. One of the small positives, the B&B has several menu's and contact numbers for local food, pretty helpful when it's late and you just need something to eat. On our way out of the field they also arranged lodging, it wasn't "private" but it worked out fine and was inexpensive.
Staff at Renfro's-
They have a handful of guys running around in the hanger to assist with virtually anything you might need, all of them were willing to help in anyway they could. The pilots we had in and out of the field were both great, I felt very comfortable with both of them and they were very personable. The only area of concern I really had was that our meat wasn't going to be picked up in time, we had two bulls hanging in the field for several days. We had a couple of weather days but we also had a few nice days where there should have been opportunity to pick them up. Had we lost meat the trip could have taken an ugly turn. It wasn't directly discussed with staff but I really hope that getting meat out of the field is a big priority for them.
I think the location we were dropped at wasn't great, we found ourselves travelling almost a mile to reach the majority of the Moose we were seeing
The lake that was our water source was terrible, it was plugging our gravity fed filtration systems, we had two different brands luckily. Rain collector next time?
We spent most of our time in waders, mine worked fine but i would recommend that the next guy should get something very comfortable because you could be spending a lot time in them carrying some heavy loads.
I would most likely just bring a frame pack next time. The Stone Glacier and Exo's performed admirably but we used a raft where we could so the on and off with the quarters and meat bags would have been easier with a pack frame.
The raft Renfro's provide us was the LB Legend, it was fantastic, that raft can take a payload. We had four guys and gear at one point, we also had one guy and a moose and half. If your near a lake a raft is an absolute must.
I was a little bent out of shape that none of my game bags were saved, they were not the cheap ones....
We did fill all three Moose tags fairly easily, the Moose population and sightings were good just not near our camp.
I wouldn't hesitate to use Renfro's again you just have to consider a few things. Alaska weather will screw up all your plans, you are not their only customer and you will have to improvise and adapt constantly. Remain flexible with your plans and your finances and it will help you keep a cool head and have a great trip.
Tim-
I had established myself early on as a known shipper with Alaska Air Cargo. Overall this proved to be very valuable for my group. We shipped all of our camping and hunting gear up in totes ahead of our arrival for a cost of around $450, PDX to Bethel. Renfro's was great, they picked up our stuff and held it until our arrival. What I was most concerned about was shipping antlers back to PDX. There's lot of options out there but where I felt we got a win was our ability to wrap them and ship them back on AAC. I was under the impression that AAC would only take them if they were crated and that was not true. It cost us $1200 to ship all of our totes and three euro mount heads back to PDX, averaged $400/hunter and I was pleased with that. Renfro's was also very helpful in getting us and all the gear to the AAC depot in Bethel.
Meat was a little more complicated than I had planned for. I wanted to self process and ship our meat back AAC on the perishable side but after I harvested my moose I wanted to stay in the field with my group. With Renfro's assistance I sent my meat via Everts Air to Anchorage to be processed by Alaska Sausage and Seafood. Although this was never on my radar of options it worked out really well due to Renfro's established relationships. It comes with some added expense but on a trip like this it's really minimal in the big picture.
When we arrived in Bethel Renfro's had an employee ready for us, super nice young guy that was doing everything he could to make us feel welcome. We then went back to their hanger, collected our previously shipped gear and were taken to a B&B they arranged for us so we could begin to arrange our gear for the flight the next day. One of the small positives, the B&B has several menu's and contact numbers for local food, pretty helpful when it's late and you just need something to eat. On our way out of the field they also arranged lodging, it wasn't "private" but it worked out fine and was inexpensive.
Staff at Renfro's-
They have a handful of guys running around in the hanger to assist with virtually anything you might need, all of them were willing to help in anyway they could. The pilots we had in and out of the field were both great, I felt very comfortable with both of them and they were very personable. The only area of concern I really had was that our meat wasn't going to be picked up in time, we had two bulls hanging in the field for several days. We had a couple of weather days but we also had a few nice days where there should have been opportunity to pick them up. Had we lost meat the trip could have taken an ugly turn. It wasn't directly discussed with staff but I really hope that getting meat out of the field is a big priority for them.
I think the location we were dropped at wasn't great, we found ourselves travelling almost a mile to reach the majority of the Moose we were seeing
The lake that was our water source was terrible, it was plugging our gravity fed filtration systems, we had two different brands luckily. Rain collector next time?
We spent most of our time in waders, mine worked fine but i would recommend that the next guy should get something very comfortable because you could be spending a lot time in them carrying some heavy loads.
I would most likely just bring a frame pack next time. The Stone Glacier and Exo's performed admirably but we used a raft where we could so the on and off with the quarters and meat bags would have been easier with a pack frame.
The raft Renfro's provide us was the LB Legend, it was fantastic, that raft can take a payload. We had four guys and gear at one point, we also had one guy and a moose and half. If your near a lake a raft is an absolute must.
I was a little bent out of shape that none of my game bags were saved, they were not the cheap ones....
We did fill all three Moose tags fairly easily, the Moose population and sightings were good just not near our camp.
I wouldn't hesitate to use Renfro's again you just have to consider a few things. Alaska weather will screw up all your plans, you are not their only customer and you will have to improvise and adapt constantly. Remain flexible with your plans and your finances and it will help you keep a cool head and have a great trip.
Tim-
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