2024 Alaskan Drop Camp Caribou

[bigbassfish]

Did you get the skulls shipped home or drop off at a taxidermist locally?

 

[TX338]

I flew horns, cape and skulls home as checked baggage on Alaska Air. Then to my local taxidermist.

 

[Garrett Soper]

Sounds like quite the experience….glad y’all tagged out! On the bucket list of hunts.

 

[IBen]

This is a write up of my first Alaskan caribou drop camp experience in September of 2024. I booked this hunt with Arctic Air in early 2021 for 2023. I was not a Rokslider at the time and no one in my circle had ever done this kind of hunt, so I used a booking agent’s recommendation to book with Arctic Air. When AA was taken over by Unguided Alaska in 2023, my group of 4 bumped to 2024 by our choice due to some schedule issues one of the group had. Gary was very accommodating to bump us out a year, as it sounded like they were overbooked trying to make up 2022 cancelations as well as a full 2023 schedule.

I found Rokslide about that time as we were uncertain about the viability of this hunt. There is a wealth of information all the members bring to the table. I read countless threads on not only hunt reviews, but also gear lists…more on gear later. Several members offered information via PM followed by phone calls, shout out to: Zig4648, blakees307 and kgk_kcc for time on the phone with me over this past year.
When we paid the balance of our transporter flights/camp rental and fuel surcharge, our 4th backed out. Down to 3. I had already been working on spreadsheets to make weight, and struggling. I talked with Gary about additional gear flight, but did not feel comfortable with the answers. In spite of repeated cautions on Rokslide about overpacking…I could not help myself for this first hunt in AK. So, I paid the balance of the 4th guy in an amended contract, giving our group his weight. Yes…I over packed.

Hunt dates were September 6-13, 2024, originally booked for Kotzubue. That changed with a phone call from Russ on Aug 23, 2 weeks prior to go time. Changed location to Fairbanks, so rebooked flights and hotels. The word we got was flooding and rain had negatively impacted their flying and camp drop locations, and a change to Fairbanks would be a positive change.
We almost pulled the plug after speaking with Zig4648 and his experience with Arctic Air / Unguided Alaska 2, as he was one of the first groups to move to Fairbanks 2 weeks before me. That conversation was September 2nd. After discussion with my group, we decided to roll the dice on an expensive Alaskan camping trip and go, “can’t shoot one from your living room”.
W flew Alaska Airline into Fairbanks on Sept 5th, picked up a few last-minute supplies. We knew we would be picked up the morning of the 6th from our hotel, but no definite time. Texting Gary at 7:30AM morning of the 6th, got a 9AM pick up time response and the driver picked us up on time. Headed to a small hanger in Fairbanks, issued camp gear package and our gear weighed. I took my contract with me, as no one on site was aware I had booked extra weight. Multiple questions about weight…it got old, but we got through it. Met 2 other moose hunters, not booked with AA/UG but flying with same air taxi service. Then another group of 4 arrived who were with AA/UG.

Multiple changes in about 1.5 hours about who/how/where we were going. Ultimately my group of 3 plus the other group of 4 loaded up into a van and drove 4 hours to Circle, AK. Remote airstrip where AA/UG hands us off to the air taxi service. Unload and wait, unsure if we would have to overnight in Circle or if we would make it out. The group of 4 made it out before us on 2 flights. We loaded up about 2 hours later for a flight into Arctic Village. Another wait for my group, along with 2 from the other group. Information from the pilots was sketchy, it sounded like they were literally trying to figure out where to put camps. Pilots were all good, and would communicate what they could, but their plans changed quickly multiple time through the day. One camp had killed out early but wanted to stay their full 6 days. One camp needed a float plane, one pilot would not land on one of the camps…but it was not a lack of effort. They were trying, but overbooked schedules with the AA/UA change had guys stacking up with their normal workload. Several of the planes and pilots worked for AA/UA in Kotzebue, and made the move to Fairbanks. Same air taxi service at both Fairbanks and Kotzebue, TOGO Air. I got the sense the pilots and planes were overwhelmed with the change.

Its the alaska bush not the four seasons. I’m sure they loved you pestering them with questions all day!

 

[Will 736]

My group was last out of Arctic Village about 7:15pm, short 30 minute flight up the East Fork Chandalar River, then a couple miles west on another drainage. Dropped us off at our camp site at 7:55pm. Quick camp set up, dinner and to bed. We are in a wide drainage, almost a mile wide with small creeks in the bottom, bordered by steep mountains north and south.
September 7th – Saturday Day 1 of the hunt. Woke up to rain, rained steady all morning. Got out early afternoon and put in about 5 miles headed west out of our camp. No caribou, no animal sightings. Beautiful country. Found a sheep skull.
September 8th – Sunday Day 2 of the hunt. Woke up to rain, rained stead all morning. Got out early afternoon and headed east out of camp. About 2 miles out, we find a caribou shed…at least one had been here. Glassed some sheep up high. Hike another ½ mile east to open up more of the valley for glassing. Spot a grizzly about 600 yards out, we were downwind. Great just to watch these big bears in their element.

About 6pm, decide to start the 2.5 mile hike back to camp. Was not more than a ¼ mile into the hike, one of my buddies says “there’s another bear in the creek”. The other guy says, ”nope those are caribou”. Binos up, 3 bulls at about 400 yards. 2nd look says all 3 were representative bulls. Pulled back over a rise to drop packs and chamber rifles. We all 3 lined up, and shot all 3 in a row! Shots were about 320 yards as they worked towards us. It was an indescribably great moment with 3 bulls down! Now to pictures and work. Got 3 dressed, quartered, caped and meat into game bags. Loaded backstraps, tenderloins and some neck/brisket trim into our packs. Got back to camp about midnight.

Allegedly there was a bottle of Blanton’s bourbon consumed that night!

Spent Monday the 9th packing the rest of the meat back, then finished with capes and horns. Took 3 round trips about 4 miles each to get it all out…I must not be able to pack as much as some of you who make it in one load! No problems with bears or wolves on the meat.
Texted for a meat pick up on Monday 9th afternoon, Tuesday 10th, Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th. Never happened but got “we are behind and backed up” responses. We built a rack out of brush and covered with a tarp to keep it cool and dry as possible. Not sure if the capes have spoiled/slippage or not, waiting on word from my taxidermist. Brought the head back in case I need to pivot to a euro mount.

We were picked up as scheduled on Friday the 13th, though it was late in the day. Flights back to Arctic Village then to Circle, then 4 hour van ride back to Fairbanks, arriving about 2AM on the 14th. As I understood it, we got really lucky on both getting in and out of the field on our scheduled dates. Other were days late going in behind us, and days late coming out. Checked in with the other group of 4 who went in same day with AA/UA…they went 2 for 4 on bulls. Both nice bulls, but again, these 2 bulls were the only 2 caribou they saw and they were a day late coming out.
Spent Saturday 9.14 in Fairbanks boxing up meat, cape and horns to fly home. AA/UA had a rental house in Fairbanks some of their staff was staying in with big freezers and tables etc to debone meat in the backyard. We bought fish boxes at the Walmart along with shrink wrap to wrap up the horns as checked luggage home. Alaska Airlines was great about traveling with meat and horns…but there is a cost. Red eye out of Fairbanks departed at 2:51AM to head home.

Some of my take aways:
Rental package from AA/UA was decent. It was missing a water container and lantern. I had a water container as I had been told this might happen. Lantern was no big deal, never missed it but did not need the extra mantels they included. Headlamps were fine. PB&J included with tortillas but not bread. I had picked up a load of bread to take with on advice of another here, who did not even get tortillas. The included tarp was a small 5x8 poly tarp, glad I had my larger SO DST. With a group of 3 they treated us like a heavy group of 2, instead of a light group of 4. One Cabela’s Alaskan Guide 8 man rental tent, one stove, etc…all was fine for our group of 3. The pro tip I throw out here…check your rental gear before you leave the hanger. Verify what is supposed to be there is physically there. And, if you are over your weight…weigh the camp gear to verify their assumptive 120# rental/food package per 2 people….you will likely pick up some pounds you can add a luxury or two. It was an option to leave cots behind if you were overweight, which would be possible with a good sleeping pad…but I sure enjoyed sleeping on a cot with an insulated pad.

I packed much more than I needed, like many here caution against. I could not let go of the “what if’s”. I packed spare pants, spare layers etc. Below are a couple of my highlights, along with a couple of wish I had taken items.
I really enjoyed having a SO Redcliff tipi, no floor/no liner we set up for a camp kitchen and hang out spot out of our sleeping tent. Helinox knock off lightweight chair – taller back version, Kuiu rain gear - Kutana and Yukon, Kuiu merino and synthetic layers, Kuiu Talus Hybrid pants with built in knee pads and of course…Leukotape. Trekking poles with small mud baskets. Garmin InReach paired to my phone with the Earthmate app and Anker 10K and 20K power banks. Had waders, never needed them. Jet boil for a quick cup of coffee before the stove heated up was a luxury!

Wished I had taken a boning knife to process meat back in town. My buddy was supposed to bring a scale to weigh bags for the trip home, had to buy another one since he forgot. Neither are needed in the field, leave with your hard sided gun case.

Gary, one of the AA/UA owners was my van driver from Circle back to Fairbanks. I rode up front and had the opportunity to ask a bunch of questions. Summarizing…taking over from AA for the 2023 season, they were overbooked and said they learned some lessons in the 2023 season to implement in 2024. They added in 2 “no fly days” of Monday and Thursday where groups were not scheduled in or out of the field. Weather catch up days, plane maintenance days etc. For the 2024 season, they tried to limit to 8 hunters each days less Monday and Thursdays, but did not hit that due to still being overbooked. This caused pain for many. Going to 2025, they are planning to reduce to 6 hunter per day with no fly days Monday and Thursday. They might split hunters between Kotzebue and Fairbanks, but acknowledged that might be tough to split personnel, planes and equipment. He also noted there were likely going to be some hunter’s dates that moved to better manage the schedule with the new target of 6 per day. Also noted they still had about 40% of their rolled over Arctic Air bookings that remain for 2025, that should be cleaned up for the 2026 season.

We went with low expectations of caribou, but high expectations of an adventure. We got lucky going 3 for 3 bulls, never saw another bull the rest of the week. Had a single cow walk through camp on our fly out day. Could have very easily been a no caribou hunt. Communication was slow but happened prior to hunt and sparsely during the hunt. I would get responses while in the field, but not answers with certainty. What communication took place during the hunt was vague more often than not. Seeing the separation between air taxi group and AA/UA, it makes more sense now. There are many variables taking place at the same time across different parties...hunters, pilots and transporters.
If you read this far, thank you.

If you have questions, by all means ask here or PM. I appreciate the Rokslide community whereI learned so much heading into this hunt.

Congrats on 3 nice bulls! Lots of great information here. Thank you for taking time to write up the trip, lessons learned, and the good intel on planning a trip like this!

 

[pnwhuntfish]

This is a write up of my first Alaskan caribou drop camp experience in September of 2024. I booked this hunt with Arctic Air in early 2021 for 2023. I was not a Rokslider at the time and no one in my circle had ever done this kind of hunt, so I used a booking agent’s recommendation to book with Arctic Air. When AA was taken over by Unguided Alaska in 2023, my group of 4 bumped to 2024 by our choice due to some schedule issues one of the group had. Gary was very accommodating to bump us out a year, as it sounded like they were overbooked trying to make up 2022 cancelations as well as a full 2023 schedule.

I found Rokslide about that time as we were uncertain about the viability of this hunt. There is a wealth of information all the members bring to the table. I read countless threads on not only hunt reviews, but also gear lists…more on gear later. Several members offered information via PM followed by phone calls, shout out to: Zig4648, blakees307 and kgk_kcc for time on the phone with me over this past year.
When we paid the balance of our transporter flights/camp rental and fuel surcharge, our 4th backed out. Down to 3. I had already been working on spreadsheets to make weight, and struggling. I talked with Gary about additional gear flight, but did not feel comfortable with the answers. In spite of repeated cautions on Rokslide about overpacking…I could not help myself for this first hunt in AK. So, I paid the balance of the 4th guy in an amended contract, giving our group his weight. Yes…I over packed.

Hunt dates were September 6-13, 2024, originally booked for Kotzubue. That changed with a phone call from Russ on Aug 23, 2 weeks prior to go time. Changed location to Fairbanks, so rebooked flights and hotels. The word we got was flooding and rain had negatively impacted their flying and camp drop locations, and a change to Fairbanks would be a positive change.
We almost pulled the plug after speaking with Zig4648 and his experience with Arctic Air / Unguided Alaska 2, as he was one of the first groups to move to Fairbanks 2 weeks before me. That conversation was September 2nd. After discussion with my group, we decided to roll the dice on an expensive Alaskan camping trip and go, “can’t shoot one from your living room”.
W flew Alaska Airline into Fairbanks on Sept 5th, picked up a few last-minute supplies. We knew we would be picked up the morning of the 6th from our hotel, but no definite time. Texting Gary at 7:30AM morning of the 6th, got a 9AM pick up time response and the driver picked us up on time. Headed to a small hanger in Fairbanks, issued camp gear package and our gear weighed. I took my contract with me, as no one on site was aware I had booked extra weight. Multiple questions about weight…it got old, but we got through it. Met 2 other moose hunters, not booked with AA/UG but flying with same air taxi service. Then another group of 4 arrived who were with AA/UG.

Multiple changes in about 1.5 hours about who/how/where we were going. Ultimately my group of 3 plus the other group of 4 loaded up into a van and drove 4 hours to Circle, AK. Remote airstrip where AA/UG hands us off to the air taxi service. Unload and wait, unsure if we would have to overnight in Circle or if we would make it out. The group of 4 made it out before us on 2 flights. We loaded up about 2 hours later for a flight into Arctic Village. Another wait for my group, along with 2 from the other group. Information from the pilots was sketchy, it sounded like they were literally trying to figure out where to put camps. Pilots were all good, and would communicate what they could, but their plans changed quickly multiple time through the day. One camp had killed out early but wanted to stay their full 6 days. One camp needed a float plane, one pilot would not land on one of the camps…but it was not a lack of effort. They were trying, but overbooked schedules with the AA/UA change had guys stacking up with their normal workload. Several of the planes and pilots worked for AA/UA in Kotzebue, and made the move to Fairbanks. Same air taxi service at both Fairbanks and Kotzebue, TOGO Air. I got the sense the pilots and planes were overwhelmed with the change.

Awesome write up and you guys got it done...great job!!

 

[idahohunter29]

Thanks for the detailed report. I am in the beginning phase of planning a caribou hunt

 

[Quailhy]

Nice tale, what a successful hunt!