Jmvjazzfan
FNG
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2020
Myself, my wife, brother, and dad hunted with Arctic Air in 2024. We were originally booked in 2021 but dealt with the closure, old owners, new owners, etc..
2 weeks before we were supposed to leave we got a call asking if we'd be willing to switch our flights from KOTZ to Fairbanks. We didn't really have a reason not to, so we trusted the owner and made the flight switches.
To say communication was poor would be an understatement. We arrived in Fairbanks and hadn't spoke to a single person with AA. I was starting to panic a bit. Every person I spoke with told me to reach out to another person. I finally got ahold of someone and met them at the hanger, then we made the drive to Circle.
Circle was a cluster. We were stuck there for 2 days, not sure exactly why other than maybe some plane maintenance. We weren't upset about being stuck there, it was more the lack of communication.
Finally, we were able to depart into the field. When we showed up, we were also picking up another group to come back. There was a sheep guide nearby that stopped and gave an ear full to our pilots. (AA dropped 2 groups off within half a mile. When Caribou came strolling through, bullets were being shot from all directions.) It sounded like quite the mess. We became quite close with the Sheep guide and he made regular visits to our camp throughout.
Luckily when we were dropped off, it was just our group in there. The group before us gave us a quick rundown that basically said they hadn't seen a caribou in 4 days. They had shot 2 out of 3 bulls but were the only ones they had seen. That left us a bit discouraged but we made the most of it and kept at it.
Day 3 came along and we decided to go down to where we had seen multiple grizzly bears. (Bear Flat) We had glassed some caribou sheds so we thought might as well go for a walk. As we got to the flat, we looked up and saw 2 bulls standing about 200 yards away. My wife and I got ready and dropped both bulls within 20 yards of each other. It was a surreal experience that I'll never forget.
The next day, we did some glassing in our usual spot and saw a group of 7 bulls working towards our camp. My brother worked to intercept them and sure enough they worked right to him. My dad stayed back not wanting to slow him down, so unfortunately he wasn't able to fill his tag but he was sure excited his kids filled theirs.
Overall, it was quite the adventure. We saw limited Caribou but shot 3 out of 4 Mature bulls, so there wasn't too much to complain about. We would likely choose a different transporter next time, or just do the haul road.
2 weeks before we were supposed to leave we got a call asking if we'd be willing to switch our flights from KOTZ to Fairbanks. We didn't really have a reason not to, so we trusted the owner and made the flight switches.
To say communication was poor would be an understatement. We arrived in Fairbanks and hadn't spoke to a single person with AA. I was starting to panic a bit. Every person I spoke with told me to reach out to another person. I finally got ahold of someone and met them at the hanger, then we made the drive to Circle.
Circle was a cluster. We were stuck there for 2 days, not sure exactly why other than maybe some plane maintenance. We weren't upset about being stuck there, it was more the lack of communication.
Finally, we were able to depart into the field. When we showed up, we were also picking up another group to come back. There was a sheep guide nearby that stopped and gave an ear full to our pilots. (AA dropped 2 groups off within half a mile. When Caribou came strolling through, bullets were being shot from all directions.) It sounded like quite the mess. We became quite close with the Sheep guide and he made regular visits to our camp throughout.
Luckily when we were dropped off, it was just our group in there. The group before us gave us a quick rundown that basically said they hadn't seen a caribou in 4 days. They had shot 2 out of 3 bulls but were the only ones they had seen. That left us a bit discouraged but we made the most of it and kept at it.
Day 3 came along and we decided to go down to where we had seen multiple grizzly bears. (Bear Flat) We had glassed some caribou sheds so we thought might as well go for a walk. As we got to the flat, we looked up and saw 2 bulls standing about 200 yards away. My wife and I got ready and dropped both bulls within 20 yards of each other. It was a surreal experience that I'll never forget.
The next day, we did some glassing in our usual spot and saw a group of 7 bulls working towards our camp. My brother worked to intercept them and sure enough they worked right to him. My dad stayed back not wanting to slow him down, so unfortunately he wasn't able to fill his tag but he was sure excited his kids filled theirs.
Overall, it was quite the adventure. We saw limited Caribou but shot 3 out of 4 Mature bulls, so there wasn't too much to complain about. We would likely choose a different transporter next time, or just do the haul road.
