benconfused
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2025
- Messages
- 122
Just got back home this morning and this post is specifically about Artic Air outfitters and our caribou hunt out of Kotzebue. I'll post kill shot details in the 65 thread shortly.
Package: DIY - Bring all your own gear
Booked with Arctic: 3 years ago
High level overview: 5 stars, amazing, wow!
Gary and his team consistently went out of their way to support us the entire trip. From airport pickup to airport dropoff with everything in-between. They helped us with loading gear, ensuring we had everything we needed in prep for the field.
During the ride to the hotel Gary took us around the town to highlight where to eat and where the grocery store was. After our hotel check-in, Gary met us that evening to finalize any remaining paper work and get us ready for the prop plane flight out to the Brooks range. He stayed as long as we had questions that needed to be answered.
My rifle did not make the flight with me and showed up 24 hours later, the morning of our intended flight out into the field. Gary was ready and waiting at the hotel to pick us up, run us back to the airport to grab the rifle case and we headed straight to his outfitter area.
There we met our pilot Austin. Super cool dude who walked us through the loading process, weight checks and intended flight path. The flight out was 2 hours of Alaskan beauty. He gave us a fly by of the hunting area before putting the plane down on the lake and also gave us additional hunting tips around safety due to some flooding in that area.
After both tagging out on our first legal hunting day, and only good weather day, we got rained, and then snowed in for the next 3 days. We came prepared and were ok staying in the tent.
Each day Gary would check in with us multiple times via Inreach and we provided him a weather report of our area. He would provide a plane status in response back.
On the day we were picked up, we didn't think it was going to happen. The planes simply could not get through to our location. It was the coldest day with the heaviest snow and limited visibility, but we were mentally prepared to be stuck for 3 more days based on forecast.
Garys last message that morning was "planes were trying to get to you". We responded back and told them to stay safe, we will be fine if they can't get through. About an hour later the glorious sound of the single prop came roaring overhead our of nowhere. Here we meet his other pilot Patrick.
He said he was 4 miles away trying to get through the weather and probably shouldn't have tried but did anyway. So he gets to be called the "badass" in this story. Because of his fuel level, he was able to load both of us, our gear, our caribou meat, antlers and hides, all in one run.
With little to no wind that afternoon we slowly gained enough speed to lift the plane out of the water and we were off. Smooth and fast flight with a tail wind. When we arrived Patrick, Mason and Gary all helped us unload and walked us through his meat prep area where we went to work on processing for travel.
Gary personally helped me and my hunting partner prep'n pack our antlers for flight, provided us heavy duty meat travel boxes with plastic wrap and all packing amenities. We chose to donate some of the meat to the locals which Gary and Mason knew exactly who to call. The lady was very thankful about 15 min later when we loaded her SUV up with caribou meat.
The return to hotel and drop at the airport the following day were equally excellent experiences with the entire Arctic Air team. There many casual conversations throughout the trip with each team member. Many fist pumps and hand shakes were given.
They all work their asses off for YOU. Tip your pilots, tip their team. Regardless of your succes in the field. They got you in and out alive.
That is my story and my experience. We were lucky every thing lined up the way it did for a successful hunt. Now let me say this....
This was my first trip to Alaska. My buddy did a moose hunt 7 years ago out of Bethel and I'm thankful for his experience on this trip.
When you are in Alaska, you are on Alaska time - this means things will NOT go your way. In fact you should fully EXPECT everything to not go your way. When these plans fly, they put you on the north side of the Brooks range. To get there, they have to go through 4 DIFFERENT weather systems along the way.
So when you're stuck in Kotzebue where it's sunny, the northern Brooks (and ranges in-between) could be getting hammered with weather. It could even be the opposite - sunny day in your hunting area, but they can't take off in Kotzebue.
Rest assured, Gary and these pilots are working their asses off to support you but they only control about 1-2 variables out probably 7-8. When those variables get stacked against his team, that is where you start to see a back log of hunters getting stuck in places. It's not their fault, don't blame them for your poorly set expectations about how you think this hunt is supposed to go.
In summary, even if we not had success, this was still a hunt of a lifetime and I'm thankful to have chosen Arctic Air to make it happen.
Let me know if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them.
Package: DIY - Bring all your own gear
Booked with Arctic: 3 years ago
High level overview: 5 stars, amazing, wow!
Gary and his team consistently went out of their way to support us the entire trip. From airport pickup to airport dropoff with everything in-between. They helped us with loading gear, ensuring we had everything we needed in prep for the field.
During the ride to the hotel Gary took us around the town to highlight where to eat and where the grocery store was. After our hotel check-in, Gary met us that evening to finalize any remaining paper work and get us ready for the prop plane flight out to the Brooks range. He stayed as long as we had questions that needed to be answered.
My rifle did not make the flight with me and showed up 24 hours later, the morning of our intended flight out into the field. Gary was ready and waiting at the hotel to pick us up, run us back to the airport to grab the rifle case and we headed straight to his outfitter area.
There we met our pilot Austin. Super cool dude who walked us through the loading process, weight checks and intended flight path. The flight out was 2 hours of Alaskan beauty. He gave us a fly by of the hunting area before putting the plane down on the lake and also gave us additional hunting tips around safety due to some flooding in that area.
After both tagging out on our first legal hunting day, and only good weather day, we got rained, and then snowed in for the next 3 days. We came prepared and were ok staying in the tent.
Each day Gary would check in with us multiple times via Inreach and we provided him a weather report of our area. He would provide a plane status in response back.
On the day we were picked up, we didn't think it was going to happen. The planes simply could not get through to our location. It was the coldest day with the heaviest snow and limited visibility, but we were mentally prepared to be stuck for 3 more days based on forecast.
Garys last message that morning was "planes were trying to get to you". We responded back and told them to stay safe, we will be fine if they can't get through. About an hour later the glorious sound of the single prop came roaring overhead our of nowhere. Here we meet his other pilot Patrick.
He said he was 4 miles away trying to get through the weather and probably shouldn't have tried but did anyway. So he gets to be called the "badass" in this story. Because of his fuel level, he was able to load both of us, our gear, our caribou meat, antlers and hides, all in one run.
With little to no wind that afternoon we slowly gained enough speed to lift the plane out of the water and we were off. Smooth and fast flight with a tail wind. When we arrived Patrick, Mason and Gary all helped us unload and walked us through his meat prep area where we went to work on processing for travel.
Gary personally helped me and my hunting partner prep'n pack our antlers for flight, provided us heavy duty meat travel boxes with plastic wrap and all packing amenities. We chose to donate some of the meat to the locals which Gary and Mason knew exactly who to call. The lady was very thankful about 15 min later when we loaded her SUV up with caribou meat.
The return to hotel and drop at the airport the following day were equally excellent experiences with the entire Arctic Air team. There many casual conversations throughout the trip with each team member. Many fist pumps and hand shakes were given.
They all work their asses off for YOU. Tip your pilots, tip their team. Regardless of your succes in the field. They got you in and out alive.
That is my story and my experience. We were lucky every thing lined up the way it did for a successful hunt. Now let me say this....
This was my first trip to Alaska. My buddy did a moose hunt 7 years ago out of Bethel and I'm thankful for his experience on this trip.
When you are in Alaska, you are on Alaska time - this means things will NOT go your way. In fact you should fully EXPECT everything to not go your way. When these plans fly, they put you on the north side of the Brooks range. To get there, they have to go through 4 DIFFERENT weather systems along the way.
So when you're stuck in Kotzebue where it's sunny, the northern Brooks (and ranges in-between) could be getting hammered with weather. It could even be the opposite - sunny day in your hunting area, but they can't take off in Kotzebue.
Rest assured, Gary and these pilots are working their asses off to support you but they only control about 1-2 variables out probably 7-8. When those variables get stacked against his team, that is where you start to see a back log of hunters getting stuck in places. It's not their fault, don't blame them for your poorly set expectations about how you think this hunt is supposed to go.
In summary, even if we not had success, this was still a hunt of a lifetime and I'm thankful to have chosen Arctic Air to make it happen.
Let me know if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them.
