YellCoAR
Lil-Rokslider
I am going to give my honest experience of this hunt. Take it for what it cost you. To start out I spent 7 months getting ready for this hunt. I lost 33 pounds and walked over 250 miles. I am 56 years old and felt I was ready for the challenge of this hunt. Let me state I am not sure there is anyway to get ready for the tundra. I had my butt handed to me several times. The highway is long, brutal, and void of game for the most part. There are a lot of caribou, but there is a vast amount of area they can be. For the 495 miles we only saw caribou for around a 6 mile section of the entire highway. There were just a few in that area. Most of the herd was not reachable from the road. It was a great experience and I am glad I gave it a try.
I had made a plan on research I had done. After driving several miles of the highway with no sightings of caribou. We made our 5 mile march in on that course. We packed in our camp and food and spent 5 days. I am not sure packing in you camp is a good idea. It is just to much weight. I can say for certain using a sled to pull gear is a bad idea. Once we crossed the 5 mile line we could see for miles. We saw a small group the first day several miles away heading away from us. Plan was to catch the next group coming threw for the next 4 days none every came. So we decided to pack out and find another location that had caribou by the road.
We located a few caribou around mile 56. So we made a plan to hike in to the 5 mile line. We had a young bull come to 75 yards and another around 200 yards, but decided not to shoot these bulls. The only other bulls spotted were back inside the 5 mile area. We watched them all day and they were not moving out of the area they were in. We chose to pack light and hunt all day and return to the truck. We reached the truck at 12:45 am. Let me tell you the tundra is not forgiving in low light. The last 1,000 yards I bet I took more steps away from the truck than toward. Them dad gum green monsters will eat you alive. Was sure glad we had decided not to shoot the small bulls.
We did have a great trip fishing Sag River artic grayling and artic char. Jims 3 river artic grayling. Quarts Lake East of Fairbanks Silver Salmon, Artic Char, and rainbow.
To sum it up my advise is to either use air transporter or air boat. I actually think a bow would be the best choice if hunting the road.
I had made a plan on research I had done. After driving several miles of the highway with no sightings of caribou. We made our 5 mile march in on that course. We packed in our camp and food and spent 5 days. I am not sure packing in you camp is a good idea. It is just to much weight. I can say for certain using a sled to pull gear is a bad idea. Once we crossed the 5 mile line we could see for miles. We saw a small group the first day several miles away heading away from us. Plan was to catch the next group coming threw for the next 4 days none every came. So we decided to pack out and find another location that had caribou by the road.
We located a few caribou around mile 56. So we made a plan to hike in to the 5 mile line. We had a young bull come to 75 yards and another around 200 yards, but decided not to shoot these bulls. The only other bulls spotted were back inside the 5 mile area. We watched them all day and they were not moving out of the area they were in. We chose to pack light and hunt all day and return to the truck. We reached the truck at 12:45 am. Let me tell you the tundra is not forgiving in low light. The last 1,000 yards I bet I took more steps away from the truck than toward. Them dad gum green monsters will eat you alive. Was sure glad we had decided not to shoot the small bulls.
We did have a great trip fishing Sag River artic grayling and artic char. Jims 3 river artic grayling. Quarts Lake East of Fairbanks Silver Salmon, Artic Char, and rainbow.
To sum it up my advise is to either use air transporter or air boat. I actually think a bow would be the best choice if hunting the road.
