What I Learned On The Haul Road 2024

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Terrain????

Imagine endless rolling hills covered with a layer of 1’ foot of foam, piled with a layer of half inflated basketballs, footballs, tennis balls and volleyballs, covered with a 1” foam so you can’t see anything but bumps, then soak it all in water.

You might try walking on top, but that doesn’t last long. You try to walk in the gaps, but you don’t know if there is an hidden ball or whether it is 2” or 12” deep.

I wore Kenetreks the first time on Kodiak.

I wore muck boots the second on the North Slope. I brought my Kenetreks as backup. I had hurt my ankle foot a couple months before going. Ultimately, I wore muck boots 100% and walked miles in them. I will wear muck boots again.

It’s weird, but having my foot move inside the muck boot a little was less stressful and easier than stiff Kenetreks. Here in AZ, I am used to Kenetreks protecting my ankles while walking in rocky terrain. It works, as I did fine my first year, but I think I was faster in muck boots.

Maybe Kentreks are better with a full heavy load, but it would be a toss up to me.

Definitely use trekking poles. I bent my aluminum one.

I took a boat 2023 for caribou, and the herds weren’t migrating. Sucked not to experience the migration. My buddy and I shot spikes—mine still had milk on its lips, but it is seriously the best meat ever.

Sorry, I was thinking of the Haul Rd terrain, the tundra I believe is called, or maybe from everyones description maybe its swamp. Thanks for replying and providing some additional info.

 

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I tried using a sled my first time up there to pull meat and it ended up being much more difficult than just putting it on my back. The sled kept getting caught on the tussocks and brush. The type of sled I had allowed water in when I hit the parts of standing water. The uphill portions were terrible. So much better to just put it on your back, but even that is rough. This was from 5 miles out though. If you are just bow hunting from the road a sled might not be a bad option. If you are lucky enough to get a layer of snow while you are there the sled would probably be great.

Thank you for replying. I appreciate the information you provided. Not sure yet if I am going to use a bow or rifle. I do like to get away from the crowd when I am hunting, so maybe drive up and get someone with a boat to take us on the river for a ways out and then pick up back up. In that case I would take a .308 rifle.
Again, thanks much.

 

[wyosam]

Thank you for replying. I appreciate the information you provided. Not sure yet if I am going to use a bow or rifle. I do like to get away from the crowd when I am hunting, so maybe drive up and get someone with a boat to take us on the river for a ways out and then pick up back up. In that case I would take a .308 rifle.
Again, thanks much.

That will at least get to where it’s just other people with boat transport at least.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BowMan86]

Thank you for replying. I appreciate the information you provided. Not sure yet if I am going to use a bow or rifle. I do like to get away from the crowd when I am hunting, so maybe drive up and get someone with a boat to take us on the river for a ways out and then pick up back up. In that case I would take a .308 rifle.
Again, thanks much.

Unfortunately the rivers are more crowded than the road up there.

 

[ThiloAK]

Thanks for the write up!

 

[hereinaz]

Unfortunately the rivers are more crowded than the road up there.

We went up river and I could see 5 camps. Two camps across river were half mile apart.

 

[BowMan86]

We went up river and I could see 5 camps. Two camps across river were half mile apart.

Yeah we were dropped off almost 40 river miles back, hike 3 miles up into the mountains and still had people walk in on us. We floated all the way back to the road on pack rafts and there were camps every 1/4 to 1/2 mile in addition to the constant flow of boats running up and down the river trying to catch caribou crossing. It was ridiculous.

 

[HiLohunter]

I wanted to do a thread since I learned so much from this forum for this hunt. I have been putting it off. I imagined some sort of organized information but I am just going to spill it out in bullet points in no order.

Our hunt was August 13-26th including travel time. If I had to do it again, I would consider going after September 1st so the Caribou were moving more. Guys I went with wanted to shoot a velvet bull. They were moving through the Slope Mountain area the week before we got there but not as heavy when we were there. We never even loaded our guns. Guys at cold foot killed them 40 more miles north. Temps were 29-60. 15 mph winds almost every day. NO BUGS though. Rained almost every night. Only rained during the day one time. Snowed twice but the snow was gone by mid morning.

Flew into Fairbanks and stayed at the River Edge resort. Little personal cabins you can drive right up to. They have an airport shuttle service but it was not running when we got there (2AM) . Uber was only $7

We rented a truck from Alaska 4x4 using the discount code from this forum. Truck was nice and we did not have any major problems. One running board was half broken off when we picked the truck up and the oil change sticker said it was 3500 miles past due. Oil looked new on the dip stick and they said their new shop doesn't change the stickers when doing the oil changes. We brought the running board to their attention and they noted it on our account and no other issues came from it. We were banking on getting bear spray, fuel cans, and an extra spare tire from Alaska 4x4. After reading post again, that is the guys personal offering and not the companies. The company did say they would send an extra spare tire along but none were available at their Fairbanks location at that time. We ended up not having any tire troubles or vehicle troubles at all. Keeping the speed under 60 mph, pulling over when passing semis, and watching out for road debris on the shoulder were they key to no trouble in our opinion. We rented a Dodge 2500 and it got around 14 mpg. The topper on the truck was super handy.

If I did it again I would not have brought extra gas. Alaska 4x4 had a list of where gas is available and it is fairly often. We got gas at Coldfoot and Deadhorse. Did not even come close to needing gas from our cans.

Bought Stove fuel at Sportsman's warehouse.

Alaska Airlines were way more helpful with lost luggage and service than American or United

You can use your frame pack as a carry on. I got on 5 different planes with my Pro 6000

Bought our tags and license at Fish and Game in Fairbanks. They told us most of Caribou kills were between Galbraith Lake and Slope Mountain. They were doing construction here and the flaggers said there had not been many through in about a week. There were some caribou along the road so we chose to walk in. We saw some bigger bulls but they were always 2 miles away. We heard many times to not chase them so we did not go after them.

The tundra lives up to its reputation. I rucked over 130 miles before the trip, lost 50 pounds, worked out at crossfit 3 days a week and ran my first 5k even. I was still sucking air and hurting. If I ever go back, I am going to mainly do the stair machine.

Going to post this now so I do not lose it.

We had never done anything like this so we packed too damn heavy going in the first time.

Thanks for coming back and sharing this planing for 2026 and this helps a bunch so tore on what to do for this hunt since there is so many options

 

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Good write up. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences! It is much appreciated. I am starting to think the "Haul" road is not that bad, if you slow down a bit and keep an eye. It is really good to know about the gas situation. I have made a motivational note to myself and pasted on the "Fridge" as reminder that the goal is to lose some weight and get into much better shape. Your tip on spending more time on the steps machine is well noted!

 

[Daz5000]

Thanks for sharing this information. You gave me a few things I hadn’t considered. I would have bought the extra gas too!