ALASKA

Place: Kotzebue Alaska
Location: 66.898°N,162.585° W Trophy: Caribou
Outfitter: Artic Safari’s

 Alaska, just the word itself sends shivers down the spine of any avid hunter. Hunting 20 miles north of the artic circle is no joke and takes a lot of preparation.

Getting there:

Artic Circle from the Plane

Traveling to such a remote location takes time. After the 10-hour flight from New York to Anchorage it is another 1 1/2 hour flight into Kotzebue. Once there it is back into a small floatplane where you are flown into the middle of the artic tundra with 2 tents a small grill and your own gear that has to be less than 70 lbs. in order to get on the plane.

The Hunt:

Camp 

Once camp is all set up and ready to go its time to start glassing. The guide gave us a general direction from which the Caribou would be coming from and told us to keep our eyes peeled and be ready to go. On the first day we saw only one small cow with a fawn and that was it. But on the second day it was a different story. We woke up with the sun and saw another small cow walking across the mountaintops with the sun as a backdrop. The rest of the day was spent glassing the mountains with no luck. As we thought the day was over and decided to make dinner 4 caribou bulls come walking down the far mountaintop and the hunt was on. We grabbed our guns and ran to the far side of the mountain to cut them off. We got into position waited for them to get into range and shot them one-by-one at 430 yards.

Carrying the Trophy's 

Now the work began. Unfortunately we shot them about 1 mile from camp and we needed to carry all of the meat out. We set up in teams of twos with two people butchering and two people carrying meat back and forth from camp. The next day we were flown out because there was a snowstorm coming in and we would have been trapped for 2 days.

Weather:

Can change at any minute so you have to come prepared with warm cloths and rain gear. When the wind is not blowing the bugs are VERY bad so be prepared. 

Essential Gear:

Straight Shooting Gun (May have to take long range shots)

Rain Gear

Bug Spray/ Head Net 

After the kill 

Best Memory:

Camp from a far 

While we were being flown out the pilot suddenly, without warning, dips the plane and starts diving towards the mountain side. Scared that we were going to crash I braced myself for the worst and looked out the window to see the most majestic thing I have ever seen in my life. The pilot was flying low to get a better look at a huge Grizzly Bear. As we got close enough it started running at top speed across the top of the mountain. This will be a memory that I will have forever and if you ever get the oppurtunity it is something that you need to see.