Winter Days

Recently I was able to head north and spend some time on the north slope hunting Caribou. Temps ranged anywhere from 11 to 38 degrees which is extremely warm for this time of year. I was planning to hunt north of Atigun Pass (the contential divide of Northern Alaska's Brook's range) around the Galbraith Lake area. When I stopped in Coldfoot (only stop along the haul road between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay) for a coffee they had announced that a winter advisory was in effect for blowing/drifting snow and to expect delays due to a vehicle that had rolled over blocking the road. Driving in blowing snow is doable as long as the snow is blowing across the road because you can still see the outline of the road, however, with a strong head/tail wind the snow blends in with the road causing for dangerous conditions. With the potential of the winter storm getting worse and rising temps I decided to stay south of the pass and hunt the Chandalar Valley. Pickings were slim and the ones I did see were acting pretty skidish so unfortunately I returned empty handed.

This is the first time we've seen the Aurora this winter

Kenai Mountain Caribou Hunt

While in Iraq I was lucky enough to draw the Kenai Mountain Caribou tag (DC001). Alaska Fish & Game issue 250 permits per year for this area and the success rate is extremely low with 12 caribou taken on average. The Kenai Mountain caribou herd is pretty small, however, if you're lucky enough to locate the herd then chances are you'll have an opportunity of connecting with a trophy bull. The Kenai Mountains also have a high population of both brown and black bear, but unless you draw a permit (we didn't), brown bear were off the menu for this hunt. With half day schedules at work, my buddy and I finally left Ft. Wainwright around noon and headed south after grabbing a cup of coffee for the seven hour drive to the hunting grounds. We parked the truck in Hope, AK and hiked in on Resurrection Trail. The 38 mile trail is well maintained and is a relatively easy hike with forest service cabins scattered along the trail if pitching a tent isn't in your plans. Going into the hunt I had zero expectations besides getting out, testing new gear, and experiencing new country. After camp was established we began glassing the hill sides for caribou. We spotted two moose who thought they were sheep because they were just shy of the snow line on the mountains (approximately 3,500 feet). That evening we spotted one brown bear and two black bear, however, with the sun setting early, we were unable to launch a stalk so we enjoyed watching them through the binos. Friday night came with a lot of rain which made for a messy trail and tough hiking. The rain came to a close around 10 AM Saturday morning and we broke camp and began glassing the hill sides once again in hopes that the bear were still located in the same area as the evening prior. At 11:00 AM we spotted a nice black bear and decided to make a stalk. It took us over 1.5 hrs to make above the tree line since the alders were acting like the mountain's linebackers but after a lot of falling and crawling we broke through the alders and spotted the bear in the same location. With the wind in our favor we had time to put together a solid game plan when all of a sudden the bear took off like Usain Bolt across the mountain only stopping once. The bear looked back in the same direction as if he was spooked then continued running across and over the mountain. At this point the weather started to turn sour so we hiked down the mountain, broke camp and headed into Anchorage for the night. All in all it was a successful trip in the Kenai Mountains and I'm looking forward to my next visit.


The trail

Base camp

Jason filling up water so we won't have to hike clean water to base camp

The never ending alders

more pictures of the alders

August / September

my first bull moose! These animals are incredibly huge! He weighed about 1,000 lbs and I got about 500lbs of meat! Just to give you an idea it took 2 of us to pick up one hine quarter

my moose taking a dirt nap

dead salmon after the spawn. These fish swim hundreds of miles from the coast to the interior of Alaska to spawn. By this point they are in bad shape and have lost a lot of weight.

Camping on the Chena River / Tara doing some cooking

talking to Tara on the SAT phone

fishing the Sag river up on the North Slope

camping on the North Slope

gas station in Deadhorse, Ak

The town of Coldfoot, Ak

Price per gallon in Coldfoot, Ak

Musk-ox on the North Slope

Grouse graveling up on the "haul road"

Driving thru Atigun Pass

Recent Pictures

The following pictures are from our 2 day fishing trip on the Chatanika River

I caught this one at 2:00 AM
Tara's first PIKE! The fish taped out at 28"


everything tastes better when you're camping!

this is the first Sheefish I've seen caught...and you can tell they get pretty big


as we came around the bend this moose was taking a bath








Pictures from the trip down south







Valdez, AK bear hunt 08'

my first bear

quick update: hey guys I know its been a while since the last post but things are going well up here. Spring is finally here and majority of the ice is starting to melt off the lakes.

On 22 May I was lucky enough to harvest a respectable interior black bear. He taped out a little over 5'6 (they measure from the tip of the nose to the tail) and weighed some where around 300+ lbs. I wanted to shoot him with the bow but he sneaked in without me seeing him and when I looked up there he was. I was shaking like a leaf and if I tried to reach for the bow he would of ran off so I grabbed my 44 mag and with a well placed shot he didn't make it 20 yards.

I've always heard that you'll see them before you hear them but I can't put into words the rush I felt when I looked up and had a starring competition with a black bear.

The rule up here is if you shoot a bear before 1 June you have to harvest all the meat because they are usually eating on blue berries and the meat tastes really good. As long as you harvest the bear before it starts eating fish the meat will taste just fine...if hes eating fish then the meat is oily and doesn't taste as good. Enjoy the pictures

Early April with a full load to go build the stand...Its about 4 miles from the truck to the stand

here is a picture of the stand


you can see how thick the spruce forest is up here. Also check out the moss...thats why you never hear them sneak up on you...

After I shot the bear I made my way back to the truck and called my 1SG to keep a watch out for other bears coming in. When I was field dressing this bear another one came in and was walking around us...


full load...
those could do some damage...
he is gonna make a nice rug

aurora

latest adventure

well my buddies and I decided to pack up the sleds Thursday night and head down towards Paxson, AK (Tangle Lakes) in high hopes of catching some lake trout. Good thing this wasn't a survival trip where you only eat what you catch because my buddy Bill was the only one to bring a fish to hand and that wasn't enough to go around! Needless to say we still had an awesome time on the sleds. On the 25 mile ride in on the sleds we saw a lynx sun bathing on a frozen river, a heard of Caribou, a lake trout through the ice, and the northern lights.


As we were heading back to camp from the ice shanty the Aurora made an appearance for only a few minutes and I was able to snap off a few shots. Don't be fooled this picture was taken a little after midnight.


Bill with his first Lake Trout. She taped out at 18"
Winston will be 1 yr old this May. This was from our latest rabbit hunt
picture of Bill on his sled

Here is a picture of some caribou we saw on the way in. Most of the bulls have already dropped their antlers

No...thats not the sun its the moon. This picture was taken around midnight

Aurora

not really a great picture but if you look hard enough you'll see both of us

More Pictures

here is a picture of some our our soldiers shooting a 120mm Mortar out of a stryker
This is where we do a lot of our training
waiting on the mortars to show up like usual. Here is a picture of me grabbing some chow before the MTRs show up for the live fire.
here is a picture of what we sleep in when were in the field. Notice the jerry can (tan thing) turned upside down...that actually supplies fuel for the heater inside the tent. Even when its -50 outside the heater inside will keep it nice and toasty.
breaking down the shanty. Notice my two little fish...one is an arctic char and the other is a rainbow trout. I know they're small but fish and game encourage catch and keep in some of the lakes due to low oxygen levels during the late ice.
never thought I would see my truck parked behind a no wake zone sign
just to give yall an idea on how people ice fish up here. These are personal permanent shanty's and some people go to town on the inside. I mean they have wooden floors, posters on the walls etc.
Shanty time. Inside you can get away with wearing a t-shirt as long as the heater is roaring. Believe it or not it was -20 outside!
Yeah thats right....my truck is on a frozen lake! Here is a picture of our first ice fishing trip up here in Alaska. Unfortunately, the ice auger broke after I drilled the first hole so our trip was cut short but we still had a good time.

The Conversation

I was ready to hit the sack after nodding off watching countless episodes Law & Order when I decided to peak out the window to see if the aurora was out, and sure enough they were dancing across the sky. I grabbed my boots, watch cap, gloves, camera and tripod in about 20 seconds while yelling for Tara to get out of bed and come look at the lights and its safe to say she wasn't a happy camper about waking up. Here is what the conversation sounded like

Richie: Tara...Tara wake up...come look at the lights

Tara: shut up I'm sleeping

Richie: no for real...wake up and come look

Tara: I don't wanna...(this is what she was humbling as she was walking towards the door) Richie, I'm sleeping...I'm tired...and I'm feeling sick....OMG those are awesome!

Richie: I knew you would like it in Alaska

Tara: no response, however I did get a stern look as she walked away

Once getting all set up and ready to shoot, the lights started to put on a top notch show and if that weren't enough the wolves started howl over by the river for at least 30 mins! At that point I realized this place is awesome and I could do this all night but after being outside for over an hour my fingers and toes started to go numb so I packed up shop and headed back in for the night.