Leaving tomorrow to set up for the 40-mile caribou opener on Tuesday. Hopefully all this rain hampers the morons and their ATVs (unlikely I know...). We're aiming for a bowl with an approach too steep for a quad, so we'll see.

Have fun and good luck. I know where there were about 300 near Mt. Pringle last week, but I have no desire to mess with that zoo nor the velvet on antlers. Walmart and Sportsman's were absolute zoos today with RVs and trailers full of wheelers.

I am going for sheep, and will wait for the fall hunt concerning caribou.

Good luck......and stay safe.

Supposedly the feds ie BLM will be up their in force along with state troopers. Slobs from everywhere destroyed a lot of trails. BLM has weight restrictions on wheelers.

I saw what those a$$hats did to the Pinnell Mtn trail. I hope they catch some of them this time.

Good luck to the both of you. Looking forward to seeing pictures.

Good luck fellas, I'm headed for my sheep hunt in 19 days.

Good luck to you. I'll be the ATV moron up on the ridge ...... . And frankly, the one's I've met up there are mostly decent, considerate folks.

Our ATV's (wife bought herself one after last year.... !!!) to get there and the meat out. I don't hunt from it. Or haven't, down here. Did out of Kotzebue when I lived there. Change locations if I must, but the last two years it worked well from right there, less than 2 miles from a nice, warm, dry camper. We back-packed out our bull the first year. Enough of that!. BTDT the last 50 years.

I discovered Internal Combustion!

I have a nice dry cave to sit in if I wish. Might even camp out in it tonight or other nights. Rain next 4 days..... Don't give a flip about antlers, but I'm holding out for a decent sized meat bull. Or bulls - wife and son (on his off day) are going too. Those two cows and an orphan calf from last year ran out in March - should have shot 4, canned one.

Conversation I had with some folks They think the state will up the bag limit to 2 after the opener. To avoid a repeat of last years chit show.

The 40 Mile heard health wise is in bad shape. Too big, eating themselves out of a house and home, so enjoy hunting this herd while you can..

I'll be heading up Friday with my son's buddy from college. Since my son is deployed, and his friend wants to hunt again this year, I thought I'd take him. Him and my son went the second week of the season last year, and the son's buddy got a monster. I'm just wanting some meat that this point. I haven't been after caribou since 2016.

I've only ever gone after caribou on Adak -- super fun, but I'd love to hunt a real interior herd someday soon.

Good luck; fill your freezer! I hope you don't get shot at by the aszhats.

And tell us how it went when you get back!

Good Luck, stay safe

Well, the hunt went well. It was still crowded (see photos of the RV village near Eagle Summit) but I'd say 1/3 less than last year. We slept in the back of the truck and hit the ridge at 0400. We had our little bowl to ourselves for a few hours, which was enough time for this guy and two others to wander in around 0700! The lead bull was a bit bigger, but this guy gave me a better shot.

I'm stoked! This is my first caribou! I've got my work cut out for me the rest of the day cutting meat.

Congrats!

Congrats Dan. Meat run!

Thumbs up icon here !!

👍

Congrats

Congrats on the bou. Hunting was much better before the 2004 fire season. Went to the ridge and I left my camera and 20 gallons of gas in the back of my truck. No issues.

Then the fires happened, forestry went in with dozers and made the trail into a highway.

Awesome! Nice velvet and a cool dark hide.
Bou burgers are in your future! Jealous.

Super cool!! Bucket list for sure!!!

That second picture reminds me of the Eureka parking lot just past the lodge, only there's about 20 times more rigs/trailers/campers parked there during hunting season. Congrats on the good eats!!

I once flew over the parking lot at Eureka during moose season. Like you say, dozens of rigs and a bunch of wheelers and buggys headed down the trail towards Monument. Funny part was that about a half a mile in from the parking lot and less than 100 yards off the trail there was a 60” ish bull and three cows laying in some brush on top of a little rise overlooking all the traffic going by them oblivious.

I've see the parking lot at Eureka Lodge/Café packed with 30 or 40 caribou milling around between the parked vehicles. Back in the 70's they would run the State snow plows 24/7/365 just to keep the highway clear of dead caribou. There were so many large trucks hauling everything for building the "Pipeline". The truckers would sometimes have to chain-up in the summer, as the guts from caribou and millions of smashed snowshoe hares was so thick they could not get up some of the hills with heavy loads.

I was there driving in the 70s. Your last sentence is a bit of a tall story don't you think?

Pretty much par on his course...

Lives about mile 8 on the Hope road, yet claims to only go to town once a year... hyperbole is his middle name.

Who where you diving for......Which company.......???

I talk to more than a few truckers every day of the week, and have for the last 16 years, and I've never heard any BS like that.

Well......are most of those truckers in their 80's or 90's......or "Not Exactly"......???

Do they need to be? Because..."math."

If they were hiring children, which there were not. To drive 18 or 22 wheelers with new Cat D 9 and D 10's Tractors type heavy equipment. Lets say a driver who today is 63 y/o and still a card carrying Teamster. 49 years ago was 14 years old.........I don't think WEAVER BROS. TRUCKING was hiring 14 years olds.

OK.....lets try the Company was willing to hire a man 29 years old back then.....he would be 77 or 78 years old today and still driving "Long Haul".

Oh.

Perhaps Incredible stories get passed to others and “get around” rather than exist in a vacuum to be released once every couple generations. But, I’m just “guessing”.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company was established in 1970 to design, construct, operate and maintain the pipeline.

U.S. Senate passed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act on July 17, 1973

The pipeline project involved some 70,000 workers from 1969 through 1977

They started in 71' hauling to build roads and pad for camps, mobilizing heavy earth moving equipment, and setting up Whore Houses trailer all along the line.

You guys are "mean"... ???
Congrats Dan!

Some dig holes and never recognize bottom.

Since you want to toss names around, like Weaver Bros. I can get in on that. Jimmy Doyle, who owns Weaver Bros and has since the late 70's still comes in and visits. I'll be sure to ask him his opinion on your BS story. Or should I ask Harry Mcdonald, you know, the former owner of that little trucking company called Carlile. You probably saw them on that BS drama show "Ice road Truckers" And yes, quite a few of the old time drivers I've been dealing with over my career have passed on, but many still stop in to talk shop and see what the kids are driving these days.


Go ahead, keep digging your hole deeper and deeper.

I soooooo miss caribou hunting. Tell us the whole story Dan!

"Deep"

Well!

Fat "City'Boy" to fricking lazy and obese to dig hole, more skilled at bending over to show hole.

This is starting to remind me of that man eating bear killed on hitchenbrook story.

Unless you've a.) gone on multiple week long hunts where accountability to wanton waste laws is a nonfactor and b.) Towed a D10 on a lowboy through foot deep rabbit paste, you're not a real alaskan.

Carry the meat out in a backpack? Nope.
Packraft? Nope.

Toss that stuff in an Otter sled and ride it down the gut pile trail! Just watch out for snow plows...

Have you always had these weird gay fantasies or are they new to you? They seem to run as deep as most of your stories and the holes you dig in the process...

Well, I am glad you had a good hunt and were successful!!

congratulations, Dan.

You showed me yours Dan- I will show you mine on another thread in few days.

.

In Fbks now, headed home to Soldotna today. wife and son each got one too - progressively smaller as hunt went on. Damned good thing too- I am wore out! Fuggin rain! If those cows and calves are starving, it must be because the bulls are hogging the food- all were fat. Progressively less so size wise.

My son’s friend and I went and got skunked. I could have gotten a bull the first 30 minutes hunting, but he was a little fella. Saw several others, bull seemed to be all cows and calves. Had guy tell us last night that the BLM said the main herd was already through. We had two guys near us take a cow, and they each said they saw no bulls the time they were there. Had fun either way, but the weather was crap today, so we left a day early.

Is this just to the East a few hundred yards of the top of Eagle Summit?

Had a friend that went for the opener and he and his son both got caribou, he said they literally saw hundreds each day they hunted before they bagged theirs.

It's in the Eagle Summit area, but a bit farther than you're thinking

A summit too far?

I'm on lunch /coffee break.

Loose meat, ribs/neck are done, all 3 bulls.. Now for the legs!

This morning I let Honey HalfLab out to pee as usual. While she does that, I fill her dish with dry dog food, which she eats immediately on coming in without fail. She is a chow hound! Same thing every morning, but not this morning. She gave me a mental-sneer look and flung herself down by the door without eating. I knew why....

She just now reluctantly ate her dry food after 1:00 pm. Now I'll let her "help" me.........dessert comes last!. I'm so mean!

Why do you guys have to ruin a good story with all the f'ing bs