I left out the bown bear on my caribou cow, which I've related several times already.
When I came back the next morning, the bear that had jumped me on my way back to the truck the night before was at the kill site.
It had eaten the liver, bit into the heart, ate some of the brisket meat, crapped all around the carcass, and was laying on the gut pile, which had rolled about 50 yards down the steep slope.
My take-away from that is that they would rather feast on internal organs than muscle meat at first, hence my desire to get meat as far away from the guts as is feasible if meat has to be left.
And that pulley system I used on several caribou? I packed it in and left it there after the first use, for subsequent trips. Twice more used over the next 10-12 years. It's still there, but I haven't been in almost 20 years. Probably inoperable by now, but it was cheap enough, and worth it. Actually, I'd planned to get a lot more use out of it, and the small log shelter I built earlier that summer, off trail and well hidden, so I didn't have to pack an 8 lb tent up there and back.
The next year, F&G changed the permit application regs from allowing just one application per species, to 3 applications, one animal. ($$$$$) My wife and I went from getting at least one caribou permit almost every year, to one every 3 or 4 years, as a whole bunch of clueless idiots then shotgunned applications out, without knowing anything about the rigors of this particular hunt. 250 permits issued annually - the kill was never more than 10, often only 1-3. Only once did I not fill a permit- the year both my wife and I drew. I never went back to fill mine, as our freezer was full of sheep, caribou, moose already. No point....
Bummer.
Last edited by las; 11/14/22.
