Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaska/Yukon....and increasing human activity

Alaska's population like the US and the world, has trebled in my lifetime. Of course
this will have some impact on wilderness but it's not just people numbers that impact
wilderness as mush as the advancement in ORVs, boats and aircraft.

I'm not as disturbed by numbers of people as I am by the lack of respect for the
wildlife and Mother Nature in general.

Just got back from driving the Denali Highway this weekend, it's been ~15 years since the last time we drove it. Observations

Still 135 miles of gravel road
No cell service the entire length (nice to know there are spots you can still get away from it all)
You can drive for an hour and see a handful of vehicles, and note this is the peak of tourist season though not hunting season.
Nice to have a place where you can pull off the side of the road and just set up camp, wherever you want along the road.











I can't imagine driving to Denali National Park from Anchorage before the Parks highway was opened!

Paul-
Did you see a string of horse trailers?

As a matter of fact I did, they were parked on the S side of the road, but my mind is sufficiently jumbled after all that gravel road to recall it what mile marker. I want to say somewhere about midway across First I saw the horse [bleep] in the middle of the road and mentioned to the boy it was odd to see horse crap up here. Then we spied the horse trailers.

The boy and I need Uncle Art to give us a tutorial on how to catch fish with fly rods as the fishing was great, but we got skunked on catching.

The surprising thing is we didn't see a single big game animal or predator. Quit a few snowshoe hares.

Funny thing... I bet I could take you to each of those photos sites blind-folded.

Grayling fishing should have been dynamite at about every creek and lake. The first photo is good spot to dredge a bigger minnow pattern for lake trout. I have actually caught many there and I believe Riley caught his first just about exactly there.

Good to hear the hares are back! We did not see any on the Richardson a couple weeks ago.

Musta been a big cartridge in that revolver! Spun his hat around and left him so goofy he never could get it straight again!

There was a guy that was slaying them on the creek that feeds into Tangle lake, but everyone else was getting skunked. John did say he wants to get better at flyfishing so if you have some time to learn a youngun it would be appreciated.

One of the hares almost committed suicide crossing in front of us.

He was goofy before firing a shot

Coulda stopped and asked my wife and the crew she was riding with for a cup of coffee!

That was a done deal before they put it out for "public input". Wife and I knew it then.

Packed on my first goat hunt on the south end of the Ragged Mountains at Katalla. Beautiful country from tidewater to alpine....

Yukons population has been stuck at 30k or just over for decades now, depending on how many mines are in operation at the time the census is taken. I read the other day that AK is now about 1 person per sq mile so it has grown a lot in recent years. More ppl is always bad imo.

This is why I visit THE Yukon frequently!

I've found our neighbors in the Yukon and NWT to be wonderful people.

Do they still have fishing license fee reciprocity?

Yes!.......$15 CAN....annual license.

Seems like a steal but far more Yukoners utilize reciprocity to fish Haines
for salmon and halibut.

Not sure what we'd have to do to hunt their Woods Bison.....maybe a guide is required.

Time for a Ted talk...

Friends have seen some Woods Bison in same altitudes as Dall's Sheep.
How'd ya like to pack one of those off the mountain?

Made the mistake of shooting a bull moose in the same sort of situation ONCE... only a bit dumber than a bison... and about 5 miles...

Vern, yes a guide is required for non residents to hunt wood bison. I think only one or two outfitters have them in their area. Tim Mervyn is one. Yes they do like it up high! I've killed 4 now, and all of them have been taken up high. Next time you're down ask Al for a steak, I keep him supplied!