Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska What I did not like about Alaska

I have never seen a toll road on the Kenai.. Far as pay to park fishing that’s the norm.

Negative on toll roads. Greasy pizza? Pizza Hut been closed a long time.

Whittier tunnel is about the closest thing we have to a toll road, but that's definitely not Kenai.

Hahaha, i've done that hunt before, saw a whooper of a bull shortly after going about half way down the Ship Creek side but he decided he wanted to go down to the bottom, didn't see another bull after that but did see some pretty nice bears. I must be a glutton for punishment as I'm thinking about doing it again this year. Also did the 5 mile hump on the Dalton, that one wasn't near as bad but I was a lot younger back then.

Good luck! Hope you get a nice one!

Got two moose out of one of those areas, both solo. Put a friend's 12yo on a caribou in another area...that was a lot of packing for the two of us. Someone better equipped and prepared than I could have shot a whole herd of wolves on that caribou trip...

Awesome hunts, all 3, wish there were more similar opportunities. I'd do either the moose hunt or the caribou hunt again as an out-of-stater if I can ever think that far ahead.

The pics counting the load outs?

Sorry for your bad fate mate. I have visited Alaska several times and I can't but be honest that Alaska is warm and the people are amazing. I enjoy hunting in Alaska for several reasons, especially the magnificent nature and all round hunting condition is magnificent.

I cannot wait to visit again. Maybe you should visit again, don't let one experience cloud your overall judgement, [bleep] happen sometimes, and that is life.

I hate to weigh in on this because it seems like all of you have your minds made up already, but I have to say that there is a lot of BS on this thread. I lived in one of the Brooks Range villages and I can tell you that there are no "tags" for residents or natives for caribou. We have harvest limits of 5 caribou a day and it is open almost year around. During certain months you can only take bulls, other months you can only take cows. There is no annual limit on the number of caribou taken, so in theory you could take 35 a week or 150 in a month. But the most successful hunter I know from the village I lived in takes about two dozen a year and he is giving the majority of that to elders.

And wonton waste does happen but it is not the norm(societal pressures are HUGE op here). I know of one moose that was shot by an idiot local out of season during the rut and was left to rot. The owner of the rifle refused to talk and he served jail time for the illegal killing and wonton waste. The actual killer of the moose didn't get in legal trouble but the community banned him from hunting.

But wonton waste is not the norm. The villagers I hunted with used more of the caribou than the average white person does. I am speaking specifically of stewing the bones for broth from the marrow and cooking the meat from the head. It pisses me off when people say that the natives "waste" a lot of what they kill-my experience has been the exact opposite.

SO WHY ARE NON RESIDENTS ONLY ALLOWED 1 CARIBOU IN SOME NORTH SLOPE AREAS????? The answer is simple: "they" don't want you hunting here because the locals rely on the caribou for their subsistence as they have for thousands of years. That is the simple answer. The NR limit was dropped from 2 caribou to only 1 caribou in hopes that this would push non residents to hunt other areas. After all, who would be dumb enough to pay all that money to fly all the way up to the NS just to shoot one caribou?

And that 1 caribou limit seemed to work for a while but the number of outside hunters is increasing and the locals are pushing back. I will not be surprised if the special use areas are increased as the locals blame sport hunters for disturbing the caribou migration. No one really knows why the caribou migrate right past a village one year and then don't migrate through the next- The villagers blame the sport hunters, but I wonder if it has something to do with the villages having a dump that burns trash several times a week and has half a dozen planes landing each day to deliver fuel and take villagers "into town" as they call there trips to Faibanks. It's not uncommon for villagers to go into town once a month.

Honestly I would like to see outsiders banned from hunting in ways that impact the caribou migration because it would force the villagers to look at what they are doing that may or may not be affecting the migration.

AND THE VILLAGERS DO DEPEND ON CARIBOU FOR FOOD. When the caribou don't come everyone is on edge. This has been there way of life for many generations. Sure they could give up this lifestyle and eat store bought meat. They would probably even save money once you figure in the cost of their Argo and snow machines. But without those Argos and snow machines they would be stuck in the village and wouldn't be able to camp/fish/berry pick and do all the other things that are important to them. They would lose their entire way of life.

And I know that a lot of you say "funk-em!" but just remember that they are trying to hold on to a way of life that most of us are trying to recreate to some extent. Us non natives who hunt and fish to feed our families(or even those who hunt and fish for pleasure) are swimming against the current. Modern civilization would have us all living in cities, punching the timeclock, buying our meat from the store and never leaving the confines of our city. Those of us who hunt(regardless of our background) are fighting against this tide. It would be nice if we could see our similarities instead of focusing on our differences.

So you are for, favoring one user group over the other 10-4...

Guess I better go throw away all those marrow bones I kept and get rid of the tongue and face meat while I’m at it.

Over a long period of time I spent a bit of time in different villages and was even selected for a huge legal case involving wanton waste by Natives. You have to have some serious tunnel vision to miss ww.

If you are talking about out of state hunters vs the people who have lived here for generations, then yes I do favor the locals. When you live in a area you should have preference to the limited resources of that area over those who are traveling into the area from outside. I also favor Alaska residents over non residents. Don't you?

And notice that the regulations don't favor natives over non-natives. They lump everyone together as "local residents" so white dudes like me have the same legal privileges as the native residents.



I said "The villagers I hunted with used more of the caribou than the *average* white person does." You obviously know how much those bones are worth! I know that many whites use as much of the animal as the natives. I also know that when I'm hunting with other white guys I get a lot of sideways looks when I am salvaging the bones along with the meat. They can't imagine why anyone would waste time and energy on the bones. I would bet that you have run into the same thing.



I only have experience in two villages. I haven't seen much waste in either village. But notice that I did not say that there was no waste. Hell, here in Barrow there was a chunk of maktak(whale blubber/skin) on the ground by the steps outside the post office for about six weeks. I always wondered how in the heck that got there and why no animal or bird carried it off. Any hunter who says that he has never wasted any meat ever is a liar- and I don't care what your background is.

Yeah because of that pesky state constitution. On another note the feds have done a great job eliminating us road system hunters from hunting in certain remote areas of the state.. Don’t forget their are no Indian reservations up here So don’t go thinking the villagers have their own special privileges. So they all ie everbody has to follow state law and federal subsitance laws.. I also don’t favor certain user groups, if you are from Alabama and want to go hunt the porcupine caribou herd go have fun.. if you are from wasilla and want to go hunting around Kotzebue. More power to you. If you live in Barrow want to come to unit 13 to hunt moose?? Ph uck no go back to Barrow this is our precious resource..

You gave me a good laugh. And then I began to wonder if you were serious....

Anyway, I do like the idea of giving locals preference on resources. It seems that all states do this as far as resident vs. non-resident. And when you have locals who have relied on a resource for their survival for generations it makes sense to make sure that said resource is available to them.

Even though it wasn’t Sitka deer that typed that but me. Yes I’m serious, what you are preaching goes both ways.. as the state constitution says all residents of Alaska. The state constitution doesn’t say only ol Joe living in Ambler gets special preference..

+1Essentially this...

I think they’re fairly well-provisioned through their native corporations, no?

What I didn’t like about Alaska; time passes too quickly.
When a 3 week trip ends before you’ve had a chance to see everything you had hoped to see and do.
Umm, it’s a long plane ride from Michigan?
Sorry. That’s all I got. 🙂

Mark,
You need to drive up and take those aggravating airports out of the equation.