Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Yukon Gold

In 2011 I posted the story of my WY hunt for antelope, elk and goat, titled WY Triple. Last year was a down year but after saving for 5 years I just returned from a hunt in the Yukon. This will be picture heavy and like WY Triple will take me several days to tell the story. Hope you like it.
3:30am on Aug. 8 I head for the Indianapolis airport. Indy to Chicago to Vancouver to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. With me is my long time friend and hunting buddy Curt. Curt is along on this trip as a non hunter but wanted to experience the adventure. Kids in college hit the hunt fund hard. I cannot express how grateful I am to Curt for sharing the experience and lending encouragement when I needed it. We arrived in Whitehorse at 9:30pm. I was hunting with Dave and Tenna Dickson and Teena met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. Whitehorse and the Yukon River from the air.

Aug 9 was a buffer day in case we had flight problems so we were tourist. Whitehorse is a neat little town, not as backwoods as I expected. Clean, good shops and resturants, and lots to see within walking distance. Of course bear proof trash cans within sight of the hotel means we are not in Indiana any more.

The next day we have breakfast and head to the float plane base.

Two hours later we land in base camp.

Base camp consists of 8 log cabins on the north end of the lake, sleeping cabins, cook cabin, shower house, and tack shack. Horses will be our mode of transport from here on.

Looks like home to me. Keep it coming! Thanks for the story thus far.

We get settled in, have some lunch and go fishing, Grayling and pike.

We check out the horses and the fantastic views.



Then I notice some white dots on the mountian. 5 rams. Is this a good sign?


[img]http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l528/54Woody/Yukon/Yukonset2017_zps1f77298d.jpg[/img]
The hunt starts tomorrow.

Nice photos of some of Canada's Yukon Territory, my wife was based out of Whitehorse, as an "Outpost Nurse", an RN, post-grad. "paeds" and has many neat tales to tell of her experiences.

I was first in Canada's northern territories in spring, 1966, aged 19. this in the N.W.T. I was in our Yukon in 2006 and hope to return with my wife to do some exploration. Several of my ancestors were in "The Klondike Goldrush" and a couple worked in the north for many years,nurses, mining and so on.

It is sure different now in the north as the race for resources increases and the current Canadian government sells us out to various foreign entities.....does NOT bode well for hunting, especially sheep, IMO!

Looking forward to more pix, enjoy them very much!

Great looking country. I look forward to seeing and hearing the rest of the story.

The next morning we get on the horses and ride out West of camp. Our party includes Dave, his son Thomas, Kish, our wrangler, Curt and I and Abby the Lab.



Some of the riding was easy and the views were breath taking. But thick bush and steep terrain made for some rough spots with limbs pulling your legs back and swatting your face.

After 4 hours of riding we reach the alpine. Seems you can see for ever. The sky was clear and the weather warm, going to hot. It reached over 85 degrees this day. We found a couple caribou sheds but didn"t see any the whole trip. Dave said the population is in a down swing and they have not hunted them for several years.

We stop on the South end of a long sloping plateau and on the North end are 5 rams. Dave sets up the spotting scope and identifies a problem. They are in Alaska, not the Yukon. There is a border marker post on the top of the ridge and they are just a hundred or so yards on the wrong side. We decide to settle in and watch them in hopes they move East. The set up is good as they will feed some then go over the ridge out of sight then return a couple hours. We could move to close the distance easily but they never appeared on the correct side. Three were legal and one very good. Towards the end of the day we decided not to press them and headed back to camp. The return killed my legs with a long steep downhill stretch leading the horses and a knee jammed into a tree once we could ride. Even though I had trained all spring and summer, hiking over 230 miles, the horse riding had my legs screaming. The shower house was calling my name.
Curt and I try to find some shade.


Shower house had hot water from a propane powered instant water heater. On the outside was a sink and old clothes washer. Cold drinks were kept in a pit dug to permafrost level. Kept the drinks at about 36 degrees.

Living in the lap of luxury, at camp. Nice!

Great so far - looking forward to the rest of the adventure.

Thank you for postin please keep the story coming

Great hunt

Great pics....looks to be quite the adventure!

Day two we headed East to look for the group we had seen from camp on arrival day. More brush busting on the horses until we reached the alpine. Again great views. This is looking back West to the plateau we were hunting the day before.


We checked this basin and the next. Dave and Curt climbed higher but I stayed with the horses to give my legs a rest. They did find the sheep but no good ones and they were on top of this ridge. The temp reached 90 degrees this day.


Tomorrow we load up the pack string and head out to set up a spike camp South of the lake.

54, keep it coming. Great start.

Wow, very nice! Looking forward to the rest.

Fine pictures and accounts. Thanks for taking us along.

I am laying in a hospital bed awaiting spinal stenosis surgery.as well as spinal fusion.

I flat lined June 6th 2009 and the plavix makes a real threat for me to be paralyzed until

The plavix is out of my body. I can't move and am on a dilaudid pain pump. I can't tell you

How vicariously I am living thru this thread