My son and I are going to do a Caribou hunt in August and are thinking of driving up Haul Road then packing in. Also weighing option of fly in/out drop camp, depending on cost. Bucket list hunt for me. Appreciate any advice you guys from there would have.

John

At one point flying in was pretty damn reasonable. Not anymore they charging 2 grand a head now days.. doing the 5 mile walk is not a walk in the park, it sucks a$$. Stop in Tok get two 40 mile fall permits and head up the Taylor hwy around mile post 90 start looking..

The demand for fly-in hunts with reputable outfits far exceeds the supply and often requires a year or two on a wait list.

Caribou herds in North America have suffered, resulting in concentrated hunting pressure in a few herds.

Bad idea. Bad, bad idea. Stay away from the Taylor.

That's what I'm doing.... .

I know a place up there - a 6 mile hike in, but a sort of funnel, where I will set up camp. Sit there and watch while the roadies push them back to me from one direction, and the migration comes from the other. Wood and water available, tho in a dry spell, I may have to pack the latter a half mile or so if I can't catch rain. Hunting without moving first light to last. From camp. Option to hike farther in if I want.

If nothing else, it's a damned nice camping trip. Been there, done that. Would post some pics, but photobucket has restricted my account. Still have to lose 350 pics...or pay them $5/mo. ( Like that's going to happen)

It's been a long time since i've been up there but we use to park at Galbreath Lake and walk the edge of the mountain in as far as we could, find a good place to camp and hunt from there. Walking along the base of the mountain makes the walking easier as you don't have a lot of tussocks to deal with going in or out but obvisouly you will have to deal with them while hunting. Not sure how the caribou hunting is along that route though, like I said, it's been a long time since i've hunted up there. We've also done the 5 mile death march and that is not a lot of fun, esepcially when you're walking by caribou that are within the 5 mile corridor and those tussocks will wear you out. And bring bug dope, when you get a caribou down you'll be glad to have it.

Just drive your truck in, you can do it!

To the OP Sitka deer is joking about this. Don’t drive your truck out in the tundra.. it will be a bad day for you and your truck..

And don't have a friend drive in behind you to pull you out!

Yes. It's been tried.

Sling arrows.....

Take toilet paper.

They just need a 5 mile cable...

This.

If only Safariman had been there.

40 mile available in Aug?

Looks like on or around the 10th for opener, Mike.. And what do you care, you rat? You have a permit here on the Kenai. (That one was mine, you know!)

Hard to tell when the caribou will be accessible off the Taylor, or how long season will last (closure by EO, when they estimate 1,000 caribou have been taken). Last time I was up there was about 10 years ago. Caribou everywhere as we walked in Aug 9 and 10 on an attempted sheep hunt . Got stormed/short-timed out on that, and killed one (almost two) on the way back out to the truck where we learned season was closing at midnight, Aug 13.. Had we known that, we would have dropped 2 more with the first- we all had permits. Season lasted 3 days, with an over-quota harvest, so the next year they moved opener to Sept 1, but it looks like it is back to August 10 or thereabouts . Probably meaning few caribou around early on, unlike our last trip up. Stupid animals!

My yarn on that should be in the archives. All my pics from that are in my locked Photobucket account. (too many pics- the bastids)

On 3 successive hunts in mid 70's off the Taylor (18 mile backpack in), I never saw a caribou during our August sheep hunts.

Rereading my previous post I used bad wording- indicating I be staying away from the Taylor.. Nope - that is where I'm headed most likely. Gotta talk to Tok biologist some then make a SWAG guess as to when caribou might be there. Unlike all my previous trips up the Taylor, time is not much of a factor. I am retired now, by damn!

Still, the Taylor is a helluva nice area for a camping trip. Good news is my prelim research earlier today indicates something in excess of 70K animals. And still growing. It ain't Western Arctic's 215K, but it will have to do. I'm gonna miss shooting them from the snow machine up there - I killed 4 winter 2017/18 - stocking my freezer down here, and only one was more than 4 miles from the Kotzebue apartment. That last sausage bull Feb 2, 2018 was about 9 miles out. Easy meat.

From last Taylor hunt:

At least someone got it!

I remember reading about those two yahoos well before moving to Alaska. I remember when I got to JBER in 2011, and the wildlife guy on base told us not to even attempt to drive in off the haul. I knew what he was talking about, others not so much.

I am hoping to hit the Taylor this year as well. My issue is purely timing though. The son will be graduating from Basic Training in late July, and I'll be leaving the sandbox for good late July/early August.

It was a very expensive lesson.

And the voles there were traumatized!

I can only imagine what those guys' NCOs and officers had to say, or the razzing they got from their fellows.

Didn't one of the oil companies finally help them guys out?

Yep they moved it to 10 August last yr looks like they are doing it again.. but it will be a zoo up there this year. I know folks who went up there last yr. they said everyone got a caribou.

Yikes a zoo up there ! ?

I’m no fan of combat fishing, so I surely want no part of combat hunting. Still have no desire to kill a caribou. Guess eating it 3x’s per day for a month for 10 years kinda made me lose my taste for them.

Good luck to all of you after caribou.

I remember that story. Just wasn't sure if caribou "typically" are crossing in Aug. or later.

They were last year, the folks up there said for 2 days caribou were like ants everywhere. Of course people getting back to cell coverage calling people to tell them didn't know that herd literally disappeared into no mans land of zone 2. So when there buddies from wherever showed to shoot one these caribou, ended doing a scenic drive no caribou to be found.

I appreciate all the suggestions. Keep them coming.

John

38% ain't exactly "everyone getting a caribou". Still, it is pretty good odds if one isn't an idiot.

Just talked to Tok biologist, about 40 mile caribou.

Season opened Aug 12 last year, will be 11th this year. Closed on the Steese Hwy after just 2 days , was open on the Taylor all season. Different sub-units.

Quota last year was 2,000 animals, 3/4 to Fall hunt, 1/4 to Winter hunt. Last census in '17 showed more caribou than they thought.

Some animals along Taylor last two years, but no real numbers. Main migration never went there apparently. Provisionally same this year- to yet be determined.

i have not been up the Steese in my 50 years in Alaska. Something to contemplate if one likes combat hunting, tho that's big country.

Still leaning toward Taylor, going up about August 5 or 6 and backpacking slowly in toward sheep country on 7-9, for that opening on 10th.

If no caribou found (and camped on) , I know where there are sheep!

The hunting is always good- the getting maybe not so much.....

If you were up there on the opener you were going to get a caribou.. simple fact after two days the caribou were gone.. so of course the odds will drop... but hey I digress..

I'm planning on a hike in, haul road hunt this year. I'll be 60 in August and doing a solo hunt is my birthday present to myself, mostly to prove to myself I can still do it. I have a spot 5.1 miles in that is a natural funnel and littered with caribou trails. I'l set up base camp there and hunt a little ways out from there.

The haul road is a doable hunt for a non-resident. Yes the five mile hie is a grinder, especially if you are successful. It's unlikely you'll have any competition. A few stick flingers will be running up and down the road looking for a dumb one close in but none of them will get out of sight of their trucks. You'll likely have the back country to yourself. Stick to the ridges and hillsides for hiking. It will be much easier than the lower ground.

Good luck.

You know there is a guide in there guiding for sheep..when you talk sheep hunting off the Taylor only one place to go.. last I heard he got blm to up his quota to 4 I think..

About what I figured on the caribou last year. Ya snooze, ya lose!

Yeah, I know- saw him going in last I was up there 10 years ago.

Used to be no pack animals when I first hunted it in mid-70's. Should still be that way, but the Prof. guides have power with the Game Board us peons don't.

Wrong. There’s no quota for outfitters on blm land.

Uh huh... oh aksagebrush you silly goose...

Here you go tiger.. this plan was approved and couple yrs later the guide asked for a higher quota for sheep..


https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front...62/Glacier_Mtn_Public_Scoping_032812.pdf

From the looks the guide tried getting his quota upped to two in the 2014... I cannot find anything else after that so maybe he gave up on that area after blm wouldn't up his quota from 1 to 2.. I need to talk too northway and see what's going on in this area of 20E

The WY idiot still thinks he needs to tell locals how things are done in AK... special...

I'm sure he will be along sometime today to say something.. then ramble on how great Wyoming is...

Once she sobers up.

The problem is ol aksagebrush, thinks he knows everything. But he doesn't.. only reason I knew about this area Northway made a lot of people aware of this situation in 2012 about this outfitter in unit 20E.

I didn't know that. Good info. That mountain won't stand more than a couple sheep per year probably.

Look no farther than Lynn Castle's legacy for what they will let guides get away with...

When the guide was trying to get the quota upped, he even said that area could support 5-6 rams being taking out of that area.. but a lot of guys called bs on that. From my understanding it’s the same guide that shot out 13D when it was a harvest ticket area. Not being anti guide but this area is very unique and says a lot about a guide wanting to potentially take 5-6 sheep a yr out of an area is bs. But again not even sure he’s still in there.

Licensing board has a list of every guide and the areas they are allowed to hunt. Would link it for you, but it takes a bit of digging and I have a couple things I gotta do first.

Was bsing with Mike he said guide is no longer in that area he is now guiding on native land up there for sheep and moose. From what he said he shot two big sheep out of the glacier mtn area and moved on to native land. But at the end of the day blm can set a quota for guides.

Look at you wasting your time to prove me wrong. Two things are a fact, those slings suck and you’re my bitch. Your attempt to win my approval has failed.

Dance monkey dance!

Ha ha ha.
Wadda
Dick
Head

Aksagebrush, its a sad day when I can't win the approval of a retard like yourself.. I have failed ...

I don’t know why he so mean to us.. I hope one day we all can be best friends.

I don't.
POS; nothing more, nothing less. Waste of skin and bandwidth.

Let's pray on this.. and May darkness in aksagebrush heart be cleansed