Family Caribou Hunt

Monday, August 26, 2013

Ross, Roma, and I made a last minute trip North to do a weekend family Caribou hunt. Let's just cut to the chase...

YES!!!

We saw quite a few other hunters and Alaska has such strict hunting rules (only this specific area and it must be a bull not a cow, etc) that we were not feeling overly confident about killing a caribou. So, we made it more about the "together time". We stopped in Talkeetna for some Roadhouse bakery deliciousness, made the long drive, put the boat in the water about 5pm, and set-up camp once we got upriver about 9pm.

We saw a complete rainbow on our drive out to the Susitna river.

Just set-up our tent.

Dusk in the wilderness.

Camping with Roma is always an adventure. Her teeth were chattering as we were going to bed, even with her jacket on, so ross wrapped her up in a towel.

The next morning we woke up to a gorgeous day! We were kinda lazy getting out of bed-- the sleeping bags were so warm! We feasted on a Mountain House (dehydrated eggs, sausage, and hash browns) and had hot chocolate/coffee. We saw a couple other hunters cruise by on the river before we packed up.

Where's Roma?

Happy 6th Birthday Roma! We're pretty sure she had lots of fun on her special day.

Captain Roma

On the lookout

"Glassing"

As we were cruising along I saw a caribou on the left bank. It was the first we had seen our whole trip!

E: "Ross LOOK!!!"

R: "It's probably a cow, see the small antlers. Wanna look in the binoculars?"

E: "Ok, I'm looking, but how can you tell it's not a boy? I can't tell"

R: "Let me see the binoculars again"

E: "Well, what would you do if it was a boy? Do you have all your stuff together ready to shoot"

R: "It's a bull, I'm going to shoot"

In the meantime, the caribou had decided he needed to swim across the river right in front of us. When he got to the right bank, BOOOOM! Dead with a single shot. But, he fell back into the water and started drifting down the river. So there was some chaos as we unbeached the boat and intercepted him, but it all worked out. And now we have a story AND a full freezer!