Montana Hunting is Impressive, But So is Hunting in Alaska

Do you know what isn't much fun? When your wife spends a good amount of time prepping a giant tray full of chicken legs and then opens the oven only to find that it isn't working. That was exactly the case around our place last week. When most fix-it issues pop up around the house, I'll always take a peek and see how easy the fix is before calling up the landlord. But when it comes to poking my head around in a gas oven, I was a little hesitant to just start trying to light the pilot light as YouTube suggested. So I skipped right to messaging the owner and he immediately wrote me back to say he was heading to Alaska for a week.

Now, I know you only clicked on this article because of the picture and you don't really care about the fate of the oven or my dozen chicken legs. So I'll fast forward to the part where my landlord got home, messaged me to ask if someone came out to fix the oven, and sent me a picture of his successful hunting trip.

I figured there would be plenty of people that would enjoy the pictures and the story that he shared with me about his week in Alaska. So check out the daily recap of his journey along with some pictures below.

THE ITINERARY

My Dad and I went on a Caribou hunt in AK.
Flights:
Missoula, MT to Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA to Anchorage, AK
Anchorage, AK to Cold Bay, AK
Took a two-man bush plane from Cold Bay, AK 60 miles NE to the middle of nowhere and got dropped off for seven days. It was a five-day hunt.

DAY 1

Good weather except for the wind. We saw caribou that were close enough to get to almost right away. We snuck up on them but the winds changed and spooked them. Couldn’t get to them again.

DAY 2-4

Cold, windy, and rainy. Saw a few herds but too far to get to. Never got dry except during the night in our tent.

Day 5

Cold, windy, and rainy. Last day of the hunt. We see a herd that we might be able to get if the wind stays good. They are a mile out but we need to hike 3 miles around them through the tundra and marsh to get to them without being spotted. We used the hail squalls to our advantage and are able to get within 600 yards of them. The biggest bull in the group is moving towards us and the wind is still in our favor. He eventually gets to 315 yards and I am able to take a clean shot. The heard is spooked and runs to the right of us. The second biggest bull is harvested by my father at 350 yards. Both were clean and quick kills.

OVERALL DISTANCE ON FOOT

Overall we hiked over 30 miles in 5 days through the unforgiving Alaskan tundra and marshes. We crossed Caribou River at least twice daily.

HOW BIG IS THAT BAD BOY?

What did it measure? I don't know a lot about hunting, but I know that's the question people are always asking when they see somebody's picture. I did ask, but my landlord said they didn't measure the antlers in the field and it sounds like it'll be a bit before the caribou ends up back in Montana.

I hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures. But I'm thinking there's a part of you that only kept reading to find out that the oven is indeed fixed and we had to end up giving the chicken legs to the neighbor.