Wow, what a trip! I’m not even sure where to start, so I’ll just break this down day by day. It’s gonna be a little long, but here it goes.
Day 1 – Flew from DFW to Calgary. Stayed at airport hotel.
Day 2 – Flew from Calgary to Whitehorse, Yukon. Stayed at hotel. I had a very enjoyable dinner with Bob Speegle from Garland, Texas. For those that don’t know Bob, he is a Weatherby and Conklin Award winner and is one of only a few hunters still alive to have killed all 31 North American big game since he got both the walrus and jaguar prior their hunting being banned in either the late 70s or early 80s. He just got rid of a majority of his hunting collection which he said was valued at over $2 million. He donated it museums so that his wife doesn’t have to pay the estate tax on his mounts when he passes away (I believe Bob is around 85 years old). Damn depressing that our government has the right to do that.
Day 3 – 3 hour drive SE to Watson Lake (Northern British Columbia) where we would then board a float plane for a 45 minute ride into the hunting area’s base camp.
View of base camp.
As I stepped off the plane, I was greeted by someone yelling my name. It was said in a tone of somebody that I knew and as I turned around, I recognized the two guides, Wade and Kevin, as guides that I had previously elk hunted with in Southern BC. I was really excited as I had a blast with them last time. We spent the evening packing everything up for an early morning horse ride to the remote camp where we would hunt from for the remainder of the trip. Surprise of the day was having this grizzly sow chase a moose calf right through the middle of our camp as we were packing things. In this photo, the bear was literally 20 feet behind our cabin.
Day 4 – 2.5 hour horse ride to the remote cabin. It was a nice little place with bunks, propane stove, dinner table, and other amenities.
After unloading, we spent the evening glassing the mountain-side, but only saw a couple of small moose.
Day 5 – Rode to the top of the mountains via horses to check out the caribou situation. Saw some decent bulls, but nothing great. This guy had pretty good tops, but had almost nothing for bez tines so we opted to pass since it was early.
We then looked over to the other side of the mountain and found a very nice bull moose for my hunting partner who was hunting moose only. We spent the rest of the day watching him stalk the moose, shoot him, and then helped clean him and pack out his cape, back straps, tenderloins, and horns. Quarters would have to wait until in the morning since we didn’t have enough pack horses.
Day 6 – We went back to get the quarters from the moose, but as we approached, we noticed a grizzly was already on top of them. The guides said this rarely happens. Waited for an hour or so, but decided to let the bear have them. It was a really big boar and we didn’t want to risk anything over some meat. Not worth it. Glassed some more for caribou, but didn’t have much luck. Rode back to camp and you wouldn’t believe it, but a damn grizzly had stolen my hunting buddy’s back straps and tenderloins off the tree we had hung them in the night before. Canvas tarp was on the ground with claw/tooth marks all in it. At this point, he was a little frustrated to say the least. All of his meat stolen by two grizzlies in two different spots. And this guy had driven all the way from Oregon so that he could take back some meat. That sucks!
Day 7 – Went back out to spend the morning glassing and found a nice group of caribou.
As we were checking them out through the spotting scope at about 750 yards, not sure what made them spook, but they ran right by us and never gave us a shot opportunity.
There were a couple of nice bulls in the bunch (one in the middle and one in the back) so we decided to chase them down. The bull in the back had a nice shovel, but it was only a single and he didn’t have very good tops. I concentrated on the bull in the middle since he had nicer tops and a double shovel (albeit smaller ones). It’s hard to find a caribou with both good tops and bottoms. Most are like women and either have one or the other, but not both. I decided that I wanted one with nice tops (imagine that), so that is what I went for.
After a couple hours of stalking, we finally crawled up to a ridge that was 220 yards from them and upon catching my breath, I managed to get my mountain caribou with a double lung shot. I couldn’t believe the size of these animals!!
[This message has been edited by txaggie02 (edited 9/26/2011 7:07p).]
Day 1 – Flew from DFW to Calgary. Stayed at airport hotel.
Day 2 – Flew from Calgary to Whitehorse, Yukon. Stayed at hotel. I had a very enjoyable dinner with Bob Speegle from Garland, Texas. For those that don’t know Bob, he is a Weatherby and Conklin Award winner and is one of only a few hunters still alive to have killed all 31 North American big game since he got both the walrus and jaguar prior their hunting being banned in either the late 70s or early 80s. He just got rid of a majority of his hunting collection which he said was valued at over $2 million. He donated it museums so that his wife doesn’t have to pay the estate tax on his mounts when he passes away (I believe Bob is around 85 years old). Damn depressing that our government has the right to do that.
Day 3 – 3 hour drive SE to Watson Lake (Northern British Columbia) where we would then board a float plane for a 45 minute ride into the hunting area’s base camp.
View of base camp.
As I stepped off the plane, I was greeted by someone yelling my name. It was said in a tone of somebody that I knew and as I turned around, I recognized the two guides, Wade and Kevin, as guides that I had previously elk hunted with in Southern BC. I was really excited as I had a blast with them last time. We spent the evening packing everything up for an early morning horse ride to the remote camp where we would hunt from for the remainder of the trip. Surprise of the day was having this grizzly sow chase a moose calf right through the middle of our camp as we were packing things. In this photo, the bear was literally 20 feet behind our cabin.
Day 4 – 2.5 hour horse ride to the remote cabin. It was a nice little place with bunks, propane stove, dinner table, and other amenities.
After unloading, we spent the evening glassing the mountain-side, but only saw a couple of small moose.
Day 5 – Rode to the top of the mountains via horses to check out the caribou situation. Saw some decent bulls, but nothing great. This guy had pretty good tops, but had almost nothing for bez tines so we opted to pass since it was early.
We then looked over to the other side of the mountain and found a very nice bull moose for my hunting partner who was hunting moose only. We spent the rest of the day watching him stalk the moose, shoot him, and then helped clean him and pack out his cape, back straps, tenderloins, and horns. Quarters would have to wait until in the morning since we didn’t have enough pack horses.
Day 6 – We went back to get the quarters from the moose, but as we approached, we noticed a grizzly was already on top of them. The guides said this rarely happens. Waited for an hour or so, but decided to let the bear have them. It was a really big boar and we didn’t want to risk anything over some meat. Not worth it. Glassed some more for caribou, but didn’t have much luck. Rode back to camp and you wouldn’t believe it, but a damn grizzly had stolen my hunting buddy’s back straps and tenderloins off the tree we had hung them in the night before. Canvas tarp was on the ground with claw/tooth marks all in it. At this point, he was a little frustrated to say the least. All of his meat stolen by two grizzlies in two different spots. And this guy had driven all the way from Oregon so that he could take back some meat. That sucks!
Day 7 – Went back out to spend the morning glassing and found a nice group of caribou.
As we were checking them out through the spotting scope at about 750 yards, not sure what made them spook, but they ran right by us and never gave us a shot opportunity.
There were a couple of nice bulls in the bunch (one in the middle and one in the back) so we decided to chase them down. The bull in the back had a nice shovel, but it was only a single and he didn’t have very good tops. I concentrated on the bull in the middle since he had nicer tops and a double shovel (albeit smaller ones). It’s hard to find a caribou with both good tops and bottoms. Most are like women and either have one or the other, but not both. I decided that I wanted one with nice tops (imagine that), so that is what I went for.
After a couple hours of stalking, we finally crawled up to a ridge that was 220 yards from them and upon catching my breath, I managed to get my mountain caribou with a double lung shot. I couldn’t believe the size of these animals!!
[This message has been edited by txaggie02 (edited 9/26/2011 7:07p).]
