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Thread: Caribou 2018 -now what?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    North Van
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    Caribou 2018 -now what?

    So, the plan was to post this during the winter, but time flies. Now it's LEH time and bear season, so I guess I dragged my feet.

    Anyway...me and my running buddies wanted to go on a moose hunt in a cool place, so we picked the Itchas. We all put in for moose, and as a second thought we put in for caribou.


    As luck would have it I was skunked. Again. So were all my buddies, except one, who got a caribou draw.

    He wasn't impressed. It's a long way to go for one caribou between 3 guys he said.

    I understand, I said. Younger guys, lots of job, kids and wife demands. I totally get it. We'll hunt spike moose in Region 3 instead.


    But...you know...some guy in the States is probably willing to pay $20k for a hunt like this, and here we are, lucky enough to live here and just be able to go.

    It worked. A couple days later he texts "OK, I'm in. Who else is going?"

    Summer flies by and the next thing you know we're in Nimpo on the float waiting for the plane. We're stoked because we know that night we'll be sitting around a fire in the mountains.

    Then we're in the plane and we're stoked because it's always a blast to fly around in a Beaver.

    Then we get into the Itchas and we're seeing tons of goats from the plane, which is awesome. No, they aren't huntable there, but who doesn't like seeing goats?
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    Rob Chipman
    "The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
    "Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    North Van
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    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    We land and start walking away from the lake. It's a pretty easy trail and you can see where you need to go, so everybody is happy. We continue on past the cabin and start climbing up the hill.


    Before too long we're just below the tree line, so we set up camp, spend the night.

    Next day we're up and out scouting. It's two more days before the season opens, but we need to find out what is what. It doesn't take long before we're seeing more and more goats, but we don't find caribou until....mid-morning. Not long after we see what we think might be a shooter, but far away. We've got time so we scout some more. We find another herd with a dandy.


    We wear out a fair amount of boot leather and then go back down to camp. Next morning we load up a fly, water and essentials and go to set up a spike camp. Then we close down the scouting focus ring. We find a good looking herd with three good bulls. Two are legal but small, and one is a beauty. We watch them for several hours, and the two younger ones treat us to a long fight. The weather gets snotty, but we wait and put them to bed, ready for the next day. We go around the back of the mountain we're on, climb down and head home.







    Last edited by Rob Chipman; 04-02-2019 at 09:23 PM.
    Rob Chipman
    "The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
    "Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey

  4. #3
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    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    At the bottom of the little peak we were on we look up the valley where the herd was and see something white.

    "Look, there's another on of those goats"

    "Wait, that's no goat. That's a guy putting up a tent"


    We look through the glass and sure enough, three tents are going up right on the edge of the action we were watching all afternoon. Apparently the Beaver that flew over us earlier in the day wasn't empty.

    Fair enough. Next morning we get up at 3:00, climb the hill in the dark, get on top of everything, arrive early, find a depression in the ground to lie down in as the cold pre-dawn wind whips over us, and we wait for some light. When it gets light enough to see a few feet in front of your face we creep down the sidehill to where the herd had bedded down and we wait.

    I don't care if it's early September. It's colder than a witch's tit waiting for the sun to come up, but in the pre-dawn we start seeing either rocks or caribou bedded down. Soon we make out an actual cow, then another, but it becomes obvious that the herd is history. There isn't a bull to be seen.

    The sun comes up and it's glorious, and with it come the three guys with the white tent flies. We go say hello, and surprise surprise, they're surprised we were there before them. They hadn't spotted our hiding place, so I guess it worked.


    We were a little bummed out. They told us that they had bumped the herd a little the night before (go figure). Oh well. That's why it's called hunting and not killing. We climb the hill to see what we can see.
    Last edited by Rob Chipman; 04-02-2019 at 08:40 PM.
    Rob Chipman
    "The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
    "Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey

  5. #4
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    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    At the top we split up, and before long we spot another herd way off in the back forty. We drop off the hill, into a fold in the ground and we start stalking. They're probably a mile or so off. We keep as low as we can and close ground.

    And then the herd appears, rising up out of the ground. The wind is swirling and they must have caught our scent, but it's not clear where we are. They start running past us and in the middle is a bull big enough that you do't have to count anything. He's clearly legal.

    My buddy is about 50 yars away and he's got the rifle up. You know what that's like. You watch the bull stop and think "Shoot him now".

    There's no shot. The bull trots a bit more, the herd mills around, and I think "Shoot him", followed by "Shoot that bull man. What are you waiting for?"

    They start running again and I think "Don't chase them" and then they stop one more time and my buddy lets fly. I can see he's hit him, and then he whacks him again. The bull is clearly hit, but keeps walking a little bit, and then tips over.



    The rest of the herd splits in two and circles around as we walk up, then they slowly split.


    The bull is a big boy, with a 6x7 rack in velvet. Just a beauty.





    He didn't shoot for the reason you'd expect when you think about it: there were either cows in front or a cow behind every time I figured he should shoot.

    We start butchering and we see two guys coming up on horses. One is young, fitted out with high tech camo, and the other is older, with a blue jacket, cowboy hat and a smoke hanging out of his mouth. First words? "That's a nice bull!"

    We chat a bit, talk about the bull, the hunt, their horse, etc. They're a father and son combo. We tell them that we think there's a good shooter over that way a ways, they thank us and away they go. Nice looking horses, too.

    Then we start packing out, and we run into a another pal of mine from the city, Jenny (some of you know her). She's up there, second year hunting, determined to get a bull. We shoot the shit with her and her 2 partners, tell them how we found caribou, and agree to catch up later.

    Couple or three trips of my least favorite work and we've got everything butchered, bagged and back at spike camp, and we crash. We wake up late afternoon and what do we see? The father and son combo riding back with a bull and before long Jenny and crew come down to see us again.
    Last edited by Rob Chipman; 04-02-2019 at 09:32 PM.
    Rob Chipman
    "The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
    "Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey

  6. #5
    Join Date
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    North Van
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    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    Next day we pack everything down to the camp, then the lake. The father and son combo are packing up to ride out and ask if we want them to leave some onions and potatoes. Having been on a mountain house and recently killed caribou diet we say "Absolutely". When we get into the cabin there is onions, potatoes, home made bread, and, oh yeah, a bottle of whiskey and some cubans! Gotta like that!

    We also run into a couple of nice guys from Williams Lake, camped at the lake but hunting all over. We meet them again down at the lake and damned if they don't get a bull down there. The guys with the white tents were also successful, and they're at the lake as well. Only 2nd year tiny little female hunter Jenny is still up the mountain when we get snowed in.

    We wait that night and the next day, hearing the plane fly over for a look see, but the ceiling is way too low. The next day we get out and head home, wondering how Jenny made out in the snow. When i asked her long she was staying she said "Until we get a bull".

    You know what happened, right? They got their bull, and it was a beaut as well


    I'll try to post more pics. For some reason it says I'm over my quota.

    So, what's next? LEH is coming up soon.

    What are the recommendations? We're taking horses this year and either going in off the Alcan or the Stewart Cassiar. What's better? West Toad? Tetsa? Cry Lake? Eaglenest? We'll hunt moose, caribou, sheep. They key is a really cool place for a really cool adventure.
    Rob Chipman
    "The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
    "Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Squamish
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    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    Great thread Rob, nice work up there.
    Is Justin Competent, or just incompetent?

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,916

    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    Long way to haul horses but you could try the Tat for dalls or the simpson for bighorn but its not as good as use to be.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    124

    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    Great hunt! Sounds like the seeds are being planted for 2019....
    "There'll be no quitters, till we bag some critters"
    WSSBC - RMGA - BHA - CCFR

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    williams lake
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    5,668

    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    Huh, only the second time I've heard about goats in there. Always wanted to hunt cariboo back there.

    By the sounds of it, I never will.

    As always, looking forward to pictures.

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Victoria,BC
    Posts
    6,398

    Re: Caribou 2018 -now what?

    Sounds like an awesome hunt. I'm looking forward to the pics.
    Thanks for sharing your adventure.
    kenny
    I love it when the seasons change.
    Fishing to Hunting.

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