RMAC
09-29-2013, 05:46 PM
I've been reading the forums for a couple of years and here's my first post on a hunt. I just started big game hunting last year. We didn't get anything on our trip last year but it was an amazing time.
We headed out on September 6th and after the 20 or so hour drive to Muncho Lake we arrived a day early for the flight so I went out for a day fishing at a lake in the area for some Pike which was amazing. The water was so clear that as soon as you cast out and started retrieving you could see your lure flashing in the water and the fish swimming by and swiping at it multiple times. It was the first time I had gone Pike fishing and it was a lot of fun.
The next day we flew out for our destination and set up a quick base camp at the lake and then packed our bags and headed out. We set up camp at the top and did some spotting that night and saw 3 Caribou on a mountain close to us but nothing worth taking a closer look at.
The next day we headed out to an area that my Dad had taken a Caribou from over 10 years ago. We saw a few more Caribou but again nothing worth going after. We also saw a number of wolf tracks and eventually saw a couple of wolves but never got a shot at them. We headed back to camp and decided to go out another drainage the next day and took camp with us this time. When we got to where we wanted to set camp we saw a number of Caribou and all of a sudden there was a decent bull running at a good speed and right behind it was a black wolf. It was across on the other plateau so we couldn't get a shot off at the wolf but all of a sudden we didn't see the wolf anymore and the Caribou took off. We weren't able to get a good look at the Caribou before it was gone. It was really neat seeing that and just glad that the Caribou got away this time. That night we had about 12 - 15 Caribou checking out our camp with only a few small bulls in there with a couple of points.
The next day we decided to go out a bit further just to take a look and came to a really nice area or so we thought as we didn't see an animal around and spent quite a bit of time there. We headed back to camp and that night we saw 3 Caribou running and there was a wolverine running near them. It didn't look like he was after the caribou but that was really cool to see. We also had a small red fox come up pretty close to camp that night.
The next day not much was happening and we just spotted around camp and all of a sudden there was 9 sheep across the area. We put the spotting scope on them and there was a total of 9. 8 ewes and lambs along with one tiny ram. We saw them that night and that was the last time we saw them. Later that night we saw a decent sized bull caribou but it was getting too late to go after him.
The next morning we got up and started spotting and found what looked like the same one. We couldn't tell if he was legal from where we were as I could only count 4 points for sure. We decided to go after him and put our packs on with the basics and headed over to where he was. We had to go up and down into a couple of creeks to where he was so it took a bit of time. When we got there we were able to spot him and decided we could go up through the creek and get closer to him. I was able to get the spotting scope on him and he had 6 points on one side so we started crawling up to where he was. The spot he was couldn't have been much better as there was a nice hill that we were able to stay behind and get to about 85 yards from him. We crawled up to the top and I was able to get a good spot to shoot from and the first shot was dead on and I had my first big game animal. He turned out to be a pretty old Caribou that was 6x5 but not much for shovels. A really nice thick beam though. Then the work started as we had to start preparing it to pack it out. It took us 2 1/2 days to get all the meat down to camp and we had to call the plane to get us out pretty quickly as the temperatures were so hot up there. We had straight sunshine for all the days we were there until the day that we wanted out so we were stuck around base camp for 1 day while it rained all day. The next day was some rain, wind, fog, and clouds but it cleared up enough and they were able to get us out that afternoon.
We made the drive back down and took the meat into the butcher and we ended up with 165 lbs of meat which was more than we thought we had which was nice. Got a couple of different kinds of sausages, steaks, roasts, and hamburger made out of it. I haven't had a chance to try it yet but my Dad's neighbor mentioned it wasn't tough which is great as we were expecting it to be really tough as I imagine it was quite old. When we were up there and had to cut out a tooth we opened it mouth and there was basically no teeth in it. Just small little pin points almost as they were so dulled down.
It was a great trip and an amazing animal to take for my first one. I can't wait to get back up there next year to go after something else. The planning is already started for 2014. =)
I will upload a couple of pics in a bit.
First caribou
http://www.flickr.com/photos/103716029@N03/10010608496/
A few caribou coming to check out around our camp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/103716029@N03/10010563105/
We headed out on September 6th and after the 20 or so hour drive to Muncho Lake we arrived a day early for the flight so I went out for a day fishing at a lake in the area for some Pike which was amazing. The water was so clear that as soon as you cast out and started retrieving you could see your lure flashing in the water and the fish swimming by and swiping at it multiple times. It was the first time I had gone Pike fishing and it was a lot of fun.
The next day we flew out for our destination and set up a quick base camp at the lake and then packed our bags and headed out. We set up camp at the top and did some spotting that night and saw 3 Caribou on a mountain close to us but nothing worth taking a closer look at.
The next day we headed out to an area that my Dad had taken a Caribou from over 10 years ago. We saw a few more Caribou but again nothing worth going after. We also saw a number of wolf tracks and eventually saw a couple of wolves but never got a shot at them. We headed back to camp and decided to go out another drainage the next day and took camp with us this time. When we got to where we wanted to set camp we saw a number of Caribou and all of a sudden there was a decent bull running at a good speed and right behind it was a black wolf. It was across on the other plateau so we couldn't get a shot off at the wolf but all of a sudden we didn't see the wolf anymore and the Caribou took off. We weren't able to get a good look at the Caribou before it was gone. It was really neat seeing that and just glad that the Caribou got away this time. That night we had about 12 - 15 Caribou checking out our camp with only a few small bulls in there with a couple of points.
The next day we decided to go out a bit further just to take a look and came to a really nice area or so we thought as we didn't see an animal around and spent quite a bit of time there. We headed back to camp and that night we saw 3 Caribou running and there was a wolverine running near them. It didn't look like he was after the caribou but that was really cool to see. We also had a small red fox come up pretty close to camp that night.
The next day not much was happening and we just spotted around camp and all of a sudden there was 9 sheep across the area. We put the spotting scope on them and there was a total of 9. 8 ewes and lambs along with one tiny ram. We saw them that night and that was the last time we saw them. Later that night we saw a decent sized bull caribou but it was getting too late to go after him.
The next morning we got up and started spotting and found what looked like the same one. We couldn't tell if he was legal from where we were as I could only count 4 points for sure. We decided to go after him and put our packs on with the basics and headed over to where he was. We had to go up and down into a couple of creeks to where he was so it took a bit of time. When we got there we were able to spot him and decided we could go up through the creek and get closer to him. I was able to get the spotting scope on him and he had 6 points on one side so we started crawling up to where he was. The spot he was couldn't have been much better as there was a nice hill that we were able to stay behind and get to about 85 yards from him. We crawled up to the top and I was able to get a good spot to shoot from and the first shot was dead on and I had my first big game animal. He turned out to be a pretty old Caribou that was 6x5 but not much for shovels. A really nice thick beam though. Then the work started as we had to start preparing it to pack it out. It took us 2 1/2 days to get all the meat down to camp and we had to call the plane to get us out pretty quickly as the temperatures were so hot up there. We had straight sunshine for all the days we were there until the day that we wanted out so we were stuck around base camp for 1 day while it rained all day. The next day was some rain, wind, fog, and clouds but it cleared up enough and they were able to get us out that afternoon.
We made the drive back down and took the meat into the butcher and we ended up with 165 lbs of meat which was more than we thought we had which was nice. Got a couple of different kinds of sausages, steaks, roasts, and hamburger made out of it. I haven't had a chance to try it yet but my Dad's neighbor mentioned it wasn't tough which is great as we were expecting it to be really tough as I imagine it was quite old. When we were up there and had to cut out a tooth we opened it mouth and there was basically no teeth in it. Just small little pin points almost as they were so dulled down.
It was a great trip and an amazing animal to take for my first one. I can't wait to get back up there next year to go after something else. The planning is already started for 2014. =)
I will upload a couple of pics in a bit.
First caribou
http://www.flickr.com/photos/103716029@N03/10010608496/
A few caribou coming to check out around our camp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/103716029@N03/10010563105/