DarkSiths Cariboiu Adventure

[Darksith]

Sept 1
Jamie and I loaded up the truck early in the morning and we were out the door at 5:05am from Kamloops. We were Dease Lake bound. We were to fly out the following morning to our lake of choice with BC Yukon Air. The truck made it to our first stop 15 hours away on 1.5 tanks of fuel which was very surprising (new to me GMC Sierra 3500).
The drive was uneventful, we saw a lot of bears on the highway as usual, a porcupine and a few chickens.
When we got to our camp, we unloaded some hippy killer stoves that we bought for our buddy as they are discontinued but ideal for the small cabins he is building out in the back country. We also left him a box of wine which is a tradition, some years we get to meet up at camp with him and drink it while we tell stories, but other years hes out and so we just leave it for him and his clients as a small token of gratitude for letting us crash close enough to the airbase that we can make the drive easily the morning we fly out. We unloaded our overnight bags and whatever we needed to have to be ready to fly tomorrow, started a fire in the cook shack and read some magazines. We were both wishing we had shorts on for the drive, it was hot and the trucks AC wasn't quite enough to keep us cool...always planning on it getting colder as you head north but I think it actually got a bit warmer. Being too warm continued as I lit a small fire in the cook shack just for shits and giggles really, but it keeps the edge off as the sun goes down and we were both pretty excited so sleep wasn't going to come early even though we had been up and driving since 4am. Being done with the heat I ended up taking my pants off, lol what a site that would have been if anyone was around...I continued to read stories of mountain hunting adventures found in the numerous hunting magazines collected from over the years. Eventually I grew tired, I had woken Jamie up and told him to go to bed about an hour earlier. I was still content to read and sip on an adult beverage for a bit longer. Eventually the sandman came a calling and off to bed I went. We would be up at 6:30 to be at the airbase to check in around 9.

Sept 2
Woke up in the morning, first thing I noticed was that the moon was so bright, it was just past full. Normally I don't like hunting around full moons, but having clear bright nights might actually allow the caribou we were after to move around more which could mean we would be seeing more animals and new animals as they started their migrations in preperation for the rutt. The weatherman says it's going to be a low of -1 at our lake today, it's been so hot all summer this is going to be a shock to the system but a welcomed break from the heat. We were on the road just after 7, we seem to always arrive early at the airbase, I didn't see the point this year as its always a waiting game anyways. Had a splash of bailey's in my coffee, thanks R!
We arrived at the airbase and were greeted by Alex. We've developed a pretty good relationship with him over the last few years so it was some fun hello's until he gave us the bad news that the plane's starter had failed the day previous and they were waiting on the part which should be in town and installed around 2pm. I asked if there was any chance we would get out around dinner time that day, but unfortunately there were a few groups ahead of us and there was only the 1 Beaver operating at the time so it was pretty unlikely. We offered to help with loading and unloading to get the plane turned around quicker but they still said it probably wouldn't change anything and to not bother. One thing I've learned over the years is to not get to frustrated with situations you can't control, so we took the bad news in stride and said we would be back tomorrow morning. We grabbed some groceries at the gas station for a nice dinner and headed back to camp. Might as well have a nice meal with fresh veggies and what not one last time before we would be confined to freeze dried food and bars.

We decided to take the extra time at camp to confirm our rifles were zero'd at the bench behind camp, them we reorganized all of our gear again and managed to condense everything down into 1 less tote which we then filled with split dried firewood from camp, thanks R! Again we found ourselves waiting 1 more sleep, we were getting itchy to get out there and start the hunt. It never can come soon enough once you've left home and are just stuck waiting.

Sept 3
Was really just a repeat of the morning before, got up made coffee and headed out, but I hadn't bothered to check my messages before we left. Once we got to the airbase we realized we had gotten a message from Alex telling us to be here for 10:30, we could of slept in and taken even more of our time, but ultimately we would of just been counting the minutes anyway so being a few hours wasn't a big deal. We hit the office and lounged out on the reclining couch seats. It was a bit wet outside so I went back and put a tarp over our gear that was sitting waiting for our turn which was still a few flights away in the queue. Eventually our turn came up, we finally made it out, it was 330 in the afternoon.

No big deal though, delays should be expected on these types of adventures, the pilots can't control the weather and there's always a guide or something that will come up causing a delay. The flight was uneventful until the pilot did a safety pass over the lake and we spotted 4 bou right beside the lake, 1 bull for sure. Once we touched down and got the plane unloaded, we watched the plane taxi out and take off. The pilot purposely turned away from the caribou we had spotted, and I remember saying thank you in my head to her. We unpacked and inflated the boat and decided first things first we would go for a quick scout to see if the bull was legal. The law says we have to wait 6h before hunting after flying, and that time frame gave us zero huntable hours that day so we just took the bino's and spotter. I went to put the plug in the boat but was shocked to see it missing. Its normally tied to a string off the back end of the boat...wtf, that sucks. We decided the boat being an inflatable wouldn't take on too much water and we really wanted to put eyes on the caribou so we said screw it we will deal with this later and we took off across the lake taking on water the whole time lol. We managed to locate the bull, and although he had decent mass on top, he was only a 4 point so not legal and no need to keep track of it. We drained the water out of the boat and headed back across to our gear. We had about a 1km boat ride with everything to get to where we had planned to camp.

Once we got back to the beach, I cut a branch and whittled us a new drain plug. Making sure it fit really snug so we wouldn't have to be draining to boat all the time.

When I went to tap it in with the axe something caught my eye...
Right there in front of us...the plug, on the string its supposed to be on, just not hanging out the back of the boat but rather hanging inside the boat lol. Getting too excited seeing caribou right off the bat had us rushing and making a silly mistake.

We loaded up the boat, managed to get everything in so we didn't need to make a return trip and headed down the lake.

We docked to boat on the rocks and I went for a quick reckon to find our camping spot. We had gotten some good intel from another HBC member about where we might want to make camp, and as a bonus the spot came with a meat pole already setup. We cooked some dinner and planned to spend the last couple hours glassing from the hilltop above camp hoping to turn something up for the morning. This is when I realized I had assumed Jamie grabbed my bino's off the beach and he assumed I would take care of my own shit, so back down the lake I went. We didn't turn up anything that evening but were excited to get after it in the morning.

[Darksith]

Sept 4
Our opening morning plan was to hike up the side of the mountain to gain some elevation and get the lay of the land around the lake. We boated over to the closest bay where we figured would make a good glassing spot and started the hike. We quickly found an old horse/animal trail that really made the hike a breeze. Once below the ledge we wanted to be on top of we turned up the mountain. We got to a spot and started glassing.

We saw the odd moose, a couple caribou way off that disappeared pretty quick. Not much else was happening until I spotted something way off, it was a caribou, then I spotted another one. They were way off, 3 maybe 4km's as the crow flies

Then I spotted something white, it was another caribou! Maybe an albino? Hard to say, looked like it had some dark patches around the eyes, but either way super neat to see.

All in all there were 5 caribou, 1 white one, another bull that looked legal, another bull that was questionable and 2 cows. We watched them make their way across the landscape, wondering if they would wander into striking distance for us from the lake. Eventually they took a hard left hand turn and we watched them walk out of our lives forever, or so we thought anyway. Spotting a legal bull day 1 had us jacked though. We were too far up the ridge to really make a play at anything we saw, but it gave us a good idea of area's to venture into in the following days. We stayed up high until dinner time then went back to camp and made a new plan for the following day

[Darksith]

Sept 5

Our plan was to boat to the south end of the lake and repeat the day before, get to know the area a bit and see what was around. At dawn we boated down the lake and hiked up to a treeless knob not far off the lake. The balsam brush was so thick we didn't have much desire to head further in, and there wasn't much useful elevation until about 1km back as the crow flies which would of been an ugly grind with little benefit. The sun decided to make an appearance for a brief while, I took a second to notice all the water drops sparkling off the buck brush. It's been gloomy and wet for the last few days, it was nice to see a bit of beauty. We turned up a couple moose pretty far away while we were glassing. Jamie went for a quick walk and as soon as he did that I spotted a bull across the lake about 400 yards from the far shore. By the time Jamie got back he had disappeared behind the hill again but I knew he would still be right there. It wasn't a big bull but we had 2 tags and putting meat on the ground this trip was a priority for both of us so after a brief discussion we decided to boat across and see if we could get him on the ground. It would be an easy pack so it made sense. We got to the opposite shore and figured he was on our side of a small water way or creek looking at the map. When we got our eyes on him again we realized he was on the other side of it and all we could see was just his antlers so we had no shot. Jamie backed out to get the boat and circle around to the other side of the creek. The creek was about 30' wide and looked deep enough it wasn't worth getting soaked for, the bottom was also probably complete soft loon shit...so anyway I stayed behind in case he came back over the hill and presented a shot. The wind wasn't in our favour if Jamie did make it around the creek mouth so I decided to do a bit of raking and see if it could draw him over to my side of the ridge. After a few rakes, the bull peeked over the rise but didn't come forward enough for a shot. Not seeing another moose I suspect made him a bit nervous because he decided to take off and ran across the bay. I saw him turn and disappear then I heard him running through the water. I hurried over to the edge of the lake, I found him standing on the far side of the bay, but as I moved closer I lost sight of him again. I went to the edge of the lake and was glassing the treeline across the small bay when I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He had ran through all of the trees and straight out into the water about 100m from shore. The lake averages about 3' deep, so he was just standing there his belly touching the water, debating whether to cross. I looked over and also noticed Jamie rowing in the boat about 200 yards from the moose, it was staring straight at him. I hurried to the lake edge, ranged him at 540 yards, dialed my scope up and laid down in the tall wet lake grass on the bank, my barrel just clearing the grass. I wasn't perfectly stable, I was fighting gravity trying to pull me into the lake, my feet were above my head floating in the air but thought I was good enough and squeezed off a shot. I saw a big splash in front of him as my scope picture cleared from the recoil and knew I wasn't steady enough obviously. I ripped my bino harness off and placed it under my rifle, using it as a rest, that felt much better, I spread my legs wide and planted my feet in the ground, I was noticeably more stable and fired again. Whack, I hit him but he didn't move. I cycled in my last loaded round, steadied and pulled the trigger again. Another solid hit. I stopped and watched as he turned to go back to shore then tipped over and thrashed in the water. I've never seen an animal tip over in the water before. It was quite the sight and an amazing experience.
Jamie rowed over to me, picked me up and we headed over to him, we weren't sure he was floating, but thankfully he was.

We lassoed his antlers and towed him to the meat pole on the other end of the lake.

We had a pair of waders for just such an occasion, I've never broken an animal down in the water but I can now say it's much easier on dry land. We got him processed and hung, we went back to camp with some heart and tenderloin and we cleaned ourselves up and called it an evening after some good eats and a celebratory adult beverage.

[Darksith]

Sept 6
We decided to head out for a hike to the east side of our lake. We walked to a high point about 1km off the lake to do some glassing. Didn't turn up much at first but we kept at it, time of day was right, lots of area in front of us, something was bound to step out. Dude there's that albino again I say to my Jamie. We both put our glass on him, no need for a spotter at this point, we are pretty sure he was with a legal bull 2 days ago and he was simply way too far to count points. We decided to close the gap a kilometre and see if he was gonna stick around or if we could see more, well after a kilometre he was still way out there. We figured he was 4-5km away as the crow flies looking at the map, it's a long ways to go for a bou I said. Well it's not the first time Jamie replied and we picked another vantage point around 1000 yards ahead and off we went. Our main concern was that they weren't sticking around, on day one when we spotted them the first time they covered several km's in an hour and we knew if they went adjacent to us it was going to be impossible to angle them off and actually catch up to them. So when we got to our next target, we put the glass up and couldn't find him. We started to glass off into the distance and all around, figuring he was heading south west when I picked him up again not far from where we had initially picked him up. We could see another bull with him, his tops were plain as day but even with the spotter we couldn't confirm. We chatted briefly again, I reiterated how long of a pack out this was going to be and added we were most likely sleeping under the tarp, Jamie's reply was well it wouldn't be the first time. He chuckled and off we went. The next target point, yes about 1000 yards out was going to put us in striking distance, or so we though. He had moved a few hundred yards while we were watching, to the end of the lake which was our marker on the map when we started moving and lost sight we were worried he was going to walk out of our lives forever again. We had covered around 3kms as the crow flys and when we got to our next spot we had no look into the area we had seen them last, there was a small ridge in the way. Jamie said well this is working out for us and I replied nope, but off we went agian, we were certainly committed at this point to either make a stalk or watch his ass end leave us behind. When we got to our next spot we were within striking distance of the lake but we knew he was moving away from the area last time we saw him so there were so many places he could of ended up. The one advantage we had was the fact it was noon, the sun was out and it was getting hot. We shed some layers, myself having gotten moose blood all over my shirt and base layer the previous day taking care of the moose, I decided to wash them off in the lake and they hadn't finished drying yet so all I was wearing was my sitka Kelvin vest and jacket. Anyway I shed my jacket and we had a laugh that I looked like someone from the A team or some other awesome 80's character.

Anyway we needed a plan to pick up the animals again. I looked around and said we need to get to that hump as I pointed to the south. It was about 350 yards to our right and in the direction the bou were moving last we saw. We packed up and started heading there, about 150 yards in I spotted them. Just as we figured they were bedded down under some buck brush having a siesta. There were 3 bulls, our spirit bou the albino, he was younger than we though and only had 2 points up top.

Too bad, he would of and will make someone very happy in a few years. There was another small bull in full velvet still and he had huge tops, but a short frame and pretty narrow. After several looks at him in a few moments from now he had a sticker that was close to legal but his frame was too small and so was his body. A good pass. The 3rd bull was hard horned, he had 5 up top and we both confirmed him to be legal and easily the biggest of the 3. He was sleeping so counting points was a challenge until he lifted his head. We had them at 550 yards. We were in the middle of the buck brush with no good spot to shoot prone from so we decided to close the distance. We got to 420 yards, a manageable shot but still not one we wanted to take freehand. We pulled the spotter off the tripod and tied 2 hiking poles together to make shooting sticks. It was my turn to harvest a bou, so i spent some time arranging our shooting platform. I finally settled on the tripod up front with my sitka sun hat on top of it as a cushion and the improvised shooting sticks at the back. Moving things around I finally got comfortable and could even let go of my 28 nosler and it all just stayed in place.

We decided we were going to wait for him to get up. Luckily we only had to wait about 5 minutes after I was all setup to shoot and he stood up. He turned broadside and was just in the process of laying down again when I squeeze off the first shot. He actually laid down just as I fired but got right back up as did the other 2 caribou, either startled by the noise, hit or both. I cycled another round into my chamber, recentered on him and squeezed again, I'm sure I hit him that time but I generally shoot until I'm confident he's not going anywhere so I took a 3rd shot. Jamie was calling out what he could see from behind me, I was out of bullets in my rifle and actually started picking up the brass. I knew he was dead, and I just listened to Jamie call things out. He's wobbling, he's going over, faceplant, he's down. I was pretty sure he was dead after the second shot but hey why risk any sort of chase. We stopped and just watched the other caribou, confused why their leader had just got up, laid down then jumped up and laid down again.


They were waiting for him to show them what to do. We stood up and took a bunch of pics, that albino was sure a beautiful animal, hopefully he gets to maturity and then some. We then went back to get out packs that we had dropped when we spotted them sleeping then went to see our animal. I always take my time walking up to my kills, soaking it all in, giving them the respect they deserved. I don't think we hollerd once that whole sequence and we didn't once we got up to him either. We took a few photos then got right to work breaking him down. It was going to be a long day.

[Darksith]

I think we had him boned out, gutless method and yes we got thr loins, by 4pm. We shuttled all the meat and the head and cape 1.3km as the crow flies. We had a 6.5km adventure to undertake up hill and through buck brush and muskeg. We got everything to our first laydown spot just before dark about 1km from the carcass. We broke out the sil tarp, the bivy sacks and put on all our puffy down. Had a nice freshtrek meal (locally made and sourced right here in BC) and went right to bed.

[Gateholio]

Wow, great adventure! To be honest i just looked at the pics but will come back and read the whole story when I get a moment, I'm juggling prepping for work tomorrow, making dinner and surfing the intraweb right now

But big congrats!

[stoneramhunter]

enjoyed the story!!!

[Getbent]

Great write up… awesome adventure.
let’s have some more!

[Retiredguy]

Well done boys!!

[Ron.C]

amazing read and great pics. Congrats on the successful hunt.

thanks for sharing