AlaskanSuperduty
SDD Junior Member
Last Wednesday (the 30th), my dad, brother, an old family friend, and I drove up the Dalton Highway with my diesel pulling my brothers brand spanking new Sea Ark Predator w/ a 200hp Mercury Optimax. The drive was around 420 miles with only two gas stations in between. We drove to Coldfoot, and filled up there ($5.90 a gallon, yeech). We headed north about 50 miles south of Prudhoe Bay and offloaded the gear and boat, and headed south on the Sagavanoktik River. We turned up the Ivishak River and set up camp there. Next morning, we drove up the Echooka River and saw a grizzly crossing the stream ahead of us, a few caribou here and there, but nothing else. We headed back to camp, grabbed a bite to eat, and ran up the Ivishak about 15 miles or so. We saw a herd of caribou on the hillside and noticed some huge antlered bulls. My dad, brother and I walked around the hillside (about 3 miles) and snuck up on them from the east. All three of us had to belly crawl about 100 yards to sneak up on them since they were bedded down. I lined up on the caribou and took two shoots, successfully slingly lead directly OVER his back. My dad had a better shot on him, so he took him down. I moved over to another bull, and dropped him no problem (still don't know how I missed the first one 
). Unfortuneately, he fell backwards and busted off one of the forks, in the picture where my had is, I'm holding it together and that's where all the blood on the antler came from. We field dressed both of 'em, and packed the meat back to the boat (about a mile and a half now since we could walk straight to the boat). My brother and I went back for the antlers after the meat was at the boat. The next day, Glenn shot a small bull, and the morning after that, my bro shot a small bull as well. We headed out that same day. My brother caught a small case of hypothermia from driving the boat in winter like conditions, so when we finally parked the boat, I ran up and grabbed my truck and blasted down to the beach, threw on the seat warmers, and chucked him inside with the heater blasting. He warmed up pretty quick, so we tried to load the boat on the trailer and I managed to get my truck stuck pretty bad, pretty much layed frame on the gravel in the river when the tires dug there own holes. I completely ruined my stock rims, the rocks tumbled around them when they were spinning. I busted the valve stem off one of them, but there was enough air in there to make it out and change the tire. Got everything loaded and headed south, pulled into Fairbanks around 3am. All in all, a great hunt!
). Unfortuneately, he fell backwards and busted off one of the forks, in the picture where my had is, I'm holding it together and that's where all the blood on the antler came from. We field dressed both of 'em, and packed the meat back to the boat (about a mile and a half now since we could walk straight to the boat). My brother and I went back for the antlers after the meat was at the boat. The next day, Glenn shot a small bull, and the morning after that, my bro shot a small bull as well. We headed out that same day. My brother caught a small case of hypothermia from driving the boat in winter like conditions, so when we finally parked the boat, I ran up and grabbed my truck and blasted down to the beach, threw on the seat warmers, and chucked him inside with the heater blasting. He warmed up pretty quick, so we tried to load the boat on the trailer and I managed to get my truck stuck pretty bad, pretty much layed frame on the gravel in the river when the tires dug there own holes. I completely ruined my stock rims, the rocks tumbled around them when they were spinning. I busted the valve stem off one of them, but there was enough air in there to make it out and change the tire. Got everything loaded and headed south, pulled into Fairbanks around 3am. All in all, a great hunt!
! Man, I love Alaska! I know it can't be seen in the pictures, but my hat reads "Powerstroke Diesel". 
