prayers for good recovery and safe sucessful hunts.

Thanks for all the kind wishes guys.

I'm fresh back from a visit to Minnesota, and a brand new beautiful granddaughter. My children refuse to have any boys, so these girls are in severe jeopardy of being made into Tomboys :-)

I'm really chomping at the bit for hunting season. First thing up (August 15) is a Caribou hunt. I've got ten days to camp and hunt for a big bull. I've got four good friends coming from Minnesota for support. I really needed this as incentive to get better, and get back into shape. The easiest thing I can do everyday is have my wife drop me off down in town, and climb the 900 feet over the course of 2 miles back up to the house. Get my legs and lungs back into shape. And break in some new boots. Other than that, I have my list together and am working on it. Can't wait.

Good luck, share pictures! Glad you're on the mend.

Back from the Caribou hunt, and it was a great success! I shot my first caribou, and it was a dandy! My body held up, and I was able to do the hunt with the assistance of my four amazing friends. I wanted to post something quick. I don't have a ton of time right now but will post the story (it's a good one) and a lot of photos when I get a little more breathing room.
It was so hot, I got this guy in my long johns! I think he just thought I was a black bear out there eating blueberries.

Nice! Good friends make all things possible.

Good job WH. Glad to see you are out and about. Dandy bull you are hanging on to!

Very nice bou! Look forward to hearing the story.

More pictures please.

First time for me ever on a fly-in trip. I guess the truth is, I've always been a 100% DIY guy. I could have afforded it before.
Now it has become more of a necessity. And this one spoiled me. Likely will do it again next year :-)


My awesome crew of "Sherpa." They are all smiles, about to take off. They stayed that way, for the most part, though a few blisters and many miles took their toll.
Pretty wild to think that these people took hard earned precious vacation, and spent a bunch of money - just to help me. These are true friends.


My pals loaded and unloaded everything up there. They hardly let me lift a finger. Felt like royalty, really. I did haul a few things. Carried a light pack. Set up my own camp. Stuff like that...


It's beautiful country up there. We hiked to many good vantage points, and glassed a lot every day. We saw caribou every day but one. Few bears as it's not a good berry year in the alpine. Seems things are better for them in the timber right now. Saw a few moose, a coyote, distant bears, small bears, a coyote, mountain marmot, and one brown bear.


The first night, I couldn't help myself. Walked out of camp with the shotgun, and shot my first Willow Ptarmigan of my life. Our pilot assured me that it would not matter. He said we'd still have caribou walk through camp, and he was right. HFK will appreciate that I added the meat from a half dozen of these to supplement my Mountain House!


I passed bulls like this every day. Again, I heard my pilots words "You have ten days. Don't be in a hurry. They are constantly moving." I risked mutiny when a few of these walked through camp one morning. Sure would have been an easy pack. But I got away with it.


This picture might be a little fuzzy. When glassing for big game got slow, we switched to glassing for sheds. Sometimes we spotted them from a mile or two away. One of my pals is really into shed hunting. He would head out to get them, and get some bonus ones on the way. On this day, the crew really made a haul, and some massive dandies too.


On the fifth day of the hunt - we spotted some good bulls way up in a snowfield, trying to stay cool and avoid bugs. On the stalk while trying to get into range, we blew them out - but we stuck with it and pursued them down that mountain, and up the next one to another snowfield. Then sneaky like, used the terrain to close the distance to 503 yards. There was no getting closer.
Previous to this, my longest shot on a big game animal was 340 yards. But my friend Lucas had along his custom built .280 Akeley Improved, and had put in a lot of bench time. We used the Hornady App to put in the yardage, the cartridge, the specific bullet, the windage, the humidity, the elevation ... then dialed it into the turrets. I put the crosshairs on the animal and waited several minutes for it to turn broadside and hold still. When I squeezed it off, our eyes told us that it buckled and slid out of sight. The bull was out of sight when we heard the "whack" and the report back!

This is some steep, rugged, dangerous country. It felt more like a sheep hunt than a caribou hunt - and I've never been on a sheep hunt before!
Thats two of us up on that snow slope, trying to get to the fallen caribou, which we had no idea where it was - but only a general direction.
It took us over an hour of carefully using our weight, and ski poles, to make foot steps in the snow and ice.
We went over some rock piles. Around some others. Through some snow caves on the edges of some rocks.
There were times that, had we fell - we would have slid downslope to some rock piles to face certain broken bones. Better not fall!


We finally got to the bull. This is Lucas, the shed hunter, and my royal gun bearer. The bull had come out of that blue sky at the top of the photo. Fell off a 30 plus foot snow ledge. Landed in the rocks. Bounced down to another pile of rocks - then rolled and slid till it came to rest on two boulders. Probably what would have happened to us if we had fallen.
We took lots of photos. It was a really hot day. I stripped down to my long johns, and went the last few miles looking like a black bear after berries. It did the trick!


Not a chance in the world I could have done this without these guys. I'm so, so grateful.

We caped it out. Then gutted it. Then slid it over to the next snow patch, and let it go. It slid 300 yards to the bottom, where we had level ground to finish the butchering process, and not have to carry it down that nasty slope. With four broken legs, a shattered pelvis, a shattered spine, broken neck, two broken jaw, and a blown up stomach - it's a miracle that the antlers were even attached. Amazingly, the shovel was cracked, two tips were gone, and the velvet was rubbed off. My guy who is beatling the skull says the beatles have it in six pieces. He is going to glue it back together for me. Well, we had a race against time now. I butchered. They deboned and bagged it. We all packed it up, and did our best to get numerous miles back to camp. We didn't quite make it - so made a pile a half mile out, and finished it off the next morning.


It all feels so unbelievable. I can't believe I went from this...


To this!


And this.

I owe this all to my good friends - Lauren, Audrey, Lucas and Tom. Could never have done this without you. This hunt had tremendous influence on my life in so many ways. I definitely feel alive, and victorious. And like the wild man I have always been :-)

Great story. Thanks, and well done!

Great story and pictures. You all look so calm as your pilot does an aileron roll🤣

Thanks for sharing, hope you have many more hunts!

That has to be the darkest caribou I have ever seen.

Looks like a fun trip !

Dude we had a crazy fun pilot!
Not sure why that picture is upside down, but I don't care enough to fix it. It was right side up when I posted it :-)

We were surprised by that too. Everyone gets used to seeing the pictures of the caribou on the tundra - gray/white and bulls with white manes.
If you're looking for that in this country, you're looking for the wrong thing - especially in summer, but I would guess they tend that way more toward winter.

The bulls I got in the Illiamna area in August were dark, almost chocolate.

Boy that turbine Otter can pack a load! And I'll bet it doesn't spend much time accelerating on step during takeoff. I'd love to fly one of those. Did you fly out of Homer?

Do you mean like Easter bunnies ?

Love those deep dark chocolate caribou ! Lovely antlers on those.