This has been along time coming. I hope it is at least a little interesting.
About 5 miles on the distance horizon we could see black dots on the amazingly pure white barren ground 130 miles east of Tuctoyaktuk, North West Territories. Our guide Chuck Gruben of Tuk said there they are, let's get going.
This musk ox hunt was my second ever guided hunt. It was something I wanted to do for a long time. I was sitting home one night and thought what the heck Ishould go. My wife agreed so the arrangements were out into gear. I phoned a friend in Whitehorse who I knew had also wanted to go. I told him I will make all the arrangements. I did not contact any other outfitter than Chuck Gruben. We know some of Chuck's relatives when we lived in Old Crow, Yukon from 2004 -07. Chuck remembered me when I sent him an e mail. The dates of the hunt changed a couple of times early on as chuck was trying to accomodate other hunters as well. Our dates were set April 21 - 26. We each had two musk ox tags.
I left Watson Lake on April 18, drove to Whitehorse 350 miles and stayed at my friend's house. Next morning we loaded our gear into his truck and we were off. After a long day on the road the Eagle Plains lodge on the Dempster \highway, 600 miles from Whitehrose was a welcome sight. We saw lots of caribou along the Dempste ron the way up. The next morning there was asmall surprise. A back tire on the truck was flat. The changing and repair delayed us a couple of hours but at least the flat happened right at the lodge. On our way we crossed the Arctic Red River and the McKenzie River ice bridges. Both had quite a lot of water from melt. The end of the Dempster highway is Inuvik, North West Territories. From Inuvik one can drive to Tuk only during the winter. At Inuvikit is down onto the frozen Mc\kenzier River and a 100 mile drive down the river, out onto the Beaufort Sea then a bit east to downtown Tuktoyaktuk. I wa squite surprised at thenumber ov vehicles coming and going.Dean was driving and we only hit the opposite snow bank off the road once, though there were a couple of good skids.
Arriving in Tuk we found chuck and we were shown to one of two local B&B for the night. We agreed to meet Chuck at his house about 9 the next morning.
Upon arrival at Chuck's house, I immediately noticed our skidoos. My comment to Dean was the Equipment looks good. All Skandik 550 show machines which looked new. There were five of us to go on the trip. Dean and to hunt along with Chuck Gruben, Chucks brother, and a young fellow from Alberta who helped Chuck out on a regular basis.
Four of us except Chuck all had very large skimmers to pull loaded with gear. Including one loaded with five gallon jerry gas cans. We headed east for 130 muiles. The trip was great. Man did we fly along. The land is not smooth at all. One lake we crossed was 37 miles wide. The trip including two stops took us 7 1/2 hours. Which meant when travelling we averaged over 20 miles and hour over that terrain. I think I now know what a rodeo bull rider feels like for his 8 second ride, but ours was much longer. I was thinking I hope everythign holds together sand the trip was made to camp witout incident.
Camp was a 10 x 12 wall tent on a hill just off the Beaufort Sea, Cooking was done on a small propane camp stove. The food was very good. Mornings we hadbacon and scrambled eggs, for dinner one night we had traditional fried meat which is small pieces of caribou fried in lard,strip loin steak,and pork chops. The fried meat is surprisingly good. I am not sure of how it is for ones arteries though. With five of us in the 10 x 12 wall tent we had to roll up our beds each mornign. We slept in sleeping bags supplied by Chuck, and underneath were whole caribou hides with hair on as seeping mats. They provided a very warm underneath and comfortable.
The morning of the 22nd was very still and thick fog. We left camp at 10 in the morning and headed north east. Visibility was terrible in the fog. We went about 25 miles from camp that morning and decided to head back as we really could not see much. We did see a couple of musk ox but were a cow and a calf. Day one was done and we had traveled 47 miles.
The 23rd was clear and the wind was blowing. This made the temperature - 30 Celcius which is 22 below real degrees. At least we could see today.
weheaded in the same direction as the day before. One hour traveling brought us to a small irdge that gave us a pretty good view. There they were. Four black dots in the distance. Musk ox. the adreniline startedto kick in as I knew we were getting closer. Over another small hill andthere they were again only of course closer. Chuck motioned for us to turn around. Back we went a bit then we began to make a large arc. We sawe the musk ox again and dropprd back a bit and down to try not to spook the four in the group. Arond a hill and close to the top we got off our Skandiks. Ashort walk in 12inches of snow andwe were at the crest of the hill. 124 yards away were four nice bull musk ox. I told Dean he could take the first one. The four bulls were inthe classic musk ox stance. Asmall circle. It was cold. Ones fingers froze almost immediately out of gloves. Deantook his shot and one went down. I was nextand managed to take what I thought was the best of the remaining three. Dean decided to take his second bull and it was down. The fourht bull the smaller of the four decided he did notlike this situation and left as fast as he could. The work started after some picture taking. The thee guides got to work skinning and cutting the meat up. Chuck asked me if I wanted antother one? Ireplied if we see a good one on the way home I would take it. Off we went again. I quickly realized we were not going in the direction of camp. Through a few passes in hills and down some steep banks we saw a group of 20 musk ox but all cows and calves. Further on after half anhour there was a very large group of 45 musk ox. There was one particularily large bull in the group but he was smart. Even though wehad musk ox all around us the bull would not leave the insicde of a small group. They all took off at once. We did not chase them. I was again surprised at how fast they can go, though not for a very long distance zt full speed. We headed back to camp arriving after 10 pm in daylight still. We put 88 miles on the machines that day. To tell you the truth after that I was beat. Dean has a very bad back so with me having only the remaining tag I told Chuck I really did not need another musk ox so decided to head back to Tuk.
The next morning wss basicaly the reverse os the trip out. On the way back I lagged behind a bit. I knew the rest had gone over a hill and could tekll their directon would take them behind the hill as we planned ot stop for a break. Iwent over the hill and could easily see their trscks and thought maybe I shoudl just keep going straight. I saw them behind the hill and decided they did not need to chase me over the tundra. I told Chuck I was thinking of just keep going even though I knew where thwy were to make it seem I was lost. He laughed and said we would have let you go for a while.
The next morning we packed everything into the skimmers and we were off west towards Tuk. This trip took just over 8 hours as we were really loaded with our gear and three musk ox.
When I arrived back home I had pre arranged to have our local butcher cut and wrap the meat. Chuc told us themeat would be tough as the three bulls were on the old side. I took a package of steaks out of the freezer and put a fork into the steak and thought this seems to be ok. On the BBQ and onto the plate. then I remembered what chuck said. The meat will be tough. It was and is. I told my wife boy is this good eating but we better make swiss steak or slow cook roasts etc to tenderize. I had asked the butcher to put the hamburger through the grinder an extra time ehich he did. The hamburger is we think the best we have had. It makes wonderful burgers and meat loaf etc. I purchased a small pressdure cooker and tried a recipe a couple of nights ago. \using a chuck beef recipe for pressure cooking times, I let it cook for 40 minutes. The meat was incredibly tender and tasted great. We have regular visitors from all over the world at our house. We feed them moose, caribou, venison, salmon, cod and halibut. So far the number one favorite has been the musk ox. We have three freezers still fsirly full of 4kinds of game meat, along with halibut, ling cod,and salmonfrom an Alaskan trip. My wife says we do not need asny more but I told her we can share. We passed on a bull moose that showed up at our camp on August 2nd while I was cooking breakfast. We had themoose around for 40 minutes. But it was too hot, and lots of season remains. We are booked for a 17 day moose and csribou hunt beginning September 12th.
Being the first musk ox hunt I had ever been on would I go again. Absolutely. I would have no hesitation going again with Chuck Gruben out of Tuktoyuktuk. look up Chuck Gruben's Guiding and Outfitting. He does Musk ox, and bear hunts out of Tuk.
Watson Lake
