A friend and I are nearing a point in our lives where we want to come up to Alaska on a yearly basis to hunt. I'm retired at age 52 and my buddy is a year younger and will be the same or self employed and we can stay as long as we like.

We've talked about basically caching our gear so no one or no animal either finds and/or disturbs it. We would more than likely like to drive a couple of 4-wheelers into the area and cache them too. Then on a yearly basis have a pilot in small plane bring us and our "yearly" supplies in and land on some gravel bar or something like that.

Is their anything illegal about what we would like to do? We understand we cannot hunt Grizzly/Brown bear without a guide and the Dall sheep are too far away from the area we are thinking about. But the moose, black bear, caribou, wolf, wolverine and Ptarmigan would be animals of interest as well as the fishing and just plain solitude and beauty that happens in September. Two best buds, away from it all, spending time together and someday, bring a teenage/adult kid or two up if it works out that way.

Alan

Why risk it? Just rent a storage unit close to where you will be hunting.

You can't just leave a water cooled ATV with it's battery in some cold remote spot for 50 weeks out of a year and expect it to run when you get back.

Maybe you can cache it unnoticed, but maybe someone else will find it and 6 months later see it again and think the item's were abandoned.

You wouldnt be breaking any laws that I know about, but it wouldnt seem to be a very smart idea either.

We used to cache gear at a old moose hunting spot. Between the porcupines and the bears we were discouraged from doing it anymore.

Remember, nothing like caching a tent or mandatory supplies only to see the plane fly away and discover you are missing the items.

snowwolfe is 110% right

What Snowwolfe said! As to the use of 4-wheelers- ya better be careful even where you use them. In some areas, they can't be used for access. For example, along the Dalton Highway north of the Yukon, there are only about 2-3 locations that ATV's can be used off road. We already looked into it. IF you want to cache some gear over the winter, I would first find an area I would want to hunt year after year. I would then try and find some older style barrels with removable rings that bolt together. Don't know if you can get 'em any more or not. I'd only store certain, nonessential items in it such as coleman lanterns, stoves, tarps, tents (maybe) white gas, etc. Tho expensive, you could have a custom bear proof storage container made that's lockable as well. Your main problem in this case is getting it to the site. To be bear proof, it's gonna be heavy & bulky - you'd be amazed at what a determined bear can do to a storage container.
In our moose camp, we have both the above described barrels and an old, surplus bear trap once used by F&G. Since our access is by river boat, there was little problem in getting the those to our site. In addition, the partner who has the site, uses it in the winter for trapping so he can take items in on a snow machine sled in winter if necessary.
Overall, I'd say your idea COULD be viable but DON'T leave anything of real value in the cache and expect it to cost you lottsa money to set up.
Bear in Fairbanks

Rent or buy some real estate in your chosen nearby community. Store indoors all your gear including the jet skiff. Spend the day unpacking and getting ready, head out for the hunt the next.

Bears aren't mean or cruel or vindictive when it comes to destrying gear, they have a sense of humor. "Tear off the door to get in? Why? If we go in thru the wall it'll make a better story and better photo's for the people!"

all are stuff burned up in a wildfire I would have been more pissed off if two 4wheelers would have been there. We used two 50 gallon barrels for the tent and ather supplies it worked great until the fire.

That's too bad. I've wondered about doing that myself.

In the '50's Dad & uncle stashed things under a built in bunk in an old sheep herders cabin for yrs n no one bothered it. In the 70's the forest service burned all the cabin's down over some idiotic change of laws they thought up.

I knew some guys that got hit by lightning not far from there and that cabin saved their live's as there was a steel stove Dad & Frank packed in they could build a fire in until they recovered enough that one of them could go on out the last 8 miles to the ranch for help.

Snowwolfe hit the nail...

Why don't you just buy the gear and ATV's and give them to someone who lives in AK with the stipulation that you get to use it every fall when you come up. I am sure several of the people on this forum would consider that deal if not I could give you a few names.

On lots of federal property cacheing is illegal make sure that you can do it on the land you well be using.

A rental unit would make it a lot easier.