I just got back from an awesome trip to the Brooks Range in Alaska. I was contacted by this outfitter earlier in the year and he wanted some help booking hunts and he asked me if I would be interested in helping him. As I have said before, I don't book hunts for outfitters that I haven't personally hunted with so I booked a trip with him. The hunt was for caribou and arctic/barren ground grizzly.

Here is one of my homes away from home for the last 2 weeks. I was here most of the time due to weather conditions preventing us from flying out to spike camps.

This is actually a pretty nice cabin considering where it is. This place is 40 miles North of a Inuit Village called Anaktuvuk Pass. Anaktuvuk Pass is 300 miles North of Fairbanks. All of this lumber and supplies were flown in via Super-cub.

Here is my second home that I only spent 1 night in.


Here was "what's for dinner" one night in spike camp. Fried caribou and grizzly bear, green beans, and mashed potatoes.

Caribou and green beans

grizzly bear and boiling water for instant mashed potatoes

Finished product. Skullworks, do you recognize anything in that picture?


Airport at the spike camp.

Runway

Anyone need a taxi?

For the first few days, I couldn't leave base camp because we were fogged in. That also meant we couldn't see much of anything beyond 1000-1500 yards. It was daylight from 4am-2am and that made for some very long days cooped up in that cabin. Finally on the 3rd day it cleared and I spotted 7 bulls about 1200 yards away across this river.

I grabbed a guide and we put on our waders and headed out. By the time we crossed the river and climbed this hill across from camp,

the group of bulls had made it out into the flat about 1000 yards out. There was a ditch that we were able to get in and when we got to the end of the ditch and looked over the edge, the bulls were within 75 yards. I found the biggest one in the herd and sent a .338 bullet into his lungs.




This one is for the meat hunters.


I saw a few bears from base camp and went on a couple of stalks but we couldn't close the deal. I got into spike camp at 10pm and we hit the sack. We woke at 8am and had some breakfast and headed out to a high ridge about 1 mile from camp. We climbed the ridge and stopped just short of the top and started glassing. We immediately saw 3 bull moose in the 50"+ range. We had been there less than 20 minutes when I spotted a bear crossing a river coming towards us less than 600 yards away. The wind was wrong but he was about 150 feet below us so we hoped that he wouldn't catch our wind. He started to climb the bluff about 400 yards out and he disappeared into a drainage ditch. He came out onto the flat in front of us to feed on blue berries about 350 yards away. I was in position for the shot.

He was steady coming our way but he caught out scent and he stood up on his back legs and looked our way. That is a sign that they are about to go somewhere else at a very high rate of fuel consumption. I took the shot at 258 yards and he dropped to the shot.

He is a very old bear and he didn't have too many winters left. He was blind in his left eye and he had a huge scar across the bridge of his nose. He also had a tremendous amount of scar tissue all over his body from fight wounds.

I also did a little fishing in the river.


I caught lots of grayling on fly tackle.

This was one of my best trips anywhere and by far my best trip to Alaska. I am already planning on a sheep hunt with this same outfitter next year or in 2013.

great hunt, congratulations.

Good Job!! Nice old grizz and bou.
Love the pics of your meals.

Awesome photos and hunt!

Great hunt and great trophies, congratulations.

Thanks for the pictures. I hunted with this outfitter 2 or 3 years ago, so the pictures brought back nice memories. I was hunting grizzly and caribou as well. I shot a nice grizzly on day 8. It's really nice country, but wild and tough. I'd like to go back again.

Thanks for posting. I'm headed to the ANWR next aug 20-30 for Grizzly and Caribou as well. Looking forward to it.

Excellent...I can't wait to get up there Oct 1!

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing story and photos

O

Nice bear and 'bou! Thanks for the report and congratulations on a couple of fine trophies.

Big Game Hunter

Must not have liked the outfitter you failed to tells us who you did this hunt with.
Thanks
Larry

Good job. Sounds like a fine experience.

Looks really god!
Congrats on a wonderful bag

Very well done.Looks like your grizly will have a nice skull.I havent been north of fairbanks yet hunted ak 4 times going way north next time love that country. Kevin