In 2007, I started talking with Dustin Blume of Kenai, AK. about a moose hunt.
With other trips planned and busy schedules, it wasn't until this past September that we made the trip.

Dustin has exclusive rights to a remote trappers cabin north of Fairbanks that can only be reached by floatplane or a 40 mile pack by horse.

He has taken some world class moose from this remote area and we both agreed that the magical 60 inches, with lots of points was our minimum goal.

He called in 3 separate bull moose to as close as 10 yards. I was ready for the shot on all of them and was laying down on a sandbar with my safety off, on a bull that was probably in the upper 50 inch range. That bull charged down a hill 400 yards to Dustin's call.
This was on the 7th day with 7 more to go. Passing on that bull was the right decision then and I still feel it was. I ended up coming home without a moose, but the memories of this adventure and a friendship with Dustin will be with me forever. I will be back!












After 10 days of unbelievably nice weather, it turned cold, damn cold. The slough we had landed on froze solid and the river was running slush. We called the float plane pilot by satellite phone and Dustin explained our situation. The pilot wanted us to float down to a stretch of river that he had picked Dustin up on before. Dustin explained that it was a 3-5 day float, if we could even make it in these conditions.



I was starting to get a little nervous by now and thinking about a multiple day float down that river was not appealing. Hell, I thought it was going to quit flowing anytime and the food supply was running really low.

Dustin described a stretch of the river 4 miles up that he felt the pilot could land on. The pilot trusted Dustin and agreed to meet us there at 2pm the next day, the 14th day of the trip.

Dustin had rigged up 2 canoes and one had a transom for an old outboard that had spent 2 years there. Who knows how old the fuel was. We had a rough trip upriver ahead of us.

We bucked ice all the way up that river the next morning. Four hours of dragging the canoes over sandbars and a middle of the river repair on the tiller when the throttle stuck wide open.

We made it to the stretch of river about noon and waited to see if the pilot would land. The sun was out and the slush in the river started to clear.



It was a beautiful sight when that pilot made one pass, turned, landed and came idling up to our sandbar. No one had ever landed here before.

He was in a hurry, with a "I sure wish this wind would die down" and "get in, I sure can't take off with both of ya"
We roared down that narrow alley. It looked like we barely were up before we came to the sandbar at the end of Dustin's new runway. 30 minutes later he dropped me off on the bank of the Yukon River and then went back to get Dustin. When they returned and I loaded back up, we had plenty of water "runway" to get us all up and make it to the floatplane basin in Fairbanks.



Dustin Blume is THE example of “A Jack of All Trades”. Extreme Hunter, Logger, Mechanic, Woodsman, Survivalist and one hell of a nice guy. We will hunt again.

The accomodations weren't like my camps in South Africa and Zambia with no staff to cook and clean.



The fishing was excellent.





And the meals, I will always remember.

Great adventure. Thanks for sharing

Nice pics..Thanks for sharing.. My buddy was also in the same area hunting moose and he had a hard time with the full moon and the ice! Passed a 50 class as well and ended going home with only memories whcih isn't that bad...

Real nice, I would have had trouble passing on one of those bulls.