Winter sets in
Family in Healy AK report recent snow and very cold temperatures with high winds. Just another day in paradise and normal for living that close to Denali National park. The locals report the tour...
Forum Discussion
Re: Caribou hunt
No animals taken on that hunt:
- It was too cold for there to be much movement, so limited opportunities in any case;
- For the few days that we were strategically staying put (vs. trying for fire up and fly back to Los Anchorage), the prime objective was to ensure the woodbox was full, that the woodstove was either freshly stoked or cleaned of ash and then fired up, and that the snowmelt buckets were full and placed on the woodstove.
- After doing all that, given the time of year, we had about 3 maybe 4 at the most hours of daylight; the hunting involved heading out on snowshoes, so by the time one builds in a safety margin (to ensure return before dark) and when one travels carefully at -40 to nearly -60 (carefully = slowly), one doesn't cover much ground. The quonset hut was on the end of a narrow lake, with two small valleys on either side: We covered those valleys, but not much more over the 4-5 days we went out....simply saw no 'bou.
...and even though we degreased and graphited our firearms (using 70's technology), I suspect its debatable if they'd have fired properly even if we found something to shoot at. We did shoot quite a few ptarmigan nearby with the old exposed hammer(s) side-by-side shotgun that the guy kept at the hut.
No animals taken on that hunt:
- It was too cold for there to be much movement, so limited opportunities in any case;
- For the few days that we were strategically staying put (vs. trying for fire up and fly back to Los Anchorage), the prime objective was to ensure the woodbox was full, that the woodstove was either freshly stoked or cleaned of ash and then fired up, and that the snowmelt buckets were full and placed on the woodstove.
- After doing all that, given the time of year, we had about 3 maybe 4 at the most hours of daylight; the hunting involved heading out on snowshoes, so by the time one builds in a safety margin (to ensure return before dark) and when one travels carefully at -40 to nearly -60 (carefully = slowly), one doesn't cover much ground. The quonset hut was on the end of a narrow lake, with two small valleys on either side: We covered those valleys, but not much more over the 4-5 days we went out....simply saw no 'bou.
...and even though we degreased and graphited our firearms (using 70's technology), I suspect its debatable if they'd have fired properly even if we found something to shoot at. We did shoot quite a few ptarmigan nearby with the old exposed hammer(s) side-by-side shotgun that the guy kept at the hut.
