Alaskan Caribou

Jorene, Bucky and Carlisle 

My hand brushed against the Labrador tea sending its pungent fragrance into the air as I settled belly down on the tundra. My camouflage clothing concealed me from the caribou herd passing just 20 yards away; so close that I dared not lift my camera for fear of being seen. Instead, I stayed face down in the lichen and crow berry leaves raising my head periodically to glance at the animals parading in front of me. For the first time ever, I felt the ground tremble under the weight of hundreds of oversized hooves. Some animals huffed and grunted; their heads lowered while chewing mouthfuls of lichen. I heard stiff stemmed plants being crushed by strong teeth. I desperately wanted to photograph the sights before me, but I dared not move a muscle for fear of spooking the herd and maybe ruining, my daughter’s chance of shooting one of the bulls.

This was our third fall hunting caribou from Tyrrell's Trails Lodge https://tyrrellstrails.com 

and we were seeing the largest number of caribou ever. Several times each day, hundreds of caribou passed before our camp. It was a picturesque migration. The odd thing was, they were almost always headed north!

Using binoculars to locate them in the distance, we positioned ourselves hoping to be on their chosen path. We were often lucky, but other times they seemed to vanish into thin air. While the tundra appears wide open, there are ridges, dips and valleys that the caribou slip into and walk behind. They also can cover ground with amazing speed.

Bucky was fortunate to get his bull on the first day of our hunt. He sat camouflaged against a rocky outcropping and was blessed with a favorable wind. Caribou are often described as cow like, goofy and not particularly challenging to hunt. However, if spooked, a herd can “spin on a dime” and be gone. 

The job of field dressing a large animal is never easy and at our age we welcomed the help of Carlisle and her friend Carter. They were on a stalk and never heard Bucky shoot. As Bucky and I worked on the animal I kept looking in the distance hoping to see them approach. They arrived from an unexpected direction and had a story of big bulls that had given them "the slip", Their youthful strength and endless humor made our task much easier. Our meat was put into game bags and transported up to the plane’s landing area where it was taken out of the bags and laid on a tarp to be exposed to the air. It's ideal to dry the meat’s surface and by doing so protect the interior meat. With cool temperatures our meat set up quickly.

Nightly frosts had the tundra changing color and each morning we arose to new beauty. 

Carlisle and Carter chasing bulls. 

Tundra patchwork

Skylining bulls

I spent hours walking the tundra, sometimes accompanying Carter and Carlisle and other times on my own. I felt comfortable doing this although one morning fog moved in quickly and I hustled back to camp. I always carry my camera so when I saw movement in the rocks, I was ready. At first the ground squirrel stuck only his head out of his underground home. I didn't move and he gradually exited his hole standing tall with front paws held at his chest. I could see by the length of his nails/claws that digging in this rough terrain was a made easy. The droop of his mouth gave him an adorable appearance.

I inched closer and closer to him, snapping pictures as I went. He posed unafraid until he'd finally had enough and ducked beneath the earth. They certainly are well adapted to the life they live.

Neither Carter nor Carlisle took animals. The opportunities were there, but they chose to wait. Bucky and I were picked up by Carlisle's husband, Luke while Carlisle and Carter walked and hunted the 8 miles back to the lodge. We used the lodge's meat cutting table, vacuum sealer and freezers to cut, seal and freeze our meat.

meat cutting and packaging

Caribou antlers of lodge clients.

Luke and Lisle peer into the airplane taking us back to Fairbanks.

Leaving Carlisle, Luke and the lodge behind is always difficult. It's hard living far away from those we love. We spent almost a month at the lodge and assimilated into lodge life. Now, we'll leave Fairbanks and begin the long drive to VT. Our caribou is in our motorhome freezer and we'll have the company of Lisle's dog Pika......the best dog ever!

Pika