Caribou hunting haul road 2020

[MNHuntCrew]

Planning to do a rifle caribou hunt on the haul road August 3rd has anyone done the 5 mile death march? or know where about's the caribou will be this early in the season?

Thanks!

 

[brownbear932008]

Caribou are where you find them. I had some friends do the death March and let's just say they will never do that again. Sucks to hike out to find miles of barren ground with almost no animals. Think it was 5-6 of them and they shot 1 small bull. I'd very seriously consider a fly out up there if you can find anyone at this point.
I did the fly out and got put in the middle of hundreds of bou. Tagged out first morning we could hunt. One of the best hunts of my life.

 

[Nunyacreek]

I’ve done it three times. In the days before good GPS I saw lots of people who barely got a few miles off and decided they were 5 miles, but thats Probably a non issue now. I hunted once about halfway between Toolik Lake and dead horse on September 11, 2001...which is why i remember the date.. that far north you have to cross the Sag river which requires a boat. It was miserable, ankle deep water for miles. Don’t go there. I did shoot a smaller bull.
I hunted once in early October and it was cold but nice. I found a road that got me a half mile off the haul road. This was maybe 20 miles north of Tookik. I shot a nice bull 7.62 miles from the road and packed half that night and half the next day. For reference, I’d say a big bull is close to spike elk size.. virtually unpackable in one load. It was not fun but maybe my most rewarding solo hunt. It is very dark in October. There is MUCH better walking on the south end. I saw two caribou.
The next time i hunted late September and drug all my stuff in a sled through a foot of snow. Saw nothing but a grizzly bear.
It’s a cool experience but I have never ever been there when i saw anything other than scattered (at best) caribou except right on the road. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have but i don’t know that I’d be much help.
The naysayers could be correct. Your time and money would be much better spent flying out of Happy Valley or even Coldfoot though i think some Air charters are noT hauling because of covid. Dirk at coyote air would be my choice for a charter, and I’d go where he’d put me. Incidentally I always went East of the road.

 

[MNHuntCrew]

We did make a few calls and have been unable to get a flight in so we are probably hunting the west side of the road because of the Sag river. We plan to drive to Prudhoe the first day and note where we see Caribou then headed south and make the long march in at what we think is the best area.

 

[Gellar]

It won’t help in your hike out but a pack raft could help to get meat back out in 1 trip. Listen to the hunttalk podcast with Alpacka rafts and he did just that.