The Delong Mountains are part of the "Brooks Range." I wouldn't write them off... They are just as untouched as anywhere else up there, and short of a few areas the mountains are just as big and "rugged" as the rest of the range. As a matter of fact the area near the far west edge of the Gates of the Arctic NP probably sees fewer than a couple dozen people a year. The eastern Books sees a fair bit more traffic due to being accessible from other locations.
For logistics its pretty hard to beat flying into Kotz on a commercial flight and flying out direct from there. The hunting is better in early September as the 'bou migrate from the north slope toward Kotzebue sound, if you go earlier the flight could be a couple hours north and cost more and they will be scattered. Check out Golden Eagle Outfitters in Kotz. Jared is a good dude.
I go up that way (DeLongs and Willuk mountains) for work occasionally, and always look forward to it.
IMO, the thing about the Brooks hunting is weather can F you, and will... The storms up there can linger longer, and the fog will stick to the ground, and can for days at a time. Its a toss up to go early, and suffer the bugs and potentially fewer animals, but better weather, or go later for more animals, worse weather, and no bugs. I've been stranded for work, more times than I've made it out on time, winter, summer, spring, fall... doesn't matter. The fog sucks.
There used to be a transporter or two that worked out of Deadhorse or nearby that would pick you up at the airport there. Not sure if they still do or not. I saw a guy advertising drop hunts out of a jet boat up the Sag or another river nearby, and will pickup/drop off from Deadhorse, but not sure who it was.
There are a couple transporters that operate out of Fairbanks that fly into the southern Brooks from remote outposts or via 206s.
A few pics from the Delongs.
We saw about 130 sheep (24 rams), 16-18 bears, a couple wolves, 4 wolverines, and a handful of caribou. This was early August, the caribou hadn't showed up yet. 3 weeks later they'd have been all over the place.
Killed my ram on the far ridge near center of picture. The hike up this stream is still one of the worst hikes I've ever done. 3 miles of tangled willow 10' high, swamps, flowing water, and rocks. The areas along the edges were all tussoks and worse. It took me about 24hrs to make up there and back with a ram, sleeping about 3 hours.
After sitting in a tent for 3 days of rain (most rain on record for a 3 day event) the fog lifted just enough to expose this rack sitting on the tundra.
An old broomer and a squeaker wondering where their partner went. I doubt these sheep had ever seen a hunter. They watched me for a couple hours from 2-300 yards, and where still there at 4am the next morning when the sun came up. The hunt area is the size of New Jersey, and they used to give out 10 sheep tags, and about 6-7 people hunted them each year. The back to back hard winters in 2013/2014 resulted in massive winterkill, it will be a few more years before they consider opening it again. I know a couple guys that hunted it before it went to a draw in the 90's. They were probably the only ones hunting it, minus a single outfitter. It is still super wild country.
A 13yo ram on the ground.
Checking stream flows in the Wullik Mountains, early June.
