This country's hard on people. You can't stop what's coming.

[Mule Kick]

I’ve been loving this thread! So many of the pictures are familiar from the same trip I did in ‘24. We flew in for our actual hunt though! I can’t imagine hiking that many miles in that stuff.. We decided that ‘tussocks’ was misspelled. Should be tusSUCKS!
Congrats on 2 great bulls and thanks for sharing the adventure with us!..

 

[TOGIE]

We finally give in and flick on the head lamps after realizing that having a perfect view of each potential next step is far more beneficial than any long distance visual acuity you retain from un-shrunken pupils.

It's past midnight. Slogging through soppy tundra. Feet are cold, body is cold. Everything hurts. It's sounds really hyperbolic, but in these moments, where the brain starts to go into survival mode, I was kind of starting to question every decision in my life that ultimately led to this moment.

We still have to round trip again. FFS. Why? Why oh why oh why?

12:40 am. My brain is in the depths of despair. Bluffgruff abruptly announces "well look at that"

Oh, whoa. Would you look at that.

Very faint at first. But as we stand there gawking, bodies straining under the load, it starts to get wild.



And it got even more wild. It is literally right over our heads. Twisting and roping like slow motion flame in real time. Dancing. The Northern Lights were literally dancing over my head.



It was paralyzing. I kinda flop down and lean into the hillside, pack still on, head straining upwards. Pain forgotten.

Not so upset anymore about burning over 2 hours at camp this afternoon.

We are on the home stretch. Less than a mile. Truck is basically in view. The Lights starts to fade. We keep moving. But I keep looking, even as it slowly dissipates.

 

[mtmuley]

Thank you @TOGIE . mtmuley

 

[Bluffgruff]

I kept wondering why I took so few photos this trip and just realized 3 weeks later that it was because I was the slow one. I was always plodding along so as not to stall the train.

 

[TOGIE]

We are back at the truck right around 1:20-1:30 AM.

It feels like a routine we've held daily for years at this point and yet it would only be the second time we've done it - grab a bag of chips, some cookies, apples, oranges, and jump in the cab, fire up the engine, and just sit there and munch, mentally digesting what we just did, the pain in our bodies, and at least for me, the fact that we're not done.

I don't know how this bag of chips could also be the best bag of chips I've ever consumed in my whole life. But it was.

We hop back into the box and make a massive bowl of spaghetti with sausages. I melt at least 4 tablespoons of butter into my noodles with a healthy shaking of salt before covering them with hot meat sauce filled with cut up sausages we fried.

Ella Langley would hopefully understand that being compared to piles of hot noodles in the back of a U-Haul is, in fact, a very high compliment.



By the time we crawl into sleeping bags it's almost 4 am. Today will be a rest day, if not obviously.

 

[TOGIE]

I kept wondering why I took so few photos this trip and just realized 3 weeks later that it was because I was the slow one. I was always plodding along so as not to stall the train.

The disparity is not likely as great as you may think, and even if it was, the inverse disparity in mental grit is even greater.

 

[TOGIE]

We sleep in. The weather has shifted and it's cold, cloudy, and spitting snow. We wake up, sit in he cab for awhile, eat food, organize meat and gear a little, and then head back to the box.

I make some more coffee and drink it while Bluffgruff goes back asleep. I wander around a little and then finally get back in my sleeping bag. It's mid afternoon. I snap a pic before dozing back off myself.

 

[Robert N]

If hunting was easy, everyone would do it.

It’s the ugly challenges, the pain, the mental damage…that I remember and savor the most.

 

[BenP]

For some reason you're making me want to do a hunt like this even more. The brutal pack out sounds terrible and satisfying at the same time.

Can't wait to read the last of the tale. Excellent stuff Togie and bluffgruff

 

[jvanhoy]

Man this is what keeps me coming back to HT. So awesome! Huge congrats and respect to you both. Great stuff!

 

[El Jason]

I think you broke Hunt Talk with this story. What an amazing recap.

 

[EKYHunter]

All I can say is wow! Question, are their vehicles that pass by where you all have the U Haul parked? Congrats to you both!

 

[TOGIE]

A full day of eating and sleeping. We awake from the afternoon nap and head back to the cab while it continues to kinda half rain half snow. Our bodies feel like concrete.

A warm cab and snacks. Looking off across the other side of the access road I catch glimpses of a brown blob as willow branches start shaking back and forth. I'm about the say "whoa bear" when a Muskox quite suddenly emerges from the willows and steps out onto the access road not 60 feet away. He continues across the road and wanders off. Couldn't care less about us.

Just constant entertainment on this landscape.



We spend the evening getting ourselves organized for the final round trip.

 

[TOGIE]

The box, as I've obviously come to call it, is a great place to sleep in my opinion. It's become my home sweet home, the place of safety, comfort, and chips.

I slept quite well. We are up and at it more efficiently than we typically have been. Double dose of oatmeal, double dose of Via, patch up my heel. Priorities.

We make several peanut butter and honey sandwiches each for our food for the day. Bino harnesses get left behind.

And we set off. Around 9:45 am.

Feet hurt like absolute hell. Heel hurts like absolute hell. Body stiff as a board. Everything kinda warms up over the next hour or so and begins to hurt less.

Or maybe it was justthe Advil we took before locking up the U-Haul.

The tundra is a frosty wonderland.



Let's get this over with.

As we pick our away across the tundra I suddenly have this realization that we have no more chips at the truck.

#*^@#*