# Im Back.....but very tired



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Broke camp yesterday at 8am got home today at 8 pm. Rough crossing on the Beaufort, couple of on route repairs, but we are home. Tracy got me a new 5 1/2 foot by 3 foot chest freezer wich I prompty more than half filled. I did the trip strait through to avoid the 80 degree temps the interior got today. I harvested enough meat to last the year while I was on my trip.

Found a few treasures as well...........some of the stuff I didn't get a chance to process and pack up.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Beautiful place!


----------



## randyrls (Jul 29, 2012)

Rick;  Glad to hear you made it back OK.  Those antlers will make some fine pens!!!

A friend of mine hunts white-tail deer with his Ford pickup.  He goes out during the winter on one of the major truck routes on the interstate and picks up dead carcasses.  He will only take a fresh kill and one that isn't smashed.  He gets about 7 each winter.


----------



## Displaced Canadian (Jul 29, 2012)

Glad you made it back safely. So, was it a there I did it trip. Or, a that was fun I've got to do that again sometime trip?


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Been trying to formulate an answer to that.......both. If folks knew what Gunther and I went through to get this material the price would double! When you pilot a freighter canoe you stand, open ocean crossings can be brutal on good days. On rivers current and sand bars can mean getting thrown around, It was 2 hours from town to the main site and 4 hours from town to the secound. In the opposite direction. We put in a ton of river miles and a couple open ocean trips. The sand bars are everywhere and most of the coast is mud flats. The crossing back to point Olikkat was gnarly and took about 3 hours due to heavy seas and a channel that had shifted during our stay.

The bugs were surreal!!!! I took this pic in a 20 mph wind. If you faced the wind you were alright but there was always a cloud of the blood suckers behind you! Bug hoods were a must for Gunther and I and we switched to being outside in the cool of the "night" for most of the trip. These skeeters are BIG and there bite hurts like a horse fly! They did become manageable the last week of our stay when night time temps dropped below freezing along the coast and the winds picked up to a steady 30mph. I have a pic of the bacterial mat on a mud flat rolled up like carpet from the wind!

Gunther and I put in long hours and worked very hard. We collected a large amount of material, explored 100's of miles of river ways and streams and about 100 miles of coast line between the crossing and our own wanderings. In the last 3 days of our visit we harvested enough caribou to feed my family for most if not all of the next year. We hauled over 800 pounds of meat out of the feild, processed it and packed it for shipping in 3 and a half days! I did the entire trip home in one jump because temps in the interior reached 80 yesterday. Had I stopped our work and the lives of 3 bulls and a cow caribou would have been waisted. Mechanical issues started at 10am with the out board and made repeat appearances, including an encore on the haul road when the boat rack had to be rebuilt!

I thrive on challenge! Too me a trip isn't a good one without a test of spirit and ability, a sence of adventure and a punch of adrenaline. "Adapt, overcome and thrive or die!" In that regard the trip paid off a hundred fold and there is potential for a great deal more! The trip was a great success for my business interests, a bit short on mammoth but I have made several really good contacts and more is on the way! Gunther and I had an AMAZING hunt! I harvested my first big game animal above the arctic circle, my biggest caribou and it was my sons first firearm big game hunt. He helped in every step of the pack out and took his first steps to earning the right to carry a field knife by learning to skin a caribou. His teacher was my freind Suvlu, a Eskimo hunter who has lived a subsistence lifestyle his whole life. Gunther needs a great deal of practice and time proving his respect for the tools before he can use a knife on his own but he is off to a great start! I can skip dip netting and move on to hunts that have spiritual meaning for me or are fun for my whole family, for the first time in several years........We are even planning a camping just to camp trip in a week! I can not wait to fly fish for fun again!!!

Damn strait I will do this trip again! WITH several adjustments. Timing I was too early for the major spawning runs of fish and I arived at the peak of skeeter season! Isaac has a cruel way of teaching ya what not to do.....ha stands back and laughs. Strip down the gear and food! No time for cooking or lazying around camp! Less town time, tent is more comfy and Gunther and I had our best times at camp. Explore more! We have the basics of the area time to branch out! Bring Tracy! I would have stayed for the fish had she been with us!!!!!!


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

So who wants to see pics and any objections to ones from our hunt?


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

On the Beaufort sea headed for the Colville river delta in the freighter canoe.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

In the river delta, Isaac took the pics of Gunther and I in the boat. The rest are either mine or Gunthers.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

The old cabins at fish camp. They are not in use right now but the plan is to move them further from the bank and stabilize them this winter and spring.


----------



## Displaced Canadian (Jul 29, 2012)

And why didn't you see if you could load up that old snomobile and bring it home with you? It would be an awesome restoration project.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Joe Frank would have eaten my liver!


----------



## Displaced Canadian (Jul 29, 2012)

There is about a 50% chance that sled was built in the town I grew up in.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Lunch, smoked fish and caribou ribs.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Isaac and his mother in law Lydia our hosts, in the family wall tent at camp.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Some local flowers none taller than two inches and representative of the local plants.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Isaac checking the nets


----------



## boxerman (Jul 29, 2012)

Rick P said:


> The old cabins at fish camp. They are not in use right now but the plan is to move them further from the bank and stabilize them this winter and spring.


 Is that old sled in the picture?


----------



## boxerman (Jul 29, 2012)

Looks like the two of you had a fantastic time. Thanks for sharing the pics. So like you have plenty to eat.:biggrin:


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Thats actually an old cabin Boxerman. Everything costs 3 times as much do to the cost of getting it in so buildings tend to be very small and simple.

I'll post some hunting pics and tell that story in a bit......unless there is a overwhelming negative response to the idea,


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Passing fishing skills to the next generation. Lydia actually thought I cut fish well and said I should compete.......later I got the joke, chick cut fish man.


----------



## carpblaster (Jul 29, 2012)

Wish i could of enjoyed a trip like that again,I remember the skeeters and blackflies in alaska,you could see them coming 20 yards away it seemed,Glad ya made it back safe, see any Bears when you was there?


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Tracks and a bunch of other arctic critters but no bears.

Some pics from the island in the mud flats where I found some bone.


----------



## ossaguy (Jul 29, 2012)

Wow,what an adventure of a liftime! It seems so wild.Hope you can post more pics!


Steve


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Ya I have several more to post


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

Headin up river with my friend Suvlu and one of the skulls we found at site 2.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 29, 2012)

More from the area and a skull I really liked.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 30, 2012)

This is a good over view of the pics I have...there are a lot more. I think I'll start a seperate thread for our hunt. I love questions as they help me formulate my own thoughts.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 30, 2012)

Couple more.........yes my son is learning to drive the boat. What if I fall in?


----------



## ossaguy (Jul 30, 2012)

Your son is sure lucky to be leaning so many skills,what an education!

I was curious about what's the feeling from the folks that live up there on the plans to drill for oil? 

Steve


----------



## bensoelberg (Jul 30, 2012)

looking at these pictures and reading your comments make me think that you might have the toughest 5 year old I've ever heard of.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 30, 2012)

They feel there is enough drilling already and that any off shore drilling directly threatens the future of there way of life. It took me well over an hour to drive across the oil fields to point Olikkat, from the half way point.


----------



## Rick P (Jul 30, 2012)

bensoelberg said:


> looking at these pictures and reading your comments make me think that you might have the toughest 5 year old I've ever heard of.


 
In some ways yes, he took the trip and all it's challenges in stride without a fuss. More than I can say for some of the "hunters" looking to "pick up a bit of extra meat" that have followed me into the field! But he still needs his momma from time to time. He still loves to play dinos and color........I have grown rather fond of coloring myself.

He is also a very big hearted young man! I thank the spirit of the animals I harvest to feed my family. He hold group therapy! Seriously he takes 15 minutes to sit with the head* and express feelings of regret and thankfulness!!!!! I love the person my son is becoming!

*Native tradition holds that you release the spirit by severing the head and facing it towards the west.


----------



## Rick P (Aug 2, 2012)

Here is a link to a more complete set of pics from the trip......I think veiwing it as a slide show gives you a great idea of how are days were spent.

Arctic Adventure - a set on Flickr


----------



## Jim15 (Aug 3, 2012)

Great slide show. I feel like I'v been to Alaska. Thanks for posting.


----------



## ctubbs (Aug 4, 2012)

Thanks Rick, really makes me want to pack a bag and head North, WAY north.  Beautiful work and fine photos too.
Charles


----------

