Woke up early again, around 5:00AM. But the vast open views doused in morning pink is too beautiful not to look at. I had woken up briefly a couple times in the night to look at the red/pink band on the northern skyline. Still a lot of sun up here despite being the end of August. Mat woke up soon after me and we pulled down the tarp to enjoy the views while we cooked breakfast. Two caribou were grazing on the tundra below us; we'd have to chase them five miles from the road before we can take a shot at them so we just watched them graze instead. Before we know it, they popped up above the hill crest not 75 yards from us. There's a crosswind so they can't smell us but they sure can see something is not right. They continued to wander around close to us, walking back and forth with multiple broadside stops. One was a male but looks like he might be 1.5 years old: his antlers are quite small but more branches than a spike, which the female had. We continued to watch them as we ate breakfast. Finally, they caught our scent and took off back over the hill. They must have been attracted to the scent of salty urine up here or something.
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| Sunrise on the North Slope |
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| Camp |
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| Curious young caribou |
We started late, hitting the road by 10:00AM. It was sunny and warmed up. Driving south we didn't see any more caribou but did see a musk ox near Lake Galbraith. Kristy noted how we've seen more musk ox than we've seen caribou. Our hunting plan was to try Chandalar shelf but as we approached Atigun pass, we spotted a wide valley coming from the west. We stopped to scope it out; on the GPS it shows the valley going way back and even over a pass to the south, not a closed off valley like most of the side canyons. Then we spotted three hikers walking out with heavy packs, one with a caribou antler. Sold! We decided to go for it. We packed up the rest of our gear and took off cross country.
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| Lake Galbraith |
It was a beautiful valley. We started hiking at 1:00PM and reached a nicely perched campsite 5.2 miles from the road by 5:00PM. We set up camp and glassed the valley ahead of us. No caribou although we walked by plenty of sign: caribou tracks, poop, sheds, and kill sites. It was mostly sunny and quite warm, in the 60s for sure, so we worried that the caribou may be higher up in cooler environments, which is still another 10 miles in this valley. At least the wind is blowing in our favor. Well, I guess we'll just have to see what we can in the morning when it is cooler. We cooked dinner and went to bed early.
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| Hiking five miles out |
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| Hiking five miles out |
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| Breaktime |
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