Just giving everyone a heads up. We'll have the barrels out again. Probably 4 stations, but not 100% sure yet. These are for registered overnight guests, free to use. We'll write permission slips out once you show up at the lodge. Talked to fish and game, and all is good with that, as long as I'm not charging for using the barrels. Encourage folks to bring their own dog food and lures. Try to keep it simple. 907 products are excellent, dog food of any kind, molasses, things like that. I dumped a bunch of super smelly duck carcasses out last spring, and they didn't like that...
Room rates are $85 a night per person, includes all your meals, bedding, etc, -10% for forum members. Make sure you tell Jennifer when you call you want your 10% discount for the forum. We'll try to keep them fishing, unless we run out of food.
I'll put the barrels out on April 15th, but I would not be expecting any bears to show up before May 1st, at the very earliest. Snow machine access only probably until a ways after May 1st. Usually we can get moving on wheelers by Memorial Day Weekend. We keep them working until the end of June. Starting now, the snow machine hunting for bears is excellent. This is around magic time for bears emerging from the dens. Black bears showed up on the barrels last spring for the first time. Not many, but at least we seen a few.
Stations will be on a first come, first serve basis, each day. I've done it reserved before, and people leave early, or don't hunt them the entire time while bears keep eating my food... The goal is to thin out bears to help out the moose population in the area. If you don't get a barrel one night, don't worry, there are many other ways to find and hunt bears in the spring on the Denali Highway!
Road is expected to begin being plowed on April 15th. I expect they will get to us between April 20th and April 25th. That's the time to be driving with a snow machine in the back of your truck, in case you spot one up on a hillside.
Good luck with the bears and all your hunting this season!
Claude