40 Mile/Chicken/Taylor highway

[ERDucker]

With the youth hunt taking place before the registration this year, I was hoping to hear if there were animals in the area. Thinking hard about making the run, but ADFG info is suspect at best. Anyone been up there that would like to share some intel? Not looking for specific areas, just an indication that there are animals working through.

[GAredneck]

Heard from a friend that had a son who drew, they killed but the animals were few and far between. Usually by now the animals are moving closer to the boarder an near Eagle.

[SkookumJoe]

Why is the DFG info suspect at best?

[ERDucker]

Why is the DFG info suspect at best?

Typical report is "herd is widely scattered troughout the zones" right up to the point where they panic and close the hunt because they were widely scattered in the back of trucks and 4 wheelers.

I've gone into areas they say are think with them to find very few and other times they reported nothing and they were all over. I know, they move, blah blah blah, but firsthand reports from this site is 100 times more valuable than F&G's.

[ERDucker]

Heard from a friend that had a son who drew, they killed but the animals were few and far between. Usually by now the animals are moving closer to the boarder an near Eagle.

They do seem a bit late to move this year, must be good food this year. 5 years ago the hunt would have been close to being over by now. It would be nice for it to stay open more than 48-72 hours, but I'm not placing any bets on it.

[akair]

Just heard yesterday from a local AC member that they have been talking about or have allowed the youth hunt drawn tag winners to roll the tag over to next years hunt if they want due to lack of caribou in the area.

[ERDucker]

Just heard yesterday from a local AC member that they have been talking about or have allowed the youth hunt drawn tag winners to roll the tag over to next years hunt if they want due to lack of caribou in the area.

Had heard that they would allow the late notice guys to roll over, but lack of game? That would be a very interesting situation and set a bad precedence.

[VernAK]

The herd is indeed scattered.....The current Red Flag exercise with jets flying low over the ridges may also be contributing.

[cubecove]

I was out Chicken Ridge trail with my son for the Youth opener. We spent 3 days out there and saw 7 caribou total. 3 cows/calves and one lone caribou that we only saw for about 20 seconds about a mile away. The caribou were WAY out the trail and then a lightning storm came in and reduced visibility to about 30 feet so we ended up just making our way out of there without even a chance at a shot. Although my son was a little disappointed in not getting a bou, we still had a great time camping with guns!