Cold Foot Break UP

[ARKY]

Anyone have a rough idea of when the blackies start comming out of hibernation up around coldfoot? I am not going to get to go up after Caribou this year in Late August, my only time I am going to get to hunt this year is the last 2 weeks of April. This summer I hunted the haul road twice and in a certain area north of cold foot saw lots of blackies up there. Do you think I'd have a chance at seeing some bears if I headed up that way that time of year? The earliest I have ever been up that way was mid July.

The best time to hunt black bear in PWS is late May or early June. I would wonder if any black bear would even be out in Apr that far north- that is more like time to hunt spring griz as they emerge from their dens I would think.

[AlaskaCub]

The blacks are more congregated in the area you are talking about in the fall when the berries are in full force, I havent seen all that many of them in the spring, a few, but not like the fall. Most of the bears get moving around up there in the first through 3rd or 4th week in May , the type of spring they get can fluctuate the dates quite a bit. Have seen lots of snow on the south side of the pass in the 3rd week in May and I have seen no snow the 3rd week in May, its a dice roll till that time of year rolls around. The Griz start emerging from the last week in April, through all of May, once again it depends on the kind of Spring they have.

[ARKY]

looks like its not going to matter. I just read the regs and I can Caribou hunt the Haul Rd until April 30th. So I'll get to chase them one more time before I leave after all. I love that place! Thanks for the advice anyhow

[AlaskaCub]

Good luck!

[Vince]

I used to work up in cold foot and early may still sees a lot of bears.. it is nearly 24 hours of sunshine by this time. the days a re hot even though the snow and ice is not completely gone. the difference is the light and heat... i think the bears are out about the same time if not earlier then down south because of it...


in 05 i met a pair of bow hunters on the 16th of may who had seen several grizz north of the pass by this time... we had Blackies in the DOT camp and down on the Koyokuck south of Rosie creek..

by the end of may it was HOT out sitting in the blade and water truck with the thermometer hitting over 100 in the sun when the equipment was sitting still, even though the ambient air was only about 65deg

[AKRoadkill]

looks like its not going to matter. I just read the regs and I can Caribou hunt the Haul Rd until April 30th. So I'll get to chase them one more time before I leave after all. I love that place! Thanks for the advice anyhow

I've done that Haul Road bowhunt in late April. Be prepared for COLD! it got down about -40 F when we were there, kinda cool for camping. There were a lot of caribou around, but they seemed really skittish, making a stalk difficult. I finally managed to get one by jumping out of the truck and shooting from just off the driveable surface...after a dozen or more failed stalks. We also saw HUGE flocks of ptarmigan, so bring some judo points too. And I managed to get a couple foxes; you can shoot them with a rifle in the 5-mile corridor under a trapping license, but not a hunting license--unless something's changed since '00.

I seriously doubt you'll see any bears that time of year, though.