Taylor Highway Bou

[FB Don]

My boys(9 and 7) leave in the morning for caribou. This is our first time up on the taylor and we are looking for info. I know that this short notice for reply's but I'm done packing with nothing else to do.

1. Where should we park and start riding the 4 wheeler?

2. How far out should we ride the 4 wheeler before we set camp?

3. I'm after grizzly as much as bou, has anyone seen the critter's and if so where?

Thanks in advance, My boys are really excited to go. They have listened to all the story's I have told and they want some of there own. Bonus for me is all my new story's have them in as well.

 

[Blink]

Hey Don, just scroll on down. The taylor has been discussed quite abit.

Good luck and I hope your boys bag some good ones.

 

[KenaiKing]

I think you should forget the trip and go back to work!! Leave some for the rest of us

 

[Blink]

I guess they are starting to pull them out pretty good. From what I heard, the mosquito fork is like a walmart parking lot (go figure). I got a buddy who works on the taylor and I'm gonna ask him for an update. He's DOT so all he does is drive the highway.

 

[Matt]

The hotline said they are closing it on the 17th at midnight on the Taylor side. I guess 240+ caribou have been killed already.

 

[FB Don]

Mission Accomplished

Mission Accomplished

First and foremost the boys for their first real Alaskan hunt had a blast. We took about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to drive in because we didn't know exactly where we were going. Not to mention the severall hundred "DAD STOP BEAR OR CARIBOU OR SOMETHING" and I stopped for them all. This was usually followed buy them pointing to a ridge 1 or 2 miles away. So after explaining that I'm not going down, up, down, up for anything short of Bigfoot we pressed on. We talked to some folks on the way in that were successful and they were more than willing to help with direction. They went something like this "Go until you can't go no more", point taken. People out there were a big help though for telling us what trails to go down.
We made it to camp at about 8:45 Monday night made dinner, discovered broken binoc's (count to ten, didn't work keep counting to hundred) decided to call it day and start fresh in the morning. So at 04:30 Tuesday dad jumps out of the sack ready to go. A long hour and forty five minutes later we finally leave camp. It was hard to get them going but to their credit, at 6:15 we still only saw one other person moving. Do impart to seeing that person came our success. He was ahead of us by about a mile and chose to go down the ridge we wanted. With that we made a turn to go to the next ridge to try this "GO UNTIL YOU CAN'T GO NO MORE" stuff we were told. leaving ridge A for B and heading into the saddle of the two being the wise and well established hunter I am I stopped to explain the details of scanning ridge for critter's. Scan back and forth I say, Break the mountain up into blocks I say, Pick every bush apart until your sure there is know animals and then and only then move on to the next ridge. With lesson complete we Head into the saddle of said ridge that I no more than hundred yards ago explained how to find said game, WAIT CARIBOU. We must have looked like circus clowns popping of this four wheeler in a mad dash for the rifle. Dad takes quick count of kids, all behind me and I take the shot, clean miss, followed buy, "you missed him you need more practice" says the 7 year old. Shot number two and bou down pretty much in the trail. I know have some excited boys telling me we have to wait 30 minutes because that's what they do on hunting shows. After about 5 minutes of cleaning up everything we through when we jumped off the quad I reassured them we could go claim our trophy. So what do they do, take off running, I explain we have the quad and can take it if they like, they thought that would be better(about 160 yard shot) that was at 7:30 and buy 11:00 were back in camp and had lunch. Buy 13:00 the both of them had next years hunt all mapped out. I couldn't be happier.

TAKE A KID HUNTING, IT'S THE BEST!

TRIP notes:

26 trail miles to camp.
33 to harvest area.
19 miles from camp to truck buy gps.(as the crow fly's)
118 total atv miles in 1 1/2 days, man my butt hurts.
Used one tank of gas in 05 King Quad, Thought would use more so I had a lot of left over gas.
Last but not least, one new hunting story with 2 little storytellers.

 

[Brian M]

Awesome story, Don. I'm not a dad yet, but I hope to take my 7 year old nephew out with me in a couple of weeks. Do you have any pics you can share/add to the gallery at the top?

-Brian

 

[FB Don]

No Pics

No Pics

In every-ones excitement to get going we forgot one thing, the camera. We plan to make up for it next year or maybe on this years moose hunt.

 

[negative50]

Congrats Don on what sounded like an awesome first hunt for your boys. any chance I could get your gps cords. would be interested to see if yo guys were huntin the same area i hunted last week.

 

[profishguide]

Info.

Info.

Have you called the bou hotline for info. on the location of the herd? or if its still open? It closed last year on the 19th. The number is in the reg. book.
I would start around the chicken area, if you do not see anything, move until you do. I seen one grizz south of there last year, but did not get a shot.