Hunting Trip

A few days ago we woke up to another day of clear blue sky and sunshine, and thought what a great day for caribou hunting.  Today, (03-31), is the last day of caribou season, for the winter hunt.  I called a young friend, Jeff, in his early 20's that I'm praying will work with us to be our Youth Coordinator, to see if he wanted to go hunting.  We borrowed a sled, filled our sno-machines with gas and oil, got our guns of choice with clips, prayed for a safe trip, and left the village around 2:30 p.m., headed towards Pungurpak.  (additonal pictures in photos). 

We rode for a couple of hours looking for caribou tracks, stopping on hills along the way to glass for any sign of food, but didn't see anything.  We finally arrived at Pungurpak (pronounced - poomoogghhpuk, does that help?) and saw a bunch of tracks crossing the river.  We rode up and down the edge of the river looking for a place to cross, but couldn't find one cause the sun has been too warm in the wilderness and now most of the creeks and streams are open running water.  We stopped and had lunch around 4:45 p.m. looking around a 360 degree view for miles and miles, hoping to see caribou.  Jeff expressed disappointment in that it was time to head back to Togiak and we hadn't seen one caribou.  And then we remembered the prayer we said before we left, and at that moment thanked God for the beautiful day He gave us in His creation.

We started up, split up and were heading back along a different ridge/route, and I came over this small hill and saw around 20 caribou about 200 yards away.  As soon as they heard and saw me, they began running away.  I realized that this small herd had been chased a few times before and had probably split from the bigger herd travelling north.  I immediately stopped, took aim and shot two, set the gun in my lap and took off for the others.  After going over a couple of hills, I saw them off in the distance and in a few minutes caught up with them.  While driving, I picked out the one I wanted, split him from the herd and the chase began.  I ended up gunning the machine, flying off rather large bumps, bushes and almost flipping before getting close enough to let go of the steering handle, stand up while the machine was driving itself about 30 or so miles an hour, take aim and shoot.  After we cut up the caribou and loaded them into the sled, the sun was setting.  We headed back to Togiak and finally arrived around 11:30 p.m.