Good morning, it's day six and it's moving day. Now, yesterday we had quite a relaxed,
but still reasonably active day, we went over the ridge at the far side of camp to
the north see if we could see any moose in the valley below we got to about
a mile and a half outside camp, that's pretty much some limits of where we'd
want to pack a moose back from and we spent the evening getting tight around
camp knowing that today we're gonna move from this location over to another.
Now, caribou and moose there are areas where they'll kind of cohabit but they
carry like it's slightly higher by the moose a little bit lower in dense
undergrowth, you know. Plenty of natural cover. We haven't seen any here,
we've been on the lookout, we saw another caribou bull up on the ridge behind me
here last night. There's been a couple of young moose balls across the river and
then a couple of grizzly bear, but otherwise had no shootable moose. It's
gonna be a busy day getting everything packed down, it was very cold last night
so when I got up this morning with tents covered in frost and ice and all of the
water carriers were all frozen, the water pumps were frozen. Gonna let that
thor out and then dry out before we can get it back into the bags. So, a busy day
ahead of us, but pretty exciting because by this afternoon we'll be an entirely new landscape let's get to work.
Morning, day six and we're moving today and
before I forget, Happy Anniversary, Sue's. Same again, two
years on the trot, I'm out here in the beautiful tundra celebrating our
anniversary hunting animals, living the dream. We've been up now I should think
about an hour and a half and I've just got to have a drink a water bottle and
it was frozen solid. So, that just tells you how cold it was inside the tent. It
looks like the sun's gonna take its head over the mountains in a minute or two,
we'll get the tents drawn out get everything packed away and Cole should
be here within an hour and a half, I reckon. So, there you go, we'll catch you in pastures new see in a bit.
moving day is always a little on the stressful side sure.
We're pretty organised and everything has its place but throw a bush pilot on a tight
schedule into the equation and everything heats up a notch or two.
Cole is still trying to catch up with his schedule after a solid three weeks
of rain and so we do our best to help things along, making sure everything is
packed and ready to go in good time and helping to load the plane.
I'm the first to head out with James and Steve following soon afterwards.
We've only been here a few days, but have become very familiar with the area. In
some ways we're sad to be leaving, but excited about what's ahead of us.
We have a quick pit stop at a local airstrip to change planes, it's an
exercise and efficiency with all hands on deck.
So, here we are halfway to our next location. Now, Cole picked us up from
caribou camp in the Piper Super Cub, which is much smaller plane you've got a
much quicker takeoff. Brought us here to whiskey Bravo, it's got a much longer
runway and here we've got the Maul M5, which is his bigger plane. What he's gonna
do now he's gonna go pick Steve up and the rest of the gear bring us all here
and probably do two trips into the moose camp, so I'm just gonna start getting the
gear from over there stacking it by the plane waiting for Cole. Now, I have to
leave the guys here with some food and a rifle try and take as much of the gear
into camp as you can with me and then they'll follow on a little bit later on.
So, hopefully by mid afternoon it's about 12:30 now by about 4:00-4:30
camp should be set up we should be ready.
Cole's somewhat dramatic steep turn into land perfectly marked the wild man's arrival. Now it's a team effort to
get them the Maul M5 loaded up and ready to go.
Cole knows exactly what he wants and where he needs it to go, it's just a matter of passing the bags, boxes and
equipment as quickly as possible.
The last item of excess baggage is of course me and now we're ready for the trip to moose country.
With the magnificent Alaska range bathed in sunshine, the view from up here is truly breathtaking.
Clearly happy with the in-flight service, Cole and Wildly appeared to have bonded during the flight in.
With Cole gone, we're alone in the wilderness once more.
Now our attentions turn to building camp and getting organised. Whilst the weather is
currently being kind to us a storm could develop very quickly and we use heavy
rocks to hold down the guide ropes for our tents. Unfortunately, there are no rocks
around our campsite and so these need to be retrieved from a nearby creek.
It's an unexpected task that saps what little energy we have remaining.
As our tents take shape it's finally starting to feel like home.
So, it's been another busy day and we found ourselves in a new home just above the Trimble River. Lovely
location, as you can see the valley behind us just drops away, the sun's been
shining all day beautiful day to move camp really. We're not used to moving
camp in the sunshine, although it's very welcome we're not complaining it also
makes it touch it's quite a physical you know packing everything down, then
Cole, he likes to move as quickly, so we've got to be ready for him and then
we get to the side gotta pack it all and get set up again. It's been a steady day
but a tough day, hasn't it? Fetching water, because the creeks are fair way down the
bottom there carrying it all back making sure we've got enough through the night
and ready for the morning, so we can have a brief straightaway and also that's
fetch stones as well, there's no stone to hold the guide ropes down, so he all
the way down to the creek to fetch stone back. It's been a pretty active
day, but very rewarding and this is our reward for all that effort which is an
absolutely magnificent landscape. Now, we're up here we're quite high we're
gonna be hunting for moose and black bear, Cole tells all the way
along the right-hand side of us here it's very strong for moose. Lots of
thick alders, we haven't seen anything just yet slopes are alive with berries
as well so we're hoping that's gonna bring a few black bear in for us. So, just
a matter of being patient letting the binoculars and the spotting scope do the
work for us seeing if we can see any movement and then hopefully you can moving in
a making shot. But, really pleased with how the day's gone, it's been tough, but
worth the effort. Yes, I think it's your turn for the coffee.
mMy turn is, after you sir. Thank you.