Dall Sheep Bowhunt NWT - Travel Time
(Left) Twin Otter leaving Blue Lake after dropping us off at base camp. (Right) Picture taken out the front window of the helicopter as we pulled out of base camp showing the end of the lake and a small section of the awesome mountains we will be hiking over the next ten days.
After months of waiting, planning, and training the time to head north to NWT has finally come! Like many quality hunting experiences, this trip was booked almost a year in advance to get the dates desired, at the outfitter chosen, and with the best guide available. When we decide to take the challenge of trophy bowhunting we place all the odds against our success, then we work hard to win back any advantage we can through research, planning, and training. Perhaps that is why those occasional successes seem so sweet?
For the last few weeks I've kept all my shooting practice at 40-60 yards. I hope to get a closer shot, but I want to be comfortable at longer distances just in case. Besides, if I do get with-in twenty yards I'll feel "very" confident with the shot. My groups have been very tight at 40 yards, and respectable at fifty, but I hope I don't have to rely on a sixty yarder! I'm going to be using a trusty CSS bow that has stood me well the past four seasons, helping me take five Pope & Young qualifiers (three different species) out to distances as far as 48 yards. My custom crested arrows are tipped with proven Muzzy three blade heads, and flying true at the practice range. It is important to have confidence in one's equipment when starting out on any hunt, but especially on one that will test your limits.
I'll work in comments about my other gear as the hunt progresses and (hopefully) the decisions I made prove to be wise ones. For now I'll deal with the frustration of getting to hunting camp. I'm not doing this by way of complaining, just trying to "share" all the experiences of taking on a hunt like this in the far north so those who have yet to travel a similar path can better understand the process. I did the packing, and three re-packings, over a three week period.
The challenge is to get everything you might need for an "extreme" hunt into the limited space provided by one back pack and a bow case. There was also the consideration of keeping the total weight down to under sixty pounds for the trip, and less than fifty pounds for the last travel leg into camp. One thing I feel the need to mention here is that all outfitters complain that most hunters bring 50% (at least) more "stuff" than they need, especially those relatively inexperienced hunters. When you go on a hunt like this, listen to the outfitter and only bring items on the list!
Day #1:
Closing the pack and bow case a little after 11:00 PM, I managed to grab six hours sleep before my wake up call in the morning. The ride to the airport took a little over an hour during morning rush hour traffic, and since 9-11 you need to be at the airport at least two hours early. It took over an hour to negotiate the ticket counter line and then another forty-five minutes for security ... thankfully I allowed enough time and caught the first flight! By the time I got from Boston to Phoenix we had traveled through three time zones and it was still after lunch. Lunch at the airport helped pass some of the waiting time, and a good book helped with the rest.
Just before the plane boarded I found a small group of people that looked suspiciously like bowhunters so I introduced myself. To my pleasant surprise they were all going to the same camp, so I had traveling companions for the rest of the journey. Finally we were off to Edmonton, Alberta where we would all pass through customs and crash at a local hotel for the night.
Sleep came easily after eighteen hours of travel!
Day #2:
The wake up call came at 5:45 AM as requested. The coffee perked while I showered allowing a 7:30 check out and a three cup java jolt to get the juices flowing. Check-in was at 8:00 AM for the 9:00 flight to Yellowknife, which gave the newly formed group time to start getting acquainted.
Tod Graham had come from Texas and would also be hunting dall sheep and carrying a mountain caribou tag for luck! Good friends, Phil Race from Rochester, New York and Joe Coleman from Jackson, Tennessee would be hunting only caribou. Eric and Daniela Shields are a husband/wife bowhunting team from Kentucky, and would also be hunting caribou.
We were all bowhunting, and we would be the only clients in camp. This is a good thing!
The plane only stopped at Yellowknife on the way to Normal Wells, but they let us all off to stretch our legs. Aside from the relief granted by escaping those cramped seats for twenty minutes, it was worth getting off the plane to see the awesome polar bear mount in the terminal. On the way back I'll have a camera in my pocket so I can share a photo or two of this mount. Who would have thought I'd need a camera in the terminal to take polar bear pictures?
The flight to Normal Wells was fairly uneventful, arriving at 11:40 AM. We were met at the terminal by a very pleasant lady (Daria) from the Yamouri Inn. The staff of the Yamouri Inn handles "in town" arrangements for all clients of NWT Outfitters, and they do a wonderful job of it!
The next stop was at Yamouri Inn where we were given the use of a room to change our clothes, and repack our gear. This is the location where "civilian/travel" cloths and hard bow cases get ditched prior to the float plane trip to camp.
This is where the baggage "hopefully" gets paired down from 60-70 pounds to the 50 allowed for transport to camp. The excess was safely stowed in a storage area at the Yamouri until our return after the hunt. We were advised that we had a few more hours to "kill" before our scheduled float plane trip to camp and were directed to the local museum down the road. It was interesting, but only killed an hour so we re-grouped back at the Yamouri for lunch.
Although we were all "chomping at the bit" to get hunting, there was no moving the time any quicker and we went with the flow.
The scheduled 3:00 PM departure from Norman Wells didn't happen until 4:30, but we made good time and dropped down into Blue Lake in front of base camp just at 5:30 PM. Once the gear was unloaded we were given a quick tour of camp and got to meet some of our guides.
My guide was already out at spike camp, so that introduction would have to wait. Eric Mikkelson, and his lovely wife Lorna, proved to be terrific hosts and have a top notch base camp set up. There were ample tents and buildings to care for all our needs and even an archery target for us to test our equipment after the long trip. Lorna had a great dinner of roasted chicken waiting for those of us that got to hang around camp long enough to enjoy it.
We were brought out one at a time to our respective spike camps by helicopter, so the first one out missed that great dinner (don't worry, he got fed!). Eric and Daniela were going to be hunting right from base camp the first few days which cut down somewhat on the flying. I was the last to go out this evening as the helicopter pilot (Jacob) is going to stay out with us for a few days to take in some of the scenery from "ground level". We finally got to spike camp at 11:00 PM.
An interesting thing to note, for those that have not been to the far north in the summer, is that it seems to never get dark! We stayed up until after 1:00 AM and still had almost full daylight when we finally turned in.
There is a regulation about hunting and flying that prohibits hunting for eleven hours after you're in the air. As a result, my hunt will not start until just before noon tomorrow, which will be fifty five hours after leaving home to start this journey. I can hardly wait!