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hiking to kingdom come, among other things
Posted by TradBow on Oct 11 2005
Fullk,
Again there are ways to hunt this area. No you dont have to hike 5 miles. First become a bowhunter, holy moses man how much brain power did that take omg. Next look at your access points, there are 3 that reduce the hike in by half. There are 2 places I personally know of that hiking in even for the fat slob road/atv hunters as you so love to be called, is like walking natures highway. If you cannot find these (they are quite obvious however almost no one use's them) then hump the tundra, learn from experience. I went in this year on one of these areas and found unmolested herds of pretty good caribou. I however wasn't there to hunt caribou. I'd love to show ya these however I am to the point of prefering to hunt alone and at this point in the game hard earned knowledge isn't going out as a freeby.
Next lets take a look at some of our great 4 wheeler access hunts. The taylor, the steese, and the denali. First let's start with the denali, how far must one go these days to find caribou, that is should you even GET a tag..hmmmmmm? Onto the the taylor and the steese, or as I love to call them cirlce slaughters. It wasn't so long ago we learned our lesson in greed which showed it's ugly face in these two areas. Now we are limited only by those who can afford to fly or those who can afford fat slob 4 wheelers to go out and get them. Those of us who so choose to wear out boots are out of the picture almost all together!
Enforcement. ONE trooper for an immense country whose duties stretch far beyond the haul road. Are you going to pay the 2nd or 3rd troopers wages to watch over those fat slob atv'ers who cannot or will not stay on "these trails"? I know I can't, though I'd love to see more enforcement acrossed the state as a whole. I've never been as disgusted as I have since I've come to this state in how "hunters" (for a lack of a polictically correctness term) hold themselves and the actions a far to large of number of these hunters seem to find themselves partaking in.
Next lets take a look at herd movements and the pressure this would apply to the herd. I don't know who said it but whoever started talking about the land being federal was partially right. It is all the way to the slope mountian area. After that it's state land. We've seen in the recent past what "pressure" will do to subistence users and if you think for one second Jack Reakoff (centeral arctic subsistence board president) won't be the first on the band wagon to squash this you walking blind folded. We've recently lost moose hunting to a draw, for now. When the centeral arctic herd stops coming around the haul road and the sag an anaktuvik areas you had better beleive this area will be closed down. Again greed before thought, we all want, no question! The reality of it will come back to bite us eventually, the evidence is already out there. The feds are supposidly working issues pertaining to some of this and more. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of what they are doing or have done.
Next let's talk about these so called bowhunters you talk about. You see there is no perfect world. I won't vouch for the guy who was caught on video hunting literally out of the back of his f350, or the other guy standing on his running boards arrows nocked just days after he took the IBEP class (I was one of the asst instructors). Teaching ethics is one of the foremost issues we have in the class but as you can see, you can show someone the right door, you can't always make him walk through. Opening this area to even more pressure is only going to increase the problems we have. I am sure you've heard of the snowball effect! Fortunatly there are hunters who do get off the road and live up to the title "BowHUNTER", insteasd of someone who hunts with a bow. That unfortunatly can't always be said on either side of the fence all to often, bow or rifle.
The tourism industry has been there since I've been here however nothing like these past 3 years. Unfortunatly for them they get to see by default things I personally care not to witness. I am sure this trend is going to continue in years to come and only make justifying this hunt even more difficult with the possiblity of this road becoming part of a national park much like Denali. That or some kind of closure for some many miles on either side of the road for all to bend over for the big money spending tourists. It's just a matter of time!
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