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Latest updates, page 35

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Afternoon bird hunt

By Troutnut on October 3rd, 2013

Winter's coming on quickly in Fairbanks, so we took advantage of one nice afternoon to drive up to a well-known bird-hunting spot, hike around, and maybe find some dinner. There weren't many birds, but I managed to get one rock ptarmigan.

Photos by Troutnut from Miscellaneous Alaska in Alaska

View over Minto Flats From Murphy Dome in Alaska.

Taiga was very interested in the ptarmigan. From Murphy Dome in Alaska.

Stalking a ptarmigan From Murphy Dome in Alaska.

Very camouflaged From Murphy Dome in Alaska.

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First time in a packraft in the lower Chatanika, trying for sheefish

By Troutnut on September 28th, 2013

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I floated ten miles of the Chatanika River near Fairbanks, from a spot near the Steese Highway to the Elliott Highway bridge.

Our mutual goal was to try to catch a sheefish. Sheefish are very large piscivorous (Piscivorous: Anything which eats primarily fish is a piscivore.) whitefish, present in very low numbers along the Alaska road system in the Yukon drainage. Most people who really want to catch sheefish have to expensively fly out to the wilderness of northwest Alaska, but the Chatanika River river near Fairbanks is well-known to have a very small spawning run (about 100 fish) during which one has a better-than-usual chance (but still a very long shot) of hooking up with a sheefish. We both thought it would be fun to catch (or even see) the elusive "tarpon of the north," but we had no luck. Didn't even see one.

Another goal for me on this trip was to try packrafting for the first time in some easy Class I water. Packrafts are tiny, tough, ultra-light (often less than 5 pounds) boats used for backpacking into remote locations and floating out on a river (or paddling around a lake). I've been thinking about getting one for remote backcountry fishing and hunting, so I was happy to try it out with a borrowed raft. This wasn't "real" packrafting because we didn't have to pack the boats more than a hundred yards on this road-to-road float, but I got a good feel for the boat and was impressed with its handling and portability.

Have any of you used packrafts for fly fishing (or hunting)? What did you think?

Photos by Troutnut from the Chatanika River in Alaska

View downstream from Elliott Highway bridge From the Chatanika River in Alaska.

Floating From the Chatanika River in Alaska.

Really big (for this area) grizzly tracks next to a size 12 wading boot. From the Chatanika River in Alaska.

View upstream from Elliott Highway bridge From the Chatanika River in Alaska.

Packrafts stashed on shore. It's nice to be able to pull the boats all the way out of the water so easily (in this case, because an airboat was coming by). From the Chatanika River in Alaska.

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Updates from September 27, 2013

Closeup insects by Entoman from the St. Joe River in Idaho

Female Dicosmoecus atripes (October Caddis) Caddisfly Adult

View 6 PicturesThis specimen is 26 mm.
- Entoman

Collected September 27, 2013 from the St. Joe River in Idaho
Added to Troutnut.com by Entoman on September 29, 2013

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Updates from September 26, 2013

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Denali Highway, day 2

By Troutnut on September 15th, 2013

We slept in Sunday morning and biked up to get the remaining meat around noon. The weather and ride were as nice as the previous day's, as was the rest of the beautiful but uneventful drive back across the Denali Highway to Paxson. We saw no other caribou and many dozen hunters, underscoring just how lucky I'd been to find a bull, even such a small one.

We reached the eastern side of the highway as the sun set and the moon rose over Mount Sanford, a majestic shield volcano 90 miles to the southeast in the Wrangells. That range is occasionally visible from high points on the eastern Denali Highway, but I'd never seen it so clearly before. Just another one-of-a-kind treat from the most scenic highway on Earth.

Photos by Troutnut from Clearwater Mountains, Denali Highway, and Miscellaneous Alaska in Alaska

The four tallest peaks (on the horizon, from this perspective), from left to right, I think, are Mt Hayes, 10,065-foot Aurora Peak, and a "double" peak that is actuall Mt Shand (left/foreground) with the peak of Mt Moffit sticking up in the background to the right of it From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Looking back at the Clearwater Mountains from the east From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Panorama from the Maclaren River trail From the Maclaren River Trail in Alaska.

Riding out 2 From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Fireweed. This is what Alaska's iconic purple flowers look like once they've gone to seed From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Aurora Peak. You can also see a bit of the Maclaren Glacier on the very left hand side of the image From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Windy Creek Road From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Lena and Taiga on the Maclaren River Trail. This trail heads north toward the Maclaren Glacier and West Fork of the Maclaren River, uphill on the west side of the Maclaren River. From the Maclaren River Trail in Alaska.

Denali Highway From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Final load packed up. I strapped the hind quarters off either side of my bike's rear tire rack, loaded the burger/rib bag and antlers in my pack, and had an easy ride out to the car without Lena having to carry anything or get messy caribou on her gear. From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

First haul of meat. After getting the meat back to the road, I stashed the hind quarters and burger/rib meat bag in an alder thicket. I took these two front quarters and tenderloins/backstraps out with me on an after-dark bike ride 3 miles downhill to the car. My awesome 172-lumen ZebraLight H51W headlamp lit up the trail almost like a car headlight for me and Lena to make the ride. From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Riding out From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Beautiful yellow valley From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Alaska Range from Mile 52 Denali Highway. The left-most double peak is 12,510-foot Mt Shand (left) and 13,020-foot Mt Moffit (right). The other two tall peaks, middle and right, are unnamed (at least on Google Earth). The peak on the horizon about 2/3 of the way from Mt Moffit to the unnamed middle peak is 11,400-foot McGinnis Peak. From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Retrieving the last load of meat. Multiple groups of hunters had seen a pack of at least three wolves in this area the previous day, and a few days earlier. So I was a little bit nervous about leaving part of the meat overnight, and relieved when we found it untouched. It may have helped that a group of hunters had camped on the road not far away. From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Taiga fetching From the Maclaren River Trail in Alaska.

View west across the Maclaren River valley from Maclaren Summit. The Clearwater Mountains make up the highest part of the horizon near the sun. From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Moonrise over Mt Sanford. An unusually clear view of this mountain from 90 miles away on the Denali Highway From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Glacier Gap. This notch in the mountains two miles north of the highway holds a sizable lake. From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Kettle lakes and the Alaska Range From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Packed up and ready to go. This was a great way to transport the meat. It stayed cool, didn't stink up the car, and didn't even get dusty at all from the dry road. From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Tundra colors From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska.

Beaver dam and beaver lodge overgrown with willows From the Maclaren River Trail in Alaska.

Kettle lakes From Denali Highway in Alaska.

Closeup insects by Entoman from Mystery Creek #178 in Idaho

Female Psychoglypha alascensis (Snow Sedge) Caddisfly Adult

View 3 PicturesThis specimen was 22 mm.

Collected September 15, 2013 from Mystery Creek #178 in Idaho
Added to Troutnut.com by Entoman on September 23, 2013

Female Timpanoga hecuba (Great Red Quill) Mayfly Dun

View 3 PicturesThis specimen is 14 mm. Technically this is the subspecies (Subspecies: Entomologists sometimes further divide a species into distinct groups called subspecies, which have two lower-case words on the end of their scientific name instead of one. The latter is the sub-species name. For example, Maccaffertium mexicanum mexicanum and Maccaffertium mexicanum integrum are two different subspecies of Maccaffertium mexicanum.) T. h. hecuba. The Cascades, Sierras and further West is where the other subspecies (Subspecies: Entomologists sometimes further divide a species into distinct groups called subspecies, which have two lower-case words on the end of their scientific name instead of one. The latter is the sub-species name. For example, Maccaffertium mexicanum mexicanum and Maccaffertium mexicanum integrum are two different subspecies of Maccaffertium mexicanum.), T. h. pacifica is found. The Great Basin seems to have formed a barrier preventing any overlap in their distribution.