Top_Heavy's World

The fantastic adventure I wrote about, for myself and several friends, was very simple and inexpensive. We did these hunts, the entire trip actually, with out a "guide". We chose for cost, to start our flights out of Minneapolis, but you can price your trip from your area. 4 of us shared the travel to Minneapolis and flew to Anchorage, Alaska. I slept in the terminal on an air mattress, in my clothes, but this saved almost $100 instead of paying for a motel. The planes got smaller and we flew into Illiamna, Alaska. The tarmac is gravel here, you get off the plane and grab your equipment from a stack along the plane and you walk several hundred yards to the airport, a pole barn type structure with one end finished off. We walked to the hanger of one of the small bush pilots. (We shopped for a good price, and we spent time on the phone with the head pilot to arrange or coordinate migration dates, almost a year in advance.) The pilot flew us in to the hunt area in 2 and 4 man planes with tundra tires. Our extra equipment, gun boxes etc were left in their hanger and we were able to watch our required hunters video at their hanger as well. There were several small companies that help each other and share a hanger here. The weather can be a factor so plan to stay a day or two at the hanger, or extra days in hunt camp. This solo hunt was fantastic, simple and the entire trip, including a 2nd caribou tag and flying a meat box home, cost less than $2500 from my house to my house. This hunt was done almost 10 years ago, so I am not sure of price increases, but shop around, call pilots and plan... this adventure is worth the price!