Hopeful of a successful hunt

As I write this, I hope to be telling you next week about my one-day winter caribou hunt. The plans are made to go on Thursday, March 29, but since I’m writing this to meet deadlines for the Friday, March 30 newspaper, I haven’t gone yet.

I’ve tried to go a few times earlier in March, but my wife doesn’t want me to go alone (I really can’t argue from a safety standpoint). For one reason or another, the guys set to make the trip with me couldn’t make the previously established dates because of family health problems or work-related issues. I was watching the weather closely and wasn’t going if the temperatures were too cold or snow was either predicted or falling.

With the end of the season rapidly approaching, if I am going to make the trip, it is now or never!

To be honest, since I have never snowmachined in the area we are planning to hunt, I’m not expecting great things to happen. I was hoping to get out sooner to scout the area with the expectation of returning with some serious hunting in mind. Now that things are what they are, we’ll be exploring and hunting at the same time.

Two of us are going, me with the caribou permit, and Gnarly Dan to enjoy nature and the ride, hunt small game and help if things do work out and a caribou is taken. I’ve hunted with Gnarly before and we have always had enjoyable trips and fun whether a harvest was accomplished or not.

I have gotten my snowmachine out once since it was repaired to confirm in my mind that things were running correctly. The caribou trip could easily cover 50-60 miles or more, although I’m not necessarily planning to travel that much, and I wanted to feel confident the machine would make the trip.

To run the machine, Gnarly, his grandson, and I met a couple of weeks ago on Finger Lake to do some ice fishing. I didn’t get a lot of miles on the machine, about 3.5 miles total, but I ran it enough to know it’s running well.

Both Gnarly and his grandson caught fish. I got skunked! However, I was able to try out the “new” used propane ice auger I had purchased a while back. This auger has a four-stoke engine and had been sitting for who knows how long. It didn’t start until about the sixth pull, but it ran well and drilled a 10-inch hole through about three-feet of ice with no problem.

It started on the second pull the next time, and on the first pull for the last hole I drilled with it. That’s why I wanted the propane auger. Everything I had heard and read about them said they were quick and easy starters. Plus, this unit had a 10-inch auger. My little 8-inch, two-cycle, gasoline ice auger always was a little persnickety to start. I plan to keep the gas unit for a while because I don’t always need the larger hole, especially if I’m fishing stocked lakes for land-locked salmon or rainbows. I hope to get out for pike and that’s where the larger hole could become useful.

I modified my snowmachine sled after using another friend’s sled to do a little towing several weeks ago. My friend uses his machine and sled to haul firewood during the winter, among other things, and he had drilled a series of holes along the rim of the sled and laced some line through the holes to use as tie-down points when the sled was loaded. I copied the idea and attached the extra line I had left to the back-end tie-down attachment points to always have a tie-down line with my sled. I’ve got a few bungee cords to use as well.

I’m still “puttering” with some small things for both the snowmachine and my riverboat. I discovered the RAM brand of ball-and-socket mounting brackets several year ago. They’re not inexpensive but are quality products which will last a lifetime. I ordered a couple of pieces to go with some I already had to mount my “new” GPS on the snowmachine. I also ordered a bait cutting platform which mounts in the Scotty brand mounts on the riverboat. Both are small improvements which make using the equipment easier and more enjoyable.

I like setting up equipment just the way I want it almost as much as using the equipment in my outdoor activities!