Patty and I got home from Alaska this morning. She was hanging out with grandkids and I went hunting with two son-in-laws for caribou on the North Slope of Alaska. The North Slope is that area of Alaska that is north of the Brooks Range, which is the northern most areas in Alaska. There is one road in that entire area that goes to Prudhoe Bay and the oil fields.

We drove 14 hours on this road called “The Haul Road” from Fairbanks, Alaska, north, to where we put Philips boat in the Sagavanirktok River, which most call the Sag River. The road was gravel, muddy, and very, very bumpy. We went up the Sag River for an hour and then turned onto the Ivashack River and went for several more hours until we reached the spot where we camped for a week, hunting for caribou.

The North Slope is Tundra with no trees, just little bushes. It is all on permafrost so the ground is all wet and spongy and you sink in every step that you take. It is incredibly hard to walk on, and in fact, I didn’t walk on it much. I got in a spot where I could see a long way and looked for caribou with my binoculars and then prayed that they would walk close enough to my chair that I could shoot them. None did, but both of my sons-in-law got very nice caribou and they shared the meat with me so we brought 50 lbs home with us on the airplane. Caribou meat is the tastiest of all meat in my opinion.

We are home now for the next nine months so I will be writing my blog every day, teaching and preaching every week, fishing a little bit, golfing a little bit, exercising, reading, and getting older slowly. Here are some pictures of our Alaskan adventure.