Hunting
& Fishing Stories
NWT Adventure - by Daryl Haid
Webster's dictionary states that "the
North West Territories (NWT) is a territory in north Canada comprising the
arctic islands, the mainland north of the 60th Parallel between the Yukon
Territory (YT) and Hudson bay and its islands. Divided into Mackenzie,
Keewatin and Franklin Districts. Yellowknife is the capitol."
Obviously, Webster
was never in NWT.
I have always been
fascinated when I read about the Barren Grounds. This is what first took me
to the YT. I loved this land so much, I have hunted there four times. Among
the many animals I have taken in the YT are the Barren Ground and the
Mountain Caribou.
This land called the Barren Ground consists of
very inferior trees (and even those are found only in the southern part) and
lots of rock. The tundra, as it is called, grows very thick moss and with
the vast amount of water there, becomes a sponge. Some areas are very
difficult to traverse for this reason. The massive amount of rock is covered
with lichen, a leafy algae and fungus which animals thrive on. Along the
streams, small shrubs called willows grow. They have a small leaf the
caribou and moose eat. All of this rock and vegetation creates a very
colorful terrain of blues, greens, reds, yellows, whites, browns and blacks.
A beautiful sight to behold.
My trip to the NWT
was to hunt one of the caribou subspecies called the Central Canadian Barren
Ground Caribou. There are six sub-species of caribou. They include the
Barren Ground, Mountain, Central Canadian Barren Ground, Quebec-Labrador,
Woodland and Perry. Since my NWT hunt was successful, I now need only the
Perry to complete the caribou grand slam.
The NWT have seven
different herds of the Central Canadian Barren Ground caribou. They consist
of the Bluenose, Bathurst, Beverly, Kaminuriak, Wager Bay, Melville
Peninsula and Baffin herds.
Fellow member, friend
and hunter R. D. Estepp and I decided to undertake this hunting adventure by
driving as far north as we could, then flying to an area with good hunting
possibilities. We decided on the Bathurst herd which summers way north of
Yellowknife and migrates down to Yellowknife in the winter months. By
picking this herd we could drive to Yellowknife.
This was a great adventure indeed. On
September 6, 1998 we headed northwest with the Ford diesel pickup loaded to
the gills with all sorts of hunting gear and several coolers so we could
return with the meat. If Lady Luck looked our way we could take two caribou
apiece, each weighing 350 to 500 pounds. This means we could return with 850
to 1000 pounds of meat. We headed west then north into Iowa where we spent
the first night. When I walked into the Holiday Inn, I saw banners and a
Marquee stating Daryl Haid was the honored and celebrated guest of the day.
I slowly approached the desk and asked the clerk what that meant. She
congratulated me and said how lucky I was because I was upgraded to the best
suite in the hotel at no cost to me. This room was to consist of a bar,
snacks and canopied king size bed all for me. I took one look at R. D. and
declined. We were then given our room which we ordered. It was much smaller,
had none of the amenities as the other room and had a view of the parking
lot; still, it had two beds. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.
Next day we ventured
north into Minnesota, where just south of Minneapolis we found Cabela's
newest sporting goods store. I have not yet figured why, but each time I go
into Cabela's, I come out five to six hundred dollars poorer. I think I now
have two of every conceivable piece of paraphernalia for hunting and fishing
that man can buy.
After Cabela's, we
headed on towards our destination of Fargo, North Dakota. I ventured into
the Holiday Inn very reluctantly looking for signs and flashing lights. Upon
finding none, I acquired our room and we retired for much needed
refreshments.
The following day, we
pushed into Canada via Winnipeg, Manitoba and into Regina, Saskatchewan. At
this point, I must say that driving through western Manitoba and
Saskatchewan is very boring. There is absolutely nothing to look at but
fields of wheat or some type of straw. We did pass a plant of great size
which is experimenting with trying to make a pressed board out of this
enormous growth of vegetation.
Wednesday morning we
continued our northwesterly trek through Saskatoon and into Alberta where we
stayed in Edmonton. After imbibing in light libations and good food, we had
a good night's rest for the final two days of travel.
Thursday, our travels
took us through the prairie terrain of Alberta. This is mostly pines and
aspens, with very little farming. We passed through the beautiful Peace
River Valley. Here we would pick up the Mackenzie Highway which is the
gateway into the Mackenzie Mountain Range. Our stay this night was in High
Level, Alberta, just a couple of hours drive from the 60th Parallel where
the NWT borders Alberta.
On Friday as we drove north into the NWT, we
passed along an area called Stepping Falls. Since our time was limited, we
took time to investigate only one of the falls. How beautiful it was! It
looked like a small Niagara Falls. There was a rock jutting out around the
center which split the water somewhat like Niagara Falls. After a few
pictures we moved on towards Yellowknife.
Our next sight to
behold was passing close to Wood Buffalo National Park. All along the
highway were these huge bison, much larger than our plains buffalo here in
the states. We saw literally hundreds of these wonderful animals. After
using lots of film, we continued north towards the Great Slave Lake.
Upon reaching the Hey
River Area which lays at the southern most point of the Great Slave Lake, we
headed west, then north and eventually east to circumvent the lake. This
allowed us to reach Yellowknife which lies on the north central side of the
lake. We drove north on good asphalt road admiring the scenery and wildlife
until we reached the small village of Rae.
At Rae, the road
abruptly came to an end. From here, we were on a narrow dirt road which
twined around large bald, round rocks for the next sixty miles.
Although the road was
crooked, narrow and very dusty, the scenery was beautifully different. This
sixty-mile drive was very tiring after driving all day, but we soon came to
our destination.
Just
as abruptly as the hard road ended, it appeared again as we approached
Yellowknife. We rounded a small bend in the road just in time to pass
beneath a large jet coming in for a landing. The wilderness became a city
with several high-rises looming toward the sky. It was breathtaking and yet
looked so much out of place in this vast wilderness. The city itself
reminded me of the Charleston, West Virginia skyline with the area being
about the same as our downtown. The lobby to our twenty story hotel opened
into a mall with fine shops and restaurants.
We laid over in
Yellowknife for a day, getting acclimated to the environment, resting from
our long journey and shopping. Sunday morning we found our float plane base
in a cove on the Great Slave Lake. Soon Harvey Cadieux arrived along with
two other hunters from Alberta and organized our departure to Jolly Lake.
After loading the
twin otter with cordwood, fuel and food, we taxied out into the lake and
flew north to Jolly Lake.
Don Cadieux, our
outfitter, met us at the dock and took us to our quarters which was a large
corrugated metal building with a dozen cots. The four of us prepared our
gear looking forward to the next day's hunt. That evening, several caribou
passed by camp making the excitement more prevalent.
The first day of the
hunt, I managed to somehow damage my right knee to the point I couldn't walk
much. Determined to make this hunt successful, I limped along. About three
hours into the hunt I found ourselves looking at a very nice trophy, out of
velvet, out at around 200 yards. While we were discussing whether we should
take this one or not, a sharp pain hit my knee, urging me to shoot. After
pictures and packing out meat and antlers we proceeded on looking for more
caribou.
R.D. and James, our
guide, climbed a ridge and ran into three or four-hundred caribou! After a
lengthy stalk R.D. dropped a nice mature bull. Thus ended our first day's
hunt.
The next day with
mega-doses of pain killers in me, provided by one of the other two hunters
who was a doctor in Calgary, Alberta, we proceeded down the lake in search
of more trophies. Our guide James spotted another fine trophy within 300
yards of the lake. We found a place to dock and, after a short stalk, I had
my second trophy.
James brought me back
to camp where I spent the rest of the five-day hunt popping pain killers and
hugging the oil burning stove in my quarters.
R.D. continued to hunt, turning down shootable
caribou each day, looking for the big one. By the fourth day, the other two
hunters had tagged out and were fishing.
The afternoon of the
last day, R.D. finally took a nice caribou, but still not the big one he was
looking for. Big trophies are extremely rare and very difficult to hunt.
Knowing that he is out there is what gives us the incentive to return.
We flew back to
Yellowknife the next day laden with four nice trophies, lots of meat and
memories that will last a lifetime. We headed south on the long trek towards
home.
We stopped in
northern Alberta for a ten-day moose and black bear hunt, but that's another
story to write about later.
Our journey home was
uneventful, except for the beautiful scenery.
If you are interested
in this caribou hunt, write or call:
Caribou Pass Outfitters, LTD.
4202 4 9A Avenue
Yellowknife, N.T.
Canada X1A 1B4
(867) 920-2478
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