It was nice getting out hunting again. I think I was starting to go through withdrawls.

I saw some caribou about a mile off towards the river, so I started a hike in on them. While I was heading in towards them, I had to cross a creek about 3/4 of the way out. While I was wading accross the creek, I noticed antlers down in the gully of the creek about 200 yards off, so I decided to go after that bull because the others were in the wide open. I had a perfect stalk going in on him, and managed to get within 30 yards, but my rubber hip waiders were making just a touch too much noise and he got curious and came up to the edge of the creek to see what it was. I held tight, and he came in closer, but held up around 25 yards staring me down, and I was caught in the wide open. I had an arrow nocked and my release on the string loop, just hoping he would get careless, turn sideways and start munching on the grass. Nope, he backed off and kept about a 45-50 yard gap between us. I managed to work my way slowly in again on him, using the cut banks of the creek for cover, and the mud was quiet walking, but I never could get into an area where I could take 15 or so yards of the distance away.

Ah well, guess I still keep my tag for another night. I saw tons of caribou tonight, probably upwards of 2000, and did get a couple other stalks in, but the long walks into the legal areas take up a lot of time. At least I should start losing some of this gut that has developed over the winter!