I Heard From Chris Today

note: this post is about hunting and is not my typical cheery topic

It's been a few days since Chris arrived to the small island of St. Paul, and I finally heard from him last night.



They have 1 phone that is available for personal use on base and everyone stationed needs to take turns using the phone. So, at 12:30am PST Chris finally called.

He said that the helicopter finally arrived at St. Paul yesterday; they don't normally have a helo stationed on the small island because there is only a need for possible search-and-rescues during the Opilio Crab Season which is going on right now. So, the helo finally arrived a few days after Chris got there.



So, because there was no helo, Chris had a few days off. So...they went hunting. Five men set out for Alaskan Caribou. Chris went along with a Captain, a Pilot, an Electrician and another AST. They walked 3 miles into the island's interior through the snow. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are no trees on the island, so there is no real "cover" for the caribou.



It didn't take long until they found a herd. They all got a shot in and all 5 of them left with a caribou of their very own...yep, even Chris. This is Chris' FIRST hunting experience and Chris' FIRST kill. They gutted the animal in the field before making the 3 mile trek back to the car. Chris said that the animal still weighed about 150lbs even after the animal was gutted.

He skinned the caribou on Sunday and is planning to keep the skin because it was a really beautiful coat. I believe this is the only 'trophy' we can afford to keep because taxidermy is SUPER EXPENSIVE (like thousands of dollars) and that's just not in the budget now. As far as the meat, they cut out all of the edible pieces and are separating them into bags. He'll probably end up bringing most of the meat home to grind into hamburgers or make sausages.



How Do I Feel About This: Well...it's taken me 6months to get use to the idea that we may eat caribou meat for a year straight and I still don't know that I'm 100% comfortable with everything. But, life is different in Alaska. Meat isn't cheap and it is WAY too expensive to go out for a steak. I really believe that while we're there we'll be eating a lot of fish and caribou or deer. We're living off the land, and this is what's available. No part of the animal will be wasted, and it wasn't killed for the "excitement of the hunt" - it was killed for food. I really believe there is a difference.



The St. Paul Caribou: We knew that before Chris left that he'd probably return with a caribou. He was told that the local people of St. Paul look forward to the winter months when the Coast Guard comes to town because they will go hunting while they are there. The caribou on St. Paul have no natural predator, so if there were no hunting, they would need to get rid of about 300 caribou each year due to overpopulation. So, in a way, the Coast Guard is doing them a service.



In the end...Congrats to Chris for his first hunt. He said he took a few pictures, but those may be tricky in getting until he returns. His only request...we take a picture of him and his caribou, and make a copy for Bass Pro Shops to put on their corkboard-wall-of-successful-hunts. :0)