Tuktu Hunt (Caribou) With Shon and Ben

So, I don't really know where to begin this post.  I have so much to say about this weekend.  It's Sunday night, and I am tired...but I need to write about the amazing weekend! 

I met a guy here (Shon), who is an really nice guy... he mentioned that he wanted to go out caribou hunting this past weekend, and if we wanted to come we could tag along.  So... of course we went!  Well, let me tell you it was out of this world!  By FAR the best day I have had here!  We (Morteza and I) woke up, and got all of our stuff packed and on the quad.  We went and met Shon at the Co-op.  Grabbed our snacks and shotgun shells and we were off for an adventure.  The plan was to go out for the day with Shon and Ben.  They would show us how its done. Well did they ever...then we would camp over night at Aquk.  A river system that Andrew (one our teacher friends) has a cabin at.  We left town around 10:00.  By 11:00 we were staring at our first Caribou...

By 11:15, Shon has shot, gutted, cleaned and quartered this said Caribou...

and by 11:20 we were on the move again.  We went pretty far up... about 40km, and they decided that we would go to the big esker for lunch.  Well when we got there, it just so happened that there was another Caribou standing on the other side.  Again, Shon shot, cleaned and cut up this caribou in record time.  Seriously less than 15 minutes from shots fired to caribou being completely cleaned and packed up on his quad. 

Somewhere in this day, we stopped to have lunch... They pulled out a bag, and asked "have you ever eaten Narwhal?"  Of course we answered "nope"... and then proceeded to snack on narwhal!  What a delish treat! 

In total, we got 3 caribou.  We saw about 15... and could have probably shot 8 or 9.  But I found it really cool how they were so respectful of the animals.  I honestly have no words that can possibly describe the way I felt when I watched them clean the caribou.  I was in complete awe. 

Anyways, after the second caribou had been cleaned and packed on the quad, Morteza made a "small" fire and cooked up the caribou heart and liver. 

We munched on this for an afternoon snack.  Not for me...but I at least tried it!  I said small in quotations because it was hilarious... he literally only put about two handfuls of moss and lichen on the ground, and lit it on fire... but the wind was pretty bad and before you knew it... we were actually worried that the whole side of the hill would ignite!  Ben came to the rescue and showed him a few tricks to keep the fire surrounded by rock so that the wind couldn't spread the fire so much!  They knew so many little tricks that were so simple, tricks that would have made my life camping much easier. 

When we finished our afternoon caribou organ snack... and had a little time to sit back and relax...while they decided whether we were going to continue or head back...

They chose to see what was over the next esker (there are tons of eskers that were left by the glaciers here), annnnd... guess what was over the next one?  Yep... if you said, "another caribou" you are right... actually there were two. 

They weren't together, and both were pretty far away... but as we started talking...one started coming closer.  Ben decided that it was his turn, and with precision... he took it down.  Then he skinned, and quartered it. He was just as skilled with a knife as Shon (the knives they use are just like a pocket knife! I don't know how they do it!) 

Then we were back on the quads and heading back to the cabin.  Morteza and I were staying the night at our friend (another teacher here, Andrew's Cabin).  On our way back the guys chose to take another way... a way with no path... seriously.  We drove for about 2 hours over rocks... the worst terrain you could imagine.  My shoulders, traps and biceps are still killing from this ride.  What a day.

Once the guys dropped us off at the cabin, they headed home.  Morteza and I used our new found knowledge to build a small fire (this time it was small) and cooked one of the caribou legs that the guys had kindly given us for dinner.  We munched on that and hung out to watch the stars come out.  It was seriously one of the most amazing days I have ever had.