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Alaska Wild in a Cessna 185

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • An Alaskan couple undertook a challenging Dall sheep hunting trip to the remote Brooks Range, flying two customized Cessna 185 aircraft across vast, rugged terrain.
  • The journey involved navigating difficult weather, turbulence, and remote gravel strips, including a fuel stop in Circle City, requiring careful piloting and decision-making.
  • Despite extensive hiking, camping on a mountain summit in snow, and spotting other wildlife like wolves and caribou, they were ultimately unsuccessful in locating a legal Dall ram.
  • Due to rapidly deteriorating weather forecasts, they decided to cut the hunt short and returned safely, regarding the adventure as a memorable success despite not harvesting a sheep.
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Last summer, my wife and I wanted to visit the Brooks Range in August to hunt Dall sheep. For those not familiar with it, the Brooks Range is a mountain range stretching about 700 miles from western Alaska across the state east to Canada’s Yukon Territory. From where we live in South Central Alaska, it is more than 600 nautical miles north of us, and just getting there, in a light airplane across central Alaska’s mountainous terrain, can at times be challenging. The month almost got away from us, but we finally saw a promising weather window in the last week of August.

Dawn Departure

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