Vicki and her big bull.

Five foot shot!

Hunter: Vicki Cianciarulo
Cameraman: Ralph Cianciarulo

It has been a couple of crazy days. We thought we were to fly out of O’Hare on the 13th, but we had to fly out on the 12th. So on Thursday afternoon, (Sept. 10) we basically threw everything we had at camp in Colorado, into my truck and drove until 11 p.m. Got up at 3:30 a.m. and drove home, arriving at 4:30 p.m. Friday. We unloaded the truck, played games with RJ, relaxed a little on Friday night. Saturday morning, Ma picked up RJ at 7 a.m. for a scout outing at the Cabela’s in Hoffman Estates, IL. Ralph & I washed socks & undies, repacked, charged batteries, and re-loaded my truck. We headed to O’Hare about 11 a.m. Our flight to Vancouver took off at 3 p.m., landed at 5:45 Pacific time. Took off from Vancouver at 10:55 p.m. and landed in Whitehorse, Yukon at 1:15 a.m. Pacific time on September 13.

Don Lind, from MacMillan River Adventures, met us up at the airport and we went to the hotel. We laid our heads down on the pillow about 2:30 a.m. and woke up at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast. We met with Don again and ate. We went back up to our room, put on our boots, left our hard bow case at the hotel and headed to the float plane base at 7:30 a.m.

We met up with Randy Walk from Hoyt at the base. The guys weighed up and loaded all of the gear and Ralph & I got on the plane. Our pilot, Michael, had to stop at the Stokes Lake first, to drop Randy’s gear off, then he took us to the upper Mac camp. As soon as we saw the river, we knew it...this is such a spectacular place. Michael landed the plane right in front of camp and we unloaded the plane. Greg & Steve Cross are our guides. They seem to be really nice. We land just before 11 a.m. so we have to wait 6 hours now before we can hunt. I took about 1-1/2 hour nap—Ralph is taking one right now!

The guys are working on the boat motors, trying to get some rocks out of the jet motor!! I’m not sure if we will be hunting this afternoon or not yet. --  At 8:46 p.m. we came back from a trip up the river. We saw 1 cow, 1 calf, and 4 young (small) bull moose and we saw our first grizzly on the upper MacMillan River. He was a ways from camp, thankfully...He actually walked towards us to about 38 yards, but I didn’t get a shot. Oh well, it was really neat to see one. It rained a little on us—some of the rain drops hurt my face, more like hail. It’s chilly and damp, perfect moose weather!

September 14
We got up at 6 a.m., ate breakfast and loaded up the boat and headed east up the river. We went up the south MacMillan River to our zone boundary and we floated back. We saw 3 small bulls, 2 decent bulls, and 1 shooter bull. We also saw 2 cows & 2 calves. We did put a stalk on 2 of the bulls. The first one was pretty narrow. We floated around the oxbow and we heard another bull. We saw him from the river, he looked great.

We got off the boat and tried calling him back towards us. He was in the brush, but a different bull showed up. It was the same one we saw on the other side of the oxbow. We had both of the bulls within 60 yards of us. The smaller of the two was 38 yards. I thought they might fight each other, but they didn’t. The smaller bull was bellowing like a cow! It was a very strange thing. We came back to camp for lunch and to dry out our boots. They were full of water from crossing a creek.

After we let our boots dry some, we packed up the boat again and tried going up the North Mac, but we couldn’t make it because of the log jams. So we headed west instead. We saw a calf in the water and a bunch of wolves started howling right by the calf. We floated by the calf and didn’t see a cow or wolves. We went as far as we could until we found another log jam that we didn’t think it would be smart to try to go through. We turned around and headed back up river towards camp. We spotted a cow & calf, close to where the other calf was earlier. Then we saw a bull. He looked pretty good, we pulled the boat over and tried to put a stalk on him, but he didn’t want to play, and left. We made it back to camp before dark, and now we are getting ready to eat dinner.

September 15
This morning we went up river and spotted a bull just past moose alley, actually we spotted a cow and then the bull. He was a good bull. We tried to stalk him and got him to pass us at 20 yards, but there were leaves and twigs in my way for a shot. We tried to get him to come by again, but he had a cow and calf and didn’t want to leave them. We went to the boat and continued up river. We spotted another bull and cow, and we put a stalk on him as well, but the wind swirled and he left. We also saw a small black bear cub on the side of the river.

This afternoon, we headed up river again. We spotted a nice bull right where the North Mac & South Mac meets. We pulled the boat over and went after him. Ralph & Steve were calling and the bull responded right away. Steve took the call and went behind us to try to draw the bull towards his direction. The bull started coming closer. At about 20 yards, he started to go behind us, rather than on the trail in front of us. Then he changed his mind and started down the path towards us. He was grunting all the way! The bull came on the trail that was about 5 feet from me!! He walked in to the clearing and stopped. I was already at full draw and released my Hellrazor on him. I was shooting my Hoyt, set at 55#, 26”. My Beman ICS Hunters 500 tipped with a Hellrazor 100 grain broadhead. I cannot explain the feelings of having a bull moose at 5 feet and releasing my arrow. He ran about 80 yards and died! It was about 6 p.m. and we had a lot of cutting and packing to do. We got back to camp around 10:15 p.m., so we did pretty well. Ralph & I kept cutting on the bull, while Greg and Steve kept walking the quarters out to the shore. This is the second animal that I have taken with my new Hoyt in 1 week!!! Last Tuesday, we were in Colorado and I shot my first elk, now this Tuesday, I shot my Yukon Moose!! Wow...What a way to start my season! Yahoo!!

September 16
We slept in this morning. It was late after it was all said and done with my moose. We finished caping out the head while Greg and Steve got the meat ready to ship out. About 11:30/12:00, Don & Jackie Lind, the outfitter, flew in. They are going to be here until Sunday. That afternoon, we (Ralph, Don, Steve, & I) went out hunting for a bull for Ralph. It was windy and nothing was really moving. We saw 1 calf moose that was it!

September 17
We went out this morning and we went east up the river. We saw a cow on the side of the river and we pulled off of the river and went into the woods to see if she had a bull. She did, we got to about 20 yards from him, but didn’t get a shot, and it was too thick. It rained some this afternoon. We headed back up the river. We went into some big spruce timber and called. We got an answer, so we got set up on the bull. It took him almost 10 minutes to come all the way in. He got to about 10 yards when he realized something wasn’t right and spun around and left. Ralph couldn’t get a shot again because of the brush in the way. The guys did some fishing this afternoon. Steve caught an Inconnu fish (whitefish). We had it for dinner and it was really good. It seems to be raining on and off since last night. Hopefully it will bring in a cold front so the bulls will move more for us.

September 18
We saw a good bull this morning and not much else. It has been a little slow—must be the lull before the storm. We checked the moose carcass and our Wildview camera. There had been wolves in on the carcass, but the photos are too dark to see them on the camera. We went out about 6 p.m. this evening and Ralph, Steve & I went downstream since we seemed to always go up stream. We didn’t drift too far before we heard a bull grunt. We got off the boat and went into the willows. Steve was using the paddle for an antler and Ralph was calling. We got to about 10 yards from the bull and Ralph shot him!! We had to leave him though, because it was getting dark and we needed to get off the river. (Ralph will have to fill in all of his exciting details of his hunt for you!)

September 19
We went to recover, butcher, and cape Ralph’s moose this morning. All of us were there and it was a great day. Hamburgers on the BBQ on the beach too..

Here is our animals count from the Yukon:

9-13-09 pm - 4 small bulls, 1 cow, 1 calf, 1 grizzly

9-14-09 am - 6 bulls (1-good, 2-med, 3-small), 2 cows, 2 calves

9-14-09 pm - 1 good bull, 1 cow, 2 calves

9-15-09 am - 2 good bulls, 2 cows, 1 calf, 1 black bear

9-15-09 pm - 1 good bull (dead now)

9-16-09 pm - 1 calf

9-17-09 am - 1 good bull, 1 cow, 1 calf

9-17-09 pm - 2 good bulls, 1 cow

9-18-09 am - 1 good bull, 1 cow

9-18-09 pm - 1 good bull (dead now)

Totals - 19 bulls, 9 cows, 8 calves, 2 bears