# Alaska, getting in



## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

Well my third trip to Alaska was postponed this spring due to black bear season being closed to nonres and a two week quarantine requirement.

Current regulations are you need to take a covid 19 test within 72 hours of departure to Alasla. If you don't have your results before arrival, you need to quarantine until you receive them. On another forum, some claim you can 'quarantine' at your remote hunt location but that seems a little iffy. You then essentially limit to essential travel and outdoor recreation while in state.

Trouble is many of these tests have wait times well over 72 hours. Perhaps even a week. But some of the mail in vendors have short turn around time. Plus it's better to swab yourself because some of the people who give the test are complete idiots and shove the thing too far up your nose. This is very painful.

I took mine as a mail in yesterday. I drove an hour to an actual fedex branch in bay city to overnight it. That's because none of the dollar General locations could give me a straight answer on the overnight shipping process. The vendor received my test just now got and email. Turn around is now 24-48 hours from receipt.

We'll see if I get in.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

I wouldnt expect a Dollar General employee to give me reliable and accurate information on a bag of skittles let alone shipping.


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## hunt-r (Jul 2, 2008)

shaffe48b said:


> Well my third trip to Alaska was postponed this spring due to black bear season being closed to nonres and a two week quarantine requirement.
> 
> Current regulations are you need to take a covid 19 test within 72 hours of departure to Alasla. If you don't have your results before arrival, you need to quarantine until you receive them. On another forum, some claim you can 'quarantine' at your remote hunt location but that seems a little iffy. You then essentially limit to essential travel and outdoor recreation while in state.
> 
> ...


Just make sure your test is a “PCR” test. This is the only test Alaska is accepting. I’m headed up the 29th to the Valdez area for fall moose. Having the test done 72 hours prior to departure.


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## soggybtmboys (Feb 24, 2007)

"On another forum, some claim you can 'quarantine' at your remote hunt location but that seems a little iffy. You then essentially limit to essential travel and outdoor recreation while in state."

If you read the mandate carefully, and then proceed to the faqs section, it is clearly explained you can quarantine at your final destination. Which should be what you declare on your declaration form. If you don't, you could get hung up in some place in the middle.

You also better be sure that the specific borough you are heading into, isn't shut down. The villages and boroughs are allowed to exceed the state mandates. Bettles is one that is shutdown and has stopped Brooks Range Aviation from operating this fall.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

Got my neg test back 7 hours after they received it and 31 hours after i sent it out. Ymmv. Guess I could have went with the better flight, but you never know. Shucks.

Now for the 101 other risks and unknowns we always have to deal with in a hunting trip. Probably one of them will get me this year. Hope not.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

shaffe48b said:


> Got my neg test back 7 hours after they received it and 31 hours after i sent it out. Ymmv. Guess I could have went with the better flight, but you never know. Shucks.
> 
> Now for the 101 other risks and unknowns we always have to deal with in a hunting trip. Probably one of them will get me this year. Hope not.


Have a great trip! What are you going after and which part of the state?


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

Black bear south central. It appears to have been warmer and dryer than usual but at least in giving it a shot.


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## Joel/AK (Jan 12, 2013)

Just act like the rest of alaskans when they fly in. Ignore that BS and walk past it. Anchorage isn't enforcing anything.


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## Joel/AK (Jan 12, 2013)

Alot of good spots on the kenai for blackies.


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## Joel/AK (Jan 12, 2013)

When you hit ANC, rent a car and go to fish and game on raspberry st. They used to have a big map on where all bear bait sites are. Gives you a n idea on bear areas.


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## grapestomper (Jan 9, 2012)

i got to the anchorage airport with my family. 
We just proceeded to baggage and to the rental car and didn't talk to anyone. 
People just walked off the plane and out the door. 
Nobody was enforcing anything unless you asked.


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## TheMAIT (Nov 7, 2005)

hunt-r said:


> Just make sure your test is a “PCR” test. This is the only test Alaska is accepting. I’m headed up the 29th to the Valdez area for fall moose. Having the test done 72 hours prior to departure.


Please let us know how things went when you return! Just left Valdez about a week ago...but I was fishing.


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## TheMAIT (Nov 7, 2005)

grapestomper said:


> i got to the anchorage airport with my family.
> We just proceeded to baggage and to the rental car and didn't talk to anyone.
> People just walked off the plane and out the door.
> Nobody was enforcing anything unless you asked.


This is completely the opposite of what I encountered on the 17th of August and the huge line of people when I left on the 30th. They were forcing all arriving passengers through a checkpoint to show proof of testing.


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

I followed the rules at least in terms of testing. I also didn't sit in at restaurants and wore my mask in public places such as stores. No real issues. Used picture genetics for the test and had it easily in time.

Hunt of a lifetime which hopefully gets repeated. My first six foot hide and plenty of meat taken from blueberry patches on the side of a mountain. Definitely look up alaska airline, grant airline, alaska west air, kenai taxi, Alaska Canoe & Campground of Sterling for before and after plus freezer space, and Arctic Wolf Taxidermy Services of Anchorage among others.

https://picturegenetics.com/covid19
https://www.alaskawestair.com/
http://www.alaskacanoetrips.com/
https://m.facebook.com/ArticWolfTaxidermyServices/
www.alaskaair.com
https://www.flygrant.com/
https://d.facebook.com/Alaska-Cab-677255805619176/
https://www.puffininn.net/


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

looking forward to my spring bear hunt, hoping things don't get worse in the spring.


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## d_rek (Nov 6, 2013)

shaffe48b said:


> On another forum, some claim you can 'quarantine' at your remote hunt location but that seems a little iffy.


I know two guys who did exactly this for caribou just a couple weeks ago. 

"Where are you quarantining?" 

"In the middle of nowhere." 

"Ok. See you later."


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

d_rek said:


> I know two guys who did exactly this for caribou just a couple weeks ago.
> 
> "Where are you quarantining?"
> 
> ...


To be honest it's probably easier and cheaper in the long run to drop $120 for the test and be done with it. Really a drop in the bucket considering the expenses of even a DIY alaska trip.

You probably could have made it happen either way but depending on your exact plans it might not actually be that straight forward. It's easy to say you are heading straight to the bush and straight out again. In practice it's often not as easy as get off the plane in anchorage and 'poof' in the bush. You will also have gaps built into your plan due to possible delays besides and what are you going to do doing during those gaps?

For me I had two calendar days including hotel shuttle, hotel, small single prop plane carrier, stores for food camp gas and bear spray, rental car, campground to sleep the night, taxi cab, and Bush pilot check in and flight between me and the Bush. And that's just the way in. You'll also have to deal with meat and taxidermy on the way out in addition to any pick me ups like snacks or alcohol.

Could you do it and get away with it? Yes, no one checked up on me. But if you happen to get stopped for speeding while pulling out of wmart with your rental car while you are 'quaranteining in the middle of nowhere.' Well, again, you might get off scott free but it all depends.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

shaffe48b said:


> To be honest it's probably easier and cheaper in the long run to drop $120 for the test and be done with it. Really a drop in the bucket considering the expenses of even a DIY alaska trip.
> 
> You probably could have made it happen either way but depending on your exact plans it might not actually be that straight forward. It's easy to say you are heading straight to the bush and straight out again. In practice it's often not as easy as get off the plane in anchorage and 'poof' in the bush. You will also have gaps built into your plan due to possible delays besides and what are you going to do doing during those gaps?
> 
> ...


I'm assuming you will post a hunt report? Sounds like a great trip!!


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

steelyspeed said:


> I'm assuming you will post a hunt report? Sounds like a great trip!!


It was my third trip and second with a transporter. This trip definitely highlighted the profound advantages and profound disadvantages of an air transporter trip in Alaska, for me at least. 

Advantages are basically being dropped off at your campsite in a remote area that's better than you are likely to find yourself and hike up into. These pilots fly these areas at low elevations often for years or decades. They know exactly where they see the critters in accessible areas. There were at least a half dozen bears using this area almost every day. Many were big.

The disadvantage is you don't really get to choose your spot and, in the case of this transporter at least, you don't even know where you are going until it's time to get on the plane. This time the ideas floated to me before the trip were a lake and a 'headwaters'. I ended up in a place with no water whatsoever carrying three ways to treat water and wearing a pair of hip boots. (Sorry, no one carries six days of water in their pack without a good reason.) I ended up paying to have water lifted to me and stalking bears over a mile of dry ground in a pair of hippers.


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