What do you call a guy who flies into the middle of nowhere Alaska and travels over 700 miles alone by foot, raft and boot leather while in search of caribou, Dall sheep and moose? You call him by his name, Bruce “Buck” Nelson. Buck is part hunter, part adventurer, and part documentarian who decided to take this long solo hunting trip and document it through video and still photography.
700 Miles is not your average hunting DVD. It is a full documentation of what it is really like to spend months alone in the wilderness while facing many possible dangers and having to rely solely on common sense, good equipment and sound decision making.
Nelson’s DVD is an educational masterpiece as it not only gives viewers a peak into what is beautiful about the wilds of Alaska, but it also shows that big game animals in Alaska are not hiding behind every rock and bush. A lot of people dream of coming to Alaska because they imagine trophy game animals everywhere; however, Nelson shows it like it is in this video record of how few and far between trophy animals can be found.
While Nelson travels most of his journey by raft down three different rivers, he also hikes for weeks in search of Dall sheep. Again, he shows what most Alaska hunters already know — that killing sometimes takes a lot of work. It is this brutal honesty that gives 700 Miles credibility, and that seems refreshing during these modern times when only highlights of a hunt are worthy enough to make it into an average hunting show.
In the DVD, you will get to see numerous Grizzly bears, wolves, some moose, tons of caribou including some serious trophies, and you will also see plenty of Dall sheep as well. Since Nelson chose to travel so far, he made sure not to harvest any animals early on in the trip so as to not give any game meat a chance to sour. This is another reality of hunting in the Alaska wilderness that Nelson documents. Not only do you have to plan for success, but you have to also plan to be unsuccessful as well.
Nelson narrates the video in old fashioned form, and his earnest and unpretentious voice lends to the whole nostalgia of the timeless idealism of being alone in nature. As the video takes you through each turn of the three different rivers, you don’t know what will happen next, and this uncertainty provides the proof that Nelson has really created a documentary and not a standard hunting video.
If you want to spend 75 minutes being transported into every hunter’s fantasy, go to Bucktrack.com and order 700 Miles Alone by Backpack and Raft. While there, you will also have the chance to order Buck’s other noteworthy adventure, Alone Across Alaska: 1000 Miles of Wilderness.
