Starting in January, thanks to the warm winter, I did a lot of hikes up in the McCullough Peaks with a heavy pack, sometimes taking my family and our dog.

Photo courtesy Kristi Taylor

By the time you read this column in the Sportsman's Guide I, fittingly, will be in northern Alaska on the hunt of a lifetime. 

I had to, and this is no hyperbole, completely change my lifestyle to prepare for it. 

Turn the clock back more than a year, to the spring of 2025, when my dad told my brother and me it was time to book a hunt that had long been on his bucket list: Alaskan caribou. 

I said yes quite quickly, not realizing just how big of an impact preparing for it would have on my life. 

Gear

For starters, I have proudly hunted in just about the cheapest clothing imaginable, being particularly fond of the deals at Walmart at the end of a season, allowing me to be largely clothed for hunting for less than $40. 

It didn’t matter if the clothes I needed to be warm were extra bulky or I needed more layers, it’s not like I was doing hunts that involved tons of walking, or at least I wasn’t trying to. 

I scoffed at my dad and brother buying Sitka and other top brands, reveling in my bargain basement deals and proudly seeking out the cheapest ammo whether I was going after deer or ducks. 

One year the sole of one of the used hunting boots I had purchased separated from the rest of the boot, leaving me to finish hunting in cowboy boots. Another year an early snow caught me off guard: I had foolishly worn boots with holes in the sides. 

However, to prepare for a two-week hunting trip where you need to carry all your clothes either on you or on your back, prepare for a wild range of temperatures and conditions, I grudgingly realized those more expensive clothing items were, in many cases, more expensive for a reason. They last longer and provide as good if not better protection against the elements while being much lighter and sleeker than my dirt cheap favorites. 

It hurt my psyche and my checking account, but I’ve spent much more on clothes ahead of the hunt than I have in all the years leading up to it. But, these are clothes that should last, so it was an important realization of quality over quantity. 

Fitness

Of course, all the Sitka, Kings and Crispi brand gear wasn’t going to mean much if I was lugging my 230-pound, shy of 5-foot-7-inch frame 10 miles a day through the Brooks Range with a 40-pound pack. 

I’ve never been into fitness — even as an athlete all through my school years I never bothered to do any workouts between soccer, baseball or later lacrosse seasons. And when I went to college and kept up my eating and drinking habits without any sports to offset that, the freshman 15 turned into a steadily increasing number. 

Two years ago I determined to improve my physical and financial wellness and cut back on eating out, especially fast food, and I took the clothes that had been hanging on an old exercise bike and began to do a small ride each morning. 

After a year I had lost 10 pounds, but that had only brought me from a scary high of 240 to 230. 

Then, in June of 2025, I decided to do what I had known to be true and really focused on my eating habits as a way to lose weight. 

It was tough, but with a devotion to cardio — running up and down my hilly driveway, doing Mountain Tough exercises, etc. — cutting back on calories and prioritizing healthy, nutrition-packed foods, I surprised myself and actually started to lose really big amounts of weight. 

By the beginning of 2026, I was hovering around 160. 

Of course, you can’t lose that much weight that quickly without losing muscle, so then began the work to build that back up and recover my appetite without gaining back all the fat. A gym membership and an overhauled idea about food helped. I now focus much more on protein (especially a lot of venison and Wyoming beef), veggies, fruits and dairy — especially Greek yogurt — skip the processed snacks, eat smaller portion desserts and make sure when I do eat carbs (I am a bread aficionado) I do so in moderation. 

Practice

In addition to the incredible trip itself, my dad did give my brother and myself new rifles one Christmas to harvest our caribou (and potentially grizzly bear). My Tikka .300 win mag still kicks like a mule even with a ported barrel, but I’ve already used it to take a very nice whitetail last fall and it can reach out to serious ranges. 

Generally, I've been far too cavalier about getting my rifle ready for hunting season. I’ll take a couple of shots before the season and call it good. But, since I had already taken the plunge and acquired good gear, and completely revamped my lifestyle to get in shape, I decided I didn’t want my inexperience with my rifle to be my downfall. 

So, let’s just say my Heart Mountain Rod and Gun Club membership has more than paid for itself this year. It wasn’t too hard to get the gun dialed in, but I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with it, to a degree I’ve never been comfortable with a big game rifle before. After a number of days of bruised shoulders, I’ve grown quite fond of the rifle, comfortable with the scope, and excited to take it to the far north. 

Ready?

This is still a trip with many features that will be brand new to me — I’ve never done a big backpacking trip, hunted in Alaska (although I’ve fished), been north of the Arctic Circle or harvested an animal larger than a mule deer — so am I ready? 

That’s not something I can answer, but what I can say: I’m better prepared than I have been for just about anything else in my life.