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Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
This year was my third year attempting to chase a Stone sheep ram but my second year as a hunter. In 2010 my brother harvested a nice mountain goat and last year after moving to BC I harvested a goat as well. Both of us are very happy with our progression since we were new and green mountain hunter. We enjoyed each of our hard hikes and hunting trips in very remote country but harvesting a sheep was and still is the ultimate goal.
I’m sharing again this year my hunting season, as it progressed. Since I was serious in my attempt to harvest a sheep I planned two Stone sheep hunting trip this year, 11 days in August and 12 days in October, and I was motivated like I’ve never been before. My last two hunts were in different territories and like any un-guided hunt the land reserves many surprises in access, steepness, water level, trails, presence of wildlife etc even with the best preparation and intel. We lost so much time on both hunts figuring where and how to travel to access the desired mountains. All our hard work paid off in the end with now each a mature goat under our belt.
Unfortunately for me my sheep hunting partner, aka my younger and uglier brother hahaha, couldn’t make it this year. After discussing with a good hunting friend that never hunted in the Rockies, he offered to join me in my adventure. Also since I was now eligible this spring for the LEH, I applied for a grizzly tag and the Kamloops sheep tag. Obviously I didn’t get the sheep LEH but luck was on my side and my sheep hunt turn into a combo sheep/grizzly hunt. I was extremely happy to have such an opportunity to hunt two wild animals of that calibre!!!
For my August hunt my priority was the sheep and I was going to focus my October hunt for a grizzly. But if an opportunity was available on either game I was not going to turn it down.
End of July
Disappointed I learn that my good friend and hunting partner wasn’t going to make it for legit reason. Not mad I reflected what to do and it was out of question that I wasn’t going on my sheep hunt. I couldn’t find someone serious, dedicated and with the same time off on such short notice so I decided my hunt was going to be a solo sheep hunt. Now I seriously had to review all my gear and food list, let me tell you guys I do eat a lot so cutting on the food was tough to do.
Was I up to the challenge for a difficult and far hike, face what mother nature would throw at me and the solitude for 11 days, I tough so. I was much more motivated this year than I’ve been for the last two trips and that was a good thing!!
Few days before I left
My good friend who was supposed to come on my trip came over to show me his Dall sheep horns he harvested a few days earlier on a hunt he won. A very nice 12.5 years old ram and I was hopping it would bring me luck touching his sheep horns.
Sunday August 19
The big days finally arrived after a long wait that never seamed to finish!!! I was working night shift and the next crew shows up for 6:00 but at 5:30 the boss looked at me and said "What are you still doing here". In no time I left the plant and I was heading home. I completed the last touch to the gear list and left home with a very heavy backpack but I knew I had everything to be safe, comfortable and eat just enough. After a long drive day dreaming what this hunt would be like, very tired I camped beside the truck that evening question to rest and not push myself too hard after working a night shift.
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Saturday August 20
I went back hunting somewhat in the same area where I hunted last year. The big advantage I had this time was the knowledge and the experience of last year’s hunt on how to access where I wanted to go without wasting time. It was "faster" but don’t think it was easier! I had to hike to a spot I named the lost horse valley, after that I was going in unknown territory which turn out to be a brutal son of a bi*ch hike.
Here I am all loaded up and also a small grizzly foot print with wolf tracks in the mud after one of the many creek crossing.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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For the first time while hiking in on a sheep hunt it wasn’t raining, I had a beautiful day with a blue sky but it was hot. Halfway into my hike I started to seriously play in hill and mountain side country. In early evening I started to push more intensively since I was still climbing in a steep spot without making much progress in distance and there was no flat spot to set up camp for a good 3 kilometres according to my map. Earlier in the day I had some leg cramps in the calves and hamstring and took care of it but at that point I was pushing my legs to their limit.
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In late evening the leg cramps came back but much worse since the previous two hours I climbed an insane steep mountain side. I wanted to continue since I was less than a mile from the flatter ground but my body couldn’t follow my spirit at that point. I taught I was physically fit and ready but amazingly a motionless rocky mountain played me out. I was forced to take some breaks to relax my legs every 20 steps since my legs didn’t want to move. It’s at that moment I decided to find the best spot to pitch my tent in a small narrow and steep valley. Both valley sides were mostly 70 degree steep so I was forced to push more. I think I did 250 meters in an hour due to the required breaks. At one point my legs seriously locked and didn’t want to move at all. I was standing motionless with useless legs that didn’t want to move to keep my balance or to bend so I could sit down for an other break.
With a very heavy backpack I started to be scared I would loose balance and would not be able to control my weight since my legs couldn’t move. That’s how I can describe the pain and the situation I was facing at that point. Eventually I had to seriously force to bend my legs and let me tell you that was one of the most intense pain I had in my life. Awful and not fun at all!!! After a decent break and massaging my legs I had to continue since there was not way I could sleep in my tent where I was. Eventually I found a steep spot I decided was decent enough set up camp. After a good meal I glassed the mountain sides and found a nice billy goat. It was fun to at least see a goat that evening after such an intense day hiking.
I must have waked up ten times that night since my sleeping bag was sliding down in the tent.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Tuesday August 21
I don’t remember turning off the alarm at 5:00 but I was up at 6:00 with knees on the forehead again. I was out of water and I could hear the creek a couple hundred meters bellow, kind of lazy I had a dry breakfast. The day looked promissing with no clouds in the sky for a second day in a row, a rare thing in my experience in the mountains. I felt good physically and knew I had only half a day of hiking left to do. I did find the same billy goat and two other one too, some nice one but no sheep.
The rest of the hike was great in amazing country and I was kind of excited to finally see what those mountains really look after spending so much time studying the area on so various maps and google earth.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Mid day I was finally at the valley head I had to climb. The area appears to be great sheep country so I set up my tent hidden in a low spot and glass the whole afternoon to sunset. I didn’t find anything except for the marmots that kept whistling constantly. As soon as I got in my tent a storm finally made its way in the valley.
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Wednesday August 22
The rain was still falling at sunrise so I went back sleeping, the body needed it but I wanted to glass. At 9:00 I woke up, had breakfast while organising my gear for the final hike. I started my hike without the rain but some nice clouds were all over the valley and peaks. The hike for the summit was fairly easy when I compare it to my other similar climb I’ve done, the rocks were steady and easy on the ankles.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Almost to the summit I stop to glass the valley head again, it sure did look like good country. I found a game trail in the shale rock in between a small patch of grass and rugged area. After a couple hours I didn’t find any sheep and decided to finish my climb for a new valley head. Once on the other side of the summit I setup my camp in a alpine bowl and organise my backpack of only the essential for hunting. At that same time some big clouds moved in and the rain started to fall again and the temperature was dropping.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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In the evening the rain stopped and I had an opportunity to go glass a valley I had good hopes with. As soon as I was set up the wind shifted and I could feel the air was moving into the valley and up in my direction, I was a the valley head. After 10 minutes of glassing I had to call it a day since the clouds covered the whole valley, it’s a good thing I had something to read since it was early evening at the tent.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
At one point the rain and the clouds moved giving me an opportunity to glass again. Well that didn’t last very long and I was back again at the tent for good.
Thursday August 23
With some major rain falling I was forced to stay in the tent all morning. At 11:00 the clouds were moving into my valley so I loaded my gear to climb back the summit to glass the valley head I came from. I wanted to spend more time glassing that spot to find what made the tracks in the shale rocks I mentioned earlier. I missed the prime glassing time but I still glassed the area with my binos and spotting scope meticulously without finding any sheep.
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After three hours glassing I went back up to glass the prime valley. I only found two very fat marmots and a porcupine. Finding the porcupine was funny since I briefly detected some movement in some shrubs and I started to think could be a grizzly until I saw him again few minutes later. In mid evening the clouds came back and take a wild guess what came with them? Yes some stupid rain again and I was forced to head back to the tent to read and missing the prime glassing time AGAIN.
Friday August 24
Up to mid morning the rain was falling hard followed by thick fog clouds!!!! At that point my hunt was tough mentally from the fact I had to stay in my tent for long period during daytime, I didn’t get decent opportunities to glass and only goats were found. I decided to take my chances and relocate for a neighbour valley I wanted to checkout, so I organised my gear and started my hike in some very beautiful but tough country. This valley wasn’t far but the hike was 3 km to where I could set up camp in a good spot and well located to glass efficiently. This new valley is fairly long and about 600 yards wide. While hiking I spotted a large quantity of game trails in the shale rocks high up on the opposite steep mountain side, that brought back my motivation! All the game tails were funnelling at three mains spots down in the valley in green dense vegetation. The opposite mountain side is so steep that my plan was to find the sheep and study their movement to eventually ambush them at right wind where they like to feed down the valley.
Also during my hike I found for the first time a lot of droppings. I had high hopes of finding something with all the signs present.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Great story and pictures so far Mik, keep going I am looking forward to the rest.
Mike
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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I spent the whole afternoon and evening glassing without finding any game, I was disappointed but that’s hunting and the animals move as they like. The mountain I was on didn’t really have any flat spot so my new camping spot was in a decent slop. Again I woke up so many time with knees in the forehead and I was out of water but I was camped beside a glacier so it wasn’t a serious issue.
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Saturday August 25
Finally had a chance to glass the valley at sunrise but there wasn’t a thing in the valley, well that’s what I think even if I believe it’s sheep country. Hahaha Since I couldn’t find any sheep in the valley with the presence of so much sign I decided to check an other nearby valley for the afternoon in case they would have moved there. A nice tight and small valley, I quickly found on the northern summit side a major game trail that was along great sheep bedding cliffs and also an other trail at the bottom between the same cliffs and vegetation. All I can report is two caribou that were feeding in the buckbrush. The excitement of finding sheep came back when I saw signs in this valley but somewhat slowly faded away. My hunt was tough from day one and the fact my boots never had a chance to dry from feet sweat I had serious cold feet issues which caused my concentration to slowly fade away. As we all know sheep hunting is not easy but I started to doubt this hunt would be a successful one at that point.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Sunday August 26
I went back to the same valley in the morning without finding anything again. It’s at that point I decided to take the tough decision to start heading back and to maybe spend some time glassing the valley where I found the goats earlier during my hike in. I needed to shake things up a bit and I reflected why I couldn’t find any sheep. Did I move in when they naturally move out, did they spot me and moved out then, did the bad weather push them down in the trees etc, all questions still without answers. It wasn’t an easy decision since I was extremely motivated and excited for this hunt, well prepared, I had seriously done my homework studying the area, and I was ready to push myself physically and mentally.
So I loaded my backpack and made my way back. It was a beautiful hot sunny day without rain FINALLY.
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Back down the mountain in a valley bottom still in altitude I was walking at a decent pace while paying attention at each step and keeping an eye on the mountain sides. To my surprise while following the creek when raised my head I was facing three black wolves, one adult and two pups in a small opening. They weren’t moving but the big one was looking in my direction, I suspect the sun prevented him to identify me. What amazed me was the fact the wind was going straight in their direction. I took my rifle out off my gunbearer and took aim.
With a heavy backpack tightly attached it was hard to keep my balance when I took my shot at the adult wolf that was squarely facing me. I believe I missed my shot and the wolf went running in the creek when I reloaded and positioned myself properly for a second shot with my backpack still on. I followed the running wolf and fired a round when he was about to go behind some shrubs. I wish it was on camera because he flipped then rolled and carried on running but seriously injured at a front leg.
I then drop down to remove my backpack to continue my hunt. It’s not my first time playing with wolves and from my experience when you catch them by surprise you can get them to howl back. So I quickly howl to locate them and they answered back. Behind me at 50 yards a pup was howling and it’s without pity that he dropped instantly when I fired a round at him. Then while looking all over the valley I found the adult wolf running on three legs at 600 yards. Few seconds later I found two pups running together on a ridge beside one mountain side. I howled and they stopped to answer back so I grabbed the range finder, some spare ammo and the gps and went running at them laying low in the shrubs. I kept howling to keep them in place but eventually they were about to go over the ridge so I ranged them at 260 yards and used my knee for support. I was out of breath and missed my first shot then I took a big breath and fired again on a broadside wolf. He jumped, turned around and went running with the other one on three legs too. Eventually only one pup came into view running fast and never looked back. I looked to find both injured wolf without luck but I did find some blood in the rocks.
The rush of hunting wolves is so different and intense it’s one of my favourite hunt now when I can locate them or bump into them.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Where the pup was standing behind me.
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I continues my hike out and decided to head back home since I had hot spots in my feet, sign of blisters, and wanted to organise my other fall hunts. A decision that payed off since it rained the following two days. During my hike I found some wolf tracks which were most likely made by the wolves I hunted. I also spotted a band of nanny goat on the same mountain the billies were earlier.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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A portion of the hike I followed a horse trail. After a day hiking out here’s what my feet looked like and I still had half a day of hiking left to do. Once I took my boots off I realised why I had so many hot spots, 9 blisters total.
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Alright that complete my August sheep/grizzly hunt. The best is to come and I’m working on it.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
awesome pics, keep them comming. wait a go on taking out some dogs and i'm lookin forward to the rest.
bhb
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Great story thanks for taking the time to post.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Sounds good so far looking forward to see the final outcome..
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Patiently awaiting the rest of the adventure...
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rocksteady
Patiently awaiting the rest of the adventure...
X2. Loving all the pics too.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
This is shaping up to be one amazing thread!!!!
Thanks for the pics and story so far!
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Well done man...looking forward to the rest...tough stuff!
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Thank you for the great read.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
Awesome adventure.....look forward to the rest.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
hmm great read..have the same tent awesone and light and extremelly durable and the same stove...like your gear selkection..
cheers
Steven
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
September was elk and moose hunting time. I started to scout the area I wanted to hunt early in the spring and made 2 salt licks at good locations and found a natural lick deep in a valley in early summer so I loaded it of salt. As the summer progressed the cameras were taking more and more pictures since the activity at the licks increased constantly. The area it self is loaded with cow elk and few spiker bull with no real bull was seen or taken on camera. I had hi hopes of finding a great bull in the rut with the amount of cows present in the area.
The area also holds a good population of cow moose and a fair amount of bulls too. Early summer I bumped in a very nice bull that had very good potential, he already had great palms with over a month and a half of growth left. To my disappointment the deer population isn’t that good.
Here’s a bunch of video and photos of my trail cameras over the summer
http://youtu.be/aEyLXe1_nUg
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)
The moose came for their share of salt too
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As you can all see I found a nice spot where moose and elk are very active. It no blind luck since I scouted intensively, worked hard and invested a lot of time to maintain my salt station and to figure out the land. I had high hopes of connecting on a good bull elk or moose and decided to set the bar quite high for the challenge. Hunting pressure is a big factor anywhere you hunt and the wildlife adapt very quickly.
There was hunting pressure in the area and it was very obvious within the first few days of September. Combining the pressure to hot weather and very strong winds the activity slowed down drastically. One particular night I went over looking a valley well over an hour after it was dark to check the night activity. Nothing was calling and answered to my cow calls or bugles!!! I can’t complain since early in the season I passed up a 5x5.
I had to go to Edmonton and took two days off hunting since it was very slow and tough to find any game. While down there I went the Cadomin mine with a good friend who never seen the Rockies yet to check out the bighorn sheep. What an amazing place to see sheep!!! The day I decide to hunt bighorns I’ll spend a lot of time there to study bighorn horns, I’m still amazed how un spooky they are to human activity.
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Re: Realising the hunting season of my dream: sheep, grizzly, elk, moose (heavy pics)