Chasing a dream - Stone's SHEEP and Roosevelt ELK - PICTURE HEAVY

[Weatherby Fan]

nevermind the sheep and elk......

Whats the story on this one??
Talking when you should have been listening??

This is what can happen to a first time shooter when he thinks he can handle a "MAGNUM' ............Rookie !

[srupp]

ya???and then???lol.....keep it going Dave exceptional.....

steven

[BiG Boar]

This is the result of a 700lb Grizzly on top of me. That was a lesson to be learned all on its own. Wear a helmet. But back to the story....

[digger dogger]

After Dave saw the sheep, he said "I must be dreaming, punch me"
I didnt know he wanted only one punch in the arm.. My mistake!

[Brambles]

This is the result of a 700lb Grizzly on top of me. That was a lesson to be learned all on its own. Wear a helmet. But back to the story....

Gotta stay off the Grizzly Migratory Paths, they'll get yah every time..

[BiG Boar]

As the saying goes, man plans, and God laughs. We woke up to a slight drizzle and we decided to give them an extra hour in the dark. No sense on getting wet for no real reason right? I rolled out of bed after obviously not getting any sleep in that hour of anticipation. After emerging from the tent full of expectation, I turned my eyes skyward, straining them to open as wide as possible, enabling me to scan through the morning mist. It was clear enough to glass, as the fog was near the peaks, so I picked up my spotting scope and returned to the spot confident as to where they laid down. Dawn was just breaking, the horizon barely visible, as I sat motionless I could see the bedded ram. As the dawn began to break what I thought to be the ram turned into a rock. My pulse began to race...Had I lost them again? Where were they? Three solid days of glassing later, I gave up looking at that mountain side. He was LONG GONE.

This is what happens after glassing the same mountain for 3 days.....

[BiG Boar]

After the disappointment of losing this trophy set in, we decided to head out for a hike and check out some potential new basins. We made slow but steady progress. Full of anticipation of what lies over the next hill. We hiked slow and steady, winded due to elevation and then sat and scoped the side of these giant mountains we were beginning to call home. We spent more time staring through binoculars, than the old man that use to live across from my girl friend’s apartment. Unlike him, we weren’t smiling. We encountered herds of caribou that would open soon. But we weren’t here for them. We were here on business. Sheep hunting. No distractions, no wasted time. As time went on I was beginning to hear the words ringing in the back of my head, “sheep hunting is hard.” We knew that reaching prime sheep locations would be the key to finishing the task at hand, so onward we trudged.

[BiG Boar]

With roughly 40 something pounds on our backs we roamed an average of 4 miles daily. Large amounts of time were spent glassing the rocky hills mornings & evenings. I now understand the term God’s country. Standing in a place on earth where nearly no one has ever set foot was awe inspiring; we had time to take in the beauty of the country. For seven days we didn’t even see one single sheep. It was mentally and physically exhausting. We had just climbed the tallest mountain around and came to a spot where we were literally trapped in the cliffs. What were we doing here?

[proguide66]

Frikkin paradise up there!

[BiG Boar]

Like the game show we used our life line sat phone and called our intel man back home. He assured us there were sheep here, and encouraged us to keep at it. It was all the hope I needed, time to re-focus and get back at it. He also told us the area we were trying to get to was not that productive. He told us to head back to base camp and to try some of the more productive basins he had suggested again. One meal on the top of that mountain to refuel and we set off, back to base camp.







Fast forward to August 9th

Dave decided he would glass the “ram” mountain from base camp and I would try a different side of it, and a different bowl later in the day. I packed my gear for the day telling Dave I would return at dark, but that I was coming back with a big ram on my back.