Krico
08-15-2014, 04:51 PM
Ok I finally had time to write something up. Hunt stories are really the main thing I log in here hoping to read, and admit I’ve not bothered several times in the last few years to avoid drama. I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into the usual sheep thread $hit show.
I picked up Tenacious Billy about 9am, and hit the road. Fast forward an uneventful 24 hours and we are in sheep country. For 5 days we searched high and low, to no avail. Not a single sheep spotted. Not a ewe, not a lamb, nothing. I had convinced TB to go off the beaten track…it was starting to look unbeaten for a reason. We still enjoyed the standard fare of early Aug sheep hunting though. Beautiful views, clean air, quiet solitude and no distractions of everyday life. We also got to enjoy dehydration, sleep deprivation, cuts, bruises, blisters and horrifying bugs.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4893_zps6f71178a.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4893_zps6f71178a.jpg.html)
Day 6 started pretty much the same. We were even more exhausted than usual due to a marathon hike the day prior to get us a look into some new country. And to be honest, we were a little late crawling out of the fart sack, and slow getting going. We opted to climb a nearby saddle and settle in for a restful day of glassing. At 10:20, after a couple hours of the usual nothing, TB whispers “Holy $hit, there’s a ram right there!” I was scared to move, and facing the wrong direction. I asked him how big it was, or if there was more of them, or something like that. TB peered through his spotter.
“He’s real short. Banana ram…hold that thought, he looks pretty heavy. His other side looks better, but I can’t see it that good. You’re ok to turn around slowly, he’s looking away.”
I spun around, and started looking. It turns out that “right there” means over a km away, when you haven’t seen a thing for 6 days. The ram had bedded on a spire just below the ridgetop. Got my spotter settled on him, and we both waited for him to give us a good look. In no time at all, he spun his head to look back down over the valley. I knew instantly. “We need to kill that ram,” I said. So we belly crawled backwards, off the backside of the ridge until we were completely out of sight. He had casually stood up and fed out of sight, apparently unalarmed. Game on. This looked perfect to get TB his first ram.
About 1.5 hours later, we were in the closing stages of the stalk. Wind in our face, we crept forward. Slowly. No ram. We searched and searched, he simply was not visible. I figured he had bedded in the cliffs, so we split up and set up where we could see, watched and waited. I even nudged a couple boulders off the top, hoping he’d stand up and reveal himself. Nada. After a rainstorm blew through, I put away my custom Glad bag pack cover and started slowly down to TB, so we could come up with a plan for the rest of the day. It was now about 3pm. I was moving slowly, watching all around and caught movement on the skyline one ridge over. He had slipped out the back door. I froze, and watched him feed for a minute or two. He disappeared over the skyline. I was pretty sure he’d spotted me.
With some frantic hand signals TB now knew that I had spotted the ram and it was time to go, again. As fast as possible we crossed the boulder field and crested the ridge. It was like a replay of the morning. There was no sign of him feeding off the slow rolling backside, and nothing in view in the cliffs. “He’s got to be here”, I said. “We are staying and watching this area until dark. One of us on each side. You pick where first, I’ll take the other spot.” I settled in below a large boulder atop the cliffs, taking care not to skyline myself. It was probably 6:00 pm at this point. TB was 500 meters away across the basin. I’d had no water since breakfast, nothing to eat either. I inhaled a CLIF protein bar which had apparently fossilized during the day, and washed it down with a couple delicious ibuprofen. My lips were bleeding I was so dehydrated. Sent a SPOT message to my loved ones at home, and settled in for a night of glassing.
A couple hours went by, and I was starting to doubt my plan, and wondering if the sneaky old ram had slipped away for good. All of a sudden, about 8:30pm he stood up not more than 140 metres directly below me in the cliffs. For whatever reason, he turned and looked straight above and at me. I froze and waited for him to decide I was nothing to worry about. It was his last mistake.
I waited impatiently for TB to show up, and after high fives and bro hugs we started to look for the ram. I knew he was hit hard, and had not run, but I couldn’t see him. He had to have fallen right there. But I was stressing. It was fairly life threatening climbing down, and we were doing it with reckless abandon. Must find ram. TB spotted the horns after 20 minutes, and here’s what we walked up on. It was now after 9pm.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/100_2284_zps53368c60.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/100_2284_zps53368c60.jpg.html)
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4907_zps7ac1266e.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4907_zps7ac1266e.jpg.html)
After a good photo session, we got to work full caping the ram and deboning the all meat. We worked well into darkness in the cliffs. TB got a little cold after sitting down while I fleshed the cape to keep busy. So he settled in Luke Skywalker style to stay warm.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4942_zpsc3fbe240.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4942_zpsc3fbe240.jpg.html)
Once done fleshing it was time to celebrate, again.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4928_zpscfe68b56.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4928_zpscfe68b56.jpg.html)
We waited for it to be light enough to navigate our way out of the cliffs safely, and started the crawl up on hands and knees. The pack out was the standard level of ugliness accompanied by the usual comments questioning our sanity, and proclaiming “never again!” I snapped one of my trekking poles ¼ of the way back, TB smashed his brand new rifle and scope on the rocks several times. At dark I realized my headlamp was resting nicely close to the gut pile. Oh well, this day had run for 39 hours and I was done. Huge shout out to TB for going along with my crazy hunt plans, and hanging in there when things were looking bleak. I truly wish he had shot the ram, but it just didn’t work out that way. We agreed on the way up neither of us would let something walk if given the opportunity, should we be split. Also a very big thank you to a couple members on here, you know who you are.
Good luck to all the other sheep hunters out there.
I picked up Tenacious Billy about 9am, and hit the road. Fast forward an uneventful 24 hours and we are in sheep country. For 5 days we searched high and low, to no avail. Not a single sheep spotted. Not a ewe, not a lamb, nothing. I had convinced TB to go off the beaten track…it was starting to look unbeaten for a reason. We still enjoyed the standard fare of early Aug sheep hunting though. Beautiful views, clean air, quiet solitude and no distractions of everyday life. We also got to enjoy dehydration, sleep deprivation, cuts, bruises, blisters and horrifying bugs.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4893_zps6f71178a.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4893_zps6f71178a.jpg.html)
Day 6 started pretty much the same. We were even more exhausted than usual due to a marathon hike the day prior to get us a look into some new country. And to be honest, we were a little late crawling out of the fart sack, and slow getting going. We opted to climb a nearby saddle and settle in for a restful day of glassing. At 10:20, after a couple hours of the usual nothing, TB whispers “Holy $hit, there’s a ram right there!” I was scared to move, and facing the wrong direction. I asked him how big it was, or if there was more of them, or something like that. TB peered through his spotter.
“He’s real short. Banana ram…hold that thought, he looks pretty heavy. His other side looks better, but I can’t see it that good. You’re ok to turn around slowly, he’s looking away.”
I spun around, and started looking. It turns out that “right there” means over a km away, when you haven’t seen a thing for 6 days. The ram had bedded on a spire just below the ridgetop. Got my spotter settled on him, and we both waited for him to give us a good look. In no time at all, he spun his head to look back down over the valley. I knew instantly. “We need to kill that ram,” I said. So we belly crawled backwards, off the backside of the ridge until we were completely out of sight. He had casually stood up and fed out of sight, apparently unalarmed. Game on. This looked perfect to get TB his first ram.
About 1.5 hours later, we were in the closing stages of the stalk. Wind in our face, we crept forward. Slowly. No ram. We searched and searched, he simply was not visible. I figured he had bedded in the cliffs, so we split up and set up where we could see, watched and waited. I even nudged a couple boulders off the top, hoping he’d stand up and reveal himself. Nada. After a rainstorm blew through, I put away my custom Glad bag pack cover and started slowly down to TB, so we could come up with a plan for the rest of the day. It was now about 3pm. I was moving slowly, watching all around and caught movement on the skyline one ridge over. He had slipped out the back door. I froze, and watched him feed for a minute or two. He disappeared over the skyline. I was pretty sure he’d spotted me.
With some frantic hand signals TB now knew that I had spotted the ram and it was time to go, again. As fast as possible we crossed the boulder field and crested the ridge. It was like a replay of the morning. There was no sign of him feeding off the slow rolling backside, and nothing in view in the cliffs. “He’s got to be here”, I said. “We are staying and watching this area until dark. One of us on each side. You pick where first, I’ll take the other spot.” I settled in below a large boulder atop the cliffs, taking care not to skyline myself. It was probably 6:00 pm at this point. TB was 500 meters away across the basin. I’d had no water since breakfast, nothing to eat either. I inhaled a CLIF protein bar which had apparently fossilized during the day, and washed it down with a couple delicious ibuprofen. My lips were bleeding I was so dehydrated. Sent a SPOT message to my loved ones at home, and settled in for a night of glassing.
A couple hours went by, and I was starting to doubt my plan, and wondering if the sneaky old ram had slipped away for good. All of a sudden, about 8:30pm he stood up not more than 140 metres directly below me in the cliffs. For whatever reason, he turned and looked straight above and at me. I froze and waited for him to decide I was nothing to worry about. It was his last mistake.
I waited impatiently for TB to show up, and after high fives and bro hugs we started to look for the ram. I knew he was hit hard, and had not run, but I couldn’t see him. He had to have fallen right there. But I was stressing. It was fairly life threatening climbing down, and we were doing it with reckless abandon. Must find ram. TB spotted the horns after 20 minutes, and here’s what we walked up on. It was now after 9pm.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/100_2284_zps53368c60.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/100_2284_zps53368c60.jpg.html)
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4907_zps7ac1266e.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4907_zps7ac1266e.jpg.html)
After a good photo session, we got to work full caping the ram and deboning the all meat. We worked well into darkness in the cliffs. TB got a little cold after sitting down while I fleshed the cape to keep busy. So he settled in Luke Skywalker style to stay warm.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4942_zpsc3fbe240.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4942_zpsc3fbe240.jpg.html)
Once done fleshing it was time to celebrate, again.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/fishmanning/IMG_4928_zpscfe68b56.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/fishmanning/media/IMG_4928_zpscfe68b56.jpg.html)
We waited for it to be light enough to navigate our way out of the cliffs safely, and started the crawl up on hands and knees. The pack out was the standard level of ugliness accompanied by the usual comments questioning our sanity, and proclaiming “never again!” I snapped one of my trekking poles ¼ of the way back, TB smashed his brand new rifle and scope on the rocks several times. At dark I realized my headlamp was resting nicely close to the gut pile. Oh well, this day had run for 39 hours and I was done. Huge shout out to TB for going along with my crazy hunt plans, and hanging in there when things were looking bleak. I truly wish he had shot the ram, but it just didn’t work out that way. We agreed on the way up neither of us would let something walk if given the opportunity, should we be split. Also a very big thank you to a couple members on here, you know who you are.
Good luck to all the other sheep hunters out there.