Tuffcity
09-19-2014, 09:17 PM
This is year three of trying to get my wife her first Stone Sheep. I talked to pilots, I talked to those “in the know”, I got “come talk to me” advice from people who had been to the area and been successful… camp here, follow this drainage up, glass these mountain sides. I thought I was dialed in.
September 4th I landed in Whitehorse where Helen picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to Atlin, we had the float plane booked for an afternoon flight out. She was still in her work clothes and I was lamenting the couple of items I had forgotten to pack. (Like my frickin’ jetboil and all the jerky I had made for the trip!)
Rewind…
Usually we have our gear sitting on the dining room table for weeks before we go. It’s checked, rechecked, and finally packed up. Earlier this year Hel had taken a job with Yukon Territorial Gov’t and was living in Whitehorse. She is still technically a BC Resident so we planned on hunting Stones in northern BC. The problem with that is that we had gear scattered between Whitehorse and Victoria, only a mere 1500 miles (2500 km) apart. This made for some interesting calls: “Is (some item) up there with you?” “I can’t find this (some other item)”. Finally we had most of it resolved.
But it was the year of chaos in the packing department.
All our food was ordered online and shipped to Whitehorse (hey, they had buy “X” amount and shipping is free, plus it saved on me having to fly up with it), it arrived on September 3rd. One bullet dodged. I texted Hel from the Vancouver airport, “Forgot to pack my jetboail” She had to run out on her lunch and get me a new one. Upside, I really like the new titanium one!
We had stuff packed in totes and thrown in the truck but what the hell, we where going hunting, we’d throw it all in the Beaver and sort it out at base camp.
And so the journey began…
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt12_zpsed7d942e.jpg
We spent the first night at the lake and then rearranged and our gear the next morning and started to pack in.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt20_zpsf8516ce0.jpg
When we cleared the trees we spotted a ram that, through bino’s, looked like it might be legal. He wondered off before we could get a scope on him but it set the stage for optimism.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt13_zps1f0b0d59.jpg
The wind started to really pick up on the higher ridges. I was nearly 300 pounds on the ground with all my gear and what I weigh and the wind was starting to throw me around. My wife, considerably lighter, was having a much tougher time so we decide to camp and found a spot up against a small bluff and some scrub pines that offered a bit of respite from the wind. We found the biggest rocks we could handle to weigh the tent down and rode out the storm. Our North Face tent handled it like a champ.
Made it in the next morning and once camp was set up we immediately starting seeing sheep and caribou, unfortunately ewes and lambs. The next day we spotted a couple of rams and after about 4 hours of chase the feeding sheep we got a good enough look to see that they were a half and three quarter curl. Next!
That evening the clouds set in and the rain started. That night the rain turned to driving snow and we lost the next day due to no visibility.
What’s sheep hunting without a snow storm? J
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt6_zps5d8b821f.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt22_zps20c19b84.jpg
September 4th I landed in Whitehorse where Helen picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to Atlin, we had the float plane booked for an afternoon flight out. She was still in her work clothes and I was lamenting the couple of items I had forgotten to pack. (Like my frickin’ jetboil and all the jerky I had made for the trip!)
Rewind…
Usually we have our gear sitting on the dining room table for weeks before we go. It’s checked, rechecked, and finally packed up. Earlier this year Hel had taken a job with Yukon Territorial Gov’t and was living in Whitehorse. She is still technically a BC Resident so we planned on hunting Stones in northern BC. The problem with that is that we had gear scattered between Whitehorse and Victoria, only a mere 1500 miles (2500 km) apart. This made for some interesting calls: “Is (some item) up there with you?” “I can’t find this (some other item)”. Finally we had most of it resolved.
But it was the year of chaos in the packing department.
All our food was ordered online and shipped to Whitehorse (hey, they had buy “X” amount and shipping is free, plus it saved on me having to fly up with it), it arrived on September 3rd. One bullet dodged. I texted Hel from the Vancouver airport, “Forgot to pack my jetboail” She had to run out on her lunch and get me a new one. Upside, I really like the new titanium one!
We had stuff packed in totes and thrown in the truck but what the hell, we where going hunting, we’d throw it all in the Beaver and sort it out at base camp.
And so the journey began…
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt12_zpsed7d942e.jpg
We spent the first night at the lake and then rearranged and our gear the next morning and started to pack in.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt20_zpsf8516ce0.jpg
When we cleared the trees we spotted a ram that, through bino’s, looked like it might be legal. He wondered off before we could get a scope on him but it set the stage for optimism.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt13_zps1f0b0d59.jpg
The wind started to really pick up on the higher ridges. I was nearly 300 pounds on the ground with all my gear and what I weigh and the wind was starting to throw me around. My wife, considerably lighter, was having a much tougher time so we decide to camp and found a spot up against a small bluff and some scrub pines that offered a bit of respite from the wind. We found the biggest rocks we could handle to weigh the tent down and rode out the storm. Our North Face tent handled it like a champ.
Made it in the next morning and once camp was set up we immediately starting seeing sheep and caribou, unfortunately ewes and lambs. The next day we spotted a couple of rams and after about 4 hours of chase the feeding sheep we got a good enough look to see that they were a half and three quarter curl. Next!
That evening the clouds set in and the rain started. That night the rain turned to driving snow and we lost the next day due to no visibility.
What’s sheep hunting without a snow storm? J
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt6_zps5d8b821f.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a20/Tuffcity/sheep%20hunt%202014/sheephunt22_zps20c19b84.jpg