A Tale of Sheep and Stone: Journey of two Brothers

[Crawfy42]

Before reading, you better grab a drink. It will take a little while.

Kyle (me) – 11 Years Hunting experience / 2nd Backpack hunt – 25 years old
Brad (Brother)– 10 years hunting experience / 2nd backpack hunt – 23 years old

You might remember our first backpack hunt from September 2010 which was an excursion for mountain goats. If you haven’t read it before or forgot here it is… http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?55932-First-Hike-in-Hunt-First-Goat-Hunt-FULL-STORY

-----Sorry for the delay on this story, I’ve been very busy since the end of July and I just now got around to writing it out! Hope you all enjoy!----

It began only a few weeks after the goat trip back in 2010. My brother and I had to go on another backpack hunt, we were hooked. The only problem was that the rest of that Fall’s hunting season wasn’t even over, and we had two big annual moose and deer trips in October and November respectively. So we knew we had to wait, but planning for it didn’t. Over the previous 6 or 7 years, we knew a great group of guys that hunt Stones and hearing their tales and seeing their mounts and pictures from successful hunts we knew we someday wanted to go far north. After the last couple of years, reading stories on here about your guys’ Stone Sheep hunting adventures, we KNEW we were going to go after them. I read all of your sheep hunt stories and saw all the pictures, truly an incredible trophy and would be one hell of an adventure. So planning began in December 2010 and did as much research, google earthing, and thinking as a man could do. You know how it is. The only thing was that my Dad wanted to get a goat in September 2011, he had never backpacked hunted before so that was starting to be a plan as well. That trip would be taking precedent since my Dad has never got a mountain goat and he is 58 and who knows how long he has in the good shape he’s in to do the hiking required. Plus he taught my brother and I what we know about hunting since we were little gaffers. It was time to help him. So keeping all that in mind, including the annual moose and deer trips again for 2011, I’m pretty booked up for holidays. But we still spent many hours (probably days of time) planning a Sheep hunt if we somehow found the time to go. As we got into July it was looking like it would not happen, there was no way. Since we live in Langley/Surrey and we were driving we need a lot of time including driving up and back. Well, the hunting gods spoke, with rage. 3rd week in July, my there is a pretty big fire at my work. From that, my place of work would be shut down for a few weeks and since my brother works there as well, we have a window that has opened up to go. Sheep will be open August 1 and we were going to be there.

July 27, 2011
My brother stayed over at my place the night before so we could wake up at 3:30 in the morning and get a good start on the long long long long long ……long trek north. The plan was to take our time and drive up in 2 days, no rush, and start hiking in on July 29. 3 days before opening day we would find a base camp and scout for sheep as well as getting a lay of the land, and hopefully find a legal ram for opening day. It’s quite the experience driving all the way up there. I’ve never been past PG, there is a lot of terrain changes and then once you get past Dawson Creek, it all becomes the same. Green fields, flat, nothing, nothing, flat, green. Nothing. We stay the night somewhere off a logging road around mile 172 on the Alaska Highway past Pink Mountain.

July 28, 2011
Finally making it to Fort Nelson, we found our food stop for the way back home. Boston Pizza. I could not believe there is a Boston Pizza there, and no Tim Hortons?! Strange. After many many many hours of driving through green nothing and flatness and a lot of moosy looking trees, we finally see mountains in the distance. We are heading west now. An hour and a half or 2 hours later we turn the corner and there is Stone Mountain. Huge, bright grey, and just sweet looking. Finally something to see! We start yelling and cheering like little kids along with some fist bumping. Oh wait what’s that on the road? Caribou! The first Caribou either of us had ever seen in our lives was there on the side of the highway. Sweet. We kept driving past Summit Lake and as the road starts going downhill with Macdonald Creek way to the left, there they are. On the highway our first Stone’s Sheep. Just Ewe’s and Lambs but awesome none the less. We continued on to Muncho Lake for a planned break there. We stopped at the campsite right at the beginning of the lake, what a nice spot! Clear water, clean area. We napped there for a while and had some lunch. We were going to drive to our planned spot after our break where we were going to leave the truck and hike in from. But at this point you won’t know where we go….you know how it is. Night falls as we lay in the canopy of my truck, excited to get the next day underway.

[Crawfy42]

July 29
We wake up at first light, again, no rush to hike quickly as we are 3 days early. We were going to rest periodically to glass the hills and look for those camouflaged Stones. Our packs are around 75 pounds each and it took us about 8 hours to hike 10 km where we found a nice little spot near a creek to set up our base camp.
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We take an hour or so unpacking and setting up the tent, get some sustenance in us and I was ready for bed. My brother decided to take out the spotter and look at the mountains above camp a for a little bit. 20 minutes or so go by, I’m almost nodding off and I hear him run over to the tent “Kyle there’s sheep above camp!” I get all excited, throw on my crocs and run over to where the spotting scope is with our Dad’s high definition video camera in hand. He tells me he’s got the scope on them and for me to take a look. I look through and don’t see anything… so I zoom it up just a little bit and…… nothing. I see a couple grey colored rocks.
“Brad you rat! They are rocks!” So Brad takes a look again and realizes he got me out of bed for some rocks. So now I’m a little bit agitated since he got me out of a warm, comfy sleeping bag. As I start to walk away,
“Kyle! Sheep! For real this time! They are moving!” I take a look and this time there is sheep and about 10 of them, just Ewes and Lambs though. Nothing that we really wanted to see, but still cool. We are in sheep country. So I grab my binos and start glassing the opposite hillside. There is a little ridge of grass 30 yards away from me on the far side of the creek we are stationed at. That ridge is in the bottom ¼ of my binos while the top bit is on the mountain side 1000 yards away. So I’m glassing away and all of a sudden at the bottom of my binoculars, a big brown streak runs across my eyes.
“Wholly sh*t!” I think to myself. “Danger close that’s got to be a grizzly.” Our rifles were not directly with us, they were 10 yards away at the tent. I lower the binoculars from my eyes and was pleased to see that it was not 1 caribou, but 3. They proceeded to trot down the little ridge toward us and the creek. They walked almost over top of us and into the creek and started having a little drink. After a few seconds they realized we were there and boogied off. That was pretty cool. That night I went to bed excited to wake up and explore the wild lands and get a lay of the land.
The next day, we wake up to a pretty nice morning so I leave my Sitka insulation pants and shirt at the tent trying to cut down on weight for the day. We start hiking up the drainage, and as you sheep hunters know, it’s not as easy as it looks from a distance. All that scrub brush sh*t is anywhere from ankle high to waist high and all I was trying to do is find those little trails through them. I’m guessing they are caribou trails?? We work our way up the drainage and along the way see a bunch of caribou. Singles and doubles all over the place. After hiking for 3 hours or so, not to much uphill yet, but a little bit, we get to a nice ridge overlooking the entrance to another drainage. A good place to set up and glass for a bit. It didn’t take long, but it came in quickly. The clouds covered the valley we were in and it started to rain. One of the best purchases I made before the trip is the good old SilTarp 2. Hiking poles in, SilTarp up, and in 3 minutes and out of the rain we were. There was a downpour for 2 and a half hours and it was not warm out. I wished I had brought those insulation layers, I wasn’t to cold though, just not comfortable. No big deal. So we sat under the little shelter, had some mountain house and waited for the storm to pass.
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Once the rain stopped we packed up and headed a little bit higher. We saw sheep right away, low in a left fork of this particular drainage. But again, no rams. We kept moving higher and came across a wicked rock formation with some awesome waterfalls and pools. Around the back side of this drainage we came across an impressive colored pond. Next we went up to the top of a ridge with the sky starting to sprinkle water down on us again. A bright rainbow showed up across the valley and we took the opportunity to take some neat pictures. We then headed back towards camp and the sky opened up again and we got soaked. We were back at camp wet and when the rain stopped, we would run out, start a fire and start trying to dry everything out. Then the rain would start 30 minutes later. This happened for a couple cycles like that. July 31 had us hike the mountain above camp where we saw those sheep on the first evening. Nothing to exciting except for seeing another nice pond and seeing the same group of sheep that has been above our camp for a couple days.
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August 1
Opening day, a plan all worked out and we were going to go balls to the wall. We packed our camp up with food for 5 full days, only leaving behind a little bit of salt and some food. We were going into the mountains of shale and were not coming down for 5 days. The shale would become our home for 5 days, or should I say moon? Step number 1 was to cross the creek which was very easy to do so with crocs, but that was the coldest water I’ve ever had to deal with. It was pain after 10 seconds and pain once you got out for about 30. After that it was nothing. Good times. Our plan was to hike another fork in the drainage which we saw the previous day and it looked good, but the mountain looked like not to bad of a summit. It was a lot longer of a hike than it looked from afar, but it wasn’t bad. Going up took about 2 hours to summit, it was very steep and rocky, then turned to shale. At the top, which was 7500 feet, was like standing on top of the world. We had work to do though. It was very windy up there and I didn’t trust the tent we had to withstand the wind. I wanted to find a less windy spot somehow and it was not looking promising. The time was about 730 PM and I was starting to panic a little bit. Although it didn’t get dark until 10 30 or so and even then it never got “fully dark” even at 1 AM. We walked along the ridge of the mountain following it, trying to find a spot where the wind would be blocked. After about 15 minutes of walked a bowl/gully appeared in the side of the mountain. We walked down there and the wind was not blowing as hard down in this bowl. I wasn’t worried about water for the night, we had plenty but we would have to find some for our 5 days up there. We walked down into this bowl about ¾ of the way down, and over the edge of the bowl was an incredible view of the area we hiked up. We stuck gold, out of the shale mountainside, there was a little stream of water trickling out and only lasted about 30 feet or so before disappearing back underground. A perfect spot for base camp! I’m sure glad I bought the water filter before this trip, the water was straight from shale and dirt. We spent an hour flattening a spot for the tent using rocks and our feet and actually got it more flat than our previous camp. It was a lot colder up there than it was down in the valley, you could especially notice it in the wind as it tore at our faces.

[Crawfy42]

August 2
The plan on this day was to get to the tops of ridges and scout from above looking down into different drainages. We were either A- going to see a ram worth chasing or B- see an area we would want to hike into for the next day. The very first ridge we creeped over at first light brought us our first ram that we could make a stalk on. It was just to small and young, maybe just under half curl. We watched it for a little bit and he was just a lone ram hanging out on his bench which sat upon a cliff. We moved along the ridge to our left and set up position to glass a nice looking drainage. Once we were all set up and semi-comfortable, the sheep came out of the woodwork. They were everywhere. Ewe’s and lambs to start with but after a while a group of 4 rams showed up. There was a nice one in the gang, around ¾ curl. He was the biggest so we were out of luck again. But what was neat to see were two of the younger rams go head to head combat on each other. Rearing up on their hind legs, squaring off face to face and boom, their heads collide and lock. Cool. Who has to watch national geographic when you can see it in person? They repeated this several times until they stopped and continued feeding. I almost got their head butting on video but I was literally 5 seconds too late with the camera. After a couple hours watching that drainage we moved far to our right. The next drainage had no life in it but in the drainage after that we saw another national geographic moment. This drainage had a Cow caribou and her calf feeding away near an Ewe and her lamb. Once they got to close together, Momma sheep starting chasing the caribou away. The chase lasted almost 5 minutes! Again, missing that with the camera. But in that same drainage there were another group of 4 rams. The biggest was close, about 7/8 curl. We didn’t even bother going in for a closer look as it was getting late in the day. It was sure a nice sheep though, nice and wide too. We made our plans for the next day – to hike around and down into that first drainage which held the 25 or so sheep.
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August 3
At sunrise we head out excited and eager to hopefully get closer to the action. We set up in the same spot as we did the previous day to see if we can pinpoint some sheep. Again we see a bunch of sheep in this area. Not wanting to spook anything in fear of having a potential shooter also run away I determined a flank left maneuver on the backside of the mountain peak to our left was our best route. We moved out in proper formation, me taking point. After about an hour we came to some nasty side hill hiking. Boulders with barnacles on them. I could feel my boots being ravaged by these sharp, white, stupid things. You couldn’t even put your hand down gently without feeling it. We pressed on for what seemed like a million kilometers (it was probably only about 1) and came to our next glassing spot. Nothing. We keep trekking on down hill now getting into the bottom of the drainage we were looking at from the top. We were not seeing anything at this point and once we got to the bottom there was a nice creek in the rocks to take a lunch break at. It was probably 25 degrees out. We took a break, kind of a late one around 3 pm, and cooled off in the ice cold water. I looked back up to where we needed to get back too, and knew it would be iffy if we could do it in with the time we had left in the day. It was a long ways back to camp with a lot of uphill. Nasty uphill. I made the decision to stay low and move into the next drainage knowing we could get back to camp, but not knowing what the actual terrain was like to walk on. As my brother and I got into the next drainage, our path was clear. Hike the mountain in front of us which turns in a ridge and on that ridge looks like an impassible knife edge. There is no choice, we must try going up this as we definitely have no time to turn around now. We start up the mountain in the grass and rock. It was very steep. We look to a grassy hillside in another valley beside us and there is something light brown. Binos up. Bull elk. Cool. We got the spotter out and it turned out to be a nice 4 point bull elk. We packed the spotting scope up and kept on going. It got a little less steep as we got to the ridge and then it turned insanely steep and insanely narrow. It was like navigating a narrow canyon of boulders, some the size of cars, on the top of a mountain ridge. It took some swift maneuvering and agility to make it past what my brother and I now call the knife edge loop. We finally made it out of that and it was not that much farther until we made it to our original glassing spot at the beginning of the day. That was a 14 hour hike day and we do not ever want to do that loop again. We made our way down the 500 feet to camp from this point and hit the sleeping bags quickly after a fast mountain house meal.

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[Crawfy42]

August 4
For the 3rd day in a row we woke up to a clear, crisp morning. It was going to be another scorcher. 7 AM instant oatmeal and hot chocolate tasted good this morning. Since we didn’t see any sheep in the “low lands” once the sun started to get hot, we were going to try another tactic. We were thinking a ram would like to hang out higher up in the mountains where the cool wind always blows. This time we headed up and to our right from camp and side hill along the mountain. Got to love those sheep highways up there, makes your life much better. As we come to the first drainage after about an hours hike, we take our packs off and slowly crawl and peek over the ridge. Binos up, Brad scans right so I check the perimeter to our left. After about 2 minutes Brad says “Boom. Tangos spotted. Rams. Two of them.” I swivel to my right and scan his sector where he tells me they are located. I instantly notice a difference, I could tell the horns looked heavy and big from probably around 1500 - 2000 yards or so. I quickly get the spotting scope out and I’m shaking a little bit. I had this gut feeling that one or both rams are very close if not shooters. I get the scope all set up, staying low as we can as to not skyline and create attention, I get eyes on target. “Wholly sh*t” I say to my brother.
“What?”
“I think it’s go time. This is our day.” For the next few minutes we take turns on using the spotter and we both decided we are going to move on them. We were going to have to move along the backside of the ridge and flank right. Wind was in our favor for 2 reasons, smell and noise reduction. We crouched down and moved as quickly and quietly as we could, but a minute later we had a little surprise. At 7200 Feet literally 10 feet in front of us, pop up two caribou. Bull and Cow. They were eating some un-melted snow pack right on the very top of a shale mountain. Did not expect to see that. We didn’t bother getting the camera out, we were on another mission with took top priority. So we carefully walked sort of towards them angling to the right. There was nowhere else for us to go and they were in our path. I just didn’t want them running towards the sheep and spooking them off. The didn’t run away, just circle around us never changing distance and once we passed, continued on. We moved now in behind a peak in the mountain, which we were going to have no sight line to the sheep. This was a good thing because they cannot see us. We scurried around the right side of the jagged, brown peak, and climbed a little higher, right to the base of where solid bolder rocks started. I guessed it would give us a better vantage point and that turned out to be correct. We have now closed the gap to about 1000 meters, not good enough. But we get the spotting scope out again. Since I was in a peculiar position, the left side of my body nestled up against a massive rock face trying to stay off the skyline and not really able to take my pack off in fear of the sheep getting a visual on us, I get brad to take my dads HD video camera out of the top of my pack. I was going to get some good footage through the spotting scope and the scenery around. I looked through the scope, located the bigger ram and since we were about 1000 yards out now, I was positive the bigger ram was well beyond full curl on the one side, with the other broomed off a bit. This ram was off feeding 50 yards or so on the left side of the ridge down the slope to the slightly smaller ram. This ram was bedded down right in the middle of the ridge posing as the sentry. We could not move from our position or we would be smoked. It was looking right at our direction and if we moved he would see, so we had no play we had to wait it out, there was no other choice. So I took some good video footage and close to 30 minutes later the sentry got up and started following the bigger ram. The bigger ram had since been slowly feeding and walking away from us on the side hill. I was not too worried, they did not know we were there and I just knew they were going to bed down somewhere. So once their backs were turned, slowly walking and feeding away from us, brad put the camera back in the top of my mystery ranch pack which has one of those draw stings with the little slider thing you pinch with your thumb and index finger to tighten it and keep it tight. So that all secure, we move out as quickly as we can on unstable shale terrain. Going into a speedy stealth mode we did, but of course not totally as shale tends to move under your feet quite a bit. Along with that comes a bunch of racket. After approximately 15 minutes we reach the point of the ridge where we first saw them. Creep over the top and there they are about 600 yards off still slowly moving away. They have no idea we are there. Spotting scope out again, which is always in Brad’s bag, first time sheep hunt I was freaking out about full curl, I would not even attempt to count rings. Everything looks good, a closer check confirms that this bigger ram is a full curl for sure and the smaller is borderline. Not going to attempt this shot, high winds, elevation change, I am not Mel Gibson who is good for out to a 1000 yards high wind. Although that would be nice…. Still not worried I have a feeling they will bed down soon, but they are turning a corner and going into a drainage on the side of the mountain. We would have to boogie around the next peak to the right again and pick them up on the other side. Scope packed away again, pick up my 7MM Remington magnum which I hand load 160 grain Nosler Accubond bullets for. I take about 5 steps on the top of this ridge, probably a 70% steep grade on either side of us. I hear a THUMP. I knew exactly what it was for some reason without even looking. I turn as quick as I can and see the black video camera case hit the ground on the edge of this steep mountain. I accelerate 3 steps as fast as humanly possible with a 40 pound pack and try stab the camera case with the barrel of my rifle. I graze it. All I could do was watch in shock as the case got smaller and smaller and smaller. Down it went, out of sight. My dad’s 1500$ dollar video camera down a mountain. I need to back track here for a second… at the start of the trip my brother put some of his important cards in one of the pouches in this case. Visa, Hunting license, Care Care, PAL, Drivers license. I told him that’s not a very good spot, I don’t even know why I said that. Anyways I saw a few paper and card looking items fly out, hundreds of feet down. So now we start swearing at each other a bit, then Brad just takes off and flies down the mountain almost not even touching the ground. Good thing it was loose shale and could basically ride it down. Instead of rushing I took my time going down, pulling up my binos every 50 yards or so and looking. Not for sheep but for a black camera case. This was now top priotity, We could not go home to my dad and say we had it roll down a 1000 feet. Brad gets to the bottom in like one minute it seemed, probably a thousand feet. I got about half way down, look at the ground and just happen to see his hunting license and his PAL. I continue down another few yards and look to my right. About 200 yards to my right I see something dark. Binos to my eyes revealed the camera case. I run over there like a madman, all the other cards are gone and I open up the padded section where the camera is. Looks intact. I turn it on and miraculously comes to life. It works! So I start filming my brother way at the bottom of this drainage now and make a little commentary about it being his fault. Which it actually was because he did not close tight the draw string that kept the top compartment of my bag closed. Normally one would look after their own pack but in that certain circumstance it was his duty. So now I need to get his attention. He is quite a distance downhill and I’m waving my arms, making motions, signaling to start going side hill and upward to continue the chase. We look in our binos at each other and I’m still trying to motion him to get the chase on again, but he does not comprehend the situation at hand. He’s mad at this point and he fingers me. So now we are fingering each other while looking through the binoculars at each other, what a gong show. Now he’s even more mad and yells up the mountain as loud as he can, “Turn your walkie talkie on you fuc*ing piece of sh*t!” His voice echoes through the entire drainage and I’m thinking to myself, “You idiot! Do not yell!” I’m hoping the sheep do not hear the commotion as they are all the way up and over the backside of the mountain now with the wind blowing pretty good. I get the walkie talkie out and start to properly communicate with brad, “I have had the camera for the last 5 minutes you should be hiking towards the rams right now!”
“You are an idiot! Say that next time! Does it work?”
“It works perfectly fine! I also filmed you and did a little commentary on how much of a b*tch you are.”
“Shut up and start hiking.”

[Crawfy42]

I secure the camera properly into my pack and turn around to start heading up the hill. This was not working well at all. It was so steep and so loose I actually could not make any progress uphill whatsoever. I try running, I gained maybe 5 feet in 30 seconds but I couldn’t sustain that type of burn for 500 feet up. I had to go side hill, which was okay because at some point I’d have to be moving that direction anyways to get closer to the rams, if they were still around. Side hill was still not easy here, I had to run in spurts slightly uphill just to stay level and not drop elevation. I look down below to my brother and could see he is just given ‘r side hill like me. My goal was to reach what looked like a little ridge running down the side of the mountain that I hoped would have a little more solid footing. This would be a tough 300 yards. I made it to the crest in about 15 minutes and luckily enough it was a bit better to head uphill on. Still very steep, but at least it was manageable. I’m trying to go as fast as I can because I want to find these rams badly. I finally made it up to the point where I wanted to head to my right again, I was basically at the top now except for boulders and rock formations the size of buses and cars. I can see my brother trying to run up the mountain as quick as he can, I can see the pain in his body language. Now I’m on a sheep trail and the walking was easy and flat. From here I go into stealth mode and move carefully and silently. I was looking at four options ahead of me, 3 peaks that arose 20 feet or so from the ridge and a little gully that was only about 7-8 feet wide in between two of these rock outcroppings. Each choice would give me a different vantage point of the down slope of this mountain and the sheep should be around somewhere close. I choose the little gully as my target. I slowly make my way there, which seemed like an eternity. I get close and take off my pack silently, lay my rifle down on it and creep up to the edge. Well, the hunting gods were looking out for us on this day. Tango spotted directly below, it was the bigger ram, bedded down, looking away from me. I could not believe it. I pull out the rangefinder and it’s only 122 yards away. “Is this actually happening right now?” I say to myself. I can’t see the other one and from this particular spot I could only see the rams head and any way to hold a rifle would be very awkward. Left or right handed. I back up a bit and start motioning to Brad who is catching up now. I do the rack symbol with my hands on my head and point to where the ram is. (I know they are horns but he knows what I am trying to tell him.) I put my finger to my lips for the “shhhhh” signal and he stays quiet as he finally catches back up to me. “It’s right here over and down sitting on a ledge, we have no shot from here, we have to climb up this rock face and get on top.”
“My gun’s fu*ked,” he tells me. “I landed hard on it and the scope twice trying to get up here, I have no idea where the gun will shoot now.” Funny thing, Tikka .338 light mountain rifle brand new, only a month old. Brand new Leupold VX1 4-12 power scope all scratched up. It was also my dad’s, he bought it just so we could have a bigger gun for bear defense on this trip. My brother has a .300 magnum that he would have been using. So now my dad’s gun is all scratched up including the scope all because the camera rolled down the mountain. (A month later my dad finds out what mountain hunting is all about as we take him on his first goat trip, he falls a couple times on it himself.) So all we take on this rock climb is our binos, rifles, video camera (no tripod) and rangefinder. It was a bit of a sketchy climb up 20 feet but not that bad. I was more afraid of having shale break loose and make noise. We took our time going up as we were still in stealth mode. I make it to the top and peer over the edge, I am on top of the world right now. There they are, both rams bedded down with no idea that we are there. I range it again, 120 yards, but it was a severe downhill angle shot. I cannot believe this is happening right now. An hour and a half trying to find the camera and get back up, now we are in prime position on what we both now can 100% confirm that the bigger one is a full curl. The smaller ram is borderline, it is so close. I would have liked to have the tripod to set the camera up on for the shot but we decided to not take the chance on making noise to go back down and get it. The bigger ram is laying on a small ledge, hanging out over the mountain that is just big enough for him to be there. Brad tells me to shoot first. I zoom my scope up to 7 power and aim at his vitals. This is probably a 60 degree angle downward shot, the steepest I’ve ever taken so I aim slightly lower to compensate. I control my breathing and squeeze the trigger hearing my rifle bark. A millisecond after I fired, my brother fires. A puff of dust between the rams horns on the rock behind it. His shot went in between the horns. My shot made perfect impact as it didn’t really move. A few seconds later it starts trying to kick itself of the ledge it was on. I did not want him to do this, he would drop 20 feet down to the mountain and then who knows how far he would roll down after that. I fire again and hit him somewhere in the rib area just as it goes over the edge. Down down down the ram rolls. Farther and farther. I just don’t want the horns to be damaged. It finally stops just 10 yards before a cliff. We start cheering and throwing high fives and fist bumps. We are standing on the top of a mountain, on an incredible almost failed stalk, which ended up being a perfect stalk and a perfect hunt. Unbelievable! The other ram didn’t go anywhere, we kept looking at it trying to decide but let it go… it was to close to call if he was a full curl or not. We get back to our packs load up and start heading down to the sheep. We went down some brutal stuff to get there and was happy to know that we wouldn’t have to go back up. It looks like we can go down hill to the drainage and walk the drainage up and over. We got to the sheep and the long side of the horn is buried in the shale, the broomed side is barely a full curl. But we can’t even touch the ram yet. It is to steep, if we touch it, it may start rolling again and 10 yards below is a cliff. We get some rope out and tie the back legs to a boulder and secure the sheep. Lifting up the head shows us that he is a good 3 inches past full curl. More fist bumping and pictures at this point.

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We de-bone the sheep and cape it out. I take the cape, head and horns, Brad has the meat. Both heavy packs. Unfortunately, we cannot go down anywhere, we would be dead. It’s all a cliff below us. Our only option was back up the mountain. I now have my rifle attached to my pack and my hiking poles are out. This is going to be the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. This shale was worse and steeper than the other hill I climbed after the camera incident. It would have been impossible to make progress without hiking poles, they saved my life in this situation. Slowly making our way up was insanely hard, we tried to get to the rock outcroppings that provided handholds and footholds. There was not a lot of space in some spots with this huge pack on, if one were to tumble here or make a wrong move, it would be injury or worse. After 2 hours we made it to the top, which only took 5 minutes to descend. But it wasn’t over, we had to move side hill on small rocks, boulders and shale for another 2 hours, balance is a lot tougher with heavy packs on, especially when you only weigh 130 pounds with close to a 100 pound pack on. We were still an hour away from camp when it was headlamp time. Fatigue was setting in, running on the instant oatmeal from 7 AM, now being 11 PM, we did not have much energy left. Stumbling over rocks and just wanting to get to the tent we finally got to camp at midnight. I was to tired to eat, but so excited I could still call our parents on the SAT phone and let them know what happened. My dad was sure happy. What a long day.

[Crawfy42]

August 5
Today we were going to deal with the meat and do the cape, flesh it and salt it. I was hoping to be done by the afternoon so we could pack up and head to our previous base camp by the creek. The process of skinning out the head, turning the eyes, lips and ears and fleshing to longer than I thought it would. It was a full day, 9 hours. That was okay though, a nasty storm looked to be brewing and it rained hard in the late afternoon and into the evening. Good thing we were not hiking in that crap...

August 6
We get an early start and pack everything up into our bags. My pack is even heavier than before. It has to be 100 plus pounds. Brads is the same. We were going to try and hike to our creek camp and take a quick lunch break, then we were going to try and make it to my truck at the highway. It would be almost 20 kilometers.

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We started off down the mountain we were on and from the previous nights rain, once we hit grass, it was a bit on the slippery side. Every step was important or you were hitting the ground, like Brad did twice and I almost did a few times. It was about a thousand feet down to the drainage below then we had to traverse through the knee high bush where the caribou seem to always hang around in. We were hauling ass. Boston Pizza was in our minds… could not wait. So far away…. 4 hours later we made it to our creek camp and had a little snack, just a couple granola bars and some beef jerky from our ration bags. I re-salted the cape here as well. 45 minutes later and everything packed back up, including the bit of food we left stashed here on August 1 when we left this camp. There’s another 2-3 pounds of weight. It is true what they say, every ounce counts. Less is better. We head up the steep embankment above camp and get back into the scrub brush. It is now anywhere from knee high to chest high and we are not stopping, we are just tanking through and it sucked. You can feel the drag and resistance the bush is giving, making every step harder and harder. I can feel the burn. Boston Pizza. Boston Pizza. It seemed like forever but I think it was only about 2 hours of going through that stuff until we finally made it to some trees. Walking was much easier here as we were now out of the brush on a crappy trail and now onto a good trail. We keep pushing the pace hard. Boston Pizza. We come to a creek bed in which we must walk along the rocks. It is about one and a half kilometers of walking here. Halfway through Brad rolls his ankle.
“Ankle is fu*ked. Yep. Fu*ked.” He says. “I need to sit down for a bit.” He sits down for literally 10 seconds, “Fu*k this bullsh*t, Boston Pizza.” So I turn and start walking and laughing to myself, not wanting him to see me smile because I know that would just piss him off more. He starts limping along at a quick pace, grunting, groaning and swearing on every step he took. We make it back into the trees on a good path again. 5 minutes later the path slowly disappears and I’m just trying to find the easiest way to walk. We get into some moss that sinks down to knee level, talk about a quad workout! I trip over a stick and fall on my face a little to the left. No pain, good to go, rifle didn’t touch the ground, that’s all that matters. I can’t even get up because I have so much weight, in an awkward position and in this thick moss just would not allow. We are to tired to laugh. Brad helps me up but now I find the horns and cape have all shifted left and is very unbalanced for me to keep walking like this. We take 10 minutes to re adjust my pack, we are not close enough to the truck to hike out unless it was fixed. Once we get going again, we try to keep a fast pace going, Brad’s ankle sore but he is not complaining and trying not to limp. We were getting close, victory upon us. All that stood in our way now was something that I never want to do again (until next year lol). We now stood at the base of a hill that would be the grouse grind in distance and steepness in some parts, on a good trail. This is the worst thing I’ve ever had to do in my life right here. We marched uphill, having to stop every 10 steps. We had no energy left, legs are on fire. Boston Pizza. 10 more steps. Boston Pizza. Frodo doesn’t even know what walking is, he just went on a Sunday stroll. Boston Pizza. This was by far the most grueling part of the journey but we are almost home free. 10 more steps. “This is bullsh*t” I say. “Frodo is a b*itch.”
“Boston Pizza” he replies. “Go.” We push upward and we finally get to the top of what we now call “The Testament of Manhood Hill” an hour and half after we started it. From here, is was fairly flat and easy marching. We are so close now. I can see the last ridge before we head down to my truck, only 500 yards away. I walk harder, losing the path at times, just powering through bush like a tank not caring about anything, Brad right behind me. We make it to the ridge and can see my truck. I stop and realize it’s almost over, the pain. I was so happy to see my truck a few tears came out. All that is left is to go down the little hill which we do. 100 yards away now. Boston Pizza. Getting to the truck, we drop our packs and for the first time in our life, we hugged each other. I sat down for a few minutes and gathered my thoughts on what we just did over the last 8 days. It took us an hour and a half to organize and change clothes, then we had the drive out to Fort Nelson. Boston Pizza. We get to Fort Nelson and see the sign “Boston Pizza” and we were happy. We go inside and get seated. The waitress comes over and asks us what we want to drink. We tell her we know what we want to order. Brad orders first, “I will have a Beer, Iced tea and a water. A Boston Brute with fries and a large pepperoni pizza, with a Caesar salad to start. She kind of chuckled while writing the order down on her notepad.
“So that’s for both of you?” she asks.
“No” I reply. “I’ll have a beer, iced tea and a water. Potato skins with extra sauce to start, and a large Hawaiian pizza.” She starts laughing.
“Are you guys high?” We laughed at that and told her where we were. I was bushwacked or something. I couldn’t even think properly. We ate as much as we could and would have leftover pizza for the drive home for the next day. We were going to drive as far as we could before I was too tired. I made it 20 minutes south of Fort Nelson. I Pulled over at a rest area and we slept in the box of my truck. The next day would be the long drive home. As I fall asleep I think, what a trip, what a journey, what an experience with my brother. And I can’t wait to do it again.

[yugo111]

good story and awesome pics well done

[Gateholio]

ha ha ha

Boston Pizza kept you going. I feel the same way about knowing there is ice cold beer waiting. Well done, guys! :)

[bcrawford]

Epic trip!!!!

[ianwuzhere]

looks like awesome hunt- good job, hard work pays off sometimes... thanx for postin!

[proguide66]

Awesome , you have to post the video up!!

[ElectricDyck]

Sounds epic, thanks for sharing!

[sniper ren]

Congrats on a great hunt with your Bro! Sounds like you guys really deserved that one! Those backstraps will taste that much better when you remember how hard they were to get out. I was laughing pretty hard at the part about the camera!

[Buck]

Great story thanks for taking the time to post.

[cavebear]

wow what a great adventure and a happy ending. What are you doing for a mount, full shoulder, etc how were the sheep steaks :)

[budismyhorse]

Wow that is some detail right there! Nice job..... Looks like a great trip

[Crawfy42]

Thanks everyone and it will be a full shoulder mount... The meat is awesome, my favorite game meat now.

[moose2]

Great story and pictures congratulations on the ram. There's no better felling than hitting the truck after a hunt like that. Its funny how the thought of food and or drinks will keep a guy going through those tough conditions with a heavy pack on. Thanks for taking the time to post your story.
Mike

[yama49]

wow great write up, congrats on an awesome ram....

[TommyGuitar]

Great story! Thanks for posting!! Hunt you will never forget.

[Davey Crockett]

Likely the best story I have read on here. Congratulations on a great hunt. How f'n good did that pizza taste?

[TSW]

My legs are sore just reading about that hunt!!! Well done. I was kind of hoping for a few more details in that story. ;) it was a great read for the night. Looking forward to the possibility of seeing that footage posted up!! How old? How big? Any side profile pics? Thanks for taking all the time to bring us with you.

[whitetailsheds]

Great read! Congrats boys.....looks like a good ram! Have any other field shots? Thanks for posting......

[NaStY]

Great hunt and great story. Thanks for sharing.....

[Call of the Wild]

Talk about hard work, good job guys on a nice ram. Thanks for sharing your story and reminding me those shrubs that anchor on legs.

[rifleman]

Nice ram you guys got !!!! Great story. Way to long, but I read the whole thing. Sounds like you guys really went hardcore. Congratulations on your RAM...

[srupp]

Thank you! That was one of THE most inspirational motivating well done stories I have read, EVER. Congradulations on the sheep, on the brutal climbs, and especially on the bad ie Dads rifle getting scratched..

I admire the fact you got it done with your brother as your partner....

cheers and thank you again

steven

[325]

Awesome story! What a great adventure you guys had. I have shared so many of the same feelings as you when on backpack hunts, including the incredible anticipation of the first sit-down restaurant meal!

Any other pics of the ram?? He's a beauty!

[steepNdeep]

Cool story & great ram boys! Sounds like brotherly love - I work with my bro & can relate... :D

[Rodd]

Congrats!! Great "Hunt of a Lifetime!" and thanks for sharing.... I can relate for sure, to all the food talk going on when your extremely hungry, and tired... lol I too have done a horse/hike in trip off the highway with my Brother(2years older) and our Dad, and were able to take 2 rams... Trip/memories that can't be beat!!! Again congrats!!

[BiG Boar]

Great trip! Thanks for sharing all the details and the story. Some of the hardest hunting in the world right there!

[Crawfy42]

Unfortunately we do not have any other pics of the sheep. I know they are not the best, the terrain we were in was brutal to take proper photos. The horns were 36 long and I think 13 inch bases. Sounds like some of you guys have had some wicked hunts too!

[d6dan]

Great story and awesome hunt!. You have a great way of writing about your hunt. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing Crawfy42.:-D.

[squeege]

Super story. Congrats. Now we have 2 more sheep hunters to compete with up here. Dang.

[The Hermit]

Thank you very much for taking the time and the effort to write up your great story. Felt like I was with you, thanks for taking us along. Definitely one of the best write-ups ever! You should get it published. Big congrats on the hunt too.

[ThinAir]

Wow. That was a great story!
I was killing myself laughing... every sheep hunter can relate to some part of that story!! My brother and I have also "broke in" some of my dads gear.
It's amazing what food will do to a man when your out in the mountains. After one hunt like yours, my buddy orderd a side of gravy for his fries and started to drink it right out of the cup. We just looked at eachother and laughed!:)

[BCbillies]

. . . and you'll go back again and again! Congrats on the adventure and sharing the memories.

[ursus]

Classic tale of an epic adventure! The walkie talkie part was hilarious! A Sheep Hunt you will never forget!

[Knute]

A trip you and bro will never forget. The first is always the best....memories to treasure.

[frenchbar]

Awesome story crawfy.sounds like a trip of a lifetime .congrats on you and your bros ram !!

[whitetailsheds]

After one hunt like yours, my buddy orderd a side of gravy for his fries and started to drink it right out of the cup.

Awesome....another morning made by HBC!!!!

[budismyhorse]

I have to say this is one of the most honest reports of a hunt I've read. No macho BS hiding feelings and thoughts. Thanks for this Crawfy, hopefully some rookies out there will read this and think. "Hell, I can do that."..........and get out there.

Get up high and stay there.......put in your time and put up with some pain and good things happen. Awesome.

PS......whats with all the military references?

[Rubberfist]

Thanks for sharing your experience - truly awesome to go through a rewarding hunt like that with your brother!

[BCrams]

Fanastic trip! Thanks for sharing!

[budismyhorse]

Thanks for sharing your experience - truly awesome to go through a rewarding hunt like that with your brother!

If my bro and I went on a hunt like that I'm sure only one would come back.

I could only dare to dream about a hunt like this guy had.

[scope-bite]

Congratulations on your successful hunt and thanks for sharing the amazing story and pics. The ongoing brotherly fights, name calling and gestures through binoculars really added to the story. Any plans on doing it again next year?

[280 77]

Epic hunt , Epic story . Thanks for taking the time to go into such detail , one of the best stories I've ever read. Congrats to you & your bro.