A fathers First Stone Sheep Hunt

[Crawfy42]

No cheating and scrolling to the end! Enjoy :)

“Dad, he’s up. Get ready to shoot. Let me get the camera on him first though,” I tell my dad as he takes aim on the ten or eleven year old full curl ram we have been trying to get for two days… But lets start back at the beginning of our journey into sheep country…
Last year after a successful Stone Sheep hunt with my brother, we could hardly wait to get back up there and do it all again. Three weeks after that trip we took my dad backpack mountain goat hunting. He got his goat, and seeing how well he handled himself with the big, heavy pack required for these types of trips, I thought he could do a sheep hunt. We would just not push the pace as hard as he will be turning 60 in December. The 2011 hunting season came and went all too quickly and it was now early 2012 with my brother getting a new job. It was looking more and more like he would not be able to go on the sheep hunt with me and our dad. So our good friend who has gone on a deer hunt and two backpack mountain goat hunts with us is going to come. I didn’t really want to have it just be me and my dad, thinking about his age and heavy packs. The young bucks including myself will try and carry as much weight as possible to lighten his load. Our departure date is set, August 24, 2012 and will try to be home to go back to work September 6. Living in the Surrey/Langley area would mean three days of total driving there and back home, which will give us eight or nine nights in the bush… well alpine. So the plan was set. Me, my dad and friend were getting geared up to go by the end of June. Then comes mid- July where my buddy (who is going on the trip) and I are in a Slo-pitch tournament. We are both in the outfield and a pop fly is hit towards my friend, has to make a bit of a dive/roll in mid air. Everything looked smooth and nothing happened, he rolled right onto his feet and was up with the ball in his glove. Well as it turned out he broke his clavicle bone and would not be able to put any weight on it or do anything with it for 6-8 weeks. We were leaving in 5. We could not go any later in the season either. So after he told me that he would not be able to go, I had to ask my dad if he would still go. I knew he could make it even if it was just the two of us. I would not care how much weight I would have to pack in or out but I wanted to help my dad in the worst way to get a Stone. He has shot a lot of animals and has spent a lot of time in the bush but has never been on a sheep hunt of any sort. He took me out and helped me get my first deer when I was 14 along with my uncle. (There, you got mentioned in this years story Uncle B! You actually played a big part in my first animal and been around for many others… usually with a slack line when we start dragging… where as my rope is so tight you could strum a song on it haha). My dad said he would still go and was very excited to get up there. My dad would be having priority on shooting a sheep especially since I got one last year and is now up on my wall. If you hadn’t read last years story and would like to here is the link – http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?74254-A-Tale-of-Sheep-and-Stone-Journey-of-two-Brothers
Me – 12 years of hunting. 3 backpack trips, 2 mountain goat trips and 1 stone trip. 26 years old.
Dad – 46 or so years of hunting. 1 backpack trip for mountain goat. 60 years old in December.

Friday, August 24,2012 1:30 PM Langley B.C.
I arrive at my dads work with my mom dropping me off, she says goodbye to us and good luck. We had stopped at Triple O’s before getting to my dad’s work. I picked us up some burgers and fries. I crushed that double double pretty hard waiting for my dad to finish up a few things while sitting in the drivers seat of his truck. We were on the highway not too much later and on our way up north. We came into Spences Bridge and upon crossing the bridge and passing the right bend in the road we spot some Bighorns on the side of the highway in the exact same spot where my brother and I saw some the previous year.
“Maybe that’s a good luck sign,” I tell my dad.
“I sure hope so,” he responded. After a quick text sent to my brother who I know and he said himself will be dying not being on the hunt with us, we were on our way again. He even texted back that it might be a good luck sign of things to come. We made it to Pine Pass that night and pulled over in a pull off just pass the summit on the side of the road for the night.

Saturday, August 25
We slept for about 5 hours with what sounded like a whole bunch of semi trucks about to drive right through us. We got back on the road well before the sunrise and a quick stop at Timmy’s in Chetwynd before our next stop in Fort St. John for fuel. Once fueling up we are back onto the Alaska Highway up to cruising speed. Fort Nelson was our last stop before the spot where we will park the truck and start to hike. We arrive to our destination at the XXX mark of the highway sometime in the afternoon. It took about an hour and a half to deal with a couple of the small things on our packs and secure the truck for our departure into the wild. Our packs are around 80 pounds each, I’ve got a Tikka .300 WSM light mountain rifle and he has a Tikka .338 mountain rifle, both are being carried in our hands. The first part of the hike includes about a 400-500 foot hill that is pretty damn steep. The old guy was sure huffing and puffing once reaching the top but no the less, he made it to the top. We hiked for about 2 and a half hours where we came to a creek where we would set up camp for the night. After some mountain house, beef jerky and a couple hard candies that was it for the night and we crawled into the tent. Got to love the Big Anges Fly Creek Ultra-Light tents, you can set them up in three minutes and take them down in three minutes.

[Crawfy42]

August 26
We woke up around 7 AM, not that early, just trying to keep a pace my dad could handle and didn’t want to overwork him. We were packed up and pounding the dirt around 7:30 but not before watching my dad try to get the pack on without help, which he wanted to learn how. It was purely comical to watch as he almost falls over a few times. 4 hours later we were breaking through the last of the trees and into the lovely scrub brush and blueberries. An hour into this after only one break we found a spot to sit down and take the packs off for a few minutes. There were a few caribou around but didn’t see any bulls. Here I started to devour blueberries. I must have picked 10 handfuls worth and although it seems time consuming it was definitely worth it because they were so damn good. After our 15 minute break we pushed on towards where I wanted to set up our first camp which I estimated was about an hour away. We were coming into the part where I call it the rollercoaster. 30 feet down, 40 feet up. 20 feet down, 20 feet up. 30 feet down 30 feet up. This went on for about 6 humps with 2 minutes of flat in between, it is sure a killer on the legs after hiking for five and a half hours already. My dad is starting to get pretty tired now and I can always tell that because he starts to swear a lot.
“Son of a b*itch you are killing me youngson. (His nickname for me) Where are we setting up the tent?”
“About thirty minutes from here,” I reply.
“Sh*t, I’m just about spent.”
“Ya ya,” I laugh. “We are almost there.” We made it through the last of the humps and after that it was fairly easy going until reaching the creek bed where we were going to set up camp. There were no good spots to set up a tent except for one spot just big enough where it was all small, flat-ish rocks instead of the baseball to basketball sized ones. We brought a couple of small blue tarps for this purpose to put underneath the tent so the tent will be more protected from a rock puncture. We unloaded our gear, set up the tent and quarters inside the tent, ate lunch and had a bit of a siesta for about an hour or so. It was hot out, not a cloud in the sky, probably around 25 degrees. I could not handle it any longer in the tent as it felt like a sauna in there. My dad is already loving the Neo Air Thermarest he was lying on compared to a little foam 20 dollar POS he used goat hunting last year. I start to organize my pack for an evening hike/hunt up the drainage. My dad gets out of the tent and starts to do the same. Two hours later we found ourselves cresting a ridge and looking into a nice drainage with a nice set of waterfalls. It took only minutes before we spot some sheep. They were down low in feeding near the creek running down the drainage. My dad says to me,
“It’s incredible how camouflaged they are. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Yep. This is the way it will be the entire trip, unless they are moving which will make them a bit easier to see.” We spent an hour or so here watching the ewes and lambs before hiking up to our right which took us past an awesome waterfall and into another drainage this time, loaded with sheep. These sheep were feeding near another creek. Lots of ewes and lambs along with a few young banana rams mixed in the group. I counted 17 sheep. They saw us and started to walk away and up some cliffs and out of sight deeper into the drainage. We hung around a little while longer without seeing anything else.
“Where is shale camp from here?” My dad asks me referring to the camp my brother and I set up on the trip last year. I point towards where it is and describe how to get there. It would not be easy for him.
“Son of a b*itch,” he says. I don’t think I can do that. Knowing that’s where we have to go to find some rams as I still think they are higher up I have to come up with a plan. It’s a long, long ways to shale camp and we are already a long ways in from the highway. Not to mention a bunch of uphill through scrub brush and then climbing a mountain at the end.
“What if we pack up a couple days of food and come here tomorrow morning and stay a night where we are now, and then we will go from there. I’d like to wake up right at the base of this drainage instead of having a two hour hike.”
“I guess we can do that,” he replies. We made our way back to our tent before nightfall, crawled into the sleeping bags and called it a night.

August 27
We woke up at first light and got right to work packing our bags with everything we needed for two days including a smaller 2 man tent. Not too long after we were headed back up the drainage with most of our gear. It took about two and a half hours until we neared where I wanted to set up the tent. I looked to my left and there was a young ram staring at me 150 yards away. Beside him was an ewe and a lamb bedded down. I skirted around some big rocks to my right to get out of sight as to not scare them away and kept heading uphill for a few more minutes to where I found a nice flat spot to set up. All we did was take most of our stuff out of our packs to lighten them up to hike around and look for sheep. We started hiking and making our way deeper into the same drainage from the previous night. After about an hour of easy hiking and some not so easy side hill rocks, we crested a little ridge and sat down overlooking a beautiful turquoise pond. We took out our glass and started scanning the hills. It took a little while but we finally saw the camouflaged sheep. They were bedded down high up the mountain in some cliffs and perches with a tiny waterfall coming out of the mountain. An absolutely perfect spot for them to be safe in, nothing and no one could ever make a stalk on them here. It didn’t matter though as it was determined that they were the same group we saw the night before, just a couple of young rams, ewes and lambs. We hung out here for a little bit before making our way closer to where we unloaded our gear to check the other drainage from the night before. We were soon there but didn’t see any sheep after an hour or so of glassing so we made the short walk back to our stuff. It was another gorgeous day out and hot as well. We set the tent up as another afternoon siesta was in order. Remembering how hot it was in the tent the other day while napping I came up with a plan to set up the SilTarp for shade, but still have lots of air circulating. This took a bit longer than expected because the ground was so soft but we finally managed to make it secure with rocks on the pegs.
We dozed off for a couple of hours with the wind picking up considerably making quite a bit of noise on the tarp. After the rest we had a quick meal and went back out for the evening scout. 5 minutes into walking, a bull caribou is right in front of us. Just a small one but he sure didn’t mind us as he came to within 25 feet. He kept on walking the way we were planning on going but we went that direction anyways. After turning a bit of a corner on the side of the mountain slope I hear my dad say something behind me. Or is it a loud fart? I wasn’t quite sure. As I turn around and about to say something to him I see a baby sheep right behind him and it’s bahhhhhing away. “What the hell?” I thought to myself as I did not expect to see this. The sheep was literally 10 feet behind my Dad and it’s obviously never seen a human before. My dad just stands still as the little guy slowly walks around him stopping a bunch of times to look at us with a curious look on its face. I did manage to get the video camera out but not in time to see when it was really close to my dad. After letting out another bahhhhh the lamb walks off towards a bunch of sheep a few hundred yards away feeding in the creek. We don’t know why the sheep was so separated from the rest of the group but it was a cool thing to witness. The cute little bugger headed off and we decided to sit down for a little while. The rest of the evening was uneventful. On our way back to camp I said to my dad,
“You know we have to go up to shale camp right? The rams are not down this low yet.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll be able to make it.” Yes! I thought to myself. My plan had worked, we had not been hiking around that much the last day and a half and his batteries have recharged a bit.

[Crawfy42]

August 28
We woke up the next morning and saw the same group of ewes and lambs we’d been seeing for the last couple of days just a couple hundred yards from our tent. We did a quick one hour walk to check out our two drainages, then it was back to pack up our spike camp. I wanted to be on top of shale camp by dinner time. We packed up and headed back down to our river camp, pleased to see that the tent we left was still there. We ate lunch and repacked all our gear, took food for five days and left a bit behind for when we came back. Just like last year, five days of food, balls to the wall, we will not come back from the mountains of shale and see grass again until my dad has his ram. We set off for shale camp around noon. Instead of putting our crocs on and crossing the creek right here like we did last year, I decided it would be better if we headed upstream a fair distance until the creek thinned out and we could find somewhere to cross since we had to hike that direction anyways. Eventually the creek was small enough where we found a spot to cross, then had to hike up to a bit of a ridge through scrub brush and connect with a caribou trail. For the next hour or so it was easy walking until we dropped down a little bit to another creek where we had to do some pain in the ass bush wacking though some kind of alpine tree/bush with thick branches. It only lasted ten minutes but it was not fun. We made it through the thick stuff and started to slowly climb uphill again. A couple hours of gradual uphill through scrub brush, we were now in mostly grass and rock. We take a “pack off” break and have a little snack. Over the past few hours ugly clouds had moved over top of us along with the wind picking up. It Looked like our stretch of nice weather is about to run out. After the twenty minute break we were back at it, knowing the hardest part is still ahead. I start to feel a few sprinkles of rain on my hand. I hope it this is all it rains, we have about 2 hours of hiking left, all the rain gear is packed away, I think to myself. As it starts to rain harder, the hill, now mountain, gets steeper. Just as I crest a bit of a ridge overlooking a more flat-ish spot I think I see movement. I do a double take and quickly realize that it is a sheep. I quickly get glass on the now apparent ram.
“Dad! Rams! Get down!” I loudly whisper with the hand signal to get down. The ram is only about a half curl. Damn. I immediately start looking around for more rams when I quickly spot three more. They are starting to move away and uphill from us, when they were first spotted there were only about one hundred fifty yards away. Two of the rams are close to full curl. “I need the spotting scope, take it out as quick as you can,” I tell my dad. After some difficulty in getting it quickly out of a fully packed bag, he passes it to me with no tripod. It will have to do for now. The sheep are three hundred yards away now, still moving up the mountain. I lean the scope on my pack on twenty power and can definitely see that there are two close to full curl rams but the angle is not good to see if they are or not. 400 yards now, and can’t age them, the scope is a little too shaky and they are not stopping whatsoever. I make the call to relax and that we do not have a confirmed shooter in the group. “How’s that for excitement?” I ask my dad.
“I had the scope on twelve power and all I saw were horns and thought we had a shooter for sure. What a nice looking animal though. But damn that would have been a great spot to take one.”
“Yeah tell me about it. Now we have to go to the top of this mountain to shale camp, an hour and a bit left to go.” We got our packs back on and started up the mountain again. The last hour was very, very steep and rocky. It was basically a 1-2 foot step up every time and was a major burn on the quad muscles. I knew my dad would be huffing and puffing on this one. I pushed up a little before him because I wanted to film him coming up the last little bit. I was happy to see the flat spot me and my brother made the previous year was still there! Just a little bit of work to make it even a little more flat will be a good plan. I turn the camera on and film my dad coming up the last little bit. What a trooper, definitely huffing and puffing.
“You are going to kill me son,” he says out of breath.
“Man up dad, the sheep will make you work for it. There are no gimmies sheep hunting.”
“Just put me within 300 yards of one.”
“Oh I will because we are not going home until it happens. Work is not a factor.” (Although work is a factor he has to be back to work September 6th, I am just talking big.) We spend the next hour setting up camp here and then it was an early bed time. I thought about climbing up the ridge 300 feet above to look onto a nice bench above a drainage but I was a bit lazy and tired so decided to pack it in early and get a little extra rest. A quick call on the Satellite phone back home confirms that there will be rain tomorrow. My brother does not let us hang up either, he needed to know every detail, what we ate, literally everything. It was killing him not to be there.

August 29
We woke up to a cold, dark grey sky. The weather was definitely not looking good but at least it wasn’t raining…yet. We packed our bags for a little hike, just to the top of the ridge and check out of couple drainages while keeping an eye on the weather. It was very windy and very cold. Walking wasn’t to bad but sitting down for a little bit while glassing, it was pretty nippy. We checked out a couple drainages and did not see any animals. They were probably being smart and staying warm somewhere. It started to snow after a couple of hours, we were at 7500 feet so that was to be expected. The ceiling dropped low and the snow started coming down heavier. Visibility dropped and it was time to head back to camp, we couldn’t see any distance anyways. We were inside the tent at 10 AM, good thing we had a pack of cards because we were in there the entire day/night until the next morning. Another good thing was that the snow didn’t really start to stick until around 6 or 7 PM. If had started sticking when it first starting snowing, we would have woken up to a foot of snow. It was a recharge the batteries type of day in the tent and beating my dad at Rummy made it more enjoyable. We are a competitive family.

[Crawfy42]

August 30
We woke up to a nice coating of about 4 inches of snow. It’s amazing how different everything looks when it snows up there. Might as well be a different planet, and it already seems like a different planet to begin with. We got our things together for a day hike and headed up the hill, the goal being to head towards where the rams from the other day went up and over the mountain and scout a couple of drainages in that area. 10 yards from the tent there are some very fresh tracks and not what I thought they were going to be as I walked up to them. They were wolverine tracks, and would it have been cruising by just a couple hours ago. I’ve never seen one before and I’d like to get some footage of it. Let’s hope. We continued walking in this now white world and found that side-hilling on sheep trails is not any harder with snow than without. I thought it would be much more slippery but we tracked pretty well. About a 45 minute hike from camp put us just below the crest that will overlook into the first basin. We took our packs off and crept up and over the edge to get the view we needed. We set up with our binos and spotting scope. After two hours of glassing/waiting for movement I decided it was time to move on. Putting the gear back into our packs we were headed down along the mountain to the next drainage. I only took about 30 steps before I decide to take one last look down where we were looking for the past 2 hours. As soon as I put Binos to my eyes, I think I see something. I didn’t even get settled in a proper stance to look, it was just going to be a quick check but I do think I see something. I steady my balance and look again. Sheep, and I’m pretty sure I see good horn with these non expensive 10 x 42 power bushnell binoculars from about 1500 yards.
“Dad, I’m pretty sure I see a ram.”
“Really?”
“Yep, get the spotter out.” Once again we take off our packs and I set up the tripod and spotting scope. I look through the eyepiece and zoom it out to 20 power and adjust the focus. “Yep! Big ram! Yeah baby!” But before I could zoom it up closer for a better look I see another sheep. “I see another big ram!”
“You are not sh*tting me are you son?”
“No, I’m not and I now see a third and fourth. Wait. Nope. I count 7 big rams. Wholly sh*it this is awesome!” My heart is now going a thousand miles a minute. In total there were 9 rams, with at least 3 of them that were about full curl which needed closer inspection. 4 of them were just under full curl, 1 half curl and 1 banana ram.
“Any shooters?”
“I don’t know yet need to watch them for a while and figure this all out. My brain is in overload, I’ve never seen this many rams before in group. This is awesome!” The rams were just feeding and slowly moving up the drainage which was towards us. Not that I was expecting them to come close to us, but they were slowly coming closer. For the next 2 hours we sat there taking turns in the spotting scope. Then something cool happened. A caribou was walking up the mountain right towards us. A nice 2 point bull caribou in which he ended up coming to within 10 feet of us, with not much of a care in the world. As he walked passed us we see something moving on the snow covered mountain side. Getting my binoculars on it show that it’s a grizzly bear about 1000 yards away from us. How cool is this? Bull caribou at almost petting distance, grizzly bear and lots of rams all at the same time? After that excitement died down we went back to glassing the sheep for another 3 hours. Since first getting to the ridge about 5 hours ago, I was sitting on snow and didn’t move for the longest time. I Didn’t think about anything other than sheep. I had to get up and take a leak and realized my ass was completely numb. I hit it as hard as I could, nothing. I felt nothing. Well, I guess the feeling will come back eventually. I hope… My dad took his turn here in the spotting scope while I geared down to my underwear. Over the morning the clouds had moved out and there wasn’t one to be seen in the sky. It was warming up so I put my 3 layers of pants on that were soaked to dry out in the sun. I brought out my Sitka raingear and sat on that. Should have done that in the first place Kyle, you’re and idiot. A few more hours went by, we checked out all the sheep and we were going to try to make a full stalk. We knew one was definitely worth getting closer too. I put my clothes back on which were now mostly dry, and continued to look for another half hour or so. I came up with the best game plan possible for this situation and it was risky. All the sheep were bedded down and they had 360 degrees of coverage the way they all positioned themselves. They were right in the middle of the drainage, we could not go around any mountains and come up behind them because we would still be too far away. The only risky option was to go side hill to our left staying near the top of the mountain and hope that we are far enough away to not scare them off. Sure enough, even while being quiet enough they had us locked on with their amazing eyesight. We still tried making it to the ravine, where we would be out of sight from the rams and we could stalk within shooting range. But the rams got up and started to slowly trot away. Even from something like 1500 yards. We sat down and let them calm down as they didn’t move too far and were not too spooked. They now took up position on the opposite side of the drainage, which what I think is a stalkable position. Only bad thing about that is that there was not enough time left in the day to do so.
“Lets hope they stay there for the night and we can find them in the same spot tomorrow,” I tell my dad. “If they are not there we will go to a good spot I know, maybe find another ram.”
“Alright, that works for me.” We started following our path back to where we previously were on the ridge watching the rams for hours. 30 minutes later we took one last look at the rams, who were still watching us, but looked calm and content where they were. We crested over the ridge and got out of sight from the rams as we hoofed the last leg back to camp before nightfall. I hope those rams bed there tonight and we can pick them up again in the morning. We had a quick mountain house meal and off to bed dreaming of rams.

August 31
We got an early move on at first light and made the hour hike back to the ridge where we saw the group of rams from yesterday. Upon cresting the ridge I immediately look to where the rams were last seen… and there they are. In the exact same spot as we left them last night and in what I think is a stalkable position.
“Dad, they are in the same spot as last night, lets get the spotting scope on them and make sure it’s the same group. Lets find that ram we want to go after,” I say to him as I turn and look to see he’s already almost got the spotting scope out.
“Yes youngson. This is what I do,” he tells me. I get the spotter set up and start scoping the sheep and sure enough it is the same band from the day before and there is Mr. Full Curl, well at least we were 95% sure he was full curl, still hasn’t given us an exact proper angle to look at him to see if he comes past the bridge of his nose.
“Lets make a play here. Go around the mountain to our right, come down the back side, and through the ravine in the back and we should be well within shooting range. We won’t be in their eyesight, as long as we are quiet, we should be good. We will be much closer to make sure he’s full curl.”
“You lead the way son,” my dad tells me. We pack our things into our packs, and make our way to the right. This is the scary part, we have to walk for about 15 minutes while being in sight of the sheep. After that, we will be home free. We treaded carefully but at a decent pace, did not want to linger in one spot too long. Sure enough the sheep were watching us but as we rounded the side of the mountain, we just had to hope they were still be there and forget about us. I estimated it would be about two hours before we would see them again. Next came about 45 minutes of nasty side hill scrambling. It wasn’t easy but I knew it was doable since this is almost the exact same stalk me and my brother made the year before. I pull away from my dad a little bit as his lungs are getting beaten up by the air at 7500 feet. I wanted to get ahead a little anyways to plan out the next leg of the stalk while my dad could go at his own pace and catch his breath. I make my way around the last bit of the mountain and can now see again into the drainage and figure the sheep are on the other side of a ravine that is about 250 yards down and maybe 400 over to my left. But going down and over is very, steep, some cliff type situations and looks like it’s very loose shale. A couple minutes go by and my dad catches up.

[Crawfy42]

“I figured out where we should go, I think the sheep are just on the other side of that ravine down there,” I inform him as I point towards it.
“Oooo that looks ugly. How are we going to get there?’”
“Down here and then across to the grey patch of rock at the top of the ravine.”
“Just be careful son, watch your step.”
“I will, I want you to be careful, don’t worry about me,” I say to him as I begin my uneasy decent down the mountain. I was going to go straight down and then straight across, it looked like my best bet, but as we all know terrain is deceiving from a distance. The shale is sliding below my feet like crazy. It’s very steep. I am almost skiing down the mountain, trying to go slow is hard to do but I am able to manage to do so. I look back up to my dad and see some small rocks tumbling down towards me but they started angling off from my direction and wouldn’t be a problem for me. My dad realizes this and he cuts across the top more so the rocks that roll down from him will not be anywhere near me. I come to a part where there is solid rock in the mountains and it gets real tricky there. Constantly worrying if the loose gravel on top of these rock faces are going to make you slide around like you are on a shuffle board. Being extra careful and a little bit of foot slippage it wasn’t too bad, but I’d much rather be in the steep shale or solid rock with no loose gravel on the top, preferably the latter. I make my way through the rocks and shale downhill until I reach the spot where I want to start heading to my left. My dad is a few minutes slower than me, a big reason being he is carrying his gun where mine is strapped to my pack. It is so steep where my dad is at the moment that his ass is probably 8 inches away from the side of the mountain. He continues his decent as the shale piles up beneath his feet as he slides his way down the mountain. I continue to go further but now I am side hilling. It is fairly smooth sailing until this one section of rock. It is a rock ledge about 1 foot wide, with a rock face on the high side of the mountain and dropping off the 1 foot ledge is a 20 foot cliff to the steep mountain side below. I make my way to the halfway point of the ledge, which was a piece of cake but now I’m stuck at an obstacle. The obstacle is a large piece of rock jetting out from the bigger rock face leaving about an inch of ledge to walk on, but the obstacle is only 6 inches wide and the ledge continues on the other side. I look back to my dad and see that he has not far behind me now. I’ve also got to keep in mind that we both have Mystery Ranch NICE 7500 packs on so it is not just our bodies we have to worry about here. If I grab this piece of rock jetting out with my left hand, I should be able to swing my body around it while keeping myself tight to the rock face, I think to myself. Well here goes nothing… I grab the rock and stretch my right leg to reach the other side and make it fairly easily. I move down a ways to give my dad room to maneuver. He makes it easily too. It looked much harder than it was, but still, one wrong move would have been bad. We continue the last bit as quietly on the shale as we can as we are now headed uphill to the top of the ridge where I think we will be able to see the sheep.
“Dad stay here a minute I’m going to check it out,” I tell him as I start taking my pack off.
“Okay,” he responds back. I set my bag down carefully on the steep mountain side in a position where it will not start to tumble. I creep slowly upward and about a minute later I can peek over the top. The first thing I see is sheep right there and they are not far away bedded down. I quickly drop down as low as I can to get out of sight again. I motion to my dad that they are right here. I peek up and over again with my binoculars ready this time and take a look downhill at them. There are 4 rams bedded down in a tight group and they are not looking at us or up our way. I get the rangefinder out and target the group. The LED display tells me that they are 202 yards away – after the angle factored in was 167 yards. Wow is this happening? Almost like last year just a little farther… I get down low again and turn towards my dad who is about 30 feet back still. I wave for him to come over and put my finger to my lip and hand signal to so to show him to stay quiet and keep low. He slowly makes his way over to my position,
“What do we have?” He asks.
“4 rams and I am pretty sure one of them is the one we have been looking at to be the full curl shooter.”
“How far?”
“Two hundred. With the angle it’s one sixty seven.”
“Really? Son of a b*tch.” For the next few minutes we carefully glass the sheep with our binoculars.
“I want to use the spotting scope. Can you go grab it out of your bag?” I whisper.
“What did you say? I can’t hear you.”
“Can you grab the spotter out of your bag?” I ask slightly louder than before.
“Yeah, hold my gun for a minute.” He passes his gun over to me and makes his way back 30 feet to his pack. I sit up a little bit from my position to take a quick look at the sheep. They still don’t know we are here. Wait, what’s that? F*ck! Parallel to me is a sheep bedded down and with my naked eye it looks like it’s looking directly at me. I slowly pull my binos up and take a look, my heart pounding hoping we are not going to get smoked. Sure enough, it’s a sentry ram just a few years old by himself looking right at me. Sh*t…. what now? If he gets spooked, that’s it they are all gone. I range this sentry at 150 yards. My dad comes back after a few minutes spotting scope in hand.
“There’s a young ram looking at us. He’s the sentry. Stay low, he’s not spooked.”
I slowly set up the spotting scope staying as low as I can. The young ram doesn’t really seem to care we are there and loses interest in us and turns his head another direction. Hopefully he stays like this. I look through the spotting scope and confirm the bigger ram is the one we were watching yesterday. It looks like a full curl but he’s not giving us a perfect angle to view from. My next plan is it count rings. Over the course of the next three hours, I count rings ten million times and keep watching for the perfect head turn to get the right angle for determining full curl or not. I was sure he was 10-11 years old but I still wanted to see full curl. The sheep stands up, does a little stretch and turns 180 degrees and kicks some dirt around. I am assuming this is making his bed a little more comfortable because all the other sheep would do the same thing as well. He still didn’t give me that perfect perpendicular angle. Back down he goes. Just like a dog, laying in the dirt in almost the same way, periodically shaking his head. By now, the sentry ram had gotten up and did a 180 himself and isn’t even facing us anymore. With the sun at our backs (in the eyes of the sheep if they look up at us) and 200 yards away, the ball is in our court. Another hour goes by and in this time my dad nods off a few times. There were almost no clouds in the sky and the sun was out, a nice day to be sitting on the uncomfortable shale mountainside. Then it happens. The sheep gives me the angle I’ve been looking for, and with my sore eyes barely leaving the eyepiece for the past few hours, can see it is a full curl ram.

[Crawfy42]

“Dad, we have a shooter, I just confirmed that it’s a full curl.” I get no response. I can’t see his face as he is sitting 2 feet below me with his back facing me. “Dad?” Again nothing. I tap him on the shoulder and it looks like it startled him. He turns to me, “Dad we have a full curl ram I just confirmed it. I told you I’d put you within 300 yards of a sheep.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. Should we take him now?”
“We might as well wait until he stands up again, we have lots of daylight left. It’s only 1:30 in the afternoon. Just make sure you wait for me to be recording with the camera before you shoot.”
“Alright. Just tell me when to shoot.” Another hour passes and “Whitey” we are now calling him because of his white face, stands up.
“Dad! He’s up!” I whisper loudly tapping him on the shoulder. Once again he is startled as he had dozed off again.
“Just tell me when.” I quickly turn the video camera on and hit record and see the sheep turn broadside to us. I quickly pan over to my dad and see him aiming the rifle. I pan back to the sheep and zoom in. The thunder from his .338 cracks loudly and a split second later the sheep drops hard hearing the loud thwack from the bullets’ impact. As the sheep hits the ground it starts rolling down the mountain hard and fast. We see it roll for about 20 seconds before it leaves our sight.
“Nice shot Dad!” I tell him extending my fist and connecting with his for the fist bump.
“That’s how we do it in the big league,” he says.
“Playing the big man eh?” I retort. That has been our usual banter back and forth for years and hasn’t changed yet. We gathered our gear and made our way to where we last saw it. It was fairly difficult getting down, more loose shale, dirt and steepness with a few tricky sections. We made it to the point where we last saw it and see that there is about a 30 foot cliff it rolled off. We walk around the cliff to the boulders beneath and still don’t see the Ram. It was very tough to walk on these boulders, all rocks about the size of a basketball to V8 engine block. One wrong step and you could have a broken ankle. The sheep has to be here somewhere, I think to myself. Another 5 minutes of searching and quite a bit farther down the mountain and there he is. Whitey. A few minutes later we were at it exchanging handshakes. But since it was in these rocks, it would be near impossible to work on it as it laid there. 50 yards below us was a perfect patch of grass and the plan was to try and drag it there. With a hard 45 minutes of work to move only 50 yards downhill we had the sheep in a perfect spot to work on it. The first thing we do is send out our SPOT custom message of “Ram Down! Ram Down! Ram Down!” My brother will be waiting for the satellite phone call for sure. That was next, but we did not get a signal right away. We took out the camera and began taking all of the mandatory pictures needed. 15 minutes of pictures and I try the Sat phone again. Full signal. First call is to my brother, at this point he most likely has his phone in his hand waiting for the call. There was only about one quarter of a ring and my brother answers the phone.
“Talk to me. Go. Sheep? Did Dad get it?” Brad says excitedly on the phone.
“Dad is part of the sheep club now,” I reply.
“So sick. How big?”
“An inch or a little more past the nose. Ten or eleven years old too.”
“Really? That’s fu*king awesome! How happy is he?”
“I can’t remember seeing him this excited… ever.” I say.
“Yea bru! Sheepin!”
“Sheepin! Here, I’ll let you talk to Dad.”
“Okay.” I pass the phone over to my dad and he and my brother talk for the next 5 minutes or so. We begin the process of de-boning and capping the sheep and finish that up in an hour and a half. I will cape the head out at camp tomorrow.
“Do you want to take the horns Kyle?” My dad asks me.
“No you take it, it’s your trophy,” I say.
“It’s probably more awkward on the pack than the meat will be though, I might have a hard time with it.”
“Alright then, if that’s what you want to do.” We load the meat in his pack up high near his shoulders and tight to his back. We tie down the horns and cape to the top of my pack. We have our hiking poles out now as we are going to be hiking straight up to the ridge we were glassing the sheep from the day before, and it is very, very steep. We will have basically made a full circle from the start of the stalk in the morning once we get up to the ridge. With packs probably 90 pounds each including all the gear we had we set off on the way back to camp. The terrain was rocky but pretty easy to walk on. Then we started climbing and climbing. It got very steep. But all you can do is not think too far ahead, just put one foot in front of the other and take it one step at a time. Every twenty steps would result in a break of a minute or two. Half way up the mountain I say to my dad,
“How happy are you with your sheep?”
“I’m so friggin happy I could jump up and down,” he replies in between his huffing and puffing while leaning over trying to give his back a break and catch his breath.
“Could you jump up and down right now?” I ask.
“Well, not right now.” I had a good chuckle at that. We pushed upward and came to where the caribou walked up the mountain and used his footprints to walk on as the rock and dirt is packed down slightly from the weight. We reached the top much faster than I thought, we were at the top in an hour. A quick 45 minute hike back to camp from here was all that was left. Another call back to my brother happened once we reached our shale camp, he was very surprised at how fast we made it back because he knew exactly where we were. We should have went to the bottom of the drainage and hiked straight up instead of all the side hilling we did last year, it would have saved 5 hours of hiking. We were both too tired to eat anything so it was an early night… pretty much the usual anyways for us up there.
“You know all I’ve had to eat today was 2 hard candies and 15 almonds,” my dad tells me. I laugh,
“I haven’t had much more than that either.”

September 1
We woke up early and it was time to work. I was going to start capping the head while he was going to clean the meat and get it into clean zip lock bags. We were finished in 2 hours and got the cape all salted up. The plan now was to pack camp and head down to our first base camp of the trip near the creek and stay the night there. Once we got everything packed we were probably about 100 pounds each. My dad was going to be tested now for sure. Hiking for a week, now loaded with 100 pounds about to go down a 1000 feet of steep nasty hill. The hill is rough on the legs with that kind of weight, it is like natural stairs made or rock for good portion of it. The steps are anywhere between 1-2 feet and are a major quad burner. We were down to the bottom in an hour and a half and find some big rocks to set the packs down on without taking them off, just enough to take the weight off our bodies. A 20 minute break felt great but we were on the move again through the middle of the drainage. After a couple more 10 minute breaks we made it to our river base camp in 5 hours.
“Going down that hill killed me. My legs and knees are done,” my dad tells me.
“We will get a good rest and as much food in us as we can. I need you to hydrate lots tonight,” I tell him. “Tomorrow shouldn’t be too bad of a hike out, we have a trail the whole way. The only thing that will suck will be the last hill we have to go up which will take an hour and a half.” We made a fire, ate as much protein type food we had and drank lots of water and Gatorade. Another early night it was, in the sleeping bag just before dark.

[Crawfy42]

September 2
We woke up at first light to begin re packing everything preparing for the hike out back to the truck. Packing up took about an hour and a half as well as re salting the cape. With our packs fully loaded up and very heavy, we were bringing everything out and not leaving anything behind. A part of me is a bit sad knowing I won’t see this place for at least another year. We head off down the valley knowing it will be about 6 hours until we see the truck, depending on how long it takes us to go up the hill near the end. With multiple breaks along the way and seeing my dads’ battery draining quickly we were at the base of the hill where we take at 30 minute pack off recharge break.
“Now will be the hard part. We have the hill to go up,” I tell my dad.
“I was thinking on the way in that it would be a b*tch if we were coming out with a sheep. I don’t know how you and Brad made it all the way to the truck from shale camp last year.”
“I don’t either.” We relax and rest up for 30 minutes and after that we are back on our feet. On the move once again, immediately hit the base of the hill and upward we went. We could only manage 20 steps at a time before taking a little breather, I didn’t want to push my dad too hard, he’s done awesome up until this point and we are almost back to the truck, there doesn’t need to be any injuries now. Half way up the hill we bump into two guys heading down but they were just going in for a few days caribou hunting. We stopped and had a nice 10 minute chat with them. They looked shocked to see an old guy doing this. We parted ways and continued on our ascent. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes but we finally made it to the top where it would be mostly flat for the remainder of the hike. But that is the way it goes, the easy parts are where the problems are. Sure enough my dad slips on a rock and is flopping around like a fish out of water. He was fine, just landed in some moss and can’t get up. Of course am laughing my ass off at this point when I saw that everything was okay.
“I can’t get up, help me up.”
“Just relax, just lay there for a few minutes, there is no rush,” I respond to him as he lay there on his back.
“Okay, but you have to help me up, I don’t want to unbuckle the pack and put it back on.”
“No problem,” I say, still laughing my ass off. We take a 5 minute break and we were ready to keep going. It took everything I had to help him up, factoring the weight on my back and his weight with the pack, it wasn’t easy. We were only 30 minutes from the truck as we got going again and what a long 30 minutes that felt like. I was in the lead and was getting that feeling of joy when you are about to see the truck for the first time. As I near the last corner before I see it, there is always that bit of worry, hoping the truck is still there. But everything was good as the truck was still there and we are almost home free. Suddenly I feel less tired and very excited. We were still a couple hundred yards away as I think about how awesome this trip has been and wondering how my dad ranks this trip out of all the ones he’s been on before. I did it. That’s all I wanted to do is help my dad get a sheep and get back safely. I’m so proud of him. We make it to the truck and pound fists a few times.
“You did it dad!” He mumbles something in between some sighing and grunting.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to do that again,” he says.
“We will try to fly in next year for Dalls,” I say. “But there will still be lots of walking.”
“I know, I should be good for it. I will be healed up by then.” We got into our cooler pretty quickly and demolished a couple cans of coke. Man, did those taste good. We spend the next hour changing and getting things ready for the ride home… well to the now mandatory Boston Pizza food and beer stop in Fort Nelson. Just like last year, I ordered a ton of food again and the poutine tasted damn good. We make our phone calls waiting for our food and Brad can’t wait to see the video. We finish up in there and get back on the road and unbelievably make it past Dawson Creek! I thought I would be more tired than that. We slept in the truck on the side of the highway until daybreak.

September 3
We were up and driving nice and early, excited to get home and tell stories and show the video. The drive wasn’t that bad since we did a good chunk of it the day before but none the less is was still long. All we stopped for along the way was gas and snacks. We had a mission to get home. Once getting back to the hustle and bustle of Langley, I already miss the mountains, even though I’m going to hang out on the couch and not move for a few days. I’m pretty sure my dad will be comatose on the couch for about a month, but I’ve never been so proud of him ever. I don’t think there are many 60 year olds who can hike that much with that much weight in the mountains we were in. As we pull into my townhouse complex my dad says,
“If we don’t get tags next year to fly in, I’ll be good to go to do that again.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, just don’t tell mom yet.” It sounds like he has the sheep addiction now Just like my brother and I.
“How does that trip compare to all the hunting trips you have been on in your life?” I ask.
“It’s was the best trip I’ve ever been on.”

[Crawfy42]

Hope you all enjoyed! Will get Pictures up either today or tomorrow

[whitetailsheds]

Kyle!! That is the best literary article I've read on here!! Thank you for posting it! What an awesome father/ son trip!! Can't wait for your pics....congrats to you and your Dad!!

[Crawfy42]

Hope you all enjoyed! And as for the video, I'm working on editing it into about a 30 minute show, and would like to try to get it on wild tv. So I'll see how that goes, but if not then it will go to youtube with a link!
The ram was aged at 10 years old by compulsory inspection

http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p206x206/563086_10151207066757419_1498821920_n.jpg
http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/p206x206/530244_10151207067047419_338736324_n.jpg
http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p206x206/558198_10151207067662419_1290140138_n.jpg
http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/271519_10151207069062419_1244602780_o.jpg
http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/416222_10151207069922419_694851039_o.jpg

[Crawfy42]

http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/324342_10151207076872419_940326438_o.jpg
http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/621656_10151207078622419_1621445414_o.jpghttp://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/321709_10151207071472419_1401818178_o.jpghttp://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/279543_10151207070052419_329924960_o.jpghttp://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/324364_10151207072282419_1941154481_o.jpg

[whitetailsheds]

Old? Schmold!! Good for you guys, and the young fella on the left in the second photo!!! Awesome!!!

[BiG Boar]

Can you make it so there are paragraphs? It's really hard to read.

Nice ram though.

[Crawfy42]

Sorry about that, It was typed properly in word, but when I pasted here, that happened and I was pretty unhappy. I didn't even notice until i was done.

[BiG Boar]

You should be able to edit it here. Just sayin', I bet it's a good story, but most people will skip through it, as its tough to read.

[Crawfy42]

Alright thanks for the heads up ill start working on it soon

[yama49]

Unreal story, felt like i was there.. Congrats to your dad..That is a memory niether of you will forget...

[budismyhorse]

Great sheep.... I love the cape.

Nice little patch you have there...... Keep it secret.

[604redneck]

Way to be...nice ram!

[BlacktailStalker]

Maybe the best detailed hunt write up yet, your old man is a trooper, good for you guys :cool:

[Islandeer]

Awsome all around. Never noticed the paragraph thing .... Very cool and inspiring!!

[bowhunterbruce]

tough read but well worth it, i feel inspired knowing if a 60 year old can do , so can i at 53 next year. i tip my hat to the both of you
bhb

[bcrawford]

sheeepin!!!!!!! get some

[decker9]

For sure one of the best read's iv read on here!! Awsome detail in your story!!. Congrats to you two on a beauty ram!! Lookin foward to the video!

[Buck]

Great story again this year.Congrats

[bcrawford]

good thing I know where the ram hangouts are eh big bro!!!

[boxhitch]

Great read thanks. Glued to it start to finish as is.
attago guys well done

[Jack Russell]

I didn't cheat and I read the story before the pics. What a great adventure with your Dad - you should both be very proud of that trip!

[IronNoggin]

EPIC! :mrgreen:

A Fantastic Story, Great Hunt, Great Pix, and some Damn Serious Determination on the part of both you and your Pa!

Excellent Work Gentz! My hat is off to you!! :-D

Cheers,
Nog

[Johnny G1]

A super read and pics, can't imagine having to walk through that shale and rocks, my back yard is tough enough for me???

[Crawfy42]

good thing I know where the ram hangouts are eh big bro!!!

Maybe I'll let you tag along next year if you are lucky :)

[kennyj]

Awesome story! Really enjoyed it. Congratulations on a great ram.
kenny

[rifleman]

well done. Great(but loonnngggg) story. Lots of detail for sure. Very happy for you guys. a hunt of a lifetime. something you'll never forget. Beautiful ram!!!!!

[Wood butcher]

That's awesome. Congrats to you both on an amazing hunt.

[MB_Boy]

Awesome Kyle!! Congrats to your Dad and yourself.....thanks for taking us along!


Paragraphs are nice.....bit don't listen to BigBoar....at least this story was posted to read in one sitting and not stretched out over a week. :) :mrgreen: :)

[moose2]

Great story and pictures congratulations to you and your Dad. Most 60 year old's have given up on the back pack style sheep dream. It was good to hear your Dad made it up there and got his ram. Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed story.
Mike

[BCrams]

Fantastic story and a great read. Lifetime memories will be had from your trip with your Dad.

[ydouask]

Well, I really enjoyed that hunt with you guys... one step at a time ! Congratulations Kyle and Dad, a well earned ram for sure.

[Rubberfist]

A great read and inspirational. I really appreciated the detailed account of the hunt. Your dad is tough stuff and you're very lucky to have been able to share that experience with him. Here's to next year!

[Nuckers69]

That was a fantastic read ! like others have said, it felt like I was on the hunt with you ....... actually started to feel tired reading about the extreme hiking !!
Its great that your dad is still able to participate in a hunt like this , I'm twenty years younger than him and I'm not sure I would make it :)
Great read.....Great Pics

cheers Rick

[jaeger]

Great story! I felt like I was there with you guys, well written and detailed. Congratulations to the both of you!

[DDD]

Amazing; trip of a life time for sure. Thanks for taking the time to share.

D

[ElectricDyck]

Great tale, memories that will last! Nice Ram.

[The Hermit]

Thanks for all the effort in writing up and sharing the story of your hunt... I suppose when I was 26 60 sounded old. errrr Young pups!!! ;-)

[hunter1947]

Can't get it any better then this your dad is a hard noised man and has rocks in his legs and big air balloons in his lungs ,,,I like seeing stuff posted up on this forum like this,,the story and hunt is tops for me to see on HBC so far to this date 2012 .

Give your father a slap on the back for me and tell him he did very well and congratulate him for me ,,,,father and son hunt just does not get any better then that ,,,,congrats to your father and you on a dream hunt that came true http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.png http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon6.png http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.png....

[swampthing]

My backpack trips with my son are my best hunting memories. Your dad is very proud to have a son like you. I dont think I will be able to get up the mountain at your dads age! By the way, lighten them packs up!

[doubler]

I'm soooo mad I couldn't come with you boys! Next year bcrawfy and i get ours with u! Great read even better video! ;) Sheeeeepin

[Dontknow]

What a great story. Awesome pics. Congrats!

[Rackmastr]

Awesome ram, great pics and get story!!!

[Call of the Wild]

Awesome story and very nice ram. I really enjoyed your story, we can all imagine what you two went through. I find it amzing that you father did such a thing a backpacking sheep hunt, I can't see my old men up to that challenge!!! Congrats again to both of you.

[srupp]

exceptional read and photos..WARMS the heart to hear of sons sharing these experiences with their Dads..great adventure wonderful out come truly inspirational on all aspects..

cheers
Steven

[mtnmannbc]

Can you make it so there are paragraphs? It's really hard to read. , Who the **** says shit like this, you gotta be a mongaloid not to be able to read it!!


Great story, good on you and your oldman, like whitetail sheds said, one of the best stories I have read. Been there on many trips like that with my dad over the years and had a great one like the one you had this year also, I am pumped for you two guys!!!!

[jessonml]

Your Dad is an absolute BEAST! That was a great read and fantastic photos. I am certainly looking forward to the video!

[doubler]

Can you make it so there are paragraphs? It's really hard to read. , Who the **** says shit like this, you gotta be a mongaloid not to be able to read it!!


Great story, good on you and your oldman, like whitetail sheds said, one of the best stories I have read. Been there on many trips like that with my dad over the years and had a great one like the one you had this year also, I am pumped for you two guys!!!!

Sooooo true! Well put mtnmannbc.

[nature girl]

This is the reason this hunting site is great for people like you that post up such detailed stories like this.
That was a great hunt you and your dad had. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Oh by the way reading about some of the shale stuff was making my hands sweaty.
You should save this on your computer or photo copy this story you posted up. One day you will want to show it to your children and say this is what your Grandpa and I did.
Tell your dad way to go on such a wonderfull Ram.

[WKCotts]

awesome story, awesome pics, awesome ram! this year was my first sheep hunt with my 62 year old father. he already has two rams, but hasn't been sheep hunting since the early 80's. man what an experience! i was able to harvest an awesome ram and we're already planning next years trip with my younger brother!

[Yak]

Really enjoyed your story, thank you for posting it
Yak

[Crawfy42]

Thanks everyone for the comments and hopefully will have another story next year. Doubler if you are lucky you will be on it this time!

[treehugger]

I don't suppose there's another sheep story from this year?!
This is the best story I've read... a real page turner (literally). Totally worth every word... felt like I was there! I know it's last year's but thanks for sharing... and I can't wait to read about your future hunts

[bridger]

Nice story! Nice ram!

[tarzan]

Awesome! my partner and I are planning our first sheep hunt , thanks for the inspiring story

[Crawfy42]

Thanks Treehugger, here is the story from the year before that trip....http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?74254-A-Tale-of-Sheep-and-Stone-Journey-of-two-Brothers

We did another trip this year, a fly in trip. It was a great trip but I just have to motivate myself to type it if I do haha.

[finaddict]

Just add a little cold snow down the back of the neck, some hard breathing in thin air a few sharp rocks for me to sit on and I would be there. Great read and congrats to both of you. I love hunting with my son. Some of the best days and wonderful memories.

Thanks for taking me on that journey.

[hunter1947]

You must be very good with the key board if I had to put a story together like yours I would still be on the key board LOL does your father have the mount back if so can you post a picture of it up on HBC ,Thanks..

[treehugger]

Thanks Treehugger, here is the story from the year before that trip....http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?74254-A-Tale-of-Sheep-and-Stone-Journey-of-two-Brothers

We did another trip this year, a fly in trip. It was a great trip but I just have to motivate myself to type it if I do haha.

I read your first sheep hunt... unfortunately the links to the pics don't work anymore but still a seriously great read! It's what got me into your more recent hunt with your dad... I haven't read your goat thread from the previous year... yet... I'm gonna save it, lol
The fly in option is a good one! Both your pack outs were EPIC!
Thanks again

[MacMtnHunter]

Quite the read! Looks like you got it down-pat! Congrats on another fine ram!

[Crawfy42]

Here is my dads ram hunter1947, this was taken Christmas time a year ago, he got it for a Christmas present as it was back really fast from the taxidermy and he had no idea when he opened it. Needless to say it got to hang on the wall at my house for a couple weeks before Christmas. His is on the left and mine on the right. Single pictures are his ram.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152130328317419&set=pcb.10152130328982419&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152130328302419&set=pcb.10152130328982419&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152130328287419&set=pcb.10152130328982419&type=1&theater

Not the best photos but it is what I've got. I'm thinking about posting a little teaser vid of our fly in trip. Not sure though.

Edit : not sure why the pictures don't work, this is the same way I've always done it. I will try to fix it but you can still view them. Right click on the question mark and open in new window.

[hunter1947]

Here is my dads ram hunter1947, this was taken Christmas time a year ago, he got it for a Christmas present as it was back really fast from the taxidermy and he had no idea when he opened it. Needless to say it got to hang on the wall at my house for a couple weeks before Christmas. His is on the left and mine on the right. Single pictures are his ram.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152130328317419&set=pcb.10152130328982419&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152130328302419&set=pcb.10152130328982419&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152130328287419&set=pcb.10152130328982419&type=1&theater

Not the best photos but it is what I've got. I'm thinking about posting a little teaser vid of our fly in trip. Not sure though.

Edit : not sure why the pictures don't work, this is the same way I've always done it. I will try to fix it but you can still view them. Right click on the question mark and open in new window.


No pictures very very sad :( :cry:..

[Hammerhead]

I guess I missed this one last year. Just an awesome read and story. You must have kept a journal with you and kept notes the end of each day?? Some of my best hunting trips were with my dad and will be great memories to last the rest of my life. You can't beat sharing something like that with family. Good on you man. Maybe the best read that I have had on here.
HH