First Attempt at Stones 2013

[Trekker]

Hello HBC. Just got back from an 11 day Stone hunt in the Cassiars. Unfortunately we didn't get to drop the hammer on any rams but it was still the trip of a lifetime.

This was mine and Muleymaniac's first stone hunt and I think we are both now hooked for life, we are already in the works planning next years hunt.

I cant describe the appreciation I now have for sheep hunters, and the country you are at mercy too. I no longer shrug off the saying that sheep hunting is not only physically.. but mentally exhausting. We saw everything mother nature could throw at you. When we glassed far basins the weather was beautiful, as soon as we moved in for closer looks we got pounded by blowing thunder storms or fog socked snow blizzards. Weather I didn't want to believe you could see in August.

Anyways, Im not much of a story teller so I put a video together with a few photos and video of the trip, I hope you all enjoy.

Sorry for the shaky video portions, its real hard to keep a camera steady at x40 zoom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhFImK2pLZc

Cheers,

Trekker

[markt308]

hey man that was an awesome video. looks like you saw lot's of game at least. Thanks for sharing your pics and videos. I subscribed to your youtube chanel so you better post up some more cool vids!!

[yama49]

Nive video, thx for posting it..

[decker9]

Looks like a heck of a good time you guys had! Great job on the vid! I need to figure out how to build videos like that! Cheers!

[coach]

Outstanding video! Looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.

[Muleymaniac]

Awesome job on the vid buddy looking forward to round two at stones

[Duk Dog]

Enjoyed your video. Looks like quite the adventure.

[Hillbros_96]

Thanks for the video, looks like a blast.

[popsy]

Thanx for sharing-beautiful country

[Amphibious]

Great video, amazing country!

The country music love ballads (I'd like to kiss you in the sticks, wtf?) and lots of pics of two dudes in a tent had me wondering a bit ;)

[Trekker]

Great video, amazing country!

The country music love ballads (I'd like to kiss you in the sticks, wtf?) and lots of pics of two dudes in a tent had me wondering a bit ;)

HAHA, yah, I kind of noticed that as well, I just threw the songs in at the end and didn't put two and two together until it was finished.....just block the lyrics out..

[Rob]

Awesome video. did my first Stone hunt this year and loved it! How were the bugs? We stayed under the sil tarp a couple nights but the skitters were really bad. Even with bug net on

[ianwuzhere]

Great video (well except for the winey/cry music).
Looks like you guys did get some great weather and saw quite a few sheep- looks like lots of real sheepy country!!

[Trekker]

Awesome video. did my first Stone hunt this year and loved it! How were the bugs? We stayed under the sil tarp a couple nights but the skitters were really bad. Even with bug net on

The bugs were horrendous the first three days, the next eight days were quite windy and that was the end to the bugs.

[bcriverhunter]

great vid thanks!!....buddy and i are flying in
this friday-same plane i think!!...got me stoked!
thanks again larry

[Rob]

Surprised you didnt see any legal rams, looks like beauty country! How heavy were the packs when you were spiking out?

[guest]

Thanks for sharing ........ wish I could do it again.

Great of you to take many pic's, you'll never forget your experience.

CT

[REMINGTON JIM]

Thks for Sharing - Great Vid :-D - did you see any other G Bears other then the sow with the 2 cubs - many moose back there ? Must have found a old camp with that stove and pipe ! cheers RJ

[Trekker]

Surprised you didnt see any legal rams, looks like beauty country! How heavy were the packs when you were spiking out?

Around 25 lbs, every day we left the tent we brought two days of food and the basics to get through the nights. There was a few times we wish we had packed more food as we were far from camp and wanted to keep going but had to turn back, I think next year we will pack more food when heading out on spike missions or even bring the whole camp with us on more occasions.

[Trekker]

Thks for Sharing - Great Vid :-D - did you see any other G Bears other then the sow with the 2 cubs - many moose back there ? Must have found a old camp with that stove and pipe ! cheers RJ

We only saw the one sow and cubs. we only saw two moose the whole 11 day trip, one bull and one cow. As well as one 4 point caribou. And yes there was an old wood stove (among lots other trash) at the old outfitter camp at the lake. It worked well for drying out are clothes between switching mountain ranges.

[Jelvis]

Trekker you made a great video, real good hunter, very nice job. The country is awesome and that bull moose was big and healthy lookin. Thanks for the fine video production and letting us see it.
Jelvis .. Keep up the great work guys ..

[Rattler]

Nothing quite like sheep hunting and your video just reminds me how much I miss that country. Thanks for taking the time to put the video together.

[Fosey]

great video, really enjoyed it. Makes me envious, I am not going this year.

[Displaced Nova Scotian]

Thanks for sharing that video, really making me look forward to this hunt!

[WKCotts]

Awesome video, great tunes, brings back memories of last year! Can't wait till next August!! Cheers

[Buck]

Great video. life don't get any better than that for a couple of young guys.Maybe next year good luck.

[hunter1947]

Very nice video of your hunt ,,like I have said in the past its not about filling your tag the best part of any hunt is to be out there doing what you love to do ,,there will be a next time..

[spear]

Awesome vid, keep that in mind all year and up get one next Time. thanks for posting

[sheep.elk.moose fanatic]

Great video, amazing country!

The country music love ballads (I'd like to kiss you in the sticks, wtf?) and lots of pics of two dudes in a tent had me wondering a bit ;)

X2!!!! Broke back mt....lol JK ...nice vid

[Muleymaniac]

Figured I would add in a little storey to go along with the video for the readers out there. After over a year of scouring through maps, hiking local mountains and spending a good percentage of our pay checks on quality gear, our trip was right around the corner. Living on Vancouver Island isn't an Ideal place for sheep hunting but luckily we were both able to get enough time off to have a trip before the trip. First ferry in the am and off we went to start our journey. The long drive north has its ups and down but we managed to get to Tatoga on day two. Lucky for me this was my fourth time visiting this beautiful part of British Columbia. We rented a lake side cabin at Tatoga resort, threw the boat in the water and did a little fishing at the in feed. Small rainbows was all we could find but neither of us really cared as the scenery and the trip ahead was enough to keep us happy. The next day we drove up to the Dease River crossing only to find a big BANKRUPT sign across the entrance so we doubled back and stayed at a forestry site on Dease Lake. We spent a couple of days there fishing and exploring the old cabins at the far end of the lake. The day before our flight we drove to Telegraph Creek to kill some time, the drive had some really cool parts winding up and down alongside the Tahltan and Stikine Rivers. We checked into the Northway Motor INN and did a final check of our gear before flying out the next day.

[Muleymaniac]

Up early and although we did not want to admit it, a little nervous for what was ahead. This was a first for both of us doing a trip like this and a first for me even being in a beaver. Once we arrived at BC Yukon air and seen the beaver sitting there excitement took over and I completely forgot all about being nervous. We unloaded the truck beside the aircraft and did a little paperwork then when we came back outside there was the next group of hunters unloading their gear. We talked with them for a little while then realized one of the guys in the group was David Booth of the Vancouver Canucks, what a surprise. One of the other guys in the group had been to the area we were headed and gave us info on where to go to find sheep. This was very helpful as you can only learn so much from google earth. Gear was loaded into the plane and off we went, what an experience flying through the Cassiar mountain range on a crystal clear day. Moose and wolves were spotted while flying over swamps and tundra and as we flew into our area we got a glimpse of the range we were to live in for the next 11 days. After drop off we were both eager to get hiking so off we went. Bushwacking was all but fun until we got half way up and the bush turned into knee high moss and willows which wasn't any better. Everytime we stopped a swarm of mosquitos and black flies were sure to keep us moving, so on we went up and up until we stumbled into a big shale basin. Quickly we hid and started our first glassing session for sheep. We soon realized that this was as far as we could go due to cliffs all around us and the fact we had not found a water source yet. We screwed up. Without knowing we climbed up the wrong drainage and neither of us wanted to say it but we knew the reality. Back down to the Lake to our water source and to rethink how we were going to get into the high country where the sheep are.

That night we camped near the lake and scouted for a better route into the mountains. The next day we pushed through 300yrds of thickets and found a creek bed with running water, that solved both of our problems. After the 6 hour hike we scrambled up the last near vertical section and what a beautiful sight it was entering the mountains. Before we could celebrate we found a water source and a place to set up our base camp. Right after we set up the tent I heard "sheep sheep right there". Bingo right behind our camp 380 yards up the hill were our first sheep of the trip, 7 of them feeding all ewes and lambs and one young ram. For the next couple of days we stayed right at our base camp as we could glass a large section of the mountains, plus we were spotting sheep every day 20 - 25 in a day. All we were seeing were ewes and lambs however so we packed our bags light, just enough for a couple days and went across to get a closer look. On our trek along a sub alpine saddle we came through a thicket and about 150 yards away momma and her two cubs were hanging out enjoying the sun. We turned around and got to high country where we could see a little better, luckily she smelled us and ran away. That night three thunder storms merged and circled around us while we were sleeping under our sil tarp. Needless to say not much sleep was accomplished. In the morning more sheep, sheep everywhere we had 3 groups of sheep all come together and feed across the gully, at one point we counted 25 sheep. No rams, what was going on, this game quickly became very challenging mentally. Neither of us had experience so we were coming up with some bizarre reason for why there was no rams. Later that day we moved on back to base camp to restock on food and think of a game plan. As we hiked back we ran into the guides and their clients, gave them a wave and carried on back to the tent. They glassed us hard to be sure we had no horns in our packs then sat there glassing the mountains we were hunting for the rest of the day. I guess they didn't see anything too interesting because the next day we watched them move off into another basin. For the rest of the day we glassed from two different vantage points and seen more of the same (ewes and lambs) plus one very nice bull moose. We discussed our options and not knowing if we should keep hitting this area or if we should move on made it difficult to make a decision.

[Muleymaniac]

That night we both agreed that we should move on to another area and with the guide's camp right where we had wanted to explore that didn't seem like an option. In the morning we awoke to sheep right above our camp no rams once again, and then we spotted the guides sky lining across the valley right where we had just hunted for the past 5 days. We went back down to the lake had some r and r time and glassed the new mountain we were to hike into the next day. No sheep seen from the lake but we did notice the shale slides had heavy trails cut into them, and being rookies that was enough to tell us sheep do use that mountain from time to time. An early start the next day found us zig zagging up a small creek trying to follow an old trail of sorts. Eventually the trail split from the creek and went straight up a ravine. We followed this until it flattened out and the trees turned into more willow bushes, only these bushes were as tall as me in some spots. Once we had a good view of the basin we stopped refilled our water and started glassing, right away I spotted sheep and one or two turned into around 10 sheep. We were starting to catch on here a bit, we scouted for water and a trail, hiked the trail glassed for sheep found sheep got an idea of where they were going and pushed to a better location to confirm the gender. Only thing missing was curl..... Frustrated we looked for a place to camp for the night and on our scout we came up to a ridge what looked like a big range of mountains on the other side. I figured we could just ditch the packs where we were take the spotter and rifles and go glass for a while before we set up camp. This turned out to be a big mistake as neither of us took the time to look around before leaving the packs. Oops, on our way back everything looked the exact same and it took us over an hour to locate our life lines. I will never make a dumb mistake like that again. Any way just before bed that night I wasnt seeing any sheep so I started looking for anything, just as i was about to complain about lack of game i spotted what looked like a cow moose over 700 yards below camp. At a closer look this was no moose in fact a caribou and a nice respectable bull at that. Excitedly I told trekker and at that point in the trip he thought I was full of sh%@ until I calmed my tone down and got serious. We tried to grow a 5th point on that bull for over an hour but all we could count was 4 on both sides. I continued to watch this majestic looking animal until bed time. Overnight the temp dropped the rain came in and to our surprise turned to snow. We awoke to 4 inches of snow and our gear tarp collapsed, luckily our gear kept dry. With the snow came fog so visibility was very poor, only one more day of hunting and we had to be back at the lake. We had breakfast and then decided to cut our losses and go back to the lake. A wet hike back down but once we were there we set up the tarps and put together a stove with pieces left behind from the old camp. The next day was windy but no rain so we went for a walk to maybe find a bull moose in the meadow behind camp, we also brought the fishing rods and it was a good thing we did. The creek was loaded with arctic grayling and boy were they hungry, 4 fish at a time were attacking my fly as it was pulled through the current. We kept 4 of the bigger fish caught and had fish tacos that night, what a treat compared to mountain house. In the morning we awoke at 6 and prepared for the plane to pick us up. With the bad weather back in dease the pilot had to wait until 4 for a good enough window. That night and all through the next day we drove and drove and drove. It took us 21 hours from Dease Lake to the ferry terminal but we made it. With only a short 3 hour nap each in the truck since waking up at the lake we arrived at home around 9. That was a long 40 hours. Awesome trip with awesome memories cant wait for next time.

[tomahawk]

Well that was one of the most enjoyable video's I have seen in a long time, for an old fart like me it brings back a lot of good memories of when i had my days in the mountains chasing sheep around, well done! And good story added in Mark, nice to know what happened on this adventure. Success is measured in the adventure and enjoyment of the hunt , not in the few seconds of a squeeze of the trigger!

[kennyj]

Great video! Really enjoyed it.
kenny

[bcyukonair]

great video & story