1) TIME- you need time to hike, hike hike, and find some sheep as well as figuring a couple days for letting the weather blow over
2) DECENT WEATHER- you can't safely hike, hike, hike around when it is down pouring rain OR snow in sheep terrain. OOOOOOOORRRRRRR be covered in clouds for no visibility.
OH and #3- another "worry"- I was 3.5 months pregnant. I had already talked with my midwife about riding 4wheelers, hiking mountains, carrying weight on my back yadda yadda. Basically what it came down to was- TAKE IT EASY! Of course, I had been training most of the summer and even more so towards the end....so I wasn't going to just go climb a mountain and hope it worked out. The last month or so we were hiking a mountain every other night with weight on our backs. I started light and worked up to 35lbs. Once my AMAZING HUNTING GUIDE had decided on food (weight in comparison to calories) and used his previously made spreadsheet or weighed new items to figure out how to stuff our backpacks-- I only ended up with 20lbs! And Adam---with 50lbs! Easiest hunt ever for me! Wahoo! Adam also bought me a heart monitor so I could track my heart rate and make sure it didn't get too high for growing a healthy baby! Even with training, a heart monitor, and the TAKE IT EASY mindset.............. sheep terrain is sheep terrain! Time was already against us, let alone taking the time to safely cross sheep terrain with no falls or slides allowed. Priority #1= a SAFE hunt, as always, but super safe this time!
Well, we really didn't have time since my hunt started after the start of school. Luckily, the hunt area is close and weekend hunts were doable, just not favorable for success. And in Alaska, you never really know about weather until it hits you! It changes too quickly and so drastically, you really have to be prepared and go with the flow.
1st hunting weekend= Friday night through Sunday
We left ASAP after work on Friday. We had near perfect weather! First, we rode our 4-wheelers in for about 2 hours. Took us longer than we had planned due to the changes in water levels and flow in the area- basically had to find a new route of crossing rivers on the wheelers! We saw some sheep on the mountains (in my hunt area) that we were riding by, but they were in impossible terrain. We rode up the mountain as far as our wheelers would let us, got the ATVS situated for the weekend and our packs on our backs. We hiked as far as we could before dark. While setting up the tent and making dinner, we realized we were in for a cold night. It got chilly fast! We ate up our Mountain House meals and hydration drink, moved the food away from the tent (bears) and got in our sleeping bags to warm up. Weeellllll, I never really warmed up(I have been consistently "cold" over this pregnancy). I was literally shaking most of the night and barely slept. There was frost on the ground the next morning. I needed to get hiking to warm up.
If you remember from the scouting trip in June- this mountain is THICK with moose trails, moose poop, moose signs, and ...MOOSE! It was just before rutting season, so we kept our eye out (and ears) for aggressive bulls. Adam heard a bull and we saw a cow and calf, but that was it. We were thankful for the moose trails that helped us through the bushes and alders. When we finally broke through the tree line, it was blueberries galore! This mountain was COVERED in them and they were a delicious snack! We reached the ridge looking over our first valley- where we had seen the band of 18 rams in June, and........ NOTHING, darn it! We sat and glassed for awhile, hoping something would appear in this huge valley with lots of hiding spots. We decided to move on and hiked up some more into the valley above. This one still had snow in it and an ice covered blueish green pond with snow packed on top- a mini glacier! We sat here for the view over lunch.
Next up- hiking up and over a rock slide. It looked worse than it was, as they usually do. Up, up, up some more. When we got to the top it was a crazy, steep drop off to the other side. To the point that I couldn't even look over the edge with out crawling towards it on hands and knees! It made my heart race to see Adam standing next to it. We stopped for a break and watched some ewes and lambs that were far below us. Adam decided to take this ridge line up to the next peak- rock slide on the left, steep drop off on the right. Like I said, this terrain freaks me out so I let him check it out first. He sat at the top and glassed for quite awhile and came back with good and bad news. He saw the band of 18 (now 19) rams!!!! The bad news-- that ridge was my hunt boundary, they were just a ridge too far! We decided to sit and watch them to see if they moved up. This meant I had to hike up the ridge, luckily only part way before we could see them....... again, it wasn't as bad as it looked! We were watching airplanes fly below us! AND BRRRRRR it was cold! On a ridge with the wind blowing= I was freezing! I put all layers on that I could and laid behind a little rock formation to block me from the wind. The sheep were not moving and I was shaking again. I only lasted 2 hours up there! Adam doesn't get cold easily and like I said, suddenly I get bone-chilled cold in a short amount of time. So back down we went. We always find weird/odd things on our adventures. This time we found a rusted top of a tin can towards the top of the slide, we wondered what the story was behind it- how old, who brought it in(and how heavy!), what was in it, etc. Later down the rock slide we found the bottom of a rusted out tin can! Ha- could it be they had both slid down the slide and we just happened to see both of them amidst all of the rocks we were walking on?!?! We also saw a sheep jaw bone and the bone on the head that the horn grows out from. No horn though :(. We took the sheep teeth because one of our nieces wanted "AK animal teeth" for her birthday once. She now has moose, caribou, and sheep. Haven't found a bear skull or jaw yet.
We came to a place where we could set up the tent and watch the first valley or hike more to hopefully get a glimpse of the next valley. I had more energy left in me, we had some time before dark, and our destination didn't look THAT FAR! Off we went-- next up- boulder field. UGH, these were like fresh fallen boulders (well not fresh as in fallen yesterday but fresh as in- they hadn't settled yet) They were all sizes and every 3 out of 4 were still loose. This was super aggravating and it took FOREVER- like 2 hours! to cross them. Adam found 1/2 a horn that was older than old and completely chewed up from the mice, not work keeping. Then we had a couple more rock faces to climb up and over with more loose rock. I kept thinking, it'll be worth it, we'll see some more area! Weelllll by the time we crossed all of that rock craziness, it was starting to get dark and COLD. The next valley wasn't really as close as it looked and we'd have to hike more- which we didn't have time for being it was Saturday night and we had to get out on Sunday. Time for the tent and dinner. This time I wore everything I had to bed and wasn't as cold. We woke up the next morning to snow on the mountains across from us. Also-- sheep on the mountains across from us- including rams. Again, not possible for us to get to with our timing. Time to hike out
I hiked with ALL layers on, even rain because it was so cold and we were going down. The rock faces we had climbed up were somewhat forgiving the night before because we were able to kick rock and dirt to make "steps"-- well that morning it was all frozen and not forgiving. That made it interesting with a few tears in the butt of my rainpaints---ugh! We also saw the bruiser of a black bear we had seen in the same valley in June. At one point it was 420yards away from us. I contemplated taking a black bear out instead of a sheep (I LOVE BEAR) but we already have one in the freezer. The hike down and ATV ride out was uneventful. We had high hopes for the next weekend.
2nd Hunt= Labor Day weekend
I managed to get a day off to make Labor Day weekend a 4-day weekend which was our best chance for seeing some sheep but Adam had a surprise at work the Monday before. Surveyors showed up and were staying for the week, meaning he could not take Friday off. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah! A 3-day weekend is better than 2. Made us feel better that the weather on Friday was crummy, so it was alright we didn't get to head in yet. The rest of the weekend was looking okay, maybe some rain on Sunday.
Again, we left right after work and 4-wheeled in-- to our surprise, the water hand changed since just the weekend before! I think we still made it in a couple hours. We hiked in as far as we could and noticed the pleasant change in weather- it was warmer this weekend! We settled in for the night, warm and cozy.......but woke up to RAIN! It was rainy and the mountain was covered in clouds, we couldn't even see it, so we slept a little longer. The rain let up so we decided it was time to hike. We rolled up a wet tent and put on our rain gear to hike through the wet trees/bushes/alders. WE GOT SOAKED-- our rain gear is amazing and held up (Adam had patched the holes on my raingear butt with some magical goo, so my butt stayed dry too!) However, although our boots are waterproof, our feet were wet. I was comfortable hiking in my gear but Adam was overheating- we had to stop for some cool down breaks for him! It was either- be warm in your raingear and take breaks or take it off and get soaked. The clouds never cleared- when we got to our ridge to overlook the valley........no visibility. Could not see 20 yards in front of us! So we sat and sat at sat- with occasional periods of patchy clouds that allowed us to see about 50 yards. We could not hike this valley or go any further up with the risk of running off a sheep before we even saw it! Eventually we hiked in another 200 yards or so into the valley to the next small ridge that would hopefully let us see a little more in the breaks of clouds. We sat by a rock from 10am-4:30pm. Watching, waiting, sleeping, repeat. At one point, I swore I heard a large animal near us and army crawled to peak over a ridge during a cloud break. Nothing- I was going crazy! At least it wasn't cold I guess! The clouds never cleared- it was time to settle in and continue keeping an eye on the clouds.
The tent was wet from the night before, we shook off what we could and "sham-wowed" the rest. That night-- rain again! The next morning- clouds again and no visibility. However, we heard a plane coming up through the river valley---is this person crazy?!?! Or does he/she know the valley so well they can fly with zero visibility? Are they flying below the cloud cover? Will we hear about them on the news Tuesday?!?! They made several trips in and out- we were guessing they were picking up/dropping off other sheep hunters. EEeeek! It was the weirdest thing to hear a plane and not be able to see the rock 20 yards away! So, it was Sunday and we were to head out on Monday. The clouds were not clearing and we could not hike in this cloud cover and be successful. Even if it cleared tomorrow, we could not hike any further because it was time to head out. UGH! How disappointing! So we hiked and 4-wheeled out, chalking it up to a fun learning experience and bonding time. This is hunting in Alaska. Baby's first hunt was a bust.
I think that one is "George" glacier
SECOND HUNT
So that was the end of my sheep hunt---so disappointing! The hunt is still open, but Adam is off on his moose hunt that closes when my sheep hunt closes. IF he happens to get a moose early on and the weather is perfect- we may go for my sheep one more time next weekend. We shall see!
Again I thank Adam, my husband, best friend, and hunting guide for the research, planning, and packing to the oz for this hunt. He is THE BEST. Hunting in Alaska is NOT something you can just go out and do on a whim. You can't just be like, "Oh, I want to shoot an AK animal" and go do it. Hunting in Alaska is very very complex--- the rules and regulations to start (soooooooo sooooo different from Iowa, for Ex: you can hunt a 3 brow tine or 50inch bull moose on this side of the river from September 1-September 24- but the other side of the river is different..... and THAT'S an easy example!), whether or not you drew a tag, getting TO the area (plane, hike, boat, ATV, etc), having the right gear for the weather and terrain (and weight of the gear), the behavior of and how to hunt that species, and that's just a start! Do you know how to harvest that animal? Have a GPS so you don't get lost? Communication if something goes wrong in the boonies? The list goes on and on and I thank Adam for all of his time and dedication to making sure we have safe and legal hunts with the hopes of being successful!
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Here are a few more pictures over the past couple months....
AND NOW... for the baby belly
I will be 16 weeks tomorrow! We got to hear the heartbeat at the last appt-- it was strong and healthy!
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