2016 Sheep Hunt

A sheep hunt in the mountains is an annual event. The season starts August 10 and lasts into September. However, planning for a sheep hunt typically occurs far in advance, sometimes years. The planning process for this year's sheep hunt initially started nine months in advance, but frequent curve balls resulted in plans changing, up until the day before the hunt began.

I was asked by a good friend and experienced sheep hunter, Scott Luber, to chase rams with him this fall. He is the owner of Proving Trail Adventures (check them out here: provingtrailadventures.com) and one of two people who have taken a ram from each of the seven mountain ranges in Alaska, using his feet as the only mode of transportation into the hunt area. Needless to say, this guy is a hiking machine and I knew I had to get in good shape in order to keep up with him.

Our general plan was to travel up a river quite a ways where we would start walking into sheep country. This plan required a special type of boat that would allow shallow water traveling, fuel efficient moving, many miles of driving, light enough to pull over sandbars, and the ability to navigate rapids. Luckily, I am friends with a guy that builds fiberglass, freighter canoes/boats outfitted with a surface drive motor that fit this hunt's needs. We discussed our options and I ended up trading him my snowmachine and some extra cash to cover the cost of the boat and motor.

The boat was scheduled to be completed in late June, which would allow for adequate time to customize it and get comfortable.

As the months got closer to August, I became increasingly frustrated with how my sheep hunt preparation was going. Of course, I needed to be training extra hard in order to keep up with Scott, however, a newborn baby, a wife training for Mount Marathon, softball league, Kodiak bear hunting, my app building business, a deployment, and an atypical pneumonia that lasted over a month all became road blocks to hardcore training. Despite all of those things, I still managed to work out twice a day for a while as well as go on long hikes with heavy packs after work. Although I didn't work out to a level I consider "extremely in shape", I believe I trained hard enough to keep up with Scott and the demands of the upcoming hunt.

Scott did an amazing job of gathering information and intel on our hunt area. My job was to ensure our transportation to the area was dependable and safe. Unfortunately, I feel responsible for this ultimately failing. To make a long story short, the boat builder was poorly communicating realistic expectations and progress. The completion date was pushed back multiple times with different excuses/ reasons for the delays. Finally, it was assured to us that the boat would be completed Saturday, the 6th. Unfortunately, that was the same day we wanted to start our boat trip into the hunt area. After a little planning adjustments, we found a way to make this schedule work.

Fast forward to Friday, the day before the boat was supposed to be finished. I got a call with more bad news… the boat would not be ready for the hunt. This was extremely frustrating, but actually not surprising with the prior poor customer service and adherence to predetermined schedules. At this point, we had to scramble for a Plan B, and quick!

Luckily, Luber got ahold of our friend JR. If you don’t know JR, you should! He is one of the most incredible people you can meet. He’s an amazing family man, very generous, always happy and positive, loves everyone, and a role model Christ follower. He also owns and flies small planes! JR stepped up and said that he would be more than happy to fly us in to a Plan B area… “Thank you Jesus and JR”!

Our new plan was to hunt a different area and fly out on Sunday the 7th. This gave us time to repack a couple things (and for me to unpack all the items I was planning to use/need for the boat).

Day 1 (3 Days Until Opener)

It was difficult for me to sleep over night due to the excitement of this day arriving. I woke up many times thinking my alarm didn’t sound off, only to discover it wasn’t time for the alarm to trigger yet. Once the clock finally alarmed, I shot out of bed, downed a large breakfast, jumped in my already packed truck, and headed towards Luber’s house to pick him up. I was a little nervous on the drive in because the clouds looked really low and it was spitting rain here and there. I’m not too familiar with adequate flying conditions and it seemed like these conditions may be enough to delay our flight.

After loading up the truck with Luber’s gear, we made our way toward JR’s house. Once there, we discussed the game plan. I was wrong about the flying conditions… they were fine to fly in; it was going to be a bumpy ride tho. Predicted head/ cross winds were going to be about 30mph and the clouds would push us away from the mountains.  We planned to stay in the field for 9 days and decided a pickup time at noon on the 16th would be the agreed time/date to be at the strip.

Before we headed to our hunt area, we had to fill up on gas. We made a quick pit stop at Merrill field and we were on our way to the mountains!

At first, I was really nervous about flying. I’m not the biggest fan of transportation that I’m not behind the wheel of. Needless to say, JR put these worries to rest really quick. He is an excellent pilot and made the flight very enjoyable. The flight was smoother than I expected and we didn’t get tossed around too much. The winds were still strong tho; so much so that it actually took us almost twice as long than expected to get to our hunt area.

The landing was smoother than I expected it to be too. Those big inner tube tires can sure take a beating and absorb the shock. Once on the ground, we unpacked all of our gear and evaluated the landing area in more detail. It looked like a plane had recently landed and there were fresh footsteps in the dirt.

After unpacking the plane, JR texted our wives to let them know we were alright (there was no cell service, but JR had a Delorme InReach satellite texter). We also had an InReach with us for this trip to communicate with JR, but we were reserving the battery for our pack out and any needs that would potentially come up. Anxious to get our hunt started, we reconfirmed the pickup plan and said our goodbyes. JR took off without a problem and gave us one last buzz and wing tip wave farewell.

This is when the reality set in. We were all alone, on a mission to harvest a couple rams… It was go time! We quickly found a spot to hide our dry bag full of items we would potentially use when we returned from our hunt. Anxious to see if any sheep were around, we quickly took a gander at the mountains through our binoculars. Sure enough, a descent group of about 12 sheep were on the nearest mountain face (likely lambs and ewes). After that, we began our long day of hiking.

It was now well after noon and we had not eaten lunch yet. In preparation for the big hike in front of us, we decided to eat our lunch and glass (a term used to describe looking through binoculars or a spotting scope) the mountains close to us. As soon as we looked at the mountains, we could see sheep EVERYWHERE. There were so many sheep in fact, we could not count them all. These sheep however, were not rams. They were lambs and ewes, however, the sheer numbers of sheep made it obvious that we were hunting in an area with a very healthy sheep population.

As we were finishing our lunch, we looked up the ridge and noticed a guy standing in the brush a little below us. This was our queue to get moving! We quickly packed up everything and started hiking in his direction. We didn’t go directly at him, but the brushy ridge would not allow us to avoid him altogether. We passed the last place we saw him at a distance too far to chat (actually, we think he noticed us and then hid behind a rock while we were hiking his way). After passing him, we noticed MORE people along the ridge up ahead of us. This time, there were two people (a man and women) sitting down in the brush resting. Again, we hiked in their direction unable to avoid being seen, but did not get close enough to chat.

At this point, we were tired of seeing people. We figured that these were two different groups of hunters that were likely dropped off at some point earlier today. Instead of following the ridge any further, we decided to drop down into the large valley to get out of their sight.

Along the way up the valley we stopped numerous times to glass the mountain sides. We ended up seeing three good groups of rams on our side of the valley. We thought about staying put and pursuing some of these rams, but none of these groups had more than one legal ram in them. We ideally wanted to find a group with more than one legal ram in it. Since we had more time before opening day, and the fact that two other groups were behind us likely headed this direction, we decided to push on further after watching each group.

Our main goal was to hike as far up the valley as possible that day.

As it was getting dark, we found a pretty good bowl with small rocks that was relatively level. We setup our tent, did our nightly meal prep and routines, and went to bed tired from our long day of hiking.

Miscellaneous extras:

-              We hiked a total of 9 miles the first day.

-              We tried counting the number of sheep we saw this day, but we lost count because there were too many. As for rams, we spotted at least12.

Day 2 (2 Days Until Opener)

It was raining in the early morning, but it decided to stop as we were getting out of bed and packing up. The skies ended up clearing completely that day to some beautiful weather.

Again we stopped every now and then to glass for more possible rams. The very first glassing hill resulted in a handful of rams being spotted, but one spot in particular caught our eyes. Many miles away, a beautiful hillside was holding seven different rams (and a couple mountain goats). At this point, we could not tell if they were legal or not, however, the body size on the rams from that distance gave us hope. We decided that this area would be our hunting destination.

Along the way to this area, we saw a couple more groups of rams. There was a single ram that really caught our interest as well. He was the only ram that we saw by himself. He was very unique because he was full curl on his right side, but the left horn was barely noticeable. He either had a terrible accident, a malformation, or growth deficiency. Either way, he was still legal and would have filled the freezer just the same. We ended up calling this ram “Stumpy”. Stumpy was going to be our Plan B. If we got up to the group of seven rams, and it didn’t work out… we planned to head after Stumpy as we worked our way back down the valley toward the strip.

As we got closer to the group of seven rams, we started to slow down and take our time. It was a gorgeous day, and we still had two days until the hunting opener. Since we were not in a hurry at this point, we decided to take an extended break. We climbed the highest peak near us, ate our lunches, and studied the rams. We agreed that these next two days would be spent studying these guys and setting us up for a successful stalk on the 10th. Although last night was not the most enjoyable night of sleep, we decided that we should probably stay our distance and keep a good eye on the rams until hunting day. And we didn’t waste any time… we took a nap (between long periods of studying).

We were dozing in and out of sleep and watching the rams when I spotted a person walking in the middle of the valley. They were actually walking in our direction too (although they didn’t know we were there). I told Luber and we quickly decided that we could not risk waiting there any longer… we had to head towards the rams to claim them as ours to pursue. It took us mere seconds to pack everything up and make a straight B-line for the rams. When we started moving, we noticed that there was actually two people, not just one.

We knew they would spot us as soon as we were moving. I would look back every once and a while and finally, they stopped, sat on a rocky ridge, and watched us.

In the huge hurry to get in front of these other two hunters, I ended up falling on a rock slide and cutting up my leg (the first of many). This hike was not an easy one with many hazards. Regardless, the added pressure of hunters gave us extra motivation and we quickly made it to the mountain base.

Once at the base of the mountains, we were completely out of site of the rams. We were exhausted from the long distance we hiked that day and grand finale of a hurried finish over rough terrain. While we were catching our breath, we heard a faint motor. We then realized, a plane was headed our direction. We spotted the plane and soon realized, it was actually two planes headed our way. Typically two planes together means two super cubs (two seaters, with the pilot taking one seat), one plane with a guide and one with a client being dropped off. We made no effort to hide and we were standing out in the open. The lead plane even appeared to perform a wing tip for us (a plane’s wave). Both of the planes then proceeded to fly directly over us. After they flew over us and right next to the sheep on the mountain, they circled a couple times, and then landed about two miles away from us. They were obviously after the same rams we were. This was the start of much paranoia and attempting to always be one step ahead of the guide.

It was getting late so we needed to setup camp. We moved a little bit closer to the base of the bowl the rams were in and we put up the tent. The green, grassy ground in this area was like a bedding of feathers compared to the night before.  This obviously was not the first time somebody camped in this spot. In fact, it appeared to be a well-established camping spot for somebody about 20 to 30 years ago. There were multiple old fire pits, piles of antique garbage and tins cans, and even collected ram skulls.

We went to bed wondering why the guide dropped hunters on us after clearly flying over top of us. We laid in our sleeping bags contemplating what to say when we met and how to hunt rams with direct competition.

Miscellaneous Extras:

-              We hiked a little further than the day prior, about 9.5 miles.

-              The total ram count increased by 10 this day to 22. We saw other sheep from a distance, but we were unsure if they were rams or ewes.

Day 3 (1 Day Until Opener)

Soft ground and gentle rain patter made for some great sleep overnight. A couple times during the night, a ptarmigan decided to land next to our tent and cluck like a maniac. Other than that, we got some well needed rest.

It was spitting rain on and off that morning. Since we couldn’t hunt until tomorrow, and we were basically under the sheep we were going to hunt, we weren’t in any real hurry to get up. Our laziness was cut short when we heard the sound of footsteps on rocks in the distance. We shot out of our sleeping bags and looked out the tent. A couple hundred yards from the tent on the ridge was a guy in a red jacket walking away from us. He didn’t see us looking at him since he was already returning to where he came from (likely his base camp near the landing strip they were dropped off at). He soon disappeared behind the ridge about 15 seconds after we spotted him.

Disappointed in the proximity of another hunting party, we contemplated what to do. Both parties knew the others were there. We were here first, but the guide likely had self-proclaimed ownership of the area and rams. Unwritten, best hunting practices dictate that an area or game first pursued by an individual or group should be avoided by another individual or group. We determined that we were that “first pursual” group and that the guide and client should move elsewhere, especially since they had readily available transportation and many other hunting options with their super cubs. In addition, we had the determination and physical ability to stay one step ahead of them.

We decided to leave our tent where it was and ascend the mountain across from the bowl the rams were laying in. This would also give us an opportunity to spot where the guide and client were retreating to. When we were about half way up the mountain, we spotted the bright red coat in the rocks a little over a mile away walking toward the area the plane landed (this confirmed our conclusion that they had a base camp set up at their drop off point). Again, we only caught a glimpse of them before they disappeared behind the rocks.

We continued up the mountain to an area where we could peak over and peer into the bowl. We put on our camo, crawled to a gazing area, and setup the spotting scope. There were only four rams in this bowl, and each of them was easily found. (The other three rams were on the ridge of the mountain we just ascended. Earlier, we determined that we would not go after these three rams since two were clearly not legal and one was iffy) We were careful to not be seen and spook the rams. Of the four, two of them were confirmed legal, one was sublegal, and the last was borderline. We studied their habits for quite a while, took pictures of the area, and finalized our plan for tomorrow. 

After a couple hours, we headed back down the mountain. It was a quick descent being able to slide on the scree most of the way down. Once at the tent, we decided that we needed to get in a better position for tomorrow’s stalk. We were currently setup on the opposite side of the bowl drainage. In order to cross the drainage, we would have to do it discretely or else we would be spotted by the rams. This meant either doing it at night or dropping down into the main valley and taking a wide path around it. We had plenty of daylight left, so we decided to cut down the distance today rather than get an earlier start on hunting day. Plus, moving our tent to the other side of the drainage would put it directly in the path of the other hunters if they decided to put a stalk on the same rams.

Going around the drainage proved more difficult than we thought. The rams had an excellent vantage place. We were exposed in places longer than we wanted to and could not get completely out of sight a few times. This resulted in us having to walk a fairly far distance just to get our tent repositioned 300 yards away from our previous spot.

When we finally got around and to the other side, we found a soft spot to pitch the tent. We were now directly in line with our planned approach for tomorrow as well as between the guide and the rams. After setting up our tent, our next priority was getting water. The camping ridge did not have a water source so we were forced to drop back down to the valley floor to fill up our water bladders.

We were hoping that the skies would be clear enough to allow for a midnight stalk and the shooting of a ram at 12:01AM, however, the clouds did not cooperate and we settled on a 2AM stalk start time for the opening day. We studied pictures of the terrain we took earlier in the day to determine where we would hike to the next day. We decided a certain patch of rocks would be our destination and would get us within shooting distance. We soon fell asleep with pictures of that rock patch and rams in our minds.

Day 4 (Opening Day)

We got a couple hours of sleep last night. Paranoia and anxiousness got the best of our sleep quality, so we were eagerly waiting for 2AM to arrive. It was completely dark out, but the weather cooperated and there was no morning rain for the first time.

Although it was dark, it was not impossible to see. We didn’t use any light because we didn’t want the rams to know we were coming. The approach was slow and methodical. The mountain side we were hugging as we ascended consisted of gravel and large, loose rocks. We had to choose our steps carefully to make sure we didn’t kick rocks backwards and make a lot of noise as we climbed. It took us longer than we thought (3 hours actually) to get to the rock patch. Daylight was just breaking, so we timed it perfectly. We were within 200 yards of where we wanted to be for the rams when they decided to come down and feed.

The waiting game began. We were protected from direct view by a few small rocks. We didn’t have much room to move around and sit, and what little room we did have was fairly uncomfortable. Kicking rocks down the mountain happened every once and while, which made us nervous due to the noise it would make.

At about 10AM, the guide and client came creeping around the corner about 100 yards below us. We waived and moved around to make sure they knew we were there. Once they caught site of us, they stopped, dropped, and disappointingly shook their heads. They talked with each other for about 10 minutes, waived, and retreated back down the mountain.

Their appearance was shocking. They clearly knew we were planning on hunting these rams, they obviously passed our tent on their way up the mountain, and they surprisingly took their time getting to the rams. It just didn’t make sense. But that all didn’t really matter since we were first on the mountain and now didn’t have to worry about them. At this point, we were expecting to hear the planes come and pick them up later in the day.

We ended up sitting at this rock patch for 16 hours waiting for the sheep. During that time, the only thing we saw was a lone mountain goat cross the bowl and traverse the opposite mountain side. The sheep did not repeat their grazing pattern for some reason. After shivering for quite a while, we decided to walk up into the bowl and see if we could spot where the sheep were hiding out. It turns out, the bowl was absolutely huge, with plenty of grazing and hiding area. We scoured the bowl but could not find a single ram. This led us to the conclusion that the rams were never in the bowl that day. We just spent 16 hours on opening day on a rock patch with no rams above it! This completely stumped us. We could not figure out where the rams went or why they left.

Disappointed, we made our way back to our tent. We got there after dark and repeated our nightly dinner and bedtime routine. The plan for tomorrow would be to head toward Stumpy.

Day 5

Our alarm sounded off at 6AM. Still disgruntled from the day prior and in no real hurry to get after stumpy, we slept in until 7AM. It was a nice morning. The clear skies and rising sun made for a pleasant camp pack up. Instead of dropping way down into the deep valley, we decided to cross the bowl drainage to look for Luber’s toilet paper he thought he misplaced (we later realized it was never lost). After unsuccessfully locating it, we headed toward the same area of the ridge we climbed to get up, with the intent to back track down from there. When we got to the ridge, we looked up the mountain above us and noticed the guide and client climbing the mountain. We knew this meant they were headed after sheep and we quickly located the rams they were pursuing… it was the four rams from the bowl!

Our hearts sunk at that moment. How did the rams get over here? Why did we sleep in that extra hour? How did the guide and client stay put in this area long enough to pursue them the day after we attempted a stalk? How did they get ahead of us? Of course, we were upset with ourselves for missing this opportunity that they were going to have, however, we were glad that the client would get a chance at a ram, even though her guide tried hunting on top of other hunters (us).

We sat and watched the approach. We were questioning the route they took since they were ascending the same side of the mountain the rams were bedded down on (typically the opposite or back side is preferred if available, and in this case, it was). We concluded that even if they shot one of the rams, there would still be one legal ram left, and possibly another depending on closer inspection. We agreed that we shouldn’t give up on these rams quite yet and that we would watch what happened before we made our next move.

At this point, we were out of water. Because the near future was unpredictable, we had to have water before we could do anything. As a result, I volunteered to drop down into the valley to fill up our water while Luber sat and observed.

When I got back, we finalized our new plan. We decided we would hike up the valley and attempt to get on the other side of them so we could be in a shooting position after they spooked. Before we started to hike up the valley, we noticed the rams were starting to get nervous. I was mostly out of sight while filling up water so we believed the rams either spotted or scented the other two hunters. Soon after they began getting antsy, we noticed three other rams we didn’t know were there appear from a hidden draw below them and start to climb the mountain. These three rams were spooked by something and they were on a mission to sidehill the mountain, back into the upper valley. Once those three rams spooked out, the other four followed. This is when we made our move.

We knew the terrain back in the upper valley was rocky, steep, and had little to no grazing area for the sheep. We knew they would head back there to hide out, and then reappear at some point. We also knew that the two hunters were far from their base camp and likely did not have the necessary resources to follow the rams back into this valley for a potential long stalk (unlike them, we packed our entire camp on our backs). With little hesitation, we headed up the valley to follow the rams that were now out of site. Typically, chasing spooked animals is not a good idea, however, we knew that the terrain they were headed to was only going to be temporary and that they would eventually come back the way they went.

Instead of going all the way up the base of this side valley and then up the mountain to get into position, we decided to head up the mountain where the three rams went and then sidehill around following their foot prints. We busted our butts to get to the side of the mountain where the rams were seen climbing up and over. Before we climbed the technical part of the mountain, we took a long break to collect ourselves. Plus, we wanted to give the rams time to settle down and not be too nervous about us potentially pursuing them. While we were resting, we noticed the hunting pair silhouetted on the mountain top. They saw us and knew exactly what we were doing. We could only imagine what was running through their heads, but we were pretty sure it wasn’t very friendly seeing that we were headed after the rams that spooked while they were stalking them. We each sat there for a while and then the duo stood up, and started descending the mountain at an angle toward us. They were either planning to walk the valley up toward the rams or they wanted to talk to us. We believe it was the latter, but either way, we didn’t want to sit around to find out. We immediately got up and climbed the mountain side in front of us.

The climb turned out to be more difficult than we originally thought. It was literally rock climbing in some parts with vertical hand and foot holds needed to get up higher. Since I was bringing up the rear, I got a couple of dirt and rock baths that I could not avoid… luckily they didn’t include large rocks.

We eventually got to the ram tracks, which meant no more climbing… thank goodness! We followed the tracks around the mountain. We were surprised to find so many points and ledges with nice bedding areas this far back in the valley. Regardless, the rams passed them all to head deep into the rocky back of the valley. We followed the tracks until we felt that we could not pursue them any further without risking showing ourselves. We had a good idea of where they were and stopped based on the maps we had with us. Instead of potentially really scaring them and pushing them further, we decided to wait for them to emerge.

After a few hours of seeing nothing, it started to rain on us. The rain never let up either. Soon after, a huge cloud formed and fogged in the entire valley. We thought this was going to be the deal breaker for us, but luckily, the cloud lifted after 30 minutes.

Seven hours passed and we finally saw one of the rams. He was high in the rocky bowl, walking back our direction. He disappeared out of sight, but soon reappeared as he traversed around a point toward us. He popped out about 200 yards away on a ledge, unfortunately, he was one of the sublegal rams. At this point, we knew there were two legal rams, two maybe legal rams (with one most likely being legal), and two sublegal rams left to reappear. Our odds were good that this scout would lead the larger rams right to us.

We soon saw a second ram make his way around the point. This ram was also sublegal. Soon after he showed himself, a third ram appeared. Again, sublegal! This meant the only rams left to come out were the two legal rams and the two maybe legal rams. We were anxiously awaiting the next ram to show himself.

Our only task at this point was to stay hidden long enough to have a legal ram reappear. Unfortunately, that proved more difficult than we thought. The lead ram was on a mission. He wanted to get back to the pristine grazing grasses of the mountain side. Because of this, he didn’t really slow down as he retraced the footsteps from their prior escape back into the valley. Regrettably, we were basically camped out within 10 feet of that trail, with the inability to hide out of sight if he followed the same path.

We saw the lead ram headed directly for us along the same path. We knew we were in trouble with the possibility of being spotted. The only thing we could do at this point was curl up in a ball, bury our heads, and hope the ram didn’t see or smell us. He continued following the path. He was so close at one point that we could hear his footsteps, and the exact moment he spotted us. :( He got within 10 feet of us, spooked from not knowing what we were, and shot directly up the mountain into the steep, unclimbable (for humans) area. At this point, I slowly uncurled from my ball and looked up above me. About 50 yards away stood all three of the sublegal rams looking down at us. I let Luber know what I saw and encouraged him to uncurl and look up at our admirers.

We resumed our normal stake out positions as we watched the rams slowly climb higher up the mountain. Their new position was actually a good thing for our plan. We were afraid they would retreat back into the valley and also spook the larger rams. Fortunately for us, they went straight up and did not alert their buddies (out of sight from them). In fact, that is where they hung out for the rest of the night.

There was only another hour remaining until darkness set in. We were anxiously waiting for the next ram to peak its head around the corner, but it never happened. We ended up sitting there for a total of 9 hours, in the rain, for one of the legal rams to potentially show themselves. Again, we were outsmarted by the rams and we came up empty handed.

Due to the rain and clouds, it was too dark to stay much past 11PM. There would be no way to determine if a ram was legal at this point, so we had to call it a night. By this point we were wet, very cold (it was snowing at the top of the mountains), and bummed from not connecting on a ram. We briefly contemplated staying on the mountain for the night, but we figured we should get out of the area and not pressure the rams when we can’t see them.

We gathered our things and started to head down in a different direction than we came. We soon regretted that decision because our inability to see too far ahead of us resulted in us coming upon an unpassable drop off. We were almost in a sticky situation where we could not go back up the way we came and had to go down. Lucky for us, we were able to find a way to get back up and over to where we were sitting earlier so we could start the descent over again.

This time, we followed the sheep and our tracks back the way we came. We knew that we could not descend the same way we climbed up so we searched for a different way down. We soon found a very wide and steep scree shoot that we thought we could take to the bottom of the mountain.

We put on our head lamps, shed a layer of clothes, and prepared for the dark and wet descent. Luber led as usual. Immediately after he started his descent, I accidently dropped one of my gloves. I yelled at Luber to grab it as it rolled quickly down the mountain toward him. By the time he saw it, it was too late to grab. He tried to catch up to it, but it floated down the mountain and soon disappeared out of site.

We then proceeded to keep an eye out for it as we made our way down the mountain. The scree wasn’t too bad. There were a couple dangerous places where the scree ran out and we had to carefully drop between and over some cliff rock, back onto the scree. There was another instance where I kicked a rather large boulder loose and it shot down the mountain toward Luber in front of me. I yelled really loud for him to dodge right and thankfully he did so, narrowly avoiding a direct hit (it was large enough to cause some damage too). At about that time, we spotted a pile of rocks among the scree, and low and behold, they stopped my glove!

We proceeded to descend the seemingly never ending scree. Once the scree finally ran out, we had to travel across loose rock and boulders for the remainder of the journey out.  Although it was dark and we couldn’t see the bottom of the mountain, it took significantly longer than we thought. We really didn’t think we were that high up the mountain, but apparently, we were close to 6000 feet (which we learned later by looking at the GPS).

We finally made it back to where we started the day watching the other two hunters. We had to set up the tent on slightly rocky ground, in the rain. Once the tent was up, we were able to change out of our wet clothes. We set up a clothes line inside the tent to hang our wet clothes and help dry them out (picture a tent only three feet high at its peak… there was no head room now and clothes were dragging over our faces and sleeping bag). The final task before bed was a warm meal. We ate our Mountain Houses (dehydrated packs of food with added boiling water) while in our sleeping bags that night. It was exactly what we needed to take the remaining chill off before bed.

Prior to going to bed, we discussed the plan for tomorrow. We agreed that we would sleep in and dry off before making any real decision. Ideally, the rams would come back out to the grassy mountainside and we would pursue them, but we understood that it may even take them a couple days to do that after being spooked to the back of the upper valley (especially after we were fairly close to them with our headlights on and yelling to avoid getting hit with rocks). We ended up going to bed around 2AM.

Miscellaneous Extras:

-              Our total confirmed ram count was still at 22 (and would likely remain that way for another day) due to us pursuing the same rams for a few days.

-              At this point, Luber called me the dirtiest person he has ever hunted with. I forgot to remind him of the multiple dirt and rock baths he shot backwards at me during the extreme climb that day.

 Day 6

The rain finally let up around 10AM. The absence of rain turned out to be our alarm clock, so we got up as well. We poked our head out the tent and noticed that the tops of most mountains now had fresh snow on them. The good news was, the clouds were clearing up and it looked like it would be a nice day ahead.

The first thing we did when we got out of the tent was to create clothes lines and hang up all wet items (the inside tent clothes line didn’t dry out items very well). The weather cooperated and the sun actually made an appearance to help dry out gear as well. We were out of water at this point. Someone had to stay behind in case it started raining so we could shelter all the half dry items. Since I fetched our water the day before, it was Luber’s turn to fill the water.

As Luber was down getting water, I took some time to glass the upper valley for the rams. I ended up spotting a couple of them at the extreme far end of the valley, high up on a knoll, bedded down in rocks, completely unapproachable and unobtainable. Once Luber returned, I told him the good and bad news. Good news, I found the four rams (as well the three smaller rams, who were all on the grassy bowl). Bad news, they were in a spot where it was not possible to put a stalk on them. We decided to watch and wait.

As we were studying the rams, we heard the dreaded plane motor sound. Except this time, it was a welcomed sound. That meant the guide and client were getting picked up and we would have the area to ourselves!

Now that we had no competition, we decided to not pressure the rams. We would watch and study them all day with hopes of them being in a shootable location the following day. It was now a waiting game. In the meantime, we made the decision to move our tent since we were out in the open all morning.

We then proceeded to watch the rams for the rest of the day, while soaking in the sun, and dozing on and off from tundra naps. The plan for the next day was to wake up around sun rise, locate the rams (hopefully closer to us), and then head after them.

As we were wrapping up the day and getting ready for bed, Luber decided to take one last gaze up the upper valley and the mountain side facing the valley. Believe it or not, he spotted a couple rams.

It was now 9:30PM. The prior nights did not have enough daylight to shoot past 11PM, so we knew that if we wanted to put a stalk on them and get off a shot, it had to happen fast. After a quick discussion, it was decided that we would push it hard to a predetermined ridge, and set up for a shot before 11PM. We minimally stuffed our packs and took off running toward our desired ridge.

It took us about 20 minutes before we realized that we weren’t making adequate progress to get to the desired spot in time before dark. As a result, we bailed on the stalk. It was getting too close to dark and we didn’t want to ruin tomorrow’s hunt. They were now in a position that would allow us to ascend the other side of the mountain, get above them, and hunt them from above.

We went to bed extremely excited and eager to hunt these larger rams who seemingly did something predictable for us for the first time. We were hoping they could stay predictable and be comfortably on the grassy mountain the next day.

Day 7

We woke up around 6AM. It was beautiful outside with a perfect temperature and clear skies. We quickly downed our breakfast and got ready for the day (leaving the tent up and some of our gear in it).

Our first priority was locating the sheep. Luber was on grassy mountain duty and I was on bowl duty. I crept along the mountain base and slowly inched my way into more viewing area of the bowl. I would move a couple feet, look through my binoculars at the bowl, confirm no sheep were in sight, and then repeat. I did this numerous times until I found the first ram. It was a one of the sublegal ones. I continued the creeping, making sure I stayed out of sight of the first ram, until I found two more rams. Again, sublegal rams. These three rams were the only ones in the bowl.

Luber did the same thing but in the opposite direction as he gazed along the grassy mountain face and around it’s many shoots. He finally spotted a ram. It was one of the four that were at the end of the rocky valley the day prior. The ram was actually fairly close to our camp and very low on the grassy mountain, almost to the base by the rocky valley bottom. Luber didn’t wait to spot the other rams because he knew they were likely together. He immediately retracted his steps and caught my attention. We discussed where the ram was and agreed on our approach… going around the grass mountain through the bowl (in plain view of the other three rams), climb the opposite side that the rams were on, get above them, and wait for them/ find a good shooting spot.

It took us 1.5 hours to get through the bowl and to the top of the mountain. We had to be somewhat quiet for fear of spooking the rams on the other side since we didn’t know exactly where they were. We ended up peaking over a couple times and discovering that we needed a better vantage point. We then moved further up and in to the mountain until we finally found a decent place to look down some shoots. We army crawled until we spotted the first ram.

The ram was a little lower on the mountain than the first time Luber spotted one (we weren’t sure if it was the same ram or not). We decided we were in a perfect spot for shooting; so it was only a matter of time for the rams to work their way up the mountain to feed. We started to prepare for a lengthy waiting game and we pulled out the spotting scope. We soon spotted another ram, and another. However, these other two rams were even lower. They were so low that they were actually on the rocks of the valley below the mountain. They were not bedded down either. They were slowly moving down the rocks even lower. We soon realized, they weren’t planning on grazing or hanging out low on the mountain; they were planning to cross the rocky valley. The route they were going to take, the time of day they were going to do it in, and the nasty/ steep terrain they were headed towards caught us completely off guard. Once again, the rams were exhibiting unpredictable behavior and dodged our move. We know we didn’t drive them to cross from spooking them either.  

Our hearts sank. Our tent was literally a quarter mile from where they were deciding to cross. We could have stayed put and ventured out on the rocky valley bottom and they would have crossed right in front of us. But then again, who could have predicted that!?

Luber and I had a good idea of where they were headed. We quickly brainstormed our options. We knew that if they crossed the valley, we would either never see them again, or have an impossible task of harvesting one in that nasty terrain. As a result, we decided to attempt to intercept them before they crossed. This meant descending the mountain, running along the ridge, and crossing the rocky valley bottom and getting into a shooting position, all while staying out of sight and doing it faster than the rams (who were already in the valley) could cross.

We knew that every second counted so we frantically packed up our gear and started running along the mountain top on the opposite side of the mountain from the rams. After a short trek of relatively flat side hilling, we were left with the big descent. Lucky for us, we knew exactly where a scree field was from our brief scouting hike the day before the opener. The first part was steep and slick, but once we got past that, it was all loose rock. We were able to run down the mountain with scree absorbing our impact and moving with our every step (imagine running down a steep hill made of super soft sand… that is how the scree functions, but the rocks are not soft and they are shaped like black quarters).

Remember how it took us 1.5 hours to get up the mountain? Well it only took us 15 minutes to get down it! Once down, we had to covertly maneuver into position to intercept them. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the rocky valley, the rams were already across it. Lucky for us tho, they crossed it a lot higher into the valley then we thought. They would then have to side hill the steep mountain wall along the valley before they could head up into the new terrain. Knowing this gave us hope to still be able to cut them off.

We had to carefully time our short sprints during times the rams could not see us. This proved difficult as they had a very good vantage point from their new area. We eventually picked a shooting spot to aim for. It was not ideal, however, anything closer would have meant us being exposed for too long and the possibility of us being spotted.  We finally made it to this spot but we weren’t too sure how successful we were getting there without being seen. Depending on where the rams popped out at as they ascended the mountain, they would be anywhere from 300 to 600 yards away. In preparation, we loaded our guns and got into a shooting position. Regrettably, the rams took the high road and popped out 600 yards away. Was that because they saw us? We aren’t sure, but it was very likely they now knew we were below them since we were probably sticking out like soar thumbs among the many rocks in the valley.

600 yards is well beyond my comfortable shooting range. I know Luber is likely proficient at distances greater than me, but 600 yards was not a good idea. We were close, but not close enough. This was our last chance too so we were glad we tried our best, if we did not, it would have felt like we just let them walk away.

Disappointed, we gathered our things, tipped our hats to the rams, and turned around to head back to our tent. As we walked back across the rocky valley, the rams continued to scale higher into the gnarly mountains until they finally disappeared.

We got to our tent and took some time to gather our thoughts. We were now thinking about our other options. We had three days left until our pickup time. We were deep into glacier territory and had little time to invest in studying or finding new rams. This made our decision easy… we would head directly for Stumpy. We knew he was legal, he seemed to like lower terrain, we knew he likely didn’t move too far, and he was on our way out. If that didn’t work out, we had our eyes set on a deep valley that may hold some hidden rams.

We packed up the tent, collected our gear, and headed out. It was a little bittersweet leaving that area. It was a great hunting spot and we battled hard for the past few days there. We came out empty handed… but that’s hunting.

We eventually made it back to the middle of the large valley bottom. Once there, we glassed the mountain sides and spotted the four rams. It was obvious they knew we were there and they continued the journey in the same direction they started.

The rams eventually found a rocky bowl to bed down in high in one of the shoots. This halted the parallel traversing and we ended up passing them. We continued down the valley toward Stumpy’s last seen area. It was getting to be that time where we needed a break and wanted to take a gander at what exactly was around us in the mountains. We hiked to a good vantage point and started glassing the mountain side. To our amazement, we couldn’t find any sheep in sight. We knew Stumpy may have moved to the valley we were already planning on checking out, so this didn’t bum us out too much.

While we were sitting there munching, I began to brainstorm our options. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. It was fairly obvious the direction the rams were headed. They couldn’t go any further up the mountains because it was too steep and rigid; they couldn’t come toward us because we were in the large valley away from the mountains.  Of the remaining two available options to move to, there was no way they would retract their steps. Knowing this, I hypothesized that we could get in front of them and set ourselves up for a good shot. The only thing is, we have tried sitting in place a couple times with this same group of rams, and it never worked out. To counteract this, I proposed that we split up. One person would be in front of them, while the other person would attempt to make them move in the needed direction simply by following behind them. I told Luber that one sheep is better than none, and splitting up may put some meat in our freezers. I volunteered to be the person following in the rams’ footsteps and Luber would be the person out in front of them. I think he was surprised by my sacrifice, but agreed with the plan and the potential it brought to bagging a ram.

This plan renewed our excitement. It seemed like a real possibility that we could bring home at least one ram this way. I agreed to not make my move until Luber was well into position (our biggest fear was me spooking the rams from too far away or too soon before Luber was ready). Before splitting, we agreed to a rendezvous spot below the drainage Luber would hike up. We would meet there, even if it was dark.

At this point, we were well past the rams and lined up directly in front of Luber’s drainage he would climb. Luber headed off for his drainage while I started to back track to a place where I could see both drainages, and the rams. Once there, I found a high point, stayed put, watched, and waited. I also spotted a ram I believed was Stumpy far in the distance, but I was unable to confirm without getting closer.

I decided I would give Luber plenty of time to get into position. The cutoff I would use to allow me to start my hike was 30 minutes after he disappeared up and into his drainage.  This ended up being a two hour head start for him. By this time, I assumed he would still be moving into position and eventually get settled before I was spotted by the rams.

The start of my journey back tracking to the drainage the rams were in was rather rocky (pun intended). I thought it would only take me 30 minutes to cross the large valley, however, it took me a lot longer. I was faced with many road blocks. There were lots of unseen cliff edges in that direction. There was also a huge creek that weaved in and around steep areas. I couldn’t cross it so I had to walk the hilly rock sides up the valley significantly further than I wanted before I found a place to cross (I actually spent about 20 minutes building a rock bridge to allow me to cross safely).

Once across, I was now in view of the rams. They were well above me and they knew I was there, but they didn’t seem to care at that time. At this point, it appeared the rams could in fact retrace their steps if they got spooked, so I made a concentrated effort during my ascent toward them to hug the far side of the drainage in an effort to discourage them from running that direction. I also decided that I didn’t want to send them into a panic by disappearing and reappearing behind small ridges and rocks, so I planned my path in order to stay in plain sight the entire time. This path was not an easy one either. It was full of very steep ground with variable surfaces from soft dirt, to large slipping rocks, to ice.

At this point, I knew I could not waste any time. I also knew that realistically, this may be our last chance at bagging a ram. Because of this, opted to hammer out the drainage as fast as I could. I decided to not take any breaks to ensure I get up the mountain and into a position that would optimize our chances. Going slow or taking breaks would only allow the possibility of things not going the way we wanted.

To my surprise, the rams didn’t really mind me hiking toward them. This was odd because the rams were obviously spooking easier the days before from a lot less pressure. As I witnessed this, I began to get excited with the possibility of shooting a ram if they were comfortable with my presence. Admittedly, I knew this would be a possibility from the very start, however, I originally thought my chances of this actually happening were less than 1%.

It took a good three hours for me to hike to almost the top of the                                                                       drainage (five hours after Luber originally left for his destination). I didn’t really think I would have to hike that high, but again, these rams did not behave like typical rams, and they stayed put. The closer I got to the rams, the more I realized that I was actually going to get a shot at one. I picked out a rocky bump where I estimated it would be about 300 yards away from the rams (Luber had the range finder at this time, and if you know me, you know I’m not good at judging distances). I would shoot from there. I didn’t want to risk getting any closer and then busting the rams when I could have shot them earlier.

Well believe it or not, the rams let me get to that rocky bump. They watched me hike the entire drainage and were comfortable enough with me there that they didn’t budge. I’m not sure if they thought I was a dirty sheep because I was wearing a grey shirt, light brown pants, and have very pasty skin or if they were just too tired to move/care since they spent the day running away from us into some very sketchy terrain. They likely never smelled me since there was a fairly strong downwind at the time. Either way, they were still there when I got to the top of the drainage and I was going to have a chance at harvesting one.

The rams really didn’t care that I was there. They allowed me to gather the spotting scope, binoculars, and gun and set everything up. I studied each one of them trying to decide which to shoot. I was deciding between two of the sheep, one with the biggest body that I could tell was seven years old but just full curl on one side, or an eight to nine year old that was easily over full curl but had a smaller body. I decided to pursue the larger bodied animal in case Luber did not harvest a ram for whatever reason; that way we would have more meat to share.

The big bodied ram was bedded down in front and within feet of another ram. This meant I could not shoot him without fear of hitting the other ram. So I ended up waiting, and waiting, and waiting. These dang rams would not move! I ended up trying to spook them on purpose by making a huge range of sounds. I tried growling, howling, grunting, screaming, and much more. Nothing phased them. They would not move.

Finally, the big bodied ram decided to do the normal lazy sheep behavior of getting up, moving a couple feet, readjusting, and laying back down. This moved him into an unobstructed position for the shot. I took aim, and fired. The bullet was off target. It ended up striking the ram in the upper thigh. All the rams were scared and had no idea what that loud sound was. The ram I shot did not run. Instead he limped around confused, and then laid back down. The other rams knew he was injured and they came over to smell the wound. Unfortunately, this meant I did not have a clear shot for follow-up.  I had to wait until they were done smelling it and grazed away from him before I could shoot again. This time I made the appropriate wind and distance adjustment from my first shot and put a bullet through the lungs. He immediately ran the other direction, into a little shoot, and out of site. The other rams now exhibited typical behavior. They stood up confused and watched the injured ram. Although I could not see the shot ram, I could tell when he went down for good because that is when the other rams freak out and run away… and that is exactly what they did.

I knew my ram was dead in the far drainage, but my main concern was the spooked rams. I was between them and their tracks back the way they came, but for some reason, they decided to run straight up into the extremely steep and dangerous terrain. I’m not sure why they didn’t run the other direction up the easy, obvious slope and over into the next drainage. It was likely a reaction type thing where they followed the first ram that ran away. Despite their undesired direction, they soon realized they couldn’t get far enough away from me in that area. They then slowly walked toward the other drainage, scaled to the top, and disappeared over in Luber’s supposed direction. It was now time to focus on my ram.

I had to scale a couple rocky crests before I found the shoot my ram died in. Because of the steep terrain, he actually rolled quite a long way down. A little beat up from the roll, he ended up coming to a stop on some relatively flat ground. The kicker here is that this was actually a five foot by five foot plateau with a couple small streams flowing through it, immediately prior to a 50 some foot waterfall. If he would have rolled a couple more feet, he would have had a pretty nasty fall and then rolled further down the mountain.

The first order of business was to take pictures. This was a little awkward due to the area he landed in, but it is a necessary task!

The next task was cutting up the ram. The stream that the ram was sitting in would make dressing the ram difficult. Also, a wet hide is a heavy hide and wet meat can lead to faster spoilage. Because of this, I had to either move the ram away from the stream, or move the stream away from the ram. There was no other flat ground around, so I couldn’t move the ram. I decided I could move the stream if I built a dam and diverted the water… so that’s exactly what I did. After the makeshift dam was erected, I got to work on the ram. I decided I was going to keep the entire hide this year. Since this was the first time I have ever done that, it took me quite a while to cut up the ram.

I finished dressing the ram well into the dark, while using my headlamp.                 I grew a little concerned about Luber because I never heard a gunshot after the rams moved toward his direction. I was also concerned that I would get back to the rendezvous way past the agreed upon 11PM time and that he may worry about me.

It was now time to pack the animal down the mountain. After loading everything in my pack, it was extremely heavy. The weight of it all made me feel very uneasy about the task of getting it all the way down the steep mountain safely in the dark (I was unable to efficiently remove unnecessary tissue from the meat and hide due to my hurrying and being more concerned with getting down the mountain than leaning out the animal). To ensure my safe descent, I decided to leave the hide behind and retrieve it in the morning. Although this meant I would have to hike the mountain again, this decision fell in the “better safe than sorry” category.

My pack was still very heavy with the meat and skull in it. Going down was pretty nasty. I didn’t expect to have a sheep on my back so I had no clue about the best route to take down the mountain, nor could I see far enough to really plan a good route. I did the best I could to make it down without any issues… but my best wasn’t good enough. I fell multiple times on unstable rocks and got some bumps and bruises from those. The scariest part of the descent was the sliding tho. A couple times I lost my footing on a steep slope and slid. I would slide on the rocks on my butt with my heavy pack driving the momentum downward while my feet and hands drove into the gravel to attempt to slow me down and stop. This sliding seemed to last about 10 minutes, but I’m sure it was significantly less than that. It was very painful on my rear, but even more so on the fingers. The scary part about the slides was the fact that I didn’t know when it was going to stop or what kind of terrain I was sliding in to (because I was unable to see that far ahead in the dark). Lucky for me, both significant slides ended when the terrain flattened out a little, and I only suffered minor cuts and bruises.

I eventually made it down the mountain drainage around 1AM (well past our 11PM meet up time). My pack was so heavy and awkward, and I was so exhausted and beat up from the descent, that I couldn’t scale the ridge to make it back to the rendezvous spot (plus, that spot was picked without considering the possibility of me bringing back a sheep). I stopped well short of it. I was within yelling range, so I yelled out loud for Luber a couple times. I didn’t get a response, so I began to worry again. I decided there wasn’t much I could do at this point and I would wait until daylight to attempt to meet back up with Luber. 

By this time, I was extremely hungry. Luber had the stove, so I was stuck with diverting from my planned meals and eating cold/dry food. I pretty much ate everything I could get my hands on without concern for rationing for the upcoming packing days.

Unable to go any further, I was stuck sleeping in the area I stopped. It was extremely rocky with boulders the size of basketballs everywhere. I did my best to move rocks around to make it as flat and less pointy as possible. I had the tent with me (Luber did not have a tent), but this terrain would not allow for a tent to be set up. As a result, I slept on top of the tarp under the stars. Lucky for us, this was the only night there was not a cloud in the sky and it would not precipitate.

Prior to going to sleep around 2:30AM, I said my nightly prayer. I prayed for Luber’s safety and a joyous reunion the next day. Immediately after saying AMEN and opening my eyes, a shooting star shot across the sky. It was the affirmation I needed to help me sleep peacefully that night.

Day 8

I would be lying if I said I slept good. The mattress of boulders was a very uncomfortable bed. At first light, I shot up ready to find Luber. I fired my rifle into the mountains and waited for any kind of response. Luber fired his rifle 10 seconds later, coming from the area where we agreed to rendezvous. Hearing this was such a relief! 

We left our stuff where it was and met each other in the middle. Although I knew he was likely fine, it was so good to see Luber. (It turns out, Luber made it to the rendezvous spot around 11PM the night before, he was just sleeping too hard to hear me yell.) Both of our smiles easily told the other person we each shot a ram. It turns out the drainages somehow masked the gun shots. Luber only heard one of my two gunshots, and I never heard his shot. We exchanged abbreviated stories and then congratulated each other on a job well done.

Luber’s summarized story - Luber’s terrain in his drainage was pretty bad too, with a glacier at the top that the rams would eventually cross over. He got into his drainage, found a good shooting spot where he thought the rams would pass near, and he made a rock fort with walls to hide his location. After he heard my gun shot, he knew the rams would be coming over toward him shortly after. When he only saw three rams appear, he knew I kept one in my drainage. It turns out the three rams crossed over fairly close to where they were expected to. He had his choice of the three rams with two appearing legal and he picked the one with the biggest body and bases. One shot and it rolled down the drainage, narrowly avoiding a large glacier crevasse, and stopping on the glacier. After a few trophy pictures, he made quick work of the dressing part and got down the mountain before dark.

I let Luber know that I had to leave the hide and I needed to go get it. In my haste to cut up the meat, I also left some inedible parts on the meat that could be shaved to save weight. Luber graciously agreed to trim that out for me while I was retrieving the hide.

It was a steep hike back up the drainage and I was completely out of water. Lucky for me, I knew exactly where a clear stream was located :) It didn’t take as long as I thought to get to the hide tho. An empty pack and direct path made the climb easier than the day prior. I was relieved to see that nothing messed with the hide overnight. I immediately got to work on it. I still had to remove the skull from the hide, which didn’t take too long since I’m used to doing this part. It was still a very heavy hide with a bunch fat and tissue on it as well as not drying out yet after being soaked by the stream. Again, I didn’t have time to remove the extra tissue due to my hurry to get back down to camp. The extra weight of the tissue didn’t matter at this point since my pack was empty anyways.

On my way back down the mountain, I could see the route I previously took in the dark. It was not a good route at all! I avoided it, even with a lighter pack and daylight showing my surroundings. Taking a better route, I made it back to camp relatively quickly.

Once I returned, Luber had all of his gear already packed up and ready to go. I needed a short break, but we didn’t have much time to spare because we had to pack out as soon as possible. I took a brief breather, ate some food, hydrated, and took my time packing up everything to fit as neatly as possible into my pack. Everything (all gear, meat, the hide, and skull) ended up fitting in the pack, although busting at the seams in some places, and easily weighing close to 120 pounds.

The first part of the hike out was horrible. After looking around, there was no good way down the ridge anywhere near us. We decided to attempt to descend a shoot where it was slightly less steep than the vertical drop offs along the rest of the ridge. Luber went first. Midway down, he slipped and slid for about ten feet, came to a ledge, slipped and slid for 15 feet, recovered and stood, slipped and slid the remainder of the way down the shoot which was a good 50 feet. It was now my turn… and I repeated the falling/ sliding sequence. The only difference with my descent was that my final slide resulted in me turning sideways, dropping my trekking poles, and my rifle falling free. After gathering ourselves at the bottom of the ridge, we checked for damage. Luber had durable, butt enforced pants on so he only had a few small holes in his pants. My pants on the other hand, were lightweight and thin, and now had a very large tear in the rear. In addition, my pack and meat bag had a few small rub holes in them now.

The next task was to scale the many large hills, steep ledges, loose rock, and water obstacles on our way to the middle of the large valley. Once we got to the middle, we moved like snails down it. We were extremely careful to not allow the heavy packs to put us in a dangerous situation.

Our goal was to get to the same camping spot we stayed at for night one. It was a very long, time consuming, and energy draining hike. One of the most glorious parts of the hike out was ROCK BREAKS. There were occasional boulders that were large enough to function as a stool to sit on as well as a resting place for the pack. With that amount of weight, flat ground would have been very difficult to take a break on and then stand up again to continue, so these stool/shelf rocks were a welcomed treat!

The majority of the day was spent slowly hiking, briefly resting, sipping on water, and repeating. We hiked until close to dusk. This happened to align perfectly with us arriving near our prior camp site. We decided to stash our meat on top of some exposed ice of a side glacier near a large rock to keep it cool.

We found our prior campsite and to our amazement, something dug holes in the spot we had our tent (we still have no idea what would have done that). We flattened out the area again and did our nightly routine. We were exhausted. My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my joints hurt, and my back hurt… sleeping was going to feel so good!

The plan for the next day would be to hike the last 9 miles out to the strip.

Day 9

I needed to lighten my load and remove the extra fat and tissue from the hide, so I set my alarm to get up super early. Thankfully, it was not raining out which allowed me to work on the hide. It took me a couple hours of fleshing, but I ended up lightening the hide five to ten pounds of unneeded tissue.

After I was done, Luber got up and we slowly prepared for the day. We leisurely ate our breakfast, gradually packed up camp, and unhurriedly took off. We retrieved our meat and packed our bags. With the lighter hide, Luber showed me an alternate way of loading up my pack… it felt so much better and was a game changer for that day!

The entire day consisted of more of the same, hard, exhausting, and repetitive hiking.

Once we were getting closer to the air strip, we knew we had to eventually leave our walking area in the middle of this large valley and head toward the ridge or the mountain side. Crossing to the ridge at this point was hands down the hardest part of the hike. We were already exhausted once we got to this point, and then doing the most difficult terrain with this weight on our back didn’t help. It easily took us two to three times longer to complete than we anticipated. To top it off, one of my trekking poles broke in half when I slipped and it was lodged in between rocks. My heart dropped! These things were life savers at this point, and the hike out would have been impossible to complete without them. I tried to splint it back together, but the field repair eventually failed. Luckily, I still had some reserve pole length capable of being extended and useful enough to be functional.

Once we made it to the base of the ridge, we both realized that we would not be able to make it to the strip that day. The day of hiking took too long and was really hard on our bodies. Of the nine miles we wanted to cover that day, we could only cover six of them.

It wasn’t very late at this point, but it wasn’t worth pushing ourselves to the limit when we had another day available to us to hike. The only issue at this point was the lack of available water. There was nothing to drink available. We were stuck cooking with and hiking out with the remaining water we had with us…. Which was barely enough to make our dinner and wet our mouths the next day.

We found a grassy point along the ridge to camp for the night. It was a welcomed spot. Completely exhausted, we set up the tent, covered our gear, ate dinner, and went to bed well before sunset.

The plan for tomorrow was to cover the remaining three miles and get to the strip before the noon pickup time.

Miscellaneous Extras:

-              At this point in the hike, we stunk soooo bad. Smell is my worst sense, but the odor we were producing was easily noticeable.

-              I was running out of food by this time. I had enough for breakfast, but did not have enough for lunch the next day (the kill night threw off the food schedule). Luber had extra and graciously shared with me.

Day 10

It was another beautiful morning for hiking… cool and not rainy. We decided to leave at 8AM to give us a little over an hour for each mile we still needed to travel. Although we were sore and tired, knowing we were so close to the end gave us the extra boost we needed.

Our route finally met up with what we considered the home stretch path.  At the end of this path was the strip. We finally had it in our sight. Little did we know, a pair of hunters were set up at the end up the path along the strip. We approached them and stopped to talk for a little bit. It turns out, these two were the same hunters we saw hiking way up the valley when we were planning our approach for the rams. One of them also had a mutual friend with Luber. We chatted for quite a while about their hunt. They were unsuccessful and came to this pickup point three days ahead of schedule. They were waiting for the possibility of the pilot to pick them up early.

We were eager to get the packs off our backs for good, and to get some water in us, so we bid them farewell. We quickly covered the remaining distance and dropped our full packs for the last time. The reality of the situation really sunk in for me at this point. We just accomplished a treacherous feat that included 63 miles of hiking (not including elevation changes)! Now the only thing remaining was the plane ride home.

The first order of business now that we were at the strip was to retrieve the stashed dry bag. I gathered the bag and brought it out to the creek. Dry clothes, fresh water, comfortable shoes, a tarp, snacks, and beer were waiting for us. We chugged water, changed our clothes, ate lunch, and drank beer… such a welcomed arrival present.

It was already noon at this point and it looked like it could potentially rain on us. We set up a tarp shelter that would function as shade if it remained sunny, and a roof if it started to precipitate. This would also function as a staging area in case JR had to make a couple trips in order to take off with the extra weight of the rams in the plane.

JR soon arrived and we greeted him with open arms. We told him about our adventures and to our surprise, he already knew about some of them. Ironically, the individuals that we were competing with while pursuing the rams knew JR and he got a biased description of what happened. It was fairly comical hearing their point of view, but I won’t go into those details.

We loaded up the plane and walked the strip to determine if there was sufficient distance to take off with the weight on board. JR apparently is a master at puzzles and calculations because he made it work. We took off without a hitch and said goodbye to our hunting area. We made one quick stop to top off the tanks with gas and then headed for home.

We were treated to some amazing flying conditions on our way home. We were able to cut through mountain ranges that normally are impassable. JR said he never flew the mountain route we took because the weather doesn’t typically cooperate. We were also blessed with amazing scenery… glaciers, mountain animals, and the ability to view mountain peaks and ice fields that JR has only seen one other time in his life.

To top it off, JR let me fly the plane. It was the first time flying a plane and I know it would make Danielle and my father-in-law jealous :) I jokingly asked if I could land it too, to which I didn’t get, nor deserve, a response. I couldn’t have wished for a better ending to an amazing hunting adventure.

A view of the flying conditions at the start of or departure from Anchorage. 

The pilot and his stage coach.

You may not be able to see all of them, but this mountain side is littered with countless white dots... aka sheep.

A familiar sight on the glacier. 

You can't really tell the color here... but there were parts of the side glaciers that had the deep, deep blue ice from years of being pressed and compacted.

A couple of rams

Goofs

A couple more rams

This is a lower jaw of a sheep. We found it on the glacier. Either it was killed and disposed of here, or it was carried here by the glacier after various mother nature events. 

STUMPY!

Here sheepy sheepy. Watching the rams we will eventually head after. 

Rams on the grassy hillside.

Luber filling up his water. This was the first time we had to get water that wasn't from a flowing glacier stream. To be safe, we ended up treating it. 

Peaking around the corner into the bowl at one of the rams on our radar.

Hiking up for a brief scouting trip.

Luber peaking over the top at the rams.

Two of the rams we will pursue the next day.

Another ram 

Headed back down

Our tent below the grass bump bowl after re-positioning.

Ready for the rams to show themselves.

Well no rams, but we were near ram poop... does that count?

The bowl behind the grassy bump was larger than we thought.

Luber atop the grassy bump bowl looking for the rams. 

The other hunters watching us pursue the rams they spooked.

Lots of these guys up there.

Vertical climbing

The start of another waiting game.

The rams were in the bowl to left, just behind that pier.

Camo lunch break.

Drying out our gear.

The rams at the end of the rocky valley.

Watching the rams from afar. 

Looking through the spotting scope at rams.

A view up the rocky upper valley. The rams are all the way in the back just under the snow/glacier ice at the top. 

Rams in the grassy bump bowl (the sub legal ones)

A couple ram skulls we found near our campsite. 

Watching and waiting.

The transitional terrain from the grassy mountainside to the rocky valley mountain sides. 

An old ram.

This was a large tin (probably the size of a tennis ball container) that we found in the rubble of the old camp site.

An old camp site fire pit. This was an old school hunting camp as it had a bunch of cans and old stove parts in it.

More sheep remains discovered nearby. 

The four rams in the rocky valley... I think they see us

Our last look at the rams that kept slipping us prior to them disappearing. 

Who knew glacier snail existed!?

Filling up the hydration bladder with the best tasting water you can imagine. #nofilter

Luber as he heads toward his drainage. 

The rams were still bedded. 

Luber is the tiny dot at the bottom right. He is preparing to scale his drainage. 

Not sure what this is, but I fond him inside my hat after a full day of hiking. 

This is the glacier stream I had to cross. I built a rock bridge in order to cross it.

The waterfall below the ram.

(KILL SHOTS REMOVED TO PROTECT THE LOCATION OF THE HUNT)

The aftermath of sliding down the mountain.

Luber's campsite under the stars.

The only flowers I saw on this trip were in the drainage of my sheep kill site.

Luber and his loaded pack

A bunch of rams we saw on the way out.

Our skulls

My attempted field repair.

Packing out.

So tired!

Pooped.

Heavy packs = soar backs. My body type does not work in my favor sometimes.

The tarp shelter while waiting for our pickup.

The rest of the pictures are aerial shots from the flight home...

We flew over our house! I could have just parachuted home. 

** This version of the hunt story has been significantly edited to remove obvious information and many pictures pinpointing the location of this hunt. The full version is only available to close friends and family **