Scouting Sheep

This year's sheep hunting plans includes a new area. With any new hunting area, scouting is an absolute must for me. Since Danielle and Ashton were in Iowa, I planned a four day scouting trip for Tundra and I.

I have learned to not go into great detail of my scouting trips and hunts because some people use that hard work and information to help them hunt sheep in the same area. Regardless, I'll still share a some details and pictures of the fun trip!

I had four days off work to gather as much information on my hunt area as possible. After work on Wednesday, I packed up the truck and drove to where we would start hiking. Tundra and I slept in the cab of the truck there so we could wake up early and get a jump start.

The weather on the first morning was rainy with a low cloud ceiling, not the best for scouting sheep. Over the course of the weekend, it was either really rainy, or extremely hot. There was no happy medium.

We were determined to cover as much ground as possible. I had a couple routes planned depending on the weather and actual terrain, but our goal was to cover 35 miles. We ended up traveling 45 miles total and didn't really hike on Sunday. We covered the intended Plan A route and were too tired to extend the trip further, so we got done late Saturday, and planned to check out new areas from the truck and take our time driving home.

We saw a total of 98 sheep on the trip. This sounds like a lot, but honestly, I expected to see more. There was a bunch of extremely good sheep terrain that was completely void of sheep for no explainable reason. Another thing I observed was the uncharacteristic pattern of sheep (lambs and ewes included), at the top of the mountains and not feeding lower. This was concerning because it meant the sheep I saw likely would not be in the same place come hunting season. I’m not 100% sure what all sheep were so high, but I suspect it was due to the horrible mosquitos at that time.

Overall, it was a successful trip with appropriate intel gathered on the new area. The trip didn’t really assure me of a successful hunt in August, but familiarizing myself with an area saves me valuable exploration time during hunting season. It was a tough call, but this will be the area I hunt sheep in this year.

A quick selfie at the start of the hike.

My guide showing me the way.

This is the first group of sheep I saw... about a dozen lambs and ewes.

Caribou sheds were everywhere. I would normally grab as many as possible, but I couldn't afford the extra weight.

One of Tundra's most favorite things in life is SNOW! He was a happy pup when he found the many patches of white gold. If there was snow nearby, he made a B-line straight for it!

We hiked up and over a handful of passes. Tundra was a trooper and his paws held up well on the sharp shale. His pads were beat up by the end of the hiking, but he never got cut.

Another group of lambs and ewes.

A third, large group of lambs and ewes.

This guy watched me hike under the ridge he was hanging out on. I couldn't get a good side view of him before it started raining really hard, but from the front, he appears like a legal ram.

Admiring the rainbow in the valley.

Looking for sheep across the valley.

We had some visitors running and feeding around us. They really liked this are because they refused to leave, even with Tundra eye-balling them.

Tundra really wanted to chase the caribou, but he refrained.

This was one of the oddest things I have found in sheep country. Under these tarps is a 6x6 atv. I have absolutely no idea how it got there because the valley it is in, is surrounded by impassible mountains and the rocky valley turns into a canyon with a deep and fast river. This makes me believe that it got there from an airdrop. The valley was perfect for a tail dragger to land in, easily allowed an ATV to ride up and down it. Because the ATV was there... it made me want to avoid this area during hunting season.

The treasure at the end of the rainbow is TUNDRA!

There was a bunch of snow still on the mountains. Tundra sure didn't mind :)

Tundra volunteered to hike out a heavy moose rack for me... not really. This shed was left in the field; we couldn't afford 20 more pounds on our backs.

These four rams were massive! They were located about five miles away from where I was glassing, and in a spot that would be absolutely impossible to access. They got big for a reason... because they are smart and know where to stay alive.