Doubling Up

This has been an odd summer/fall for our family. It seems like every time we had plans to do something, Mother Nature threw us a curveball and prevented those plans from happening as desired. It’s not a surprise that that this year’s sheep hunt was no different… but I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

BEFORE THE HUNT

This year was unique. Danielle and I were trying to expand our family by another member, but we were having a little difficulty getting pregnant. Knowing a potential baby was in the future, I chose not to apply for sheep draw tags in November 2017 for fear that if I drew a once in a lifetime tag, I may not be able to hunt it because of an unknown due date. Although I have never drawn a sheep tag, this meant I would have to plan on a general season hunt.

In January, we found out that we would be expecting a baby around September 24, 2018. This meant that a late season sheep hunt was out of the question. My only hunting trip before I was locked in to staying close to home would be the first week of the sheep hunting season (opens on August 10). This made planning for a hunt difficult. Last year I went with Shawn, but that hunt had to be short due to Shawn needing to get back for work (he’s a teacher and the first day teachers report to school is the second week of August). I could go with Shawn again, but that would mean another shortened hunt. The year before that I hunted with Scott, who I plan to hunt with again at some point. He already had plans to hunt for caribou in early August and sheep in September, so hunting with Scott again would have to wait longer. My third option, and my favorite, was to plan on a solo hunt. Although this is my preferred method of hunting, it is not the safest, and it is my family’s least favorite.

I decided on a compromise. Since Danielle really wanted me to hunt with a buddy, I decided to hunt with Shawn once again, however, we would drive separate and I would stay in the field solo for five days after he returned home early for work.

To help ease Danielle’s mind while I was solo, I finally caved and purchased a satellite texter. I got the new Garmin InReach Mini. It’s a pretty slick device and only added about 4oz of weight. Not only can I two way communicate, but it also has an SOS feature that I can use in an emergency. I hate adding weight to my pack, but this was a good addition.

Training went well this summer. I didn’t hit the mountains as much as I wanted to, but I was in great shape and plenty ready for the demanding hunt. Typically I try to lose weight up until a week before the hunt. This year I dropped to the lowest I have been since my sophomore year in high school, 201 pounds (I was 245 pounds by my senior year).

Immediately prior to the hunt, I created my hunting plan and made sure Danielle and my mom understood it. This is something I do before every hunt and it contains day by day plans, routes, maps, potential camping spots, emergency details, and information on when to panic and what to do. I wouldn’t normally talk about this routine task, however, for this hunt, the hunt plan was pretty much useless.

DAY 1 (3 days before the opener)

The truck was loaded the night prior (I actually packed a couple weeks before). Shawn got to my house in the morning, and we hit the road.

After way too many hours of driving, we got to the creek that we were going to hike up. We were greeted by raging water… dirty, wide, roaring, and seemingly unnavigable. Truth be told, we knew this was possible, but we were hoping it didn’t happen. For two days prior to arriving, it rained like crazy everywhere in Alaska. We feared high water before we arrived, and our fears were confirmed after we laid eyes on the flooding. Needless to say, we were pretty upset because we knew the water would be too high and dangerous to cross as intended.

We decided to check out a different creek drainage in case the water was calmer there. To our surprise, that creek was flowing even harder.  We were now faced with a dilemma. Do we wait a day or two for the creek to drop and get to our hunting area later than we want? Do we go in now and take a different path once we come to a place where we can’t cross the creek? Do we find a completely different plan?

After much deliberation, we decided that we weren’t going to wait for the creek’s water level to improve, especially since we knew it was going to rain hard again that night. The decision was made to abort our original plan and hike into the mountains elsewhere, attempting to avoid dangerous creek crossings.

The route we chose appeared to be a somewhat short hike to the base of the mountains. There was nobody parked anywhere close to where we parked, so we figured we would have the area to ourselves (at least for the first night).  We had to cross some small creeks a couple times, however, the water was not dangerous at all. After a few hours and a thousand or so elevation feet later, we reached the base of the mountains we wanted to climb.

It was about 8PM and we were deciding what to do. We were eager to get moving so we could head up and over the mountain ridge into a drainage on the other side that we thought would contain sheep. The problem with this idea is that the clouds were super low and there would be no way to know where any sheep were until we got into the drainage and the clouds cleared. This wasn’t ideal. I wanted to be able to see all around where we were going and scout for sheep in route, without spooking them on accident. In addition, it was supposed to rain that night too. I estimated it would take us about three hours to hike up and over, putting us at a tent site around 11PM. Instead, we agree to take our time, be happy with only hiking three miles that day, and have a nice relaxing night.

Shortly after deciding to stay put, it started to rain, making us happy we weren’t trying to hike up and over the mountain at the time. It dumped on us, but at least we had the peaceful pattering of rain to lull us to sleep for the night.

DAY 2 (2 days before the opener)

It ended up raining hard all night. The creeks were now undoubtably higher and more difficult to navigate. This reassured us with our decision to ditch our original plan and not wait for the water levels to recede. It also gave us confidence that we would see less hunters due to the difficulty of also getting into the area.

The rain stopped around 7AM (I wonder how much more a wet tent weighs compared to a dry tent? Lucky me I got to carry the tent). The forecast was for a rainy day so we prepared for a wet hiking day. The clouds were extremely low and patchy on the mountains, making it difficult to see sheep. In addition, there were many clouds at elevations lower than us in the valley. This meant that if the clouds and fog lifted, it would still need to raise up higher just to get to our current elevation level.

As a result, we decided to take our time climbing toward the pass. The goal of the day was to put our eyes on as much terrain and sheep as possible. This would not be feasible if the clouds were too low and covering everything.

We stopped and waited for a while on ridges that were supposed to overlook large bowls below them. Once the clouds cleared or gave us glimpses of what was hiding beneath it, we would then move further up to the pass and to another area. We had a couple days until the season opener so we were in no hurry at this point.

The first sheep we saw was a large group of about 20 lambs and ewes, tucked under sparse cloud cover, near a large patch of snow. This gave us our first heart pounding for the hunt as we worked our way closer to the pass into our goal drainage.

One of the best parts of exploring mountains and sheep hunting is experiencing the excitement of peaking over a ridge into the terrain on the other side. When we got to the pass into our goal drainage, we peaked over and saw a mecca of pristine sheep territory, with many sheep scattered throughout. Most of the sheep were lambs and ewes, but multiple bands of rams were also spotted and closely watched. At this point, we couldn’t make a solid determination of legal rams, but a handful of “maybes” were noted.

We spent many hours just sitting and watching the sheep from this spot. There was a group of three, promising rams at the top of a distant ridge, a couple miles away. On the face of a mountainside next to the ridge with rams on it laid two more big bodied rams. The proximity of these rams to each other led us to believe that they may be in the same band. It’s at this point we decided that our best bet for each of us getting a ram on opening day would be to pursue these sheep.

While we were on the pass, we decided to walk the ridge for a while to check out other drainages. We spotted a solo ram a couple drainages away, and he appeared close to legal, making him a perfect Plan B ram if needed. Our main goal was to locate a band of multiple rams with at least two legal sheep in the band for each of us to get a crack at. This gave any solo, legal rams a pass for opening day.

During our ridge walk, we spotted three rams close to the top of a finger jetting out from our ridge. As we got closer and could see in the valley they were in, more rams started to appears. Six rams were clearly visible, but all six of them were small and nowhere close to being legal. We eventually got above the rams and were able to see all sheep in the group, which now totaled eight. We took a quick glance at the other two rams to see if they were also small, and quickly determined they weren’t worth our time. This was the last group of sheep we wanted to check out before we dropped into the drainage, and because they were all sublegal, we didn’t care if they got spooked when we dropped in next to them.

The rams curiously watched us as we descended into the valley below them. At one point, all rams were gazing down on us, silhouetted by the skyline background. This gave me a great chance to snap a quick picture due to our proximity. When I zoomed in with my camera, I quickly realized that one of the rams was bigger than I expected. Shawn got out the spotting scope and confirmed what we feared, he was a legal ram with a broken horn on one side and full curl on the other. I immediately felt sick to my stomach. How could we make that mistake? Regardless, it was too late at this point to do anything. We were spotted, and the rams spooked, running up toward the ridge we just came off. This ram would have also been a good Plan B ram, but that was not possible now.

We proceeded with our descent toward the river bottom. Our goal was to get a closer look at the two rams on the mountain near the other band of rams on the ridge behind them. Our secondary goal was to start setting ourselves up for an opening day approach on the band of rams tucked behind on that ridge.

We were able to get a closer look at the two rams we were walking towards and one of them was definitely legal. Unavoidably, the rams could also get a better look at us as we walked in a completely open valley bottom. They seemed to casually spook because they were so high up, and they slowly moved away from us, toward the other band of rams.

We figured it would be impossible to get to where we wanted to setup our tent for our opening day stalk without them seeing us and becoming scared. If we did this part today, and made the sheep uncomfortable, it would then give them a full day to recover and calm down (if we then stayed out of site) before opening day. 

We eventually decided we were getting too close and moved away from them once we got far enough up the drainage, close to where we wanted to be on opening day. We setup our tent without the ability to hide from their view, and kept close eyes on them until we went to bed.

Overall, it was a very successful day. It didn’t rain all day although the forecast called for it. We saw a ton of sheep (94 to be exact; 16 rams of which 2 were for sure legal, 2 were maybe legal, 3 were unknown, and 9 were sublegal). We had a solid plan lined up for opening day.

DAY 3 (1 day before opener)

Since we already had our opening morning plan outlined, we decided to sleep in and be lazy getting around. When we finally got up, we peaked over where the rams were last seen, and they were gone. This meant that they were uncomfortable enough to either leave the area completely, or join the band of rams tucked in behind them (we were hoping for the latter). 

It was a nice, sunny day with nowhere to go really. We slowly packed up our gear and set off for the base of the ridge, where we could set the tent up, stay hidden from sight, and be close enough for an easy hike up in the morning. On the way over, we heard a plane in the distance. It eventually got louder and soon enough, we spotted it flying in our drainage. It was clear that the plane’s intent was to scout for sheep. The plane found every group of sheep in the drainage, circled them multiple times, and buzzed so close to the sheep it seemed like they were going to touch. Needless to say, this really scared the sheep. Each group they buzzed would run frantically in each direction because they didn’t know how to get away from a threat flying above them. We knew immediately that this kind of activity likely ruined any Plan B we had in our back pockets, and possibly our Plan A. Obviously, this was extremely frustrating. Because it was the ninth of August, scouting by planes is considered a legal activity, however, if it was during the hunting season, this kind of activity would be illegal.

It took us less than an hour to get to the base of the ridge and find a good camping spot out of sight. We setup the tent and had a lazy day staying low and hidden. There was a small group of lambs and ewes on the ridge where we were hoping to go the next day. We didn’t want to startle them for fear of it then spooking the rams on the other side. Because of this, it was also important to be quiet where we were camped. It would have been very easy for the sheep to hear any loud or unnatural noises.

For the most part, we spent the day looking for other hunters, hoping none would descend into our drainage (thankfully that didn’t happen, that we know of). When we weren’t paranoid about encroaching hunters, we spent the time watching five ewes and lambs feeding on the grass we had our tent sitting on the night before and a small ram mosey around by himself.  

Bedtime came early that night. The plan was to wake up at 4AM, pack up everything, and head for the ridge above us. Shawn would get the first shot at a legal ram. We would then alternate days for shooting first.

A quick note about water in this area… The interesting thing about this hunt and area was how temperature and day time influenced the available water at high altitudes. I am used to water being available when it is hot and disappearing as it gets cold (think melting ice and snow under the mountains), but this area was more on the extreme side of things. During the day, high altitude water was available and flowing fierce, but by night time, it slowed to a trickle, and by morning it was completely gone. The cycle seemed to repeat itself daily, regardless of precipitation too. This didn’t bother us much because our typical routine was to fill our three-liter bags the night before, drink most of it during the day, and cook/drink whatever is left at dinner (filling up before and after as needed). My experience sheep hunting has highlighted my need to consume at least three liters of water a day, more if it’s sunny and hot. Anything less than three liters a day and I quickly get dehydrated, experience worse cramps at night (yes, I cramp regardless), develop a headache, and become somewhat crabby. Water = happy hunting.

DAY 4 (Opening day)

Danielle bought me this really cool watch I wear everywhere now. It has a compass, barometer, altimeter, and thermometer… and it tells time. The thermometer on it isn’t accurate for ambient air temperature while I’m wearing the watch. The night before, I took the watch off to see how cold it was getting over night. When we woke up, the thermometer read 28 degrees.

I set my alarm for 3:45AM to take care of my feet. My feet are super long, skinny, and have boney protrusions. Because my feet are atypical, its difficult to find good hunting boots. The boots I wear are not perfect, but they are doable. To prevent blisters on my heels, I must take extra precautions. Not only do I wear sock liners, I also tape up my heels to deflect the friction from my skin. It takes me 15 minutes to get my feet ready for the day. After a good tape job, it was disheartening to pull on socks, and tie up boots that were still soaked on the inside (Yes, our boots were still wet from the day of hiking up and over the initial pass). Both Shawn’s and my boots were old and no longer waterproof, and this resulted in heavier feet when they were wet.

We had everything packed up and were ready to hike by 4:30AM. It was a very cloudy morning so the visibility was less than optimal. As we started hiking up the ridge, we quickly noticed that ewes and lambs were bedded down right where we wanted to hike. This put us in an awkward predicament. We could either wait until the sheep moved far enough away that they wouldn’t spook, (which could possibly take all day) or we could walk directly at them and hope they take off in an opposite direction away from the rams we believed were on the other side of the ridge.

We sat and pondered for a while. As we were deciding what to do, the sheep started to come lower off the rocky faces and walk closer toward ridges and grazable grasses. We decided that we needed to make our move now, otherwise they would never be in a better position to spook in a direction we needed them to go. Instead of going directly at them, we decided to approach from the side, that way it would hopefully force them up and away from the ridge the rams were on.

We took a different route then originally intended along the base of the ridge and hiked over our cover into the sheeps’ view. We then walked at an angle toward the sheep, and they predictably got uncomfortable and scared. They grouped up and quickly walked in the exact direction we wanted them to. It worked perfectly! They were no longer a threat to scare the rams on the other side of the ridge, and they were no longer a concern for us.

We climbed the ridge and geared ourselves up in camo and facecovers. Since it was Shawn’s shooting day, he got the honor of sneaking the first peak into the bowl on the other side of the ridge. I waited as he spent a good amount of time looking over. He came back and reported good and bad news. The good news was, there was 12 sheep in the bowl, six of which were rams and two of those appeared legal. The bad news was, the terrain was fairly gnarly and the rams were all 500 yards or more away. This put the rams easily out of comfortable shooting range.

The plan was to get comfortable and wait for the rams to move within shooting range. We were located in a perfect location to store our gear, move around, and be comfortable for a long period of time without the rams knowing we were there. So that’s what we did… we put on our warm clothes and waited.

Shortly after we got comfortable, we heard a gunshot come from the opposite side of the initial mountain pass we crossed to get into the drainage. We then heard another gun shot, and another, and four more eventually. They weren’t rapid fire shots either, but a total of seven gun shots all about 15-20 seconds apart made us wonder what was happening.

It was a long, cold day to sit and wait. It snowed on us on and off all morning (which I will never complain about if the alternative is rain). Although our wet feet didn’t like the cold weather in the morning, the sun made sporadic appearances later in the afternoon.

We would take turns watching the rams through our binoculars and spotting scope. We weren’t quite close enough to count rings, but the two biggest rams were easily legal with one being double broomed (the tips of both horns were broken off), and the biggest ram was broomed on his right side and more than full curl on his left. Ideally, these would be the two rams we could shoot if given the chance. The rams didn’t act like typical rams I’m used to watching. They were spread out across the bowl, some were at the very bottom of the bowl in flat, easily accessible terrain, others were high on the ridge, and we even saw one head butting a ewe and trying to mount her. Regardless of what they were doing, they always seemed to stay at least 500 yards away from us.

Most of the time we spent waiting for the rams to get in a better position was not actually used to watch the rams. There was no need to be peaking over the ridge where they could possibly see us if they weren’t actively moving. This time was spent glassing the drainage and keeping tabs on sheep in other areas. We kept tally of about 40 or so different sheep. We likely already saw these sheep a couple days earlier, but it was cool to sit and watch them for most of the day.

At one point, three ewes and a small ram started to walk toward us along the ridge we were staked out on. They would get closer, then disappear, then reappear, and disappear again. This was mostly due to the many rocky outcrops because they were undoubtedly getting closer each time. At one point, Shawn froze and said the four sheep were about thirty yards away around the corner and coming this way. We both froze, not knowing what to do because we didn’t want to scare the sheep into the bowl the rams were in for fear that it would also spook the rams.

Well, there was nothing we could do to prevent it from happening, and the sheep eventually got too close to us and decided to dive into the bowl for protection. We watched the rams as they took notice of the new sheep in their drainage, but thankfully it didn’t startle them enough to impact their mood.

During the afternoon, we spotted a hunter across the valley on the mountain pass we took to drop into the drainage. We couldn’t decide if this was a separate hunter or the same one that fired off seven rounds earlier in the day. Either way, he wasn’t too committed to hunting our drainage. He glassed around for about an hour, and then decided to return the way he came… maybe because he was out of bullets? Or maybe because he saw us? Who knows?

Most of the rams were at the bottom of the bowl during the evening. This was a little frustrating because the typical bowl below a ridge like this one would only be a couple hundred yards away, but not in this area. For some reason, this area had extreme peak and valleys, making altitude conservation difficult. After a long day of sitting and waiting for the rams to do something, and nothing happening, we decided to call it a day.

The next day was my turn to shoot first and Shawn asked what I wanted to do. It would have been crazy to walk away from two bruiser rams unknowingly hanging out 500 yards from us, so I was committed to waiting longer. We would repeat that day’s plan again the next day.

We dropped off the ridge and setup the tent in the same area as the night before. Bed time came early again since we needed to get up at 4AM to hopefully get a crack at the rams tomorrow.

NOTE – After observing the sheep in the area for multiple days, one common theme we noticed was the rams and ewes comingling often. This isn’t something I am used to seeing during a sheep hunt and it really solidified the need for me to put eyes on each and every sheep of a group to ensure all of them are not legal rams, instead of assuming such after only viewing a couple of them.

DAY 5 (Second day of hunting season)

My alarm went off at 4AM. We repeated our routine from the day prior… packing up everything quickly, hiking up the ridge (without sheep blocking our way this time), and to our previous lookout spot. I got the honors of taking the first glance into the bowl this time. All rams were still there, plus a couple more small ones. Although a pair of rams appeared a bit closer, they were still out of shooting range. 

Knowing we were protected from all sight and most sound on the other side of the ridge from the rams, I decided to check out a couple different spots closer to where the rams would have to come up and over if they decided to exit the bowl and enter the drainage we were in. It turns out, there was a great spot closer to the drainage pass that would keep us comfortable and hidden. Even better, when I first discovered this new spot, I put eyes on the rams and noticed two of them were only 350 yards away!

I immediately waved Shawn over and let him know that we needed to change spots. After we gathered our gear and setup in the new location, we put the spotting scope on the rams to get a good idea of where the legal ones were hanging out in the bowl. Unfortunately, the rams decided to move the opposite direction from us, and they were quickly out of range sitting just beyond 400 yards from us. At 400 yards and with the good light conditions, I was able to count growth rings on the rams. This resulted in a third ram becoming legal.

The day quickly turned into a repeat of the day before where we sat and watched on and off patiently for the rams to get closer. At one point, the rams got up from a long bedding down and started to feed. When this happened, the smallest ram of the group decided to feed toward us. He eventually got to 200 yards from our spot and we were no longer able to keep eyes on him due to having to look out and over the ridge to see where he went. This was not possible because doing so would expose us to the view of the other rams. It didn’t really matter to us much because this small ram was definitely not a shooter. Unfortunately, the other rams did not follow as they grazed either up the finger of the bowl or completely away along their ridge.

At this point, we were getting a little impatient. Shawn pitched an alternative idea on how to possibly get closer to the sheep. The intent was to get above the rams on the finger they kept bedding down near. This was a good idea… if it was possible. In order to do this, we would have to climb up and over some extremely sketchy mountain side to drop into the bowl on the other side of the finger, and then climb the finger from that bowl. This would have been a big commitment and worth doing, however, we did not know what the terrain was like in the other bowl, and if it would allow us to safely descend into the bowl and then climb up to the finger. We decided to opt out of trying this approach because the rams started to climb our bowl toward the finger. We settled on remaining patient and waiting for the rams to make a mistake... hopefully our patience would pay off.

I kept a close eye on the rams, and one time when I looked at them, they were obviously scared of something. I could not tell what spooked them, or where it came from, but they were all huddled together on top of the finger, somewhat looking in our general direction. Was it our scent? Did one of them spot us looking over at them? What about the small ram that never returned to the group… did he get too close to us without us knowing and startle out of there? I’m not sure. Either way, the rams weren’t too scared. They simply bedded down on an isolated patch of grass on top of the ridge finger, with the ability to spot a threat in any direction.

I resumed my intermittent watching of the rams. At one point, I noticed a couple of the small rams were feeding, and the next thing I knew, they were gone. I panicked a little bit thinking they were moving toward us and we were now unable to see them because they were too close. Instead, I watched the next ram get up, start grazing around the grassy outcrop, and then drop down into the bowl on the other side of the finger. They were leaving our bowl and going into the neighboring one (uncharted territory).

There were still four rams left on the top of the ridge finger, with three of them being legal rams. Pretty soon, each one separately got up, took their time eating some grass, and slowly disappeared by descending into the neighboring bowl. The very last ram to do this was the biggest ram in the group. Once he disappeared, I poked Shawn, let him know what just happened, and said we had to go immediately. We quickly packed up and headed for where the rams dropped over.

In order to get to the finger, we had to take a drainage pass over the ridge and hike along a steep, rocky, and challenging side-hill. We followed the sheep trails already established, however, this was the most technical hiking of the trip. We tried to be as quiet as possible, but we sent many large rocks shooting down the mountain making a ton of noise while they kicked up smaller rocks as tumbling buddies during the process. Since I was leading I was kicking most of the lose boulders, and because we had no idea how far down into the next bowl the rams were, we were afraid they may be close enough to hear the rocks and become frightened as a result. The good thing was that there were no lingering rams or ewes in the bowl we were in to also get scared.

It took about 30 minutes, but we finally made our way safely to a point just below where the rams dropped into the neighboring bowl. I climbed to the edge, camo’d up, and took a peak over. The first thing I saw was a bowl twice the size of the one we were in, and at the very bottom and middle were two of the rams as very small white dots. Then, I noticed something directly below me, a ram, only 230 yards away! I looked at it through my binoculars. He was broadside to the right (which from above, is basically looking at his back). His right side was broomed… and so was his left… this was one of the legal rams! My heart was pounding HARD at this point. I thought I ruined our chances at getting close to the rams earlier from the rock slides I set off, but it appears that a huge majority of sound in one bowl or drainage is not really heard in a neighboring bowl or drainage, especially falling rocks.

I dropped below the lookout spot and turned to Shawn below me. At this point, he hasn’t looked into the bowl yet and I described what I saw to him. I explained that I saw at least two rams far away in the middle of the bowl and the legal ram below me, with no confirmation on where the other rams were. I suspected they were all headed toward the far rams, away from the ridge and finger where they got spooked from. Even though it was my day to shoot first, we were still wanting to double up if possible. As such, I asked Shawn if I could shoot it, considering the possibility that the rams were headed to unobtainable territory, it was unknown where the other rams were, and this ram was currently in shooting range. He didn’t hesitate to say YES, without even looking in the bowl. He quickly climbed to the edge to watch the action.

I loaded a round into my chamber, popped open the scope covers, found a descent laying rest, lined up my crosshairs on the ram, and prepared to take my shot. My adrenaline was rushing at this point as I tried to get comfortable to calm my nerves. It didn’t help that the ram was standing and started to walk around rocks without feeding. When this happened, I feared he was heading for the bottom of the bowl and I would not get another shot at the ram if I didn’t take one soon. As a result, I quickly tried to calm my breathing, steady my aim, and eventually squeeze a smooth shot off. BOOOOOM… I sent a bullet flying toward the ram. The “smooth shot” part didn’t work out that well. I thought I missed because I could tell when I squeezed the trigger that I pulled left in the hurry. Shawn said he saw impact, and that it hit him toward the rear.

Initially the ram ran down into the bowl, then decided to turn around and run back up toward a nearby rocky outcrop. The rocks below us hid the ram from sight, but we knew he was there because we could see all around the cover and we would be able to tell if he left. I immediately told Shawn that he needed to focus on finding another one of the legal rams. We were not in a good spot to see much of the bowl, so he repositioned further down the finger to a better opening.

I sat for a minute, waiting to see if my ram would move away from the rocky cover blocking him. I quickly decided that my position was also a bad place to try a second shot, so I also decided to move down the finger edge to a better follow-up shot location. I came up behind Shawn and noticed he was looking at a ram below 150 yards away. I couldn’t tell if it was legal (it wasn’t the big ram), but it was definitely one of the larger rams. I quickly returned to our original shooting spot where we dropped our bags, grabbed the spotting scope, and took it to Shawn to help with the legal determination.

At this point, the other rams were not too scared of the gunshot that just occurred. Typically after the first gunshot, rams don’t get too reactive because they aren’t too sure where the loud bang came from or what to be scared of. This sometimes is not the case if the first shot is an instant kill and a ram drops dead that was close to other rams. If that happens, the rams get spooked and try to get away from the dead ram.

Our new location gave us a better view of the bowl, but there were still many rocky outcrops blocking most of the viewing area below us. The ram Shawn was looking at was not quite legal by curl, and it was too chaotic to really count rings to determine age. While he was looking at his ram, my ram started to run down into the bowl again. For fear of the ram escaping wounded and soon to get too far away, I had to try and stop him. I was now shooting at a running ram more than 300 yards away (a very low percentage shot). I fired three times, missing each time. After the third shot, he suddenly decided to stop, and lay down, at which point I stopped firing. 

Firing off an additional three rounds into the bowl rose the alert level for the other rams to DANGER. When a ram senses danger, their first reaction is to climb, since most of their natural predators come from below them. This worked out to our advantage because immediately after my last shot, three rams appeared below us in the draw leading into the bowl. They were trotting up with a goal of getting to the top of the finger… directly towards us.

Appearing out of nowhere, Shawn and I scrambled to take advantage of the situation. I immediately looked at them through my binoculars and discovered it is the three largest remaining rams of the group, with the middle one being the monster of the bunch. I realized I was just shooting earlier off the only good shooting spot, so I quickly moved and let Shawn take the spot.

As Shawn as settling down to get in a good shooting position, I watched the rams through my binoculars getting closer to us. At this point, they were about 200 yards away, huddled so close together side by side that they were touching at the shoulders, as if protecting the monster ram in the middle. The rams were too close together and walking directly at us (mostly their faces in view rather than their bodies), that a shot was not possible. Suddenly, they all stopped at same time, and it was obvious they saw us and instantly realized that we were the threat they were trying to get away from. For a brief second, I looked at Shawn to see how ready he was to shoot. Before I could look back at the rams, they were out of their huddle and sprinting parallel to the finger we were on, directly to their right. I lost track of the legal ram and could no longer guide Shawn to the correct one.

The visibility in this draw was minimal, and the rams didn’t have to run far to get out of our sight. About 50 feet from them was a huge rock wall they sprinted toward and could hide behind. Within a couple seconds, the first ram leaped out of sight. The second followed a half second later and also disappeared. My heart was sinking when the third ram made his final jump for the rock wall cover, when BOOOOOM, Shawn fired his rifle. It seemed like time froze for a brief second… in midair… the ram died instantly. Shawn just executed the most amazing hunting shot I have and ever will see in my entire life!! Mt jaw hit the ground. I turned and looked at him in awe. I asked if he knew if that was the monster ram, to which he confidently acknowledged and said he kept his eye on him during the entire chaos. Bravo my friend, bravo!

We then turned our attention to my ram, who was still laying in the bowl. A pool of blood was collecting where he was laying, and it was obvious he would likely bleed out. I was debating what to do, let the ram lay there in pain and potentially bleed to death, allow him to lay there with the small possibility of it getting up and getting away wounded, or try to shoot him again. I decided that if it stood up, I would shoot it again to not risk it getting away.

Shortly after this decision, the ram stood up. My range finder read 430 yards away, but at this angle, it equated to a little less than 400 yards. This was going to be my furthest shot I have ever taken. I got comfortable and took my time aiming at the ram. I said a quick prayer asking for a straight bullet and to end the sheep’s pain I caused. I steadied my rifle and squeezed out one more shot. The ram dropped to the ground on impact.

Sheer excitement overcame us. We just harvested the two largest rams of this band of eight! We congratulated each other and relived the accomplishment with amazement. I told him how amazing his shot was and that I would brag to my grandkids about this sniper-type precision.

Unfortunately, I’m super critical of myself and my excitement and high was soon replaced with remorse and regret. I apologized to Shawn for being selfish and shooting at the first ram before we confirmed if other rams were close enough for him to also shoot. I also expressed my disappointment with hurrying my initial shot that resulted in unneeded pain to the ram. It was a roller coaster of emotion, but Shawn assured me he was perfectly fine with the first shot since we agreed to it prior and it was a team effort. And who knows, if the first shot went differently, maybe the outcome would have been different as well.

We descended into the bowl toward our rams. Shawn’s ram was closer, so we stopped there first. Have you seen cartoons when they portray “dying” and how they fall on their back with their arms and legs in the air, similar to a dog that plays dead? That’s exactly what this ram looked like laying on the rocks… as if someone put him in the stereotypical dead position. Shawn was concerned that the ram would be battered and beat because of the big fall it took after the amazing shot. Fortunately, the ram was in great shape… although we could see he dropped about 100 feet straight down before rolling further.

Shawn’s ram was a beauty! It was heavily broomed on the right side and more than full curl on the left. We both guessed the age to be at least nine years old (it was later sealed as an eight year old… that’s debatable). We turned the ram over, brushed him off, and took plenty of pictures to remember him by. We wanted to get a picture together with both of our rams, but they were located about 150 yards apart, and we would have to carry Shawn’s ram downhill over a field of shale and rocks the whole way. We didn’t think it would be possible to carry it that distance without it dragging on the ground and potentially damaging the hide. Instead, we left it to go check on my ram.

When we got to my ram, I was ecstatic. I have never shot a broomed ram before, and this one was a beautiful double broom. The first thing I noticed when approaching my ram is that the final kill shot went through his neck, and as a side effect, the bullet shot clear through the right horn. It went in as a small hole and came out in a large, splintering exit.   

I proceeded to kneel beside the ram, said a prayer, and thanked the animal for the meat and experience it provided. I do this routine after every kill, and it is always an emotional few minutes for me. Killing is my least favorite part of the hunt, but a necessary task for the desired outcome.

After a few pictures, it was now time for the hard work. Shawn and I split up and worked on our own sheep. Unlucky for him, he had to do everything on the rocky hillside, and I had a relatively flat and grassy area. I had time to satellite text Danielle the news of our success, as well as eat two Snickers bars before I got my hands too dirty. I laid out the emergency tarp and we used it as a place to put our quarters for deboning the meat later. I learned my lesson the hard way last time I was successful hunting sheep… the more you leave on the hide while skinning, the heavier your pack will be on the way out. Because of this, I took my time skinning the sheep, making sure I left zero fat, meat, or tissue and kept everything on the animal. Although this took a lot longer, it resulted in a beautiful hide that needed zero additional fleshing after removal.

Shawn and I got done at about the same time. He hiked his sheep and all his gear down to where I was as I was finishing up. We left the skulls in the hides as we focused on meat care. Very rarely is the bone left in the meat during a sheep hunt. Ideally, quarters would include the bone until separation prior to processing, however, sheep hunters can’t afford the extra weight and consumed space bone-in meat adds. We removed the bones, blood shot meat, fat, and connective tissue from all the meat, making it as light and clean as possible.

We then turned our attention to the hides, the last thing on the list for the night. We still had the skulls in the hides and needed to remove them. Shawn was thinking really hard about making his sheep into a shoulder mount.

We made quick and efficient work out of the skull removal. It was getting late so we decided to leave the meat on the skulls for removing the next day. We thought about putting the meat and hides on the snow overnight, but with temperatures dropping below freezing nightly, we thought it might actually insulate the meat and hide and be warmer then leaving them out. Instead, we elevated the meat on rocks to allow for airflow, and laid the hides across large boulders flesh up for keeping cool and drying out. It looked like it could possibly rain overnight, so I left my rainfly, the tarp, and a contractor bag next to everything in case I had to jump out of the tent during the night to cover stuff.

It felt good to finally be done for the night. We found a perfect place to camp nearby on some really soft, flat moss that had a small stream flowing directly underneath it. By this time, we were starving! We quickly filled our water bladders and prepared our dinners. Seeing that we would be done hunting earlier than expected, we gorged ourselves and ate pretty much whatever we wanted (as opposed to me following my menu and strict calorie consumption). As an added bonus, Shawn brought 5 oz of vodka to celebrate a successful hunt.

We finally got in the tent and went to bed sometime around 1AM.

DAY 6

At home, I’m a heavy sleeper, but while in the field, I’m a relatively light sleeper, mostly because I’m not in a comfortable bed to get a good night’s rest. When it started to sprinkle, I was well aware of it. I jumped out of the tent and noticed a cloud settled in the bowl we were in. I ran through the fog in my untied boots to find the meat and hides starting to get damp. I quickly covered them to keep them as dry as possible. This only took about 15 minutes and I was back in my warm sleeping bag.

We were in no hurry, so of course we slept in again. I’m not sure if it was the different drainage we were in or just a change in weather, but the temperature only got to 40 degrees overnight. In fact, it looked like it was going to be a sunny, hot day. The skies had very few clouds and the yellow ball was starting to heat things up. This type of weather would have been welcomed earlier in the hunt, but now that we had meat to keep cool and a grueling hike ahead of us, the sun was not ideal.

Our first task was to lighten up our newly added weight going in our packs. The skulls still had all the meat attached, so we spent a good amount of time removing as much meat as possible. We then shifted our attention to the hides. While we were fleshing, the sun started to really beam down on us. To keep the meat cool, we dug holes in a snow patch nearby and made little refrigerators. We soon added the hides to the snow after we finished fleshing. Even though it wasn’t needed to preserve anything, we put our skulls in the snow as well.

We then focused our attention on how we would get out of the hunt area. Since we dropped into a neighboring drainage, we had multiple obstacles to navigate to get out. There were multiple options, each with different pros and cons. The shortest route involved retracing our steps we took to shoot the rams. This meant hiking up the very steep bowl we were in, and navigating the risky route we took to get to the finger. While getting to the finger was difficult, it was made easier than going the other direction because it had stretches of traversing downhill and through shoots. Add the extra 80 pounds in the pack and retracing our steps backwards meant it would be extremely difficult and likely dangerous. To lessen the dangerous part of the hike, we would need to make two trips to our previous camping spot to split up the weight.

The longest route getting us back to our trucks involved going around the direct route obstacles. Unfortunately, the bowl we dropped into was in the middle of a drainage that paralleled our initial drainage for many miles. The river they both drained into and we could pass between was the same distance to get to as the heads of the drainages that had a pass up and over connecting them. The up and over pass would be a better option for hiking out due to the fact that the lower path would be riddled with more bugs, trees, and deep river crossings. Although the upper path for this route had an added pass to climb, we could maintain much of that elevation by staying high and transitioning into the final up and over of our initial mountain pass back to the trucks.

Our third option was middle ground for distance and it only had one moderate, gradual climb to a low elevation pass. This route would be easier to hike, however, it would take us to an unknown creek drainage that led to the road. This meant it would be a different route then we came in on. Of course, this was complicated by the fact that we did not know what the creek conditions were like in this drainage. If the creek was too high to cross, we could hike along the bank and in the trees at times. This also meant at the end of the hike out, we would need to either hike the road to our trucks or hitchhike.

We weighed our options and agreed the uncharted route would be best.; it would be about 15 miles to the road. We wouldn’t be able to make it the entire distance in one day, so our goal was to complete 10 miles the first day. Ideally we would move at least one mile an hour with our packs now weighing about 125 pounds.

We tore down camp and tested the capacity of our packs. When I’m bringing out a sheep, I put the hide at the bottom, the meat on top of that, and then my water bladder, food, clothes, and sleeping items on top. If there isn’t room in the bag, I strap other items to the outside of the pack. The skull gets put on top of the bag after it has the draw string tightened. The lid is then used to cover the top of the skull with the horns sticking out and it is secured down to the pack.

On my last hunt, I got such bad friction sores on my back that they left awful scars. I asked Shawn to tape these areas before we left, and to my amazement, it did an amazing job of preventing further skin damage on the pack out.

We went through the ritual of putting on the heavy packs and standing up for the first time. It’s always amazing how much weight can be put in these packs and the feeling that comes over you when you feel the weight on your shoulders… “Holy smokes this thing is heavy, how the heck can I possibly hike this all the way out?”

It was mostly cloudy at this point and preferred over constantly sunny. We began to slowly hike out of the bowl and down into the drainage. The rest of the day was blur. It was a repetitive cycle of hiking, being in pain, taking small breaks, hiking further in pain, then stopping for a pack-off break… rest and repeat. Early in the hike, it started to rain, and it never really let up. It was fairly humid and cool. We made the decision to not put on our rain gear knowing we would eventually sweat profusely and be wet anyway. Besides, the packs on our backs helped to shield the rain from getting us too wet. We teetered with being cold from the rain and wind, and staying warm from hiking. Basically we were warm when hiking and then got chilled when we stopped. We knew we had dry clothes to put on at the end of the day so we didn’t care if we got soaked.

The hike up toward the pass was not fun. There was more wind, rain, and colder temperatures, but when we got to the pass, we knew we reached a huge milestone, and only downhill, easy hiking remained. The drop in to the creek drainage destroyed my feet. My neuromas were inflamed and really hurting. This made hiking more difficult and painful. Shawn lead for the remainder of the hike. He was like a horse returning to the barn, the end in sight and dedicated to getting their quickly. His pace pushed me to hike faster and keep going; it was definitely needed.

This creek was a slow moving, wide creek at high elevations. Getting out required crossing it many times. Instead of stopping, taking our packs off, getting out the waders, putting them on, putting our packs back on, crossing the creek, taking our packs off, and then removing the waders to give to the other person to repeat the process, we decided to just get wet and walk straight through the creek when needed. Our feet and boots were already soaked from hiking in the rain all day, this only added a little extra weight from filling our boots with more water. This was the first time I have done this and it saved a lot of time and made crossing so much easier.

We eventually made it to our 10 mile destination. It felt amazing to drop the packs for the last time that day. It only took us nine hours of hiking to get to this spot, so our travel time was faster than our goal of one mile per hour. We setup camp and again gorged ourselves with food because we knew tomorrow would be our last day in the field. We ate, complained about our pains, stretched, and crashed hard for the night.

DAY 7

We had the luxury of sleeping in again. We had five miles left in our journey to find the road on this creek. Thankfully, the creek was flowing clear, and although high, it appeared as if it wasn’t too high to cause many issues.

It was a sunny day with very few clouds in the sky. In fact, it was one of those “hot” Alaska days where it got up to 68 degrees and the sun was blasting, making it feel a lot warmer. We were hoping for a quick hike out. We had to take many breaks due to us being exhausted and the added draining from the sun. It took us longer than we thought to reach each additional mile, and whenever we looked at the GPS to see how far we had left, it was always more than we thought. It may have been the anticipation of getting out of the field that day, but this seemed like a recurring theme.

Again, hiking was a blur of struggle, pain, and monotony. We finally reached the road and a feeling of joy and accomplishment washed over us. As we took a break, we had to decide if we would simply wait for someone to pick us up, or begin walking toward our trucks and hitchhike along the way. Unsure if anyone would actually give us a ride, we decided to walk, hoping someone would help us out.  

This is the first time I have hitch hiked, and I was hoping it would work out as planned… it didn’t. I was surprised at the inability to catch a ride with someone! We were walking for about an hour without any takers.. maybe because we were stinky and carrying rifles.

After a few miles, we decided to take a rest and evaluate how far away the trucks really were. We estimated they were five miles away from where we popped out on the road, but after studying the GPS, it turned out it was closer to 10! Our bodies were refusing to go any further knowing a vehicle could easily take us the remaining distance.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to walk any further. After that break, we were able to ask a really nice lady if she would give us a ride to our trucks. She happily agreed and we loaded our stuff in her SUV. We talked about our hunt, local living, our kids, the weather, hunting, regulations, etc. Good conversations were had and it was obvious she was a really good person.  

She dropped us off at the truck, and we thanked her immensely. Without her, the last leg of this hunt would not have been possible.  When we got to the trucks, we celebrated our final milestone of the hunt… completing it. At this point, anything that went wrong or could happen would be part of typical highway transportation.

We took our time loading everything. I changed my clothes, downed a couple Powerades, stuffed my face with pounds of food, and put the sheep in the cooler. On sheep hunts, I like to load a cooler full of large, chunked ice in hopes that it hasn’t melted by the time I’m done. I then put a rack in the cooler to keep the meat and hide directly off the water and ice. This way in case the meat and hide have been warmer than ideal, it can start to immediately cool off, and depending on where I’m hunting, ice may not be accessible for a long time. To my surprise, most of my ice was already melted. There was no way the ice would have lasted until the end of my last possible hunt day.

Another successful sheep hunt was in the books. The only thing remaining was the long drive home, which was uneventful. Now begins the planning for next year’s hunt.

This was our view off the mountain we started climbing. As you can see, it was difficult to see much being at cloud level. 

Finally the clouds started to clear a bit. These were the first white blobs we saw on the mountains, lambs and ewes.

These two sheep were on a ridge by themselves, a ways above the group of lambs and ewes. Before we looked at them, we thought they were rams, but nope... more ewes. 

These are the first rams we saw. After we crossed over the mountain, they were bedded down high on a neighboring bowl. Three of them were definitely not legal, and one was close. It wasn't worth our time to get closer to confirm though.  

This ram was also a questionable ram that needed closer inspection for better legal determination. He was a couple drainages away and out of our way, but a possible Plan B ram. 

Shawn on top of the mountain looking for sheep. 

Lambs and ewes were everywhere. 

The camera is zoomed in to the max. This is the ridge we would eventually hunt and the rocky ledge on the other side of it is the finger the rams hung out near (there are sheep in this picture but we are too far away to see them). 

It's not easy to see, but this is the group of small rams we would later spook and find out that one was actually legal (see below picture). 

The ram second from the left is the legal ram. 

On our way to the river in the drainage below us, we came across this sheep kill. Often times when sheep perish in the mountains, their bodies find their way toward the base of the mountain when they ride melting snow, slides, and avalanches. 

This is a good example of the swift flowing water a small creek can turn in to. There was supposed to be a very small amount of water here, and we couldn't even cross due to the recent rains. 

Planes have a clear advantage to gather information easily and get hunters into hard to reach places. This pilot was gathering information the incorrect way by harassing every sheep it could find. 

Such a beautiful sight... four large rams close, but not close enough. 

Here are six of the rams at the very bottom of the bowl. They weren't scared or concerned at all. 

This is a group of four small rams and four ewes that we watched grazing in our drainage. 

Sheep print!

This is the nest I claimed as my waiting spot. It was a perfectly flat and soft area to relax and patiently wait for the rams to move.

A look at our second, better look out spot behind the ridge. 

Here they are zoomed in. 

A solo, sub-legal ram chilling in our drainage.

And another one. 

The larger rams decided to duel for a little bit, knocking heads.

This little pika was fun to watch while we killed time. It was a fast little bugger and ate everything in sight. 

This is my mountain camo. I don't believe in the need to buy or use fancy camo patterns (plus, none of them are made in sizes that fit me). Solid colors work just as easy and staying out of sight/ not allowing sheep to detect movement is much more important. 

This is one of the steep shoots we had to descend as we were chasing the rams that went over into the next bowl. I joked with Shawn that I wanted a picture of him to send Erin as the last picture taken before he fell to his demise (joking of course). 

Shawn is at the bottom of this picture, descending toward his ram. 

Shawn puts eyes on his ram for the first time... belly up. 

Here is the rock face Shawn's ram fell off of. 

Giving thanks to my ram and saying a prayer.

Shawn wasn't as lucky as me and had to cut up his ram on the rocky mountain side.

The celebratory vodka Shawn brought. 

Sheep cooler.

My ram is on the left, and Shawn's is on the right. 

The pack is loaded and ready to go!

One of many sheds we found while hiking. This was a large moose antler. 

This is a cool video of the rams after they got spooked. They huddled up on top of their ridge and got on each others' nerves a little bit. Sorry about the unsteady frame and slight blurriness; I had to zoom in all the way and hold it by hand... while trying to stay out of sight.