elkfanatic
Active Member
- Messages
- 154
Well my first barbary sheep hunt was a success; however, it did not go off without any hitches to say the least. I took off from NMSU at around 10 and got to my spot around 1. My dad and brother were going to meet me down there when I came off the mountain that afternoon. Well I started hiking and low and behold I end up 1.23 miles away from my spot with nothing to show for it but one domestic sheep. I was about to start walking back when I picked up my binos and there was a sheep standing right in the middle of the frame right next to a fence. Now this is where the bad decisions came into play. If you hate in horror movies when people make bad decisions and you basically scream at the TV, you may want to just close the window now. The sheep was around 800 yards away and my adrenaline rush told me to haul @$$ over there and kill her. At this point, it was about 4:30 and my adrenaline rush got the best of me. I took off on an absolute tear to get to her and flipped a bunch of rocks and she ran around the mountain. I had read that most of the time they just go out of sight and relax so I just kept going. When I came over the top she was there and I got in position and took 4, count them, 4 shots to put her down. I went down did my little photo session and started the hard work. At this point it was 5:30, and I checked the GPS and I was 2 miles from the truck. I was already shaded by the mountain and I was running low on time. Not thinking I figured I would take everything with me so by the time I got the pack on and started heading out, the sun was down and all I had for light was a weak headlamp and the moon. For those of you who know how windy it can get on those mountains, and on top of the 40 mph wind it was probably below 32 degrees. I made it 3/4 of a mile before I realized I needed to drop the pack and go as fast as possible to the truck. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that if I stopped I would most likely get hypothermia and possibly die if no one found me. I made it to the truck only to find that my dad and brother left the lights on so my battery was dead. I couldn't roll start it either because I parked it facing uphill. So I sat in the truck trying to stay warm enough just to survive. I had just drifted off to sleep when I heard a noise and saw lights. My dad flung the door open and saw me and got the border patrol officers to make sure I was okay. I had wrote help in the fog of the windows so that someone knew I was in there if they happened to stumble by. So I was checked out by the border patrol EMT and sent on my way. We stayed in Alamogordo last night and went back and grabbed the pack today. To have walked out of that situation with only a few scratches, a lot of cactus quills, and some anxiety, I am thankful to God that I didn't die on that mountain. I thank Him for giving me the strength to keep going. Either way I'm alive and life is good. It was pretty traumatic but everyone has an event of that sort in their life and I had one not more than 7 months ago. If you read this all the way through without thinking about how stupid I was, I commend you.
