tailchaser
Active Member
- Messages
- 185
Day 1......
We get dropped off into main camp and start to shuttle people into the backcountry. During this time I go through my pack with the head
guide and we look at two items I brought, a sat phone and a spotting scope. Both of which he says to leave here because the guide who
is going with me has both already up there. No problem. But remember this. I sight in my gun, shooting perfectly and it's time to go. We
fly into the wilderness airstrip about 15 miles away and begin to get the food and gear straightened out with how many days supply we will
need. My guy says only 2 1/2 days because we'll be in and out either with or without a sheep by that time either packing one, or looking
for another one. Remember this also....We start heading upriver with another hunter and guide, but they're going to split off and head for
another ram at some point but the river came up due to the warm weather melting the glacier upstream. The caused two problems, one
we were supposed to walk the riverbank the whole way, so now we had to beat brush through the alders, and two we had to cross it twice
anyhow. The crossing was pretty hairy, but managed, however the 2 1/2 miles through alder made it's marks on me. Mostly when
I happen to look up as my guide walks right past and drills a bee's nest with his gun on accident not even seeing it. My mind looked at
it, and froze because not in my wildest dreams did I think BEE'S!!!! Well they were all yellow jackets and the guide (Dave) got stung a couple
of times. We busted brush around them and within 5 minutes I hear this scream, AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! He ran directly into another one and
got it pretty bad, once in the eye and it swelled shut immediately. He then tells me he's allergic and the hunt might be over. Luckily, I had
some benedryl with me, so after some pep talk and drugs I managed to convince him to keep going. Ten minutes later, AAAAHHHHHH
more bee's!!! It was nuts, you can't hardly see 10 feet in the alder thickets and there seems to be yellow jackets everywhere, but we finally
make it to the head of our basin around 9 pm and make camp because the "trail" that is supposed to be here definitely wasn't.
Day 2.....
We decide to head up a creek to get into our drainage, but the only problem is the only place you can walk is about 3 feet from a vertical
cliff. We're walking on soft moss and vegitation that is somewhat slick and the pucker factor is about 8. Not a good feeling. We finally get
higher than treeline and escape the jungle to make some time. Dave's eye has at least some ability to look out of it now and we set up
camp as he points to where the ram is supposed to be. It's now about 10:30 am and it's time to hunt. I spot some moving white critters
up the drainage and ask him to get out his spotting scope, he mentions, "what spotting scope? I don't pack one it's too heavy" and I about
died. Sheep hunting rule #1, always pack a spotting scope because determining what a ram is, if he's legal, and in this case there are goats
all over the mountain, determining what they are is critical to keep from wasting time and energy. I was not happy at all knowing my legs
are going to pay for this somehow. Turns out they were goats and I soon learned how to differentiate the two quickly. Goats always feed
and walk with thier head down, and have a little tail that gives them a big bushy butt so to speak. Anyhow, we sneak into the drainage
where they were supposed to be bedding and nada.....not even a goat. It's now 6 pm and we've been hiking since 7 am and climbed about
1800' of elevation so it was time to get a meal and plan for tomorrow.
Day 3.....
We get up early and head into the top of the basin the rams were spotted in (so we thought), and get up on top of the world basically.
Not a dang thing here. I was already getting tired of the climb out of camp going 1500' in about a 1/2 mile just to start. So we start
moving around the basin to find these elusive things and seem to only be able to find goats, and lots of them at that. Now we were
walking most of the time above where even the mountain goats lived, around 4500' when base is about 2000'. We traveled all over creation
and back walking today going up and down mountains and finally around 6 pm my guide says, "there they are" I looked up and said
you have to be kidding me. I nicknamed this hill "hells kitchen" and was approximately 3 miles away and was the tallest, nastiest peak
I could ever imagine. And they were at the top of it. We started to glass the 4 of them and he assures me it's the group we were after.
This spotting scope issue is coming back to haunt me now because we couldn't hardly tell they were rams, and if I'm going to kill myself
on this hill I want to KNOW it's a legal ram I'm after. But now comes another problem. We're on the end of the 3rd day with only two packages
of oatmeal and two granola bars left to eat. We get the sat phone out to call for food and it's DEAD! You have got to be kidding me......
So we rub the battery on our clothes to warm it up and manage to get a 30 second call out to tell them we need food asap because
we just now found the rams. Everything was a disaster in waiting it seemed.
Day 4.....
We hike back up to our location from yesterday to verify the rams were still there, of course they were already at the top of this
deathly looking hill. We watched them bed down and now it was time to climb. We hiked and traveled through rock ledges for
7 straight hours of pain and vertical climbing. Finally we were about 1200 yards of what we estimated where they were and hear
this humming noise on the horizon.........VRRRRROOOOOMMMMM!!!! As this plane buzzes the rams about 50' over thier heads?
He comes around again and buzzes them again!!!! I'm about to deflate his plane really quick and get my video camera out and get
him on film doing this. He travels off a bit, realigns and buzzes them again!!!! And again!!! I'm soooooo mad right now I can hardly
talk. He finally leaves but we have no idea what happened to the rams and they're probably off and running as we speak. We make
it where we can see and the rams are still there, but on high alert. The wind is bad at our backs going up hill to them and time was
now short before we were winded. But to get within roughly 300 yards I had to go behind a rock outcropping that had my heart
flickering. I had enough room to place a single foot with a rock wall to my left and a vertical drop around 1000' to my right. Walking
on shale just petrified me. It didn't help when my rifle over my shoulder bumped the rock and pushed me right and I had to grab a
rock quickly to get my balance. I could hardly speek when I made it back to open ground. I belly crawled up to where I would shoot
and they were GONE!!!!! I'm looking frantically around and my guide is pointing to my left. I see the group walking sidehill to me
range the first one, 387 yards and the biggest is second in line. I rack a shell put the cross hairs on him and miss.....My guide
yells NO, the rams switched places he's in the lead....I hit him on the next shot and miss another time. It's too far now as I watch my
ram limp up the hill following his buddies into a part of the canyon I definitely can't travel to due to shear cliff faces. But he makes one
mistake. He beds down about 20 yards from where I would call no way. So we travel even further down this hell for saken ridge
and I peak around where he was, GONE......with a fresh set of tracks going into the cliffs and my stomach just knotted up. I still
crept around the corner a few feet keeping an eye on the cliffs when a white patch caught my eye in front of me. He was bedded
about 30 yards and I planted him there. My guide went running by me to keep the ram from falling 5' to the right into a shear cliff.
But the deed was done. Here are the pics:
The pack out was nothing more than physical hell, since we killed the ram at 6300' and camp is at 2000'. Several times I thought
my body would give up due to no food as we split the last granola before coming down and I was pushed to the absolute limit.
It was the hardest hunt I could ever imagine and will be my best trophy for years to come. He preliminary taped out at 41 inches on one side and 40 1/8 on the other from Fish and Game. So there ya go. Quite an adventure to say the least.
We get dropped off into main camp and start to shuttle people into the backcountry. During this time I go through my pack with the head
guide and we look at two items I brought, a sat phone and a spotting scope. Both of which he says to leave here because the guide who
is going with me has both already up there. No problem. But remember this. I sight in my gun, shooting perfectly and it's time to go. We
fly into the wilderness airstrip about 15 miles away and begin to get the food and gear straightened out with how many days supply we will
need. My guy says only 2 1/2 days because we'll be in and out either with or without a sheep by that time either packing one, or looking
for another one. Remember this also....We start heading upriver with another hunter and guide, but they're going to split off and head for
another ram at some point but the river came up due to the warm weather melting the glacier upstream. The caused two problems, one
we were supposed to walk the riverbank the whole way, so now we had to beat brush through the alders, and two we had to cross it twice
anyhow. The crossing was pretty hairy, but managed, however the 2 1/2 miles through alder made it's marks on me. Mostly when
I happen to look up as my guide walks right past and drills a bee's nest with his gun on accident not even seeing it. My mind looked at
it, and froze because not in my wildest dreams did I think BEE'S!!!! Well they were all yellow jackets and the guide (Dave) got stung a couple
of times. We busted brush around them and within 5 minutes I hear this scream, AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! He ran directly into another one and
got it pretty bad, once in the eye and it swelled shut immediately. He then tells me he's allergic and the hunt might be over. Luckily, I had
some benedryl with me, so after some pep talk and drugs I managed to convince him to keep going. Ten minutes later, AAAAHHHHHH
more bee's!!! It was nuts, you can't hardly see 10 feet in the alder thickets and there seems to be yellow jackets everywhere, but we finally
make it to the head of our basin around 9 pm and make camp because the "trail" that is supposed to be here definitely wasn't.
Day 2.....
We decide to head up a creek to get into our drainage, but the only problem is the only place you can walk is about 3 feet from a vertical
cliff. We're walking on soft moss and vegitation that is somewhat slick and the pucker factor is about 8. Not a good feeling. We finally get
higher than treeline and escape the jungle to make some time. Dave's eye has at least some ability to look out of it now and we set up
camp as he points to where the ram is supposed to be. It's now about 10:30 am and it's time to hunt. I spot some moving white critters
up the drainage and ask him to get out his spotting scope, he mentions, "what spotting scope? I don't pack one it's too heavy" and I about
died. Sheep hunting rule #1, always pack a spotting scope because determining what a ram is, if he's legal, and in this case there are goats
all over the mountain, determining what they are is critical to keep from wasting time and energy. I was not happy at all knowing my legs
are going to pay for this somehow. Turns out they were goats and I soon learned how to differentiate the two quickly. Goats always feed
and walk with thier head down, and have a little tail that gives them a big bushy butt so to speak. Anyhow, we sneak into the drainage
where they were supposed to be bedding and nada.....not even a goat. It's now 6 pm and we've been hiking since 7 am and climbed about
1800' of elevation so it was time to get a meal and plan for tomorrow.
Day 3.....
We get up early and head into the top of the basin the rams were spotted in (so we thought), and get up on top of the world basically.
Not a dang thing here. I was already getting tired of the climb out of camp going 1500' in about a 1/2 mile just to start. So we start
moving around the basin to find these elusive things and seem to only be able to find goats, and lots of them at that. Now we were
walking most of the time above where even the mountain goats lived, around 4500' when base is about 2000'. We traveled all over creation
and back walking today going up and down mountains and finally around 6 pm my guide says, "there they are" I looked up and said
you have to be kidding me. I nicknamed this hill "hells kitchen" and was approximately 3 miles away and was the tallest, nastiest peak
I could ever imagine. And they were at the top of it. We started to glass the 4 of them and he assures me it's the group we were after.
This spotting scope issue is coming back to haunt me now because we couldn't hardly tell they were rams, and if I'm going to kill myself
on this hill I want to KNOW it's a legal ram I'm after. But now comes another problem. We're on the end of the 3rd day with only two packages
of oatmeal and two granola bars left to eat. We get the sat phone out to call for food and it's DEAD! You have got to be kidding me......
So we rub the battery on our clothes to warm it up and manage to get a 30 second call out to tell them we need food asap because
we just now found the rams. Everything was a disaster in waiting it seemed.
Day 4.....
We hike back up to our location from yesterday to verify the rams were still there, of course they were already at the top of this
deathly looking hill. We watched them bed down and now it was time to climb. We hiked and traveled through rock ledges for
7 straight hours of pain and vertical climbing. Finally we were about 1200 yards of what we estimated where they were and hear
this humming noise on the horizon.........VRRRRROOOOOMMMMM!!!! As this plane buzzes the rams about 50' over thier heads?
He comes around again and buzzes them again!!!! I'm about to deflate his plane really quick and get my video camera out and get
him on film doing this. He travels off a bit, realigns and buzzes them again!!!! And again!!! I'm soooooo mad right now I can hardly
talk. He finally leaves but we have no idea what happened to the rams and they're probably off and running as we speak. We make
it where we can see and the rams are still there, but on high alert. The wind is bad at our backs going up hill to them and time was
now short before we were winded. But to get within roughly 300 yards I had to go behind a rock outcropping that had my heart
flickering. I had enough room to place a single foot with a rock wall to my left and a vertical drop around 1000' to my right. Walking
on shale just petrified me. It didn't help when my rifle over my shoulder bumped the rock and pushed me right and I had to grab a
rock quickly to get my balance. I could hardly speek when I made it back to open ground. I belly crawled up to where I would shoot
and they were GONE!!!!! I'm looking frantically around and my guide is pointing to my left. I see the group walking sidehill to me
range the first one, 387 yards and the biggest is second in line. I rack a shell put the cross hairs on him and miss.....My guide
yells NO, the rams switched places he's in the lead....I hit him on the next shot and miss another time. It's too far now as I watch my
ram limp up the hill following his buddies into a part of the canyon I definitely can't travel to due to shear cliff faces. But he makes one
mistake. He beds down about 20 yards from where I would call no way. So we travel even further down this hell for saken ridge
and I peak around where he was, GONE......with a fresh set of tracks going into the cliffs and my stomach just knotted up. I still
crept around the corner a few feet keeping an eye on the cliffs when a white patch caught my eye in front of me. He was bedded
about 30 yards and I planted him there. My guide went running by me to keep the ram from falling 5' to the right into a shear cliff.
But the deed was done. Here are the pics:
The pack out was nothing more than physical hell, since we killed the ram at 6300' and camp is at 2000'. Several times I thought
my body would give up due to no food as we split the last granola before coming down and I was pushed to the absolute limit.
It was the hardest hunt I could ever imagine and will be my best trophy for years to come. He preliminary taped out at 41 inches on one side and 40 1/8 on the other from Fish and Game. So there ya go. Quite an adventure to say the least.
