Sheeping Trip #2

Spent another weekend scouting sheep…in the area that we are planning to hunt. A couple set backs were the weather didn’t cooperate as would have been nice and Liz got some blisters on the way in. It was still really enjoyable. The first two rams we saw on the way in were twin ¾ curl rams. Back in further, down the backside of one of the mountain passes, we saw a group of four rams. Two were 7/8 curl and one was a nice full curl ram. We’re going to have to be on the lookout for this guy next week. There were a few more rams that I saw at long distances, 3 of which were out in the middle of a big glacier.

Saturday night it rained pretty good in the middle of the night. We were socked in with clouds Sunday, but during a ½ hour break, things were really looking good with blue sky coming in, so Tucker and I took off up a side ridge and made it a couple peaks back in there to try and get a look at some more country. Clouds rolled in while we made the initial climb. I made it to the second peak…afraid to go further because I didn’t want to spook any sheep that were around (with not being able to see them). Basically sat there and napped for two hours. It never did clear up so I bailed off there and we headed home. Sunday was a bust for spotting any sheep, other than spooking two ewes and a lamb in the fog when I hike back to camp.

Tucker’s backpack broke while he was chasing Ptarmigan out of some brush. We got some good life out of that one. I then had some extra weight to strap on and build the legs a bit stronger. Ptarmigan were everywhere up there! Who knows how much these rams will move around over the next 10 days, but it looks like we are going to have a hunt on our hands. Might have to go to some longer distances to find 2 legal rams, who knows. I was praying on the hike out that you and I would each be carrying a ram the next time we hike out of there. Like Steve has said, “It’d be quite an accomplishment to double up on this hunt…”