Solo Sheep Hunt 2010

If excitement can make you an insomniac…I’ll believe it. Haven’t had much sleep from Friday through Monday. My buddy Steve and I had struck out on the initial sheep hunt this year so I headed off for a quick, solo trip to Ram Gulch. While I’ve taken friends or family in there for three different rams, I’d never taken one myself. Steve, in a previous year, had set a truck to truck record of 48hrs for a successful trip. I was going to have to do that or better since I needed to be back at work Monday morning! The option of finishing packing another day wasn’t a possibility.

So I left the truck at 8:30pm Friday night and had to quit hiking on account of darkness after a couple hours. Note: hiking by yourself in the dark, through bear infested timber, isn’t very fun. Then standing there in the dark, ground too wet to sit down on, and eating a cold sandwich at 11pm, well, it was a lonesome supper. After that it was a short nap, but when the alarm got me up and going again at 5am, I was kinda relived to be on the move. There’d been too many griz tracks on the way in, and it was a fitful nights rest. Once I got to a good glassing spot, I found rams, 16-18 of ‘em (it’s debatable). One, way up high, showed the signs of being full curl with a couple others that were close but weren’t going to make the cut. So, now for the stalk. Nothing better than climbing around and up the backside of the mountain to play it safe, oh yeah, and a bunch of alders to start it. It was a long and tedious climb getting up there, and the last 600yrds or so I was dogging it pretty good. But I made the summit, camoed up, and started to sneak in. I’d left the valley floor while the rams were heading to their beds and hoped to still find them there. The rest of the details are sketchy but it involved lots of sitting in uncomfortable positions as I’d wait for various rams to get up and move, fall asleep, or bed looking in opposite directions so I could move closer. There was even a moment in the warm sun, a soft sheep meadow, and falling asleep, then suddenly rousing myself because “hey, I’m sheep hunting.” However, a later count revealed I did miss a few going out to feed while I dozed there for 10 minutes. That’s being on it isn’t it. They’d have been well out of shooting range, but I’d have known what I was in for anyways. As it was I finally snuck into the thick of where they were and a 15/16 seven year old held my attention for a long time. One of those big dark horned beauties, that try as I might, I couldn’t make him legal. It was a long time of sitting up there (all six hours) and it got pretty chilly once the sun dropped behind the mountains. Finally at 7pm, the rams that were out feeding came back. Looking these six over, one was definitely the full curl ram I’d hiked up here for. So I got set up for the shot and get this; tried to run the video camera at the same time. Multi-tasking almost cost me the ram. I was so excited, I had him feeding in front of me at 250yrds, middle of the frame on the camera, and I hurried the shot…and missed him. He jumped forward and looked around, and this time I completely checked the camera out of my mind and put a bullet where I needed. Sometimes, it’s only after you shoot one of these rams that you realize how steep the slope is that you’re on. He took quite the tumble – so I apologize for the bloody pictures. I wanted to clean him up, but I was out of water. Knowing it was going to get dark on me while butchering, I looked around for a camp spot, found one that would work if I built a rock wall up so I could brace my feet against it to keep from tobogganing down the mountain in my sleeping bag. Then I got to taking care of him. Those rocks under my feet felt so good when I crawled into bed at 1am. I was a wonderful feeling having worked that hard to get this ram…a 20 hour day to make it happen.

The ram isn’t a big one…not quite 33 inches on the long horn, but he’s one that I’m super excited about! Pretty neat when it’s just you and God walking together out there!

Morning had me struggling up under the pack and making my way back to the truck. It went something like this; That pond water sure tastes good with 10 iodine tablets in it after 12 hours of thirstiness. Gosh, this 130lb pack feels heavy. How the heck did the pack and scree slope team up and put me hard on my side like that. Man I’m dirty. These climbs are killing my mph average. Lean over trekking poles to rest the legs…for as long as I could handle the whitesocks and mosquitoes biting my arms (usually only 10 seconds…I can’t get a break). Swampy terrain sucks! This pack is heavy…I’m loving it. Drat, out of water again (it’s only like four more miles to a creek). Holy smokes I about can’t even spit I’m so thirsty…then remembering a story about our soldiers on the Bataan Death March in the Philippines, “I’m doing great.” Finally the creek and then that last long haul to the truck with an energy boost of “smelling the barn.”
By the numbers:

• 47 hours truck to truck
• Over 20 miles
• 9 hours on Sunday under a 130lb pack
• 33 x 13 on the horns (5 years old!!!!)
• 15 hours sleep in three nights
• One Extremely Happy Sheep Hunter