I guess I could say this story truly started in my grandparents living room around the coffee table when I was probably 4 or 5 years old. I have a very vivid memory of flipping through my grandpa’s hunting magazines and being enamored by pictures of wild sheep and goats. Seeing those pictures, I knew I wanted to be a true mountain hunter, hunting the wild sheep and goats of North America. Somewhere my parents have a couple of drawings I had made as a young kid, still in my single digits, of hunting wild sheep. I would do whatever it took to pursue those animals in the purest form to me, fair chase, fully on my own whether solo or with family. I spent the next 25 plus years scheming which brought me to the fall of 2024.
I knew I was going to chase Dall sheep this fall, no ifs, ands, or buts. Last year I had some great plans until I had a pilot cancel on me late with not much time to put anything else together as far as sheep hunting goes, or at least a solid and SAFE plan for a first sheep hunt. Choice one would be a hike in hunt, with several contingency plans for cub drop-offs in other areas if they could squeeze me in, if not, I was still set in my original plan. I had my routes and alternate routes completely mapped out by middle December and was beginning the preparation of getting my gear down to as light as safely possible, so that I would be tested and ready for this August.
Draw results started coming out in February and to my surprise I drew a mountain goat tag for the fall of 2024. I had left room in my schedule in the event I was successful in some draws so I wasn’t worried about the time off of work. I knew now, this fall would really be unlike anything I had ever done. Two true mountain hunts for the two most iconic mountain species in arguably the two toughest environments and terrain in the entirety of North America. With these two hunts lined out, I still had plenty of PTO to use and needed to figure something out to get plenty of meat in the freezer. My father-in-law as well as a good buddy had been constantly pestering me about caribou hunting the last few years, I finally gave in and said we could do it, but it had to be within a certain set of dates or I wasn’t going. I didn’t want anything to remotely get in the way of what I had dreamt about my entire life and it was finally right here at my fingertips. The dates worked for them and so there it was, trip number three was now in motion.
July comes around and I’m ready as ever. My gear is dialed. I’ve weighed every piece of gear multiple times, made my lists, packed and unpacked, its all done. Physically I’m ready to go and mentally I’ve about checked out of everything and all I can think of is sheep. Everything seemed like it had fallen in to place exactly how it was supposed to. What was once just a dream was now reality. One afternoon about a week before I had scheduled to leave I get a call from my dad. I can’t answer at the moment as I’m in a meeting at work and so I shoot him a text real quick. He responds with “call me when you get done, I need to talk to you its urgent.” Going through my head is all the worst case scenarios I can imagine. All I can think of is that my fall plans are now changed due to some sort of emergency that has happened. The meeting ends and I give my dad a call. To my surprise he has an offer that he came across about a bush flight that opened up if I’d like to take it to go sheep hunting and he would come with me. I was elated. Heck yeah I’d like to go. Only problem is that its late season and wouldn’t be able to get into the field until the 20th. I immediately went through my work schedule to go through some things and see if I could make it work. If I needed to cancel my original plan of hiking in solo I would, just to hunt with my dad. I guess the stars aligned and I was now adding another sheep hunt to the schedule.
Sheep Hunt #1 Solo
August seemed as if it would never arrive. I was to start my hike in on the morning of the 6th of August and then return to my truck on the 18th. I drove all day and through the night on the 5th, catching only a few hours of sleep before the hard time I had set for myself to begin my trek. The trek started with all my gear on my back plus my boots, wading across a freezing cold river at 8 am. I reached the other side, found a good rock to sit on, laced my boots, and got on my way as I had a long tough hike up this drainage through a high saddle to get done today. I was on cloud 9, stopping and admiring every little thing from the rock formations and little grasses and lichens to all the other sights and sounds. After 3 or 4 miles I finally snapped out of it as I spotted my first group of sheep. What a sight. I will never forget this first group even though it was just ewes and lambs, the first sheep I’ve ever seen while hunting them. I watched them for probably a good 45 minutes before my glassing was interrupted by a steadily increasing rain. I would spend the next 6 hours working my way up this drainage, picking my way across one boulder size talus shale piece to the next. By 6 pm I could finally see the top of the saddle, still a good 800’ above me but I knew I was getting close. The rest would be down hill from there on for the rest of the day. Battling the rain and wind I finally crested the saddle. Met with some high winds that just about blew me over backwards, I hunkered down in a little low spot to have a small snack before I went through this pass and started working my way down the backside. The decent down the backside went much quicker and smoother that my ascent. Making it out of the side drainage into the main drainage I stopped about 9 pm to sleep for the night. Exhausted, I set up camp and got some sleep, excited for what day 2 would bring.
Day 2 caught me sleeping in and hanging around the tent for a little while, drying my rain gear that had been soaked through as well as some other gear. I would take little breaks to glass up and down the drainage hoping to find more sheep. In my hike in on day 1 I had a run in with some other hunters that were headed basically the same way I was but were planning on hunting north of where I had planned. They stopped by the tent about 10:30 to let me know they were headed up another drainage to go through the pass up there and that if I wanted to hike with them I could. I respectfully declined and told them I was changing my plans and would be making my journey south to north instead of north to south like I had originally planned. This way we weren’t stepping on one another’s toes and each covering different areas so that possibly one of us would get lucky on a ram. About 11:30 am everything finally dried and I was back to hiking. I had a good 10 miles I needed to get in today in order to stay on track for the loop I planned on making. It wasn’t long after crossing a river and a couple creeks and following one of those creeks up its drainage that I realized I wasn’t going to make the next pass that I had wanted to. I made it close by about 10 pm and decided I would call it a day and make the push up the drainage through the pass in the early morning, giving me the entire day to glass the big bowl and several drainages on the other side.
I knew I was going to chase Dall sheep this fall, no ifs, ands, or buts. Last year I had some great plans until I had a pilot cancel on me late with not much time to put anything else together as far as sheep hunting goes, or at least a solid and SAFE plan for a first sheep hunt. Choice one would be a hike in hunt, with several contingency plans for cub drop-offs in other areas if they could squeeze me in, if not, I was still set in my original plan. I had my routes and alternate routes completely mapped out by middle December and was beginning the preparation of getting my gear down to as light as safely possible, so that I would be tested and ready for this August.
Draw results started coming out in February and to my surprise I drew a mountain goat tag for the fall of 2024. I had left room in my schedule in the event I was successful in some draws so I wasn’t worried about the time off of work. I knew now, this fall would really be unlike anything I had ever done. Two true mountain hunts for the two most iconic mountain species in arguably the two toughest environments and terrain in the entirety of North America. With these two hunts lined out, I still had plenty of PTO to use and needed to figure something out to get plenty of meat in the freezer. My father-in-law as well as a good buddy had been constantly pestering me about caribou hunting the last few years, I finally gave in and said we could do it, but it had to be within a certain set of dates or I wasn’t going. I didn’t want anything to remotely get in the way of what I had dreamt about my entire life and it was finally right here at my fingertips. The dates worked for them and so there it was, trip number three was now in motion.
July comes around and I’m ready as ever. My gear is dialed. I’ve weighed every piece of gear multiple times, made my lists, packed and unpacked, its all done. Physically I’m ready to go and mentally I’ve about checked out of everything and all I can think of is sheep. Everything seemed like it had fallen in to place exactly how it was supposed to. What was once just a dream was now reality. One afternoon about a week before I had scheduled to leave I get a call from my dad. I can’t answer at the moment as I’m in a meeting at work and so I shoot him a text real quick. He responds with “call me when you get done, I need to talk to you its urgent.” Going through my head is all the worst case scenarios I can imagine. All I can think of is that my fall plans are now changed due to some sort of emergency that has happened. The meeting ends and I give my dad a call. To my surprise he has an offer that he came across about a bush flight that opened up if I’d like to take it to go sheep hunting and he would come with me. I was elated. Heck yeah I’d like to go. Only problem is that its late season and wouldn’t be able to get into the field until the 20th. I immediately went through my work schedule to go through some things and see if I could make it work. If I needed to cancel my original plan of hiking in solo I would, just to hunt with my dad. I guess the stars aligned and I was now adding another sheep hunt to the schedule.
Sheep Hunt #1 Solo
August seemed as if it would never arrive. I was to start my hike in on the morning of the 6th of August and then return to my truck on the 18th. I drove all day and through the night on the 5th, catching only a few hours of sleep before the hard time I had set for myself to begin my trek. The trek started with all my gear on my back plus my boots, wading across a freezing cold river at 8 am. I reached the other side, found a good rock to sit on, laced my boots, and got on my way as I had a long tough hike up this drainage through a high saddle to get done today. I was on cloud 9, stopping and admiring every little thing from the rock formations and little grasses and lichens to all the other sights and sounds. After 3 or 4 miles I finally snapped out of it as I spotted my first group of sheep. What a sight. I will never forget this first group even though it was just ewes and lambs, the first sheep I’ve ever seen while hunting them. I watched them for probably a good 45 minutes before my glassing was interrupted by a steadily increasing rain. I would spend the next 6 hours working my way up this drainage, picking my way across one boulder size talus shale piece to the next. By 6 pm I could finally see the top of the saddle, still a good 800’ above me but I knew I was getting close. The rest would be down hill from there on for the rest of the day. Battling the rain and wind I finally crested the saddle. Met with some high winds that just about blew me over backwards, I hunkered down in a little low spot to have a small snack before I went through this pass and started working my way down the backside. The decent down the backside went much quicker and smoother that my ascent. Making it out of the side drainage into the main drainage I stopped about 9 pm to sleep for the night. Exhausted, I set up camp and got some sleep, excited for what day 2 would bring.
Day 2 caught me sleeping in and hanging around the tent for a little while, drying my rain gear that had been soaked through as well as some other gear. I would take little breaks to glass up and down the drainage hoping to find more sheep. In my hike in on day 1 I had a run in with some other hunters that were headed basically the same way I was but were planning on hunting north of where I had planned. They stopped by the tent about 10:30 to let me know they were headed up another drainage to go through the pass up there and that if I wanted to hike with them I could. I respectfully declined and told them I was changing my plans and would be making my journey south to north instead of north to south like I had originally planned. This way we weren’t stepping on one another’s toes and each covering different areas so that possibly one of us would get lucky on a ram. About 11:30 am everything finally dried and I was back to hiking. I had a good 10 miles I needed to get in today in order to stay on track for the loop I planned on making. It wasn’t long after crossing a river and a couple creeks and following one of those creeks up its drainage that I realized I wasn’t going to make the next pass that I had wanted to. I made it close by about 10 pm and decided I would call it a day and make the push up the drainage through the pass in the early morning, giving me the entire day to glass the big bowl and several drainages on the other side.
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