Okay, so here's what I can come up with for the story:
Obviously, I drew the DS203 (non-motorized hunt) back in February. After many hours on the forums prior to the announcement, I knew that should I be a lucky winner, I was planning on doing the fly-in option to the Johnson River area. The morning of the draw, I called Jim Cummings at Golden Eagle and booked a flight for the 9th. I did not see any point in being in there any earlier, since (naively) scouting would be easy in one day... right? Jim assured me that he would put me in to a place called Boulder Creek, and that there were not only good sheep numbers in there, but he would not put in anyone else until I was out on the 15th - a man of his word for sure, since there are very good sheep numbers in there, and he did not put anyone else in there... can't say the same for 40 Mile and Mt. Hayes... which comes up later in the story.
Aug. 8th - My most superb hunting Partner, Hans, and I drive the long 6 hour, construction-filled journey to the end of the road - Delta Junction. We eat a buffalo burger at the Drive-In, and call Jim to see about making departure time for the morning. He tells us we can leave at 7am and if we want to sleep in his hangar, we're more than welcome to do that. Sounds like a plan! The weather is 74 degrees, calm sky, and a little smoke haze from a distant fire. Hans and I head to the watering hole - The Cave - and close out the night meeting a great group of out-of-state construction boys who are spending every hour they are not working, exploring our great state... and offering golf tips (Thanks Jimmy). We get back to the hangar about 1am and crash on the floor.
August 9th: We wake up early (5am) and pack everything up so we can fly in. Jim comes down and begins a VERY thorough pre-flight on his beautiful Super Cub. I honestly cannot say enough about his abilities in the air, or as a pilot. This guy is one of the great ones for sure! I never worried about safety or integrity with Jim at the yoke. I'm first, so we take off to head into sheep country and Jim has Hans drive out to the Dry Creek airstrip since it will be a quicker flight to grab him from there. Hans grabs some tea-colored coffee from the gas station and speeds toward the airstrip 60 miles away. As Jim and I come into the landing zone, the wind is bouncing us really hard, and Jim estimated the gusts to be higher than 60mph. Attempting to land, he simply cannot put the plane on the ground safely, so he bails and we head over to the Dry Creek airstrip to "try later". Jim later admitted that it was one of the 'closer calls' he had flown in about 10 years, which made me feel a little less sheepish about my terror as the plane was being thrown about violently 30 feet off the gravel. Jim left me at the airstrip for Hans to retrieve me, and he took off to help some more hunters in another area. Hans drove up, bewildered, and we headed to the Steakhouse for a greasy, warm breakfast. The rest of the day we wandered both miles of Delta Junction looking for something to do, as the wind tore through the valley. Jim called us at 9pm to tell us that we could sleep in his hangar again, and he would get us in at 6:30am, but it might be a bit 'damp'. We were at The Cave, again, nursing our sorrow over being in Delta and not 'boots on the ground'.
Aug. 10th (Opening Day): A man of his word, Jim was right... only I would describe the rain as more of a deluge rather than a dampness. Again, we took off and Hans headed to Dry Creek. This time, we cleared the Gerstle valley and the sky was blue and beautiful in the Johnson drainage. Jim put me down without incident, and headed back for Hans. While I was waiting, I noticed two separate sets of boot prints heading from the landing zone up into the Boulder Creek drainage. I set my bags down and watched dozens of unsuspecting caribou cross the Johnson and wander up both the Spur and Boulder Creeks.
Hans arrived, and I showed the boots to both he and Jim. Jim was a bit upset since he told me that neither 40 mile or Mt. Hayes usually use this spot, and if they do... it's usually mentioned as to keep hunting pressure down in the various drainages. Oh well, it was nice, we were in country, and eager to get hiking. And then it started to rain...
Aug 10th (continued): Jim left us on the airstrip with some advice: "Head up that drainage... there will be sheep in there." While I am not looking for locations of rams, it sure would have been nice to know about the difference in the north side and the south side of the creek we were walking up. I searched around on the forums for months about this area, but nobody would give me anything specific. All I got was, "be ready to cross water", "it's brushy", and "beware the boulders". The rain came in about 9am and Hans and I were quickly soaked through our gear. The Kuiu Yukon is nice gear, but it cannot withstand 3 inches of rain in 24 hours while alder busting, cliff climbing, and wading through creeks where the rocks are tumbling down the bottom from the over-swollen banks. We got 'clipped-out' at least 7 times heading up the drainage, and had to scurry over scree, and climb through some Kodiak worthy alders to head into sheep country. Draw tags are supposed to be easy, right?
About halfway up the river (as it was no longer a creek by definition), I became mildly hypothermic and started stumbling on the banks of the water. I suffer from reynauds and get cold very easily (I know, some sheep hunter, right?) so Hans made me empty my water bottle and he boiled up some hot water and put it in my coat to bring me back to my senses. We tried warming up for about 45 minutes, but decided to trudge on to make our bodies get back to 'normal'.
Again, any input on north vs. south would have ben great... Turns out the north side of the creek has a 4-wheeler trail up the river about 1/2 way. The rest of the hike is void of any 'cliff-outs' and we were able to walk out on the north in less than 4 hrs, where the south-side approach took us more than 8 hrs - with lighter packs.
We arrived into a promising run out, could not see the top of the mountains, but there was fresh water and a somewhat flat (filled with brush and rocks) slanted area to set up 'Hotel Hilleberg'. The rain continued for 38 hrs. and we sat inside and watched each other's beards grow. Hans' won.
Obviously, I drew the DS203 (non-motorized hunt) back in February. After many hours on the forums prior to the announcement, I knew that should I be a lucky winner, I was planning on doing the fly-in option to the Johnson River area. The morning of the draw, I called Jim Cummings at Golden Eagle and booked a flight for the 9th. I did not see any point in being in there any earlier, since (naively) scouting would be easy in one day... right? Jim assured me that he would put me in to a place called Boulder Creek, and that there were not only good sheep numbers in there, but he would not put in anyone else until I was out on the 15th - a man of his word for sure, since there are very good sheep numbers in there, and he did not put anyone else in there... can't say the same for 40 Mile and Mt. Hayes... which comes up later in the story.
Aug. 8th - My most superb hunting Partner, Hans, and I drive the long 6 hour, construction-filled journey to the end of the road - Delta Junction. We eat a buffalo burger at the Drive-In, and call Jim to see about making departure time for the morning. He tells us we can leave at 7am and if we want to sleep in his hangar, we're more than welcome to do that. Sounds like a plan! The weather is 74 degrees, calm sky, and a little smoke haze from a distant fire. Hans and I head to the watering hole - The Cave - and close out the night meeting a great group of out-of-state construction boys who are spending every hour they are not working, exploring our great state... and offering golf tips (Thanks Jimmy). We get back to the hangar about 1am and crash on the floor.
August 9th: We wake up early (5am) and pack everything up so we can fly in. Jim comes down and begins a VERY thorough pre-flight on his beautiful Super Cub. I honestly cannot say enough about his abilities in the air, or as a pilot. This guy is one of the great ones for sure! I never worried about safety or integrity with Jim at the yoke. I'm first, so we take off to head into sheep country and Jim has Hans drive out to the Dry Creek airstrip since it will be a quicker flight to grab him from there. Hans grabs some tea-colored coffee from the gas station and speeds toward the airstrip 60 miles away. As Jim and I come into the landing zone, the wind is bouncing us really hard, and Jim estimated the gusts to be higher than 60mph. Attempting to land, he simply cannot put the plane on the ground safely, so he bails and we head over to the Dry Creek airstrip to "try later". Jim later admitted that it was one of the 'closer calls' he had flown in about 10 years, which made me feel a little less sheepish about my terror as the plane was being thrown about violently 30 feet off the gravel. Jim left me at the airstrip for Hans to retrieve me, and he took off to help some more hunters in another area. Hans drove up, bewildered, and we headed to the Steakhouse for a greasy, warm breakfast. The rest of the day we wandered both miles of Delta Junction looking for something to do, as the wind tore through the valley. Jim called us at 9pm to tell us that we could sleep in his hangar again, and he would get us in at 6:30am, but it might be a bit 'damp'. We were at The Cave, again, nursing our sorrow over being in Delta and not 'boots on the ground'.
Aug. 10th (Opening Day): A man of his word, Jim was right... only I would describe the rain as more of a deluge rather than a dampness. Again, we took off and Hans headed to Dry Creek. This time, we cleared the Gerstle valley and the sky was blue and beautiful in the Johnson drainage. Jim put me down without incident, and headed back for Hans. While I was waiting, I noticed two separate sets of boot prints heading from the landing zone up into the Boulder Creek drainage. I set my bags down and watched dozens of unsuspecting caribou cross the Johnson and wander up both the Spur and Boulder Creeks.
Hans arrived, and I showed the boots to both he and Jim. Jim was a bit upset since he told me that neither 40 mile or Mt. Hayes usually use this spot, and if they do... it's usually mentioned as to keep hunting pressure down in the various drainages. Oh well, it was nice, we were in country, and eager to get hiking. And then it started to rain...
Aug 10th (continued): Jim left us on the airstrip with some advice: "Head up that drainage... there will be sheep in there." While I am not looking for locations of rams, it sure would have been nice to know about the difference in the north side and the south side of the creek we were walking up. I searched around on the forums for months about this area, but nobody would give me anything specific. All I got was, "be ready to cross water", "it's brushy", and "beware the boulders". The rain came in about 9am and Hans and I were quickly soaked through our gear. The Kuiu Yukon is nice gear, but it cannot withstand 3 inches of rain in 24 hours while alder busting, cliff climbing, and wading through creeks where the rocks are tumbling down the bottom from the over-swollen banks. We got 'clipped-out' at least 7 times heading up the drainage, and had to scurry over scree, and climb through some Kodiak worthy alders to head into sheep country. Draw tags are supposed to be easy, right?
About halfway up the river (as it was no longer a creek by definition), I became mildly hypothermic and started stumbling on the banks of the water. I suffer from reynauds and get cold very easily (I know, some sheep hunter, right?) so Hans made me empty my water bottle and he boiled up some hot water and put it in my coat to bring me back to my senses. We tried warming up for about 45 minutes, but decided to trudge on to make our bodies get back to 'normal'.
Again, any input on north vs. south would have ben great... Turns out the north side of the creek has a 4-wheeler trail up the river about 1/2 way. The rest of the hike is void of any 'cliff-outs' and we were able to walk out on the north in less than 4 hrs, where the south-side approach took us more than 8 hrs - with lighter packs.
We arrived into a promising run out, could not see the top of the mountains, but there was fresh water and a somewhat flat (filled with brush and rocks) slanted area to set up 'Hotel Hilleberg'. The rain continued for 38 hrs. and we sat inside and watched each other's beards grow. Hans' won.
![[insertspecies]Slayer](https://forumdata.rokslide.com/file/forumdata/data/avatars/s/65/65711.jpg?1690072908){kind=avatar}
