Yellowknife
WKR
The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
- Thomas Love Peacock (1785 –1866)
This story is actually last years. Just getting around to posting it, and January is as good of time as any for a sheep story. It’s long, so be warned.
At the time, my dad and I thought we had located some good rams on a mountain an easy 5 mile walk from an airstrip carved from a creek bed. Plan was to go back in August and whack one (or two). It was a good plan, but a plan is all it was…
Link to the 2012 scouting effort:
http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?2808-Sheep-scouting-photos-how-I-spent-the-weekend
Unfortunately, a week before our planned hunt date, we got word that our creek bed cub strip was no longer usable. Plan B time and quick! Got the pilot on the horn to see if there were other options in the area. He gave us a few, but they were all in other drainages, and would require some serious effort to get to the mountain we had scouted. After some consultation with my dad and some time with the topo maps and Google Earth, we outlined a new plan of attack that involved a wandering 12 mile journey to the sheep mountain over a couple of high passes. The goal of the new route was to hit a number of likely looking cirque valleys on the way, and hopefully kill a sheep before we made our destination. The catch was that we had a moose hunt lined up for the next week, and knew we weren’t going to able to put that much time on the ground.
Day 1
Our trip was not starting well. Spent most of the day sitting in the cab of the truck outside the air taxi base watching the rain fall. Fog and cloud clamped down on the passes, and there was nothing we could do but watch the weather cameras and wait…
Late afternoon, the weather finally lifted a touch, and there was a mad scramble of small airplanes lifting off and heading for the hills. “Marginal VFR” was putting it kindly, but we made it through to the transition strip, were we would meet our cub driver and fly further into the mountains. As it turned out, the same weather pattern had been keeping sheep hunters stuck in the hills that REALLY wanted out, so when the weather eased a bit an entire flock of super cubs was moving hunters down to meet their rides to town at the same time a wave of new sheep hunters were headed out. We landed on a long gravel bar and it was total mayhem for about 30 minutes as a non-stop stream of airplanes moved hunters in and out. At one point there were five small planes parked on the gravel bar.
We quickly transitioned to a pair of cubs and headed for our new spot. Weather continued to be a factor, but after several tries we found a clear pass and made it into our drop off drainage. At this point we were running out of daylight and there wasn’t much to do but make camp.
Day 2
The goal for today was basically just to get to get up and over the first high pass into what we hoped would be sheep country. The approach was about several miles up a tributary creek bottom and then a steep side drainage to the pass. The creek was in a narrow canyon drainage, so we were forced to cross it dozens of times. Luckily it was fairly shallow, so high gaiters and some quick footwork kept our feet mostly dry.
We crested the pass about mid-afternoon, and immediately started to see sheep. Most were ewes and lambs, but we broke out the spotter and quickly picked up a group of 6 rams up in one of the glacial cirques, exactly what we had hoped to see.
The bad news was that they were bedded in the scree below the mountain with NO way to get within reasonable rifle range. We watched them for a while and decided that there two were “possible” full curls. After taking a good look at the country, we decided that there was a good possibility that they would come down to feed in the evening, and decided to try and get to the base of the mountain to set up an ambush. We dropped camp and headed up the valley, using the rugged terrain as cover. Sure enough, as we got closer to the base of the mountain, the sheep got up and four of them headed down towards to valley floor. Of course the oldest and largest sheep was also the wisest, and he decided he would let the young guys stuff their faces while he stood guard from on high. I’ve witnessed this behavior several times before in my short sheep hunting career, and it’s what makes big old sheep so difficult to tag.
However, we were able to get a good look at them all at this point, and although the older sheep had considerably more mass, he was also looked to be rubbed back past full curl and may not have been legal by that definition. One of his younger partners that now making his way to a point about 600 yds up the valley from us on the other hand WAS full curl. It was the first day of the hunt, but we had two tags… After a short debate we elected to go after the fat sheep in the valley and leave the big sheep on the mountain for another day.
We waited until all the sheep were hidden in the folds and creases of ground and then quickly covered the 600 yds up the drainage bottom to where they were feeding.
This is where it was going to be interesting! We knew there was five sheep spread out and feeding in the very near proximity, but we had no idea where the legal one was. Once we got close we were hidden by the 30 ft deep drainage edge, but as soon as we popped out we were going to be spotted and those rams were going to split. Our odds of locating the legal one and getting a shot weren’t all that good. Sometimes though, you just have to roll the dice….
We eased up the loose gravel bank as quietly as we could and slowly peaked over. A flash of white in a depression 40 yds away was the back of a sheep stuffing his face. A few more feet, and we saw that that we had hit the 5:1 jackpot odds, and by dumb luck had come out right on top of the only legal ram in the bunch. It was dads turn to shoot and the ram realized he had company about 1 second too late. Hard to miss at archery range with a 30-06.
With two of us and light packs, we quartered the ram bone-in and hiked the mile back down to where we had dropped camp, arriving at 9:30. A nearby snow drift provided a handy place to keep the meat cool. Not bad for the first day of hunting!
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
- Thomas Love Peacock (1785 –1866)
This story is actually last years. Just getting around to posting it, and January is as good of time as any for a sheep story. It’s long, so be warned.
At the time, my dad and I thought we had located some good rams on a mountain an easy 5 mile walk from an airstrip carved from a creek bed. Plan was to go back in August and whack one (or two). It was a good plan, but a plan is all it was…
Link to the 2012 scouting effort:
http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?2808-Sheep-scouting-photos-how-I-spent-the-weekend
Unfortunately, a week before our planned hunt date, we got word that our creek bed cub strip was no longer usable. Plan B time and quick! Got the pilot on the horn to see if there were other options in the area. He gave us a few, but they were all in other drainages, and would require some serious effort to get to the mountain we had scouted. After some consultation with my dad and some time with the topo maps and Google Earth, we outlined a new plan of attack that involved a wandering 12 mile journey to the sheep mountain over a couple of high passes. The goal of the new route was to hit a number of likely looking cirque valleys on the way, and hopefully kill a sheep before we made our destination. The catch was that we had a moose hunt lined up for the next week, and knew we weren’t going to able to put that much time on the ground.
Day 1
Our trip was not starting well. Spent most of the day sitting in the cab of the truck outside the air taxi base watching the rain fall. Fog and cloud clamped down on the passes, and there was nothing we could do but watch the weather cameras and wait…
Late afternoon, the weather finally lifted a touch, and there was a mad scramble of small airplanes lifting off and heading for the hills. “Marginal VFR” was putting it kindly, but we made it through to the transition strip, were we would meet our cub driver and fly further into the mountains. As it turned out, the same weather pattern had been keeping sheep hunters stuck in the hills that REALLY wanted out, so when the weather eased a bit an entire flock of super cubs was moving hunters down to meet their rides to town at the same time a wave of new sheep hunters were headed out. We landed on a long gravel bar and it was total mayhem for about 30 minutes as a non-stop stream of airplanes moved hunters in and out. At one point there were five small planes parked on the gravel bar.
We quickly transitioned to a pair of cubs and headed for our new spot. Weather continued to be a factor, but after several tries we found a clear pass and made it into our drop off drainage. At this point we were running out of daylight and there wasn’t much to do but make camp.
Day 2
The goal for today was basically just to get to get up and over the first high pass into what we hoped would be sheep country. The approach was about several miles up a tributary creek bottom and then a steep side drainage to the pass. The creek was in a narrow canyon drainage, so we were forced to cross it dozens of times. Luckily it was fairly shallow, so high gaiters and some quick footwork kept our feet mostly dry.
We crested the pass about mid-afternoon, and immediately started to see sheep. Most were ewes and lambs, but we broke out the spotter and quickly picked up a group of 6 rams up in one of the glacial cirques, exactly what we had hoped to see.
The bad news was that they were bedded in the scree below the mountain with NO way to get within reasonable rifle range. We watched them for a while and decided that there two were “possible” full curls. After taking a good look at the country, we decided that there was a good possibility that they would come down to feed in the evening, and decided to try and get to the base of the mountain to set up an ambush. We dropped camp and headed up the valley, using the rugged terrain as cover. Sure enough, as we got closer to the base of the mountain, the sheep got up and four of them headed down towards to valley floor. Of course the oldest and largest sheep was also the wisest, and he decided he would let the young guys stuff their faces while he stood guard from on high. I’ve witnessed this behavior several times before in my short sheep hunting career, and it’s what makes big old sheep so difficult to tag.
However, we were able to get a good look at them all at this point, and although the older sheep had considerably more mass, he was also looked to be rubbed back past full curl and may not have been legal by that definition. One of his younger partners that now making his way to a point about 600 yds up the valley from us on the other hand WAS full curl. It was the first day of the hunt, but we had two tags… After a short debate we elected to go after the fat sheep in the valley and leave the big sheep on the mountain for another day.
We waited until all the sheep were hidden in the folds and creases of ground and then quickly covered the 600 yds up the drainage bottom to where they were feeding.
This is where it was going to be interesting! We knew there was five sheep spread out and feeding in the very near proximity, but we had no idea where the legal one was. Once we got close we were hidden by the 30 ft deep drainage edge, but as soon as we popped out we were going to be spotted and those rams were going to split. Our odds of locating the legal one and getting a shot weren’t all that good. Sometimes though, you just have to roll the dice….
We eased up the loose gravel bank as quietly as we could and slowly peaked over. A flash of white in a depression 40 yds away was the back of a sheep stuffing his face. A few more feet, and we saw that that we had hit the 5:1 jackpot odds, and by dumb luck had come out right on top of the only legal ram in the bunch. It was dads turn to shoot and the ram realized he had company about 1 second too late. Hard to miss at archery range with a 30-06.
With two of us and light packs, we quartered the ram bone-in and hiked the mile back down to where we had dropped camp, arriving at 9:30. A nearby snow drift provided a handy place to keep the meat cool. Not bad for the first day of hunting!
.. 
