Hey Everybody,
Just a word to impart to everyone. I am not gonna say NM is gonna release draw results early, but wouldn't that be fun?
Also, be careful if you have a new Iphone or IOS 11. All your picture files are now in HEIC format. What is that you ask? An unusable POS! You will have to buy an app to convert your pictures to JPG or PNG format. That what I've been dealing with for the last week. That and ICloud. Btw, don't do that either. Horrible. Sorry all that took a minute to sort out for a new post.
Enough ranting, back to the story:
Day 2:
Literally this day consisted of nothing bad at all. Other than my climb the day before which pretty much left hobbling me to my glassing roost on the second morning, I felt pretty good. I was just enjoying not being at work for once.
That morning, I climbed back up to the "Mohawk ridge" I described from opening day. I watched two banana head rams (juvenile) climb out of the trees where they had retreated to the night before. They found a couple of ledges about 300 yards below me and we all just sat in the sun the whole day together. How awesome is that? I had a vantage point that would allow for a descent towards the juvenile rams or I could descend down to their elevation behind some stone and stay completely hidden. I just stared at the trees that they sauntered out of and waited for Mr. 9/12th's to show.
I waited until dusk when a 1/2 curl popped out of the trees and I went down to take a better look. I was cliff'd out about 100 yards above him at the bottom. So, I just watched him feed and was encouraged that the rams didn't spook enough the night before to totally vacate the country!
Day 3:
This morning was great. Once daylight started to filter into the west facing basin, I was able to see that the band of rams had fed to the north overnight and gained access to the west side of North twilight basin. I would have to traverse about 2miles of ridge line: east, north, and then back west. Dang! This is sheep country! Sometimes up there you just have to realize that no human is going to follow those sheep no matter how cool you think you are. Time to traverse.
Half way there, and many feet of elevation gain later, I heard rocks tumbling and looked over to see all the rams retreating back into the sanctity of the same group of trees they sought solace in before. What happened? I was completely out of view, about a 1/2 mile away, with the wind in my face. Was the other archery hunter over there? Did he spook them out? I know he was camped north of me. We had been in communication since the CPW sheep and goat training symposium occurred in July. Rifle season hadn't started yet, so...?
He texted me back later that night and said he had been nowhere near where I was. He was down on Coal Bank chasing a ram (more on that later).
I walked back to camp and just called it a day. Nothing else to do.
Day 4:
I got up to the Mohawk again and kept the glass ready for the approaching sun. The spooked rams had settled below me sometime overnight having been effectively pushed my direction from the afternoon before. Yes! It's on. And I see my chosen ram. It was early and I was ready. I got into stalk mode trying to use the faint light and light wind as much to my advantage as I could. They were directly below me and feeding to my left. Since there are 35-40 degree slopes, getting down to them would take mere minutes. So, I refocused and took much care to stay hidden and use every terrain feature possible. I was thinking that the stars were finally aligning: it was warm, still the beginning of the season, camp was kinda close, I could tag out early, and most importantly, I could get home before my lady got mad at me!
As I got to within 120 yards, I really started to engage kill mode. I saw Mr. 9/12th's and was pretty sure I had a good line to intercept as he was moving to what looked like a good bedding ledge. I did not want to F)^& this up. I was 90-100 yards away and then all the rams flinched! I heard the sound of very stout rifle fire a second later.
"Ok...what just happened?", I asked myself. The rams were starting to move towards the trees and then my chosen ram took another bullet! More repercussions and more bullets until 7 shots were fired. The only ram left on the mountain was 9/12th's and he was as dead as a door nail. Swiss cheese. I couldn't believe it. What just happened over the last 45 seconds?
I now felt completely exposed on this rock fin. I had my orange hat on my pack top and when the bullets started flying I was waving a 3'x3' square of orange I keep on me just for safety's sake. Whoever was shooting was so far away, they never even saw me? Or, didn't care!
I took one last look at that ram and then headed uphill as fast as I could away from that scene, waving all the orange I could along the way.
I got to the top of Middle Twilight peak. I had cell signal and called the Durango CPW office. All I could think was that someone was poaching sheep! I had to turn them in, this was crazy. During that call, I learned that a local tribe has access to distribute 2 sheep tags through an "Exotic Species Draw" in S71. I had no idea. I had researched this unit for months and have lived in Durango for 17 years. I guided hunters for 6 -7 of those years. Why had I not heard about this? I felt like I let myself down by not being aware. So, I called the tribe immediately to confirm this information and to inform them that they were hunting/shooting in area containing archery hunters not require to wear an inch of orange! The tribal rep could only confirm that there was a hunt going on up there and said she would pass the info along.
What had seemed so sure an hour or two before, just evaporated in front of me. No ram, no info, under-powered, outmatched, and unprotected, I decided it may be time to bail and go home. I was just sick to my stomach of what had just occurred. To be clear, that feeling had nothing to do with that particular tribe's ancestral right to hunt there. It was not that hunters fault that shots were fired near me and they probably never even knew I was there. It was just that after waiting to draw a sheep tag and having the chance of a lifetime...that's how it goes down? It literally was the worst day of hunting I have ever had. I went straight to camp and stayed there, cause I couldn't bare to go to the scene and tell someone they almost killed me and look at the ram that was almost mine.
This doesn't mean that I gave up. There is more to convey here. Sorry I am telling the longest story ever told on Hunt Talk. But, it gets even more real after this. Just 2-3 more sections to tell, so thanks for hanging with me.
The point to take away from this section is if you draw this archery tag, you have a serious disadvantage over other hunters in this unit. Just think about that. Sucks to find that out in the middle of a season ending stalk. I hope this helps whoever draws in the future.
