COEngineer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2016
- Messages
- 1,501
The first time I drew this tag I had no idea what I was doing and ended up hiking around at 12,000' a lot and glassing a lot, but never saw a ram during the season. This time I did a lot more research, scouted more drainages, talked to a lot of other hunters, read a lot of sheep hunting books and was determined to get 'er done. The first weekend of the season I only had a couple days so I hiked into a less likely area and only saw ewes and lambs. The 2nd weekend I hiked in with a friend to one of the prime spots.
The first evening the fog was so thick we couldn't see much so we went to bed early.
The next morning was clear and we spent the entire day glassing and didn't see any sheep, but did see a couple nice muley bucks.
That afternoon we hiked to a pass and glassed some more.
At this point we were out of water and realized we had left the water filter back at our spike camp, but I was used to drinking from springs, so I filled my camelbak. My hunting partner was afraid of getting giardia so he only took a sip (this would turn out to be a bad choice).
The scenery is OK:
We had about 2 hours left before dark, so we decided to start heading back to camp while glassing this other drainage. Just as I was about to give up hope, my buddy loudly whispers, "There's three rams right there!" Sure enough, we had been glassing way up on the mountain and there were three legal (1/2+ curl) rams about 200 yards off the trail. If you zoom in, you might be able to see them in this pic:
We knew we were busted, so after a whispered conference, we decided to pretend we were just hikers and walk on by. When we got around a rocky out-cropping, I dropped my pack and knocked an arrow and started climbing to head them off. I only had about 30 mins before dark, so I was in a hurry, but didn't want to blow my only chance. As I was creeping over the top of the outcropping I was taking one cautious step at a time when I caught a glimpse of the biggest ram (7/8 curl). I laser ranged him at 30 yards and started to draw. They either heard or smelled me because they started acting spooky and milling around. When I got my site picture steady, they were all in view, but the only one broadside was one of the 1/2 curls. I wasn't about to be picky and released. I thought I had missed because I saw my arrow bounce off the rocks behind him, but after he ran 20 yards, he stopped and I could see the blood running down his side. He wobbled and tipped over. I couldn't believe what had just happened.
We took pictures quickly before it got dark and I called my wife to ask if she and the kids wanted to come help us pack out in the morning. I took my time field-dressing and de-boning because I planned to get a shoulder-mount and wanted every bit of precious meat. By the time we were ready to hike back to camp it was after midnight. My buddy (whom I forgot hadn't been drinking water now for about 6 hours) was not feeling well and started puking (from the altitude and dehydration). I finally told him he could either drink some unfiltered water and maybe be sick in 2 weeks or sit here and die tonight. He finally drank some water (neither of us ever got sick). What we thought would be an easy hike (GPS said only 0.6 miles) back to spike camp turned into a classic cliffed-out cannot-see-the-bottom-with-headlamps nightmare hike.
This pic is from the previous day of the same general area to give you an idea of the terrain:
We finally got back to our spike camp with the meat at about 3 AM (yes, it took 3 hours to go 2/3 of a mile). My buddy chugged some water and ate a little and crawled into his tent. I chugged some water and grabbed some food and headed back up the mountain to get my sheep head and the rest of the gear (binocs, spotting scopes, bow, etc) we had left behind. I made the round trip in about 6 hours (turned out the hiking was not much easier even after it got light out) and got back to camp at about 9 AM. My wife and kids arrived at our spike camp at around 1 PM and we made it out to the trailhead around 5 PM.
The pack-out with the whole crew:
The first evening the fog was so thick we couldn't see much so we went to bed early.
The next morning was clear and we spent the entire day glassing and didn't see any sheep, but did see a couple nice muley bucks.
That afternoon we hiked to a pass and glassed some more.
At this point we were out of water and realized we had left the water filter back at our spike camp, but I was used to drinking from springs, so I filled my camelbak. My hunting partner was afraid of getting giardia so he only took a sip (this would turn out to be a bad choice).
The scenery is OK:
We had about 2 hours left before dark, so we decided to start heading back to camp while glassing this other drainage. Just as I was about to give up hope, my buddy loudly whispers, "There's three rams right there!" Sure enough, we had been glassing way up on the mountain and there were three legal (1/2+ curl) rams about 200 yards off the trail. If you zoom in, you might be able to see them in this pic:
We knew we were busted, so after a whispered conference, we decided to pretend we were just hikers and walk on by. When we got around a rocky out-cropping, I dropped my pack and knocked an arrow and started climbing to head them off. I only had about 30 mins before dark, so I was in a hurry, but didn't want to blow my only chance. As I was creeping over the top of the outcropping I was taking one cautious step at a time when I caught a glimpse of the biggest ram (7/8 curl). I laser ranged him at 30 yards and started to draw. They either heard or smelled me because they started acting spooky and milling around. When I got my site picture steady, they were all in view, but the only one broadside was one of the 1/2 curls. I wasn't about to be picky and released. I thought I had missed because I saw my arrow bounce off the rocks behind him, but after he ran 20 yards, he stopped and I could see the blood running down his side. He wobbled and tipped over. I couldn't believe what had just happened.
We took pictures quickly before it got dark and I called my wife to ask if she and the kids wanted to come help us pack out in the morning. I took my time field-dressing and de-boning because I planned to get a shoulder-mount and wanted every bit of precious meat. By the time we were ready to hike back to camp it was after midnight. My buddy (whom I forgot hadn't been drinking water now for about 6 hours) was not feeling well and started puking (from the altitude and dehydration). I finally told him he could either drink some unfiltered water and maybe be sick in 2 weeks or sit here and die tonight. He finally drank some water (neither of us ever got sick). What we thought would be an easy hike (GPS said only 0.6 miles) back to spike camp turned into a classic cliffed-out cannot-see-the-bottom-with-headlamps nightmare hike.
This pic is from the previous day of the same general area to give you an idea of the terrain:
We finally got back to our spike camp with the meat at about 3 AM (yes, it took 3 hours to go 2/3 of a mile). My buddy chugged some water and ate a little and crawled into his tent. I chugged some water and grabbed some food and headed back up the mountain to get my sheep head and the rest of the gear (binocs, spotting scopes, bow, etc) we had left behind. I made the round trip in about 6 hours (turned out the hiking was not much easier even after it got light out) and got back to camp at about 9 AM. My wife and kids arrived at our spike camp at around 1 PM and we made it out to the trailhead around 5 PM.
The pack-out with the whole crew:
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