A Sheep Dream Come True

[Stid2677]

Since I returned from Iraq, I have suffered from bouts of cyclical vomiting syndrome. I could tell Flor was afraid I was going to stay sick and I could see the concern in her face.

Luke showed up and shared with us that he had taken a Ram as well. He had just packed his Ram back to camp and was now there to help us. He quickly grabbed my back and was off in a flash on his way back to base camp.

I felt better after some food and drinks, and felt I could make the push to base camp before it got dark but Flor was not having it. What I did not have was the strength to argue about it. She insisted that I head back with an empty pack. Luke made the trip back in record time, the man is more machine than human. When he dropped the load off he told Becca that we were in a bad way and she jumped into action making some fresh meat and hot drinks.

Luke and I passed each other as I dragged my worn out behind back to camp. Becca had hot tea for me and some motrin, both made me feel so much better. It was not long before Flor and Luke returned and we all took shelter in the sawtooth as Becca prepared us a 5 star sheep diner.

To be honest the rest of that evening is a blur, but the meat was tended to and we all fell exhausted into bed.

 

[ol490]

What a great story. Thanks for sharing and congratulations.

 

[Stid2677]

I often say that if you don't want to quit while sheep hunting, that you are not hunting hard enough. Well, we are only a couple days into our hunt and I'm sure that we are doing it right.

I will be forever in debt to Luke and Becca, Luke not only planned this hunt but was gracious enough to ask us along to share it with Becca and he.

The next day we all slept in a little, knowing we had a full day of work ahead tending to the meat and hide.

I felt pretty good the next day other than having a badly swollen knee. After Breakfast I put on my tyvek to keep blood off my clothes and got to work getting the cape done.

Glen's Stop Rot is a great product to help preserve the hide.

Becca is skilled at game care and was busy herself with Luke's Ram.

All skinned out.

I take meat care serious and check it multiple times each day. This paid off as one of the game bags got damaged and blow flies were trying to get in. I quickly changed out the damaged bag, washed and cleaned all the others and checked meat temps.

Core temp looking good.

 

[Buster]

You mentioned that Becca gave you tea (caffeine) and motrin to help out your nausea, exhaustion and general state. Can you, or anybody, elaborate on the best way to treat somebody that gets worn down that bad? The brother-in-law got pretty bad on a marathon this year, lost his appetite, almost quit hydrating, and exhausted himself. Gave him ibuprofen with caffeine, tried to get him to suck on whethers, tried to keep him drinking, and got him out. Any info on how you deal with situations like this would be great.

 

[Stid2677]

Mr Buster,

I'm no Dr by any means and can only say what works for me. Lots of fluids, and electrolytes after the tea I drank some emergen-C and propel. The motrin helped with the severe pain that was in itself causing me to be nauseous, plus eased the swelling in my knee.

It is hard, as each drink brings on more waves of nausea, but I have learned that I have to force it down and if I don't I'm on my way to the ER.

This is often counter intuitive, as eating and drinking at first seems to make it worst, but before long the cramps ease and I feel better.

I have to use caution, because the motrin can cause nausea as well on an empty stomach.

I'm sure it goes without saying that the best thing is to stay hydrated and eat, but sometimes this is not possible, or it is cold and that keeps me from drinking enough.

Easy to get caught up and get tunnel vision only thinking of getting to camp.

 

[Stid2677]

With a couple Rams in camp and all the chores done. It was time to enjoy some surf and turf and maybe an adult beverage or two.

I really don't think there is a finer meal than fresh sheep cooked on a open fire.

Fine dining.

and great friends.

 

[Ray]

Buster, sounds like the runner "bonked" severely. That is depleted all his glucose in his muscles, then in his blood stream and could not make enough through muscle and fat gluconeogenesis. Once your blood glucose drops too far your brain goes nuts. It needs a steady concentration to work. With out it you bonk.

What Steve reports here might have little to do with what the runner went through.

 

[Buster]

Buster, sounds like the runner "bonked" severely. That is depleted all his glucose in his muscles, then in his blood stream and could not make enough through muscle and fat gluconeogenesis. Once your blood glucose drops too far your brain goes nuts. It needs a steady concentration to work. With out it you bonk.


What Steve reports here might have little to do with what the runner went through.

Was wondering what you meant by runner, until I read my post. I meant to write marathon hunt. Sorry for the confusion. Good bit of info tho. While planning for extreme hunts, like stid and flors, exhaustion, sickness, nausea, and any other effects of hard hunting have to be considered. Scary to see your hunting partner get to such a state, or "bonked". (Guess this is another one for the rokslide dictionary)

 

[Browtine]

I didn't realize Pampered Chef was making backcountry gear now!

What's a Ram weigh... On the hoof and boned out?

Once again, enjoyed the hunt through your pics and words.

 

[Stid2677]

We had a travel scale, the cape with the head and horns weighed 26 lbs at camp. The boned out meat was 41 for one bag and 43 for the other. On the bone is 10 lbs or so heavier.

 

[mtnwrunner]

Now THAT is the way a story should be told. Great, great write up--it was like I was there. Congrats on the trip and the hunt. On a side note, I've bonked many a time, mostly running 100 milers and what has worked for me is glucose tablets and hot tea and honey. Main thing is to get some carbos and liquid in you. Depends on the weather also, but if its cold and wet, hot soup especially salty soup does wonders---so does hot jello.

Congrats again.

Randy

 

[Stid2677]

I always find it amazing how much better you feel after a reset day. I often see people get burnt out and quit or go home. Nothing wrong with taking it easy for a day to regain your strength and allow time for sore muscles to heal.

With the first 2 Rams taken care of, we headed back out to see what we could find. Becca and I still had tags and we still had another 10 days to fill them.

Several miles up a drainage we stopped what we were looking for and started to make a move to try to get on them.

If nothing else, hunts for sheep are worth the views alone.

 

[Stid2677]

We let Luke take the goat route and the rest of us stuck to more sane terrain.

Just for the record,,, "Boulders Suck" !!!

We had spotted the best Ram we had seen to date and were climbing up to try for him. As we topped out a Hoary Marmot AKA (Whistle Pig) sounded the mountain alarm. Their distress call almost sounds like an Eagle screaming and can be heard for a long ways. The big Ram was with a smaller one, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see junior sky-lined on the ridge above us.

You can see in the photo above that the weather was coming in fast. Moments after the above photo was taken, the big boy stepped up sky-lined on the ridge.

My heart was pounding so hard from climbing that I could hear it beating, I was sweating from the exertion and as I brought the scope up to my eye, the heat caused the scope to fog. The Ram was at 280 yards and I could have made the shot, but there was no way I was going to shoot with him sky-lined and me not being able to make double sure he was indeed the one we were after. So with one step he was out of sight.

Many might not understand, but instead of disappointment I got a thrill out of the encounter. That my friends is the essence of sheep hunting, not only do you have to close the distance on a very weary adversary. You also have to ensure that they are legal to harvest. It is this move and counter-move, that makes sheep hunting so challenging.

The ceilings had come down, so we set up the SL5 and tucked into our "blind" and prepared to wait out the weather. We could see sheep in the mist, but not really tell if they were legal or not.

It was awesome being in and amongst the sheep and we were all excited.

 

[Stid2677]

With the others tucked into the tent, I decided to see if I could get closer to the bedded Rams I could see in the mist.

The crew enjoyed a ring side seat to the action.

I did get close enough to see that the largest of the bedded Rams was age legal, but not fullcurl. I have taken too many Rams and this trip had been way to special to spoil it by killing a iffy Ram. So as the ceilings and dark fell upon us I worked my way back to spike camp.

I quickly joined them and was soon fast asleep, hoping for better weather in the morning.

 

[realunlucky]

Amazing pictures

 

[Ray]

Was wondering what you meant by runner, until I read my post. I meant to write marathon hunt. Sorry for the confusion. Good bit of info tho. )

Oh. If during a hunt it is probably dehydration mixed with a little bit of low glucose levels. Even in cool low impact hiking I will constantly sip water. Bladder system makes this easier.

Everyone, please keep in mind that what Steve experienced is a poorly understood medical condition that can happen at home or in the field. The fact that he does not let it stop him from engaging in difficult backcountry hunting should be a lesson to anyone that thinks they can't do it because X, Y, Z. He motivates me every year.

 

[Displaced Nova Scotian]

I often say that if you don't want to quit while sheep hunting, that you are not hunting hard enough. Well, we are only a couple days into our hunt and I'm sure that we are doing it right.

I will be forever in debt to Luke and Becca, Luke not only planned this hunt but was gracious enough to ask us along to share it with Becca and he.

The next day we all slept in a little, knowing we had a full day of work ahead tending to the meat and hide.

I felt pretty good the next day other than having a badly swollen knee. After Breakfast I put on my tyvek to keep blood off my clothes and got to work getting the cape done.

Becca is skilled at game care and was busy herself with Luke's Ram.

This post is great, thanks for taking the time to write it, in details and with great photos!

I have a question about the fence surrounding Becca, is that a bear warning fence I've heard about? Basically you put it up around your camp so any intruders trying to enter at night will trigger an alarm system to wake you?

Cheers

 

[Stid2677]

It is a lightweight electrified fence, you can see the energizer hanging on the fence behind Becca. The fence was more for while we were gone than anything else, bears love to chew on rafts for some reason, or about anything plastic.

Stay tuned, more to come.

 

[Maah Daah Hey]

Wow this is a great write up and the photos are exceptional. It seems I always struggle taking photos during the hunts and regret it later.

Stid it'd what puffy pants were your wearing in the one photo?

 

[Stid2677]

Wow this is a great write up and the photos are exceptional. It seems I always struggle taking photos during the hunts and regret it later.

Stid it'd what puffy pants were your wearing in the one photo?

My puffy pants are an older pair of Montbel Thermawrap, the ones with full length leg zips. They are slightly heavier than the non zip version, but I like to be able to put them on over my outer wear with my boots on for those cold glassing sits.

I love the Olympus TG-2 camera for the exact reasons you mentioned, when it is always in my pocket, I take way more photos than I would if I had to dig it out of a wet bag. Photos like the ones when we were spent, are priceless once taken, but hardly seem worth it at the time.