Alaska - Wrangell Mountain Dall sheep hunt

[Flatbow]

I usually post my annual hunts on Stickbow's Leatherwall. Since this was not a true bowhunt only and being that I am relatively new here, I thought I would post my first pic/story here. I did have my 2 pc. Fox Breed recurve along in the hopes of seeing a bear and was disappointed to find the unit closed to caribou. I have hunted the Alaska Range for sheep 4 times, the Brooks Range a few times, but the Wrangell's felt bigger, STEEPER. lol, maybe it is age. I took over 300 photo's during the week we were in the mountains and edited it to a third of that. When I posted my hunts/pics on the Leatherwall I did so for the enjoyment of those in the lower 48 who dream of Alaska and may never see it. This will get picture HEAVY but I hope those that never make it here will get a little feel for some of our wilderness by viewing.

We flew out of Tok on Aug. 8, the air taxi taking 3 groups of hunters out in Cessna 206's and landing on the gravel bars of the Nabesna River. Super cubs picked up the respective parties and flew them into their hunting destination.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Sounds like a nice trip but most of your pic links are broken

 

[mwhamm]

The story is great, anxiously waiting for the photos!

 

[Flatbow]

test 2

 

[pacific-23]

That works

 

[Flatbow]

starting again after first post:

 

[Flatbow]

We flew in on the 8th, the season did not open till the 10th. Lounged the afternoon away and that evening went on a walk as a prescout. On the ninth we packed for a 2 night bivy and walked upstream, passing a couple of hanging valleys that really looked 'sheepy' but had no sheep. Walked to the head of the valley under the glaciers and did not see one sheep. Had planned to bivy there that night and be on sheep first thing in the morning but after all that way and not seeing a single sheep we elected to go back to the tents and would start out in the morning in a different direction. this ridge in the center of the picture would be our route to the top. in most every valley we were in we found water, some at the very head of the valley and high up as there were hanging glaciers around. the water was clear and COLD, no filter needed. on the way up we saw a herd of 40 ewes and lambs. quite a few of the ewes had twins, a good sign for the future.Attachment 18276 spent a lot of time behind glass (Zeiss bino's & Kowa scope) this mountain was the backside view of our valley mountain from the tents, it became known as 'ewe' mountain as we could always find the girls there. (if you look close you can see some there!)

 

[Flatbow]

On the way up we always had valleys to look into and vistas beyond.
The ridge in this picture was our way up, the easiest we could find. Once we made it to the top and saddled out we could look into the valley below.

 

[Flatbow]

Unlike last year we actually had pretty good weather. The mornings dawned with a blue sky, by afternoon the cumulus had built up, and by evening or at night we would get light rain showers. This first bivy was on a saddle at 7800 ft., laying in your bag you could look left and down into one valley and by turning right you could look down and into another. I had scratched a bed out of the rock and picked the bigger stones out before putting up the bivy. The next morning we hung around and glassed for awhile but having seen no sheep (other than the girls on their mountain) and having no way climbable into the next valley or over the ridge we elected to hike back to the tents, taking a long ridge that allowed us to check 3 or 4 valleys on the way down. seeing nothing, we ended up back in the tents after one night out.[URL=http://s1273.photobucket.com/user/Flatbow/media/DSC01501_zps4c526c6c.jpg.html]

[/URL] We began to get a feel for how steep this country was:

 

[Flatbow]

when we bivyed out we did not take a stove. this is my typical 2 day food supply: after a night in the tents we crossed the creek and went to the other side of the valley. it had parallel valleys running to it's top and would provide days of checking. as we climbed we could look down at our tents next to the air strip. see it? High up again we find good water: as we continued up the valley floor had a lot of contour and took some time to look it over before moving up. We saw a few girls and a 1/2 curl ram.

 

[Flatbow]

Part of the way up we rounded a corner and nearly stepped on a few girls: When we reached the valley head we found it to be a dead end with no way out (for us anyway). Tried talking Jim into going over the top just above my head but he wanted no part of it. As it was getting into evening we set our 2nd bivy and glassed till bedtime.

 

[Flatbow]

the next morning after glassing awhile we worked our way down the valley and about 1/2 way down went over the north side to gain access to the next valley. A little side hilling on the steep stuff was in order: After slowly hunting our way up and not seeing anything it looked like there was a way out of this valley. We might be able to go over the top rather than just walk out the way we'd come as we had been doing. It's at this point that I had wished Becca had sent Luke along with us. "Luke, run up there and see if that is really the way we want to go!" Our hikes through these mountains had us coming across several flocks of rock ptarmigan. How I wish I had my bow w/me but it was down in the tent.

 

[Flatbow]

It was a steep, rocky way up: Once on top of the saddle we found that just over the lip a large snow field went down 1/3 of the way. Not possible without crampons and we did not have them. This would be another dead end, going back down the way we came

 

[Browtine]

Great pics Flatbow. Well worth waiting out the technical difficulties!

 

[Stid2677]

Indeed,, big country!! On my phone Silver fishing. Can't wait to see them full sized. Glad you worked it out.

 

[ScottH]

Thanks for hanging in there and getting the pics fixed. Great story, what an adventure.

 

[bizyrok]

Thanks very much Flatbow. The photos are both beautiful and stark. What magnificent country! Nothing comes close to the entire sheep hunting experience.

 

[ol490]

Great pictures and story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Shrek]

Many thanks ! Great story and photos.

 

[Flatbow]

will try to finish today or tomorrow, a few more days of hunt and many pics yet....