aklogan
FNG
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2013
- Messages
- 44
Alright guys quick write up. I'm got most of my pictures together for a longer complete story I'll put together starting to night and have a friend look it over but for now this will do!
My sheep was harvested from the Tok management Area. I was extremely fortunate to draw DS102 an extremely difficult tag to draw for sheep(aren't they all?). After confirming I really drew the tag it was time for the planning and to pick a partner. Few phone calls were made to arrange flights and dates were selected. This is in February hunting dates are in August. 6 months to make sure I am prepared mentally and physically. Fast forward 6 months summer happened and I skipped the gym a few days to many but to late now. Few days before leaving everything is spread out and double checking lists I think it's go time! We leave the morning of the 13th for the 8-9 hour drive from Soldotna to Tok. We got in to Tok around 6 went and checked in with 40 Mile and off to get a burger at fast eddies. Grab our last stove cooked meal for what we were expecting 10 days. After dinner we get to our room and time to double check everything and make sure we really are ready. Morning of the 14th comes and take a peek outside. Rain.. lots and lots of rain, but ceilings are 3000 feet so we will be flying today. Throw our bags in the truck and make the long drive across the highway to get our flight. Check in, get our weights and chat with the pilots real quick and then we're off.
Make a quick lap to look at the valley we are gonna hunt and try and get a feel for the path we are gonna take to get up.
We were dropped on the big river and had to hike up the little creek. 3 miles from the river to where we camped. 7 hours in alders. Sanity is best kept trying to sing 99 bottles. Never made it past 95 before I'd get hung up or frustrated and forget where I was... O well start over.
We finally reach a spot that will work for camp and it is exactly the size of my hilleberg and nothing more. But it's home for the next 10 days.
Real quick around camp spotted a bunch of lambs, ewes and some banana rams. Grab a bit to eat and time for bed. Wake up feeling great on our first day of hunting. Talk over the plan for the day and the next couple. First thing I want to go up to the top of this little hill we are at the base of and see what is up top. Takes about 10 minutes to get to the top soon as we get to the top boom 4 white dots in front of us. Maybe 1/2 miles way. We drop and get the spotter out. The first ram I see is the ram I ended up harvesting.
I point it out and my partner takes a look and giggles when he gets a good look through the spotter. We look at him a little more but there is no way we can make a stalk with where he is. So take a look around there is another nice ram hanging out with this one and two sub legals. So less than an hour in to our first day of hunting we spot the ram I want to pursue. We spend the day watching sheep and make a plan for he next day to try and put together a stalk. Wake up on the morning of the third day and start climbing. We climbed 2500-3000 vertical feet to try and get above them. Spent 4 hours sitting on a ridge trying to spot the sheep. Finally see them but the wind picked up and never could get closer then 502 yards. Right at my absolute max range but the wind was way to gusty to chance the shot so we pack up and head back down the mountain a bit more defeated then the previous day.
Put eyes on the rams a couple times on the way down and this is two days they are in the same area. Put together a plan for tomorrow and we decided to not try and stalk these rams first thing in the morning. Head for bed after some food. Wake up day 4. Plan for the day is to head up the valley and see what happened to the other rams we saw 2 days ago. So off we go to new area. On the way around the hill I happened to look up and noticed some rams in a different spot then before. Out comes the spotter and it is the big ram which by this time in the trip he has been nicknamed corkscrew. Plan for the day was not to try and stalk him. Well that changed cause they are in a very different location and we have a path to be hidden and out a stalk together so off we go! We get up the creek and end up pinned behind the rocks for 6 hours.
After our short 6 hour wait the rams began to move and they headed right for us. Suited up we head up the creek where we can be covered to try and get in position. After a 1200 yard sprint we are in position. 301 yards slightly up hill the ram presents the perfect broad side shot and I did my part. My tikka T3x did its part to both the ram and my face scope bite only hurts temporarily.
Final resting place of Corkscrew.
Ram was quartered and bagged just about when the sun was completely down and we made the trek back to bad much heavier then we started the day. Wake up day 5 bright and early to try and get to the strip to get picked up. Camp is broke and we are packed and head home! Took another 6-7 hours to get to the strip only to be told another day. Pull out the tent and get set up for another night. Some camp duties to take care off.
Next morning wake up to bright blue skis and we await the sound of the arriving supercubs!
Total the trip took 6 days from door step to door step which is 4 days faster then we had both planned on. Ended up with 600 pictures and 40 various videos. I will merge this with a more detailed report in the coming days and share many more pictures.
Thanks again everyone. Big Thanks to the Rokslide crew for giving us a awesome place to share these memory's on!
My sheep was harvested from the Tok management Area. I was extremely fortunate to draw DS102 an extremely difficult tag to draw for sheep(aren't they all?). After confirming I really drew the tag it was time for the planning and to pick a partner. Few phone calls were made to arrange flights and dates were selected. This is in February hunting dates are in August. 6 months to make sure I am prepared mentally and physically. Fast forward 6 months summer happened and I skipped the gym a few days to many but to late now. Few days before leaving everything is spread out and double checking lists I think it's go time! We leave the morning of the 13th for the 8-9 hour drive from Soldotna to Tok. We got in to Tok around 6 went and checked in with 40 Mile and off to get a burger at fast eddies. Grab our last stove cooked meal for what we were expecting 10 days. After dinner we get to our room and time to double check everything and make sure we really are ready. Morning of the 14th comes and take a peek outside. Rain.. lots and lots of rain, but ceilings are 3000 feet so we will be flying today. Throw our bags in the truck and make the long drive across the highway to get our flight. Check in, get our weights and chat with the pilots real quick and then we're off.
Make a quick lap to look at the valley we are gonna hunt and try and get a feel for the path we are gonna take to get up.
We were dropped on the big river and had to hike up the little creek. 3 miles from the river to where we camped. 7 hours in alders. Sanity is best kept trying to sing 99 bottles. Never made it past 95 before I'd get hung up or frustrated and forget where I was... O well start over.
We finally reach a spot that will work for camp and it is exactly the size of my hilleberg and nothing more. But it's home for the next 10 days.
Real quick around camp spotted a bunch of lambs, ewes and some banana rams. Grab a bit to eat and time for bed. Wake up feeling great on our first day of hunting. Talk over the plan for the day and the next couple. First thing I want to go up to the top of this little hill we are at the base of and see what is up top. Takes about 10 minutes to get to the top soon as we get to the top boom 4 white dots in front of us. Maybe 1/2 miles way. We drop and get the spotter out. The first ram I see is the ram I ended up harvesting.
I point it out and my partner takes a look and giggles when he gets a good look through the spotter. We look at him a little more but there is no way we can make a stalk with where he is. So take a look around there is another nice ram hanging out with this one and two sub legals. So less than an hour in to our first day of hunting we spot the ram I want to pursue. We spend the day watching sheep and make a plan for he next day to try and put together a stalk. Wake up on the morning of the third day and start climbing. We climbed 2500-3000 vertical feet to try and get above them. Spent 4 hours sitting on a ridge trying to spot the sheep. Finally see them but the wind picked up and never could get closer then 502 yards. Right at my absolute max range but the wind was way to gusty to chance the shot so we pack up and head back down the mountain a bit more defeated then the previous day.
Put eyes on the rams a couple times on the way down and this is two days they are in the same area. Put together a plan for tomorrow and we decided to not try and stalk these rams first thing in the morning. Head for bed after some food. Wake up day 4. Plan for the day is to head up the valley and see what happened to the other rams we saw 2 days ago. So off we go to new area. On the way around the hill I happened to look up and noticed some rams in a different spot then before. Out comes the spotter and it is the big ram which by this time in the trip he has been nicknamed corkscrew. Plan for the day was not to try and stalk him. Well that changed cause they are in a very different location and we have a path to be hidden and out a stalk together so off we go! We get up the creek and end up pinned behind the rocks for 6 hours.
After our short 6 hour wait the rams began to move and they headed right for us. Suited up we head up the creek where we can be covered to try and get in position. After a 1200 yard sprint we are in position. 301 yards slightly up hill the ram presents the perfect broad side shot and I did my part. My tikka T3x did its part to both the ram and my face scope bite only hurts temporarily.
Final resting place of Corkscrew.
Ram was quartered and bagged just about when the sun was completely down and we made the trek back to bad much heavier then we started the day. Wake up day 5 bright and early to try and get to the strip to get picked up. Camp is broke and we are packed and head home! Took another 6-7 hours to get to the strip only to be told another day. Pull out the tent and get set up for another night. Some camp duties to take care off.
Next morning wake up to bright blue skis and we await the sound of the arriving supercubs!
Total the trip took 6 days from door step to door step which is 4 days faster then we had both planned on. Ended up with 600 pictures and 40 various videos. I will merge this with a more detailed report in the coming days and share many more pictures.
Thanks again everyone. Big Thanks to the Rokslide crew for giving us a awesome place to share these memory's on!
