Floorguy
WKR
For the past 13 years I have had a job that has kept me from being able to get out and away from to go look for sheep in the mountains. Doing commercial flooring my knees are definitely not going to last forever and so the end of last year I decided to make a change. I currently have 3 part time jobs while trying to transition out of flooring, one of which being the youth pastor at my church. This summer I and the worship pastor at my church were chaperones for a group of teens hiking Resurrection Pass Trail on the Kenai. We got to know each other better and kind of saw how we approached our time in the outdoors. He later approached me asking if I would go on a nearby sheep hunt with him we only had 5 days though. He had a close friend that had help him get a ram last year but that friend was going to be guiding this year. The spot he was going had been found by his friend while flying and had been productive in years past. I jumped at the opportunity but couldn’t get away until the morning of the 10th. My buddy picked me up and we drove to the trailhead unloaded and got on atv’s and drove some more. From there we walked up into the sheep mountains. Unfortunately for the most part all my pics are of scenic vistas and there is some rather obvious topography that would make finding the spot easy with google earth. We saw rams as soon as we entered the drainage. We walked up the backside of a knoll and glassed them. Nothing stood out as full curl but there were a couple that stood out as being heavier and more mass. Because of distance we couldn’t be certain that they weren’t broomed, we also couldn’t even start counting rings. One taken out of this drainage two years prior had been 9 and ¾ curl.
While glassing we looked back upon hearing thunder and saw dark ominous clouds moving towards us. I pulled out my megamid fly and put a stake in each corner and threw in the pole just to provide some shelter from the rain. As the rain got heavier the wind picked up. As I was laying on my back looking up I started to see lightning streaking across the sky directly overhead followed by the loudest thunder I have ever heard. The rain turned to hail the lightning continued followed by the thunder, I started questioning the idea of being essentially on the top or near the top of a hill with a pole sticking up in the air like a lightning rod. It was a black diamond carbon fiber pole however the adjustment section was made of aluminum which is conductive. The wind was getting worse and and I started wondering just how well my half-assed 4 corner staking job was going to hold up. My hunting partner didn’t seem to have as much faith in the stakes as he at one point had reached over to hold onto the fly so that when the stakes let go the fly wouldn’t fly away. As quickly as the storm started it stopped. After the drops were spaced far enough apart I unzipped the fly and stepped out. Hail surrounded the perimeter of the tent. I checked on the rams they were still there. By this time it was later in the evening alpenglow had started to cover the mountain. While we were looking at the sheep in the alpenglow we heard a wolf start howling in what sounded like the drainage we were in. While looking for the wolf we found a bull and cow caribou traveling together. The scene was awesome it was almost sensory overload with everything that was going on. We had a little ways to go before setting up camp so we made our way in the twilight to a bench that was next to the creek and made camp had dinner and put the rams to bed.
The next morning the rams had moved from one side of the bowl they were in to the other we still couldn’t peg the larger rams as being broomed or count rings the were without a doubt not much past ¾curl. The wind was also blowing from us at our camp directly up to the sheep. That morning we decided to move further up the drainage get high work our way back and see if we could get in a good position to see the bigger sheep. On the way we stumbled upon the caribou again sitting down they closed within 75 yards in trying to figure out what we were all about they eventually moved on down out out the way we had come.
After climbing we wound up cliffed out trying to get closer and even if we could get close we would be exposed and would have to descend lower than the sheep to get near them. The sheep late in the day decided to go down into the green to feed directly above where our camp had been. Oh and the wind all day had been such that at one point I said it was like someone was following us with a fan it didn’t matter what we did the wind was always at our back blowing towards the sheep. The joke would become that if we weren’t sure where the sheep were just check the wind. We descended from our perch and made our way back to where we planned to camp for night number two. As we came around the mountain, I made a remark about another white rock and pulled my bino’s up to verify. This time it wasn’t a rock it was a ram that was way low and at 350 yards. We froze and when it looked away we lowered ourselves down to get a better look at it. It was a 5 year old half curl. We watched it as it got up and over the course of the next hour fed away from us.
After we were clear we moved down found a somewhat acceptable spot and set up camp. The next morning we made a plan to move up a dry creek bed that was in between the two areas that the rams had been seesawing between. We found the rams on the side that they had been on day one and ducked out of sight set up a tarp and figured we would spend the day waiting for them to move. That was a day full of lounging as the sheep were content to hang where they were. Later that day we watched as they started to get up and instead of coming down they climbed up to just below where we had been the day before up and out of sight. A little while later we saw them at the far end of the bowl licking minerals and once they were at the back they just kind of mosied up and over the ridge out of the drainage. It looked intentional but not like they were pushed. They didn’t get into a single file line and march it was just kind of walking back and forth up and over. At the same time almost as if they were on a rotating table as the last ram disappeared into a different drainage ewes and lambs started appearing from the opposite side of the mountain. As we walked back to camp we figured that the rams were gone and that we were now sitting in a nursery. We made a plan that in the morning if we didn’t see any rams we would head out for the wheelers and see if we could find another drainage.
Day four we woke up and didn’t see any rams, but the lambs and ewes were right where we left them. We pushed out of the drainage talking about what we could have done differently to get closer but also fairly confident that we didn’t leave anything legal on the mountain. We got down to the wheelers pushed back into another drainage, but the weather was moving in the ceiling was lowering and rain was apparent with realistically only one day of hunting left and not having good visibility we made the decision to head back to the truck. We stopped and glassed into every drainage on the way back to the truck. After rounding the mountain, we glassed the front side of the mountain and saw a ram with tow smaller banana rams but from our vantage point we couldn’t make him full curl either, but he was definitely the biggest ram we had seen to date.
We wound up finding a trail to follow up the mountain bailed off the wheelers got up to his level but couldn’t get to a point to see him as he was on the back side of a chute. With weather still coming and day light waning we bailed off the mountain back to the truck. Day five in the evening I called him to see how day six looked for him, it was clear so we decided to run back and make a quick day hunt of it. We got out on the wheelers and got to the mountain and stopped at a place that we could glass from. The mountain was encased in cloud cover we couldn’t see anything the wind was blowing pretty rapidly but the breaks in the clouds were either non existent or too small to make anything out. We decided to go for it anyway we climbed and as we gained elevation the clouds did too. Unfortunately there was nothing on the mountain to see once we were up at elevation. We decided to climb higher to gain a vantage point on the various chutes we summitted the peak and much to our dismay the mountain was empty. Glassing around we saw our ram three ridges over. We dropped down ridge walked the near ridge out of view of the ram dropped down and climbed the near side of the second ridge side hilled over and popped up broadside to the feeding ram. 400 yards. Watching him though we found that he was under full curl and the closest we could get in counting rings was 7 and there was absolutely no chance of him being broomed.
We sat and watched for hours hoping that maybe another bigger brother might make an appearance however it wasn’t to be. Turning to leave we were greeted by one of the most epic views I have ever seen. We found our way back to the wheelers and rode to the trucks in the dark.
It may not have been successful but the experience alone was worth it. I got to see rams daily, experience my first mountain storm and got to soak up some of the most beautiful landscape in the world. I am not sure if I will have another chance to get out this year but will definitely be back in the mountains next year.
While glassing we looked back upon hearing thunder and saw dark ominous clouds moving towards us. I pulled out my megamid fly and put a stake in each corner and threw in the pole just to provide some shelter from the rain. As the rain got heavier the wind picked up. As I was laying on my back looking up I started to see lightning streaking across the sky directly overhead followed by the loudest thunder I have ever heard. The rain turned to hail the lightning continued followed by the thunder, I started questioning the idea of being essentially on the top or near the top of a hill with a pole sticking up in the air like a lightning rod. It was a black diamond carbon fiber pole however the adjustment section was made of aluminum which is conductive. The wind was getting worse and and I started wondering just how well my half-assed 4 corner staking job was going to hold up. My hunting partner didn’t seem to have as much faith in the stakes as he at one point had reached over to hold onto the fly so that when the stakes let go the fly wouldn’t fly away. As quickly as the storm started it stopped. After the drops were spaced far enough apart I unzipped the fly and stepped out. Hail surrounded the perimeter of the tent. I checked on the rams they were still there. By this time it was later in the evening alpenglow had started to cover the mountain. While we were looking at the sheep in the alpenglow we heard a wolf start howling in what sounded like the drainage we were in. While looking for the wolf we found a bull and cow caribou traveling together. The scene was awesome it was almost sensory overload with everything that was going on. We had a little ways to go before setting up camp so we made our way in the twilight to a bench that was next to the creek and made camp had dinner and put the rams to bed.
The next morning the rams had moved from one side of the bowl they were in to the other we still couldn’t peg the larger rams as being broomed or count rings the were without a doubt not much past ¾curl. The wind was also blowing from us at our camp directly up to the sheep. That morning we decided to move further up the drainage get high work our way back and see if we could get in a good position to see the bigger sheep. On the way we stumbled upon the caribou again sitting down they closed within 75 yards in trying to figure out what we were all about they eventually moved on down out out the way we had come.
After climbing we wound up cliffed out trying to get closer and even if we could get close we would be exposed and would have to descend lower than the sheep to get near them. The sheep late in the day decided to go down into the green to feed directly above where our camp had been. Oh and the wind all day had been such that at one point I said it was like someone was following us with a fan it didn’t matter what we did the wind was always at our back blowing towards the sheep. The joke would become that if we weren’t sure where the sheep were just check the wind. We descended from our perch and made our way back to where we planned to camp for night number two. As we came around the mountain, I made a remark about another white rock and pulled my bino’s up to verify. This time it wasn’t a rock it was a ram that was way low and at 350 yards. We froze and when it looked away we lowered ourselves down to get a better look at it. It was a 5 year old half curl. We watched it as it got up and over the course of the next hour fed away from us.
After we were clear we moved down found a somewhat acceptable spot and set up camp. The next morning we made a plan to move up a dry creek bed that was in between the two areas that the rams had been seesawing between. We found the rams on the side that they had been on day one and ducked out of sight set up a tarp and figured we would spend the day waiting for them to move. That was a day full of lounging as the sheep were content to hang where they were. Later that day we watched as they started to get up and instead of coming down they climbed up to just below where we had been the day before up and out of sight. A little while later we saw them at the far end of the bowl licking minerals and once they were at the back they just kind of mosied up and over the ridge out of the drainage. It looked intentional but not like they were pushed. They didn’t get into a single file line and march it was just kind of walking back and forth up and over. At the same time almost as if they were on a rotating table as the last ram disappeared into a different drainage ewes and lambs started appearing from the opposite side of the mountain. As we walked back to camp we figured that the rams were gone and that we were now sitting in a nursery. We made a plan that in the morning if we didn’t see any rams we would head out for the wheelers and see if we could find another drainage.
Day four we woke up and didn’t see any rams, but the lambs and ewes were right where we left them. We pushed out of the drainage talking about what we could have done differently to get closer but also fairly confident that we didn’t leave anything legal on the mountain. We got down to the wheelers pushed back into another drainage, but the weather was moving in the ceiling was lowering and rain was apparent with realistically only one day of hunting left and not having good visibility we made the decision to head back to the truck. We stopped and glassed into every drainage on the way back to the truck. After rounding the mountain, we glassed the front side of the mountain and saw a ram with tow smaller banana rams but from our vantage point we couldn’t make him full curl either, but he was definitely the biggest ram we had seen to date.
We wound up finding a trail to follow up the mountain bailed off the wheelers got up to his level but couldn’t get to a point to see him as he was on the back side of a chute. With weather still coming and day light waning we bailed off the mountain back to the truck. Day five in the evening I called him to see how day six looked for him, it was clear so we decided to run back and make a quick day hunt of it. We got out on the wheelers and got to the mountain and stopped at a place that we could glass from. The mountain was encased in cloud cover we couldn’t see anything the wind was blowing pretty rapidly but the breaks in the clouds were either non existent or too small to make anything out. We decided to go for it anyway we climbed and as we gained elevation the clouds did too. Unfortunately there was nothing on the mountain to see once we were up at elevation. We decided to climb higher to gain a vantage point on the various chutes we summitted the peak and much to our dismay the mountain was empty. Glassing around we saw our ram three ridges over. We dropped down ridge walked the near ridge out of view of the ram dropped down and climbed the near side of the second ridge side hilled over and popped up broadside to the feeding ram. 400 yards. Watching him though we found that he was under full curl and the closest we could get in counting rings was 7 and there was absolutely no chance of him being broomed.
We sat and watched for hours hoping that maybe another bigger brother might make an appearance however it wasn’t to be. Turning to leave we were greeted by one of the most epic views I have ever seen. We found our way back to the wheelers and rode to the trucks in the dark.
It may not have been successful but the experience alone was worth it. I got to see rams daily, experience my first mountain storm and got to soak up some of the most beautiful landscape in the world. I am not sure if I will have another chance to get out this year but will definitely be back in the mountains next year.
