Sheep Hunting Packs?

[thru-hunter]

Some guys dream of Vegas. Some Hawaii. Me I'm cruising the mountains with that exact set up. A Golite Tepee, a stout pack, some grub, poles, and rifle. That photo is sweet and screams vacation to me.
CtP we're gonna be rocking the mountains real soon here. I hope you find a HUGE Chugach ram to notch your tag with. I'll be happy to cut him up for ya.

There are certainly many worse places to go and I loved every second of that trip but I can confirm that there are zero sheep in the 6 miles of drainage directly behind that pic. I can also confirm that the 8 miles of drainage slightly to the right and out of frame also contained only 6 lambs and ewe's. That adds up to about 28 miles of sore feet trailing a cloud of disappointment! Ironic enough we did all that then went back to base camp for comfy night sleep and resupply then ended up getting my partner a ram about 4 miles from the strip.

 

[swat8888]

Haha, I hope that isn't the drainage I'm going to be in less than 30 days from now. If so I'll just hang out at the strip

 

[thru-hunter]

I couldnt agree more! I like a trip to the beach on occasion, but really there is no place else I would rather be than in the picture above. Which is good, because we seem to be logging a lot of nights in our tipi lately and the season hasn't even kicked off yet...

I am working on the wife with this but right now she would prefer a sunny beach and a frozen drink about 1000 to 1 over a rainy mountainside and frozen hands! This is why I had the foresight to spawn 3 rough and tumble boys who love to get out in the woods! Speaking of that the two oldest have their hunter safety course this weekend and as long as the oldest passes he will eligible for the draw this fall. He is crazy lucky so maybe we will be hunting Tok in 2013!

ps; if anyone thinks buying for a wife increases the gear cost try outfitting three sons! I hunted with junk most of my childhood and did ok but now that I know what good gear is I have a hard time subjecting the kids to the cheap stuff. I know some of the gear junkies here get pumped about a great deal on a piece of gear they have been drooling over but for me I am rarely more excited than finding kids gear at deep discounts! For instance this year my oldest caught my wife in shoe size so he is wearing her NIB La Sportiva mountaineering boots. I keep a very close eye on sierra trading post for good deals as well as departmentofgoods.com and the sale sites like camofire and steepandcheap.com

Since this is a sheep hunting pack thread... Here is my training pack from a couple years ago loaded down with about 20lbs of youngest son (he is about 50lbs now and prefers to do his own hiking...).

Here is my middle son trying out his first pack. Not a bad set up for an REI branded piece. He can haul most of his own gear and his own platypus big zip! I take care of the food and all of the camp...

Here is a day hike up a local mountain. Eagle eye kids spotted about a dozen moose up in the alpine which was pretty cool and had me kicking myself for not dragging up the spotter. Oldest son is rocking an Osprey Jib 35 pack in this pic. I am still totally impressed with this pack! It is essentially a full featured pack in a youth size. I will put him in the Ace 48 next and from there he will step up into an adult pack. So far packs have survived to be passed down as long as I keep them locked up when we are not actually going on trips. Nothing survives my kids "playing" with it...

My oldest boy has a flair for irony throwing the peace sign while covered in moose blood!

I figure as they get bigger my pack can get smaller and lighter! Now that is an investment that should keep me hunting sheep well into old age!

 

[Bighorse]

Right on man! That looks like a fine crew in training. Way to share the heritage.

 

[docdb]

Thru-hunter, congrats. Three daughters here with the youngest one still showing some outdoors interest.