BigSkyHntr
FNG
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2021
- Messages
- 87
Wow this is awesome! And that caribou is humongous 
Yukon…go time
- Thread starter RdRdrFan
- Start date
Day 8 - Low clouds and fog swallowed up the peaks behind camp. When you can’t see, you end up doing the one thing nobody wants to do at all on day 8 of a sheep hunt. You wait at camp. Staring at the mountains and wishing the fog/clouds away. By 11:00 the clouds had lifted enough and the wrangler was off. By 11:30 my son and the guide rode out. Me? I stared at the roof of my tent some more. It was the only place that was safe from the mosquitoes, flies and gnats. I had brought some books for my son and I in the event we had bad weather and needed something to pass the time. By this point I was well into the fourth (and final) book. It was going to be a long and boring day for me.
The guide, wrangler and my son all three rode into camp a few minutes past 6:00 pm. The wrangler had had a day of hard hiking trying to relocate a lone ram he saw early in the afternoon. My son and the guide rode horses and checked out a couple of drainages.
*NO PICS IN THIS POST AS I WAS STILL CRIPPLED UP IN A TENT……SORRY. MORE PICS IN FOLLOWING POSTS I PROMISE.*
The guide, wrangler and my son all three rode into camp a few minutes past 6:00 pm. The wrangler had had a day of hard hiking trying to relocate a lone ram he saw early in the afternoon. My son and the guide rode horses and checked out a couple of drainages.
*NO PICS IN THIS POST AS I WAS STILL CRIPPLED UP IN A TENT……SORRY. MORE PICS IN FOLLOWING POSTS I PROMISE.*
Day 9 - We woke up early with a plan to get them out and hunting for a FULL day. As soon as we saw the guide he notified us of a change in plan. The outfitter said we needed to get to base camp ASAP. So we broke camp as quickly as possible and began our ride. It had been raining all night the previous evening and it wasn’t stopping for our ride. Not a downpour. Just a constant shower. By the time we covered the clicks we needed to cover to get back to the trailhead, nothing was dry.
Back at basecamp we had time to admire the one ram, a beautiful Fannin, that had made it back to camp. And everyone had a chance to look over my son’s caribou. Me? I may have snuck off at one point and grabbed a soft tape from my cabin. I had to know……how wide is that thing?!?!? 55 3/8” wide. That’s how wide. Rough scoring the next day showed a gross score of 424” and change and a net score of 404”. For the record, I’ve never scored a caribou but I’ve scored plenty of deer and elk so I’m familiar with the process but caribou are different. I reserve the right to have screwed something up while measuring but I felt good about the numbers when double checking everything against a formal score sheet from B&C.
Dinner, no, a feast was had that evening. They smoked backstrap from my son’s caribou on the Traeger and coupled it with mashed potatoes, brown gravy, horseradish sauce, homemade bread, homemade pies……a feast.
The plan was set for the morning. My son needed to be ready and in the truck at 5:30 am so that he, the guide and the wrangler could be dropped at the new trailhead. It was going to be a long day. 3-4 hour ride in. Hunt until they (hopefully) get it done. 3-4 hour ride out. He needed to get some shut eye.
Back at basecamp we had time to admire the one ram, a beautiful Fannin, that had made it back to camp. And everyone had a chance to look over my son’s caribou. Me? I may have snuck off at one point and grabbed a soft tape from my cabin. I had to know……how wide is that thing?!?!? 55 3/8” wide. That’s how wide. Rough scoring the next day showed a gross score of 424” and change and a net score of 404”. For the record, I’ve never scored a caribou but I’ve scored plenty of deer and elk so I’m familiar with the process but caribou are different. I reserve the right to have screwed something up while measuring but I felt good about the numbers when double checking everything against a formal score sheet from B&C.
Dinner, no, a feast was had that evening. They smoked backstrap from my son’s caribou on the Traeger and coupled it with mashed potatoes, brown gravy, horseradish sauce, homemade bread, homemade pies……a feast.
The plan was set for the morning. My son needed to be ready and in the truck at 5:30 am so that he, the guide and the wrangler could be dropped at the new trailhead. It was going to be a long day. 3-4 hour ride in. Hunt until they (hopefully) get it done. 3-4 hour ride out. He needed to get some shut eye.
About to board our last flight home. And once we get there I get to see my wife and younger son that we haven’t seen in 2 weeks. Full day tomorrow I’m afraid. I’ll try to get the finale posted in the next day or so but you guys are gonna want to stay tuned. I promise.
schmalzy
WKR
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2014
- Messages
- 1,663
Best thread of the year.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
medvedyt
WKR
thank you for the beginning of the report and those pictures.
Day 10 - Alarms in our cabin went off around 5:00 am that day. I was up with him. Bum ankle or not this sheep was always going to be OUR ram. Didn’t matter if I was the one pulling the trigger. It was our ram. Now he’s the hunter and even though I was unable to be on the mountain with him, if he was as able to get it done I still view it as our ram.
At 5:30 am his pack was loaded in the horse trailer and he was helping the guys load horses. By 6:15 am the truck was rolling out of camp.
This is where two trails diverge. For the first time, he was truly out there with the guys on his own.
Base Camp (Day 10)
I won’t bore you with the details of my day other than to say that I was glued to my phone. Just waiting for any kind of message from any of the inreach devices carried by all 3 guys. It was stressful. It was torture.
I wasn’t able to get the Inreach Messenger app working on my son’s phone. Wouldn’t send the verification code. So I sent him along with the Inreach by itself. I knew any kind of communication from him would be short, if at all.
9:15 am - Received a message from wrangler that they were taking a quick riding break on the way in. They probably had an hour of riding to get to their area.
11:28 am - Received a message from my son that simply said “Sheep1”. I was guessing that that meant that they had seen sheep but I wasn’t certain. Anyone who has ever tried to type on an inreach can sympathize with my son and not criticize the one word messages.
1:03 pm - Received a message from my son that said “Color”. Awesome. The ram(s) they found must have some color. Hopefully he can kill a good Fannin.
4:20 pm - Received a message from the wrangler that they were trying to relocate 2 rams he saw in a draw.
Side note. It’s agonizing to sit in camp waiting on news from your 14 year old son on his sheep hunt. Even more agonizing watching the minutes tick away and knowing that he was down to the last hours of hope in a 10 day hunt.
6:36 pm - I message the wrangler to see if they have had any luck. No response.
I know that they have a long pack down the mountain and an even longer ride out. I began to lose faith. I was in touch with my wife and brother via text all day. At 6:30 pm I texted my brother that I had lost hope that it would happen. They were out of time. I was utterly gutted and dejected. I left the main living/dining area and walked back to my cabin. I was in no mood to eat dinner or anything else. I was sad for my son. He had worked his ass off.
I was texting with my wife when my Inreach Messenger notification came up from my son. “Ram down”
Alone in my cabin I broke down. The stress and emotion of the day….the 10 days poured out of me. I’m not much of a crier but I damn sure did. I cried like a baby. Relief. Pride. Happiness. So many positive emotions after sitting there pouting having given up on them.
In the Field (Day 10)
The guide, wrangler and my son rolled out of basecamp with a trailer full of horses at 6:15 am. They had a long ride to get into the area where they hoped to find sheep.
The “Sheep1” message my son had sent me turned out to be deliberate and not a typo. They had found a lone ram in an accessible area down low. “Color” meant exactly what I had assumed which was that the ram was a Fannin. They studied the ram. He was in a spot where they would be able to get into position for a shot rather easily. Unfortunately, after studying him for a bit the guide determined that he was only 7-8 years old. Not a shooter.
The next step was to continue the journey that they had begun and try to get to the back bowls in this drainage. That meant a lot of miles and a lot of elevation gain. The wrangler split off to go one way and my son and the guide went the other. The wrangler spotted a couple of rams at one point on the way to the top that they were unable to relocate.
Once in the back area they began to pick apart the likely haunts and eventually turned up a band of 7 rams. After careful study it was determined that there were two shooters in this particular band. Both were similar. One may have been slightly bigger but both were the age class ram that we were hoping to find. After some cat and mouse my son was on the gun. The sheep were bedded and within range. He just had to wait for his opportunity. And then that opportunity came. RAM DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!
if you have read this far then all you really care about at this point is a picture of the dang sheep. Well, here you go:
At this point it was pushing close to 8:00 pm. They had pictures to take and a ram to break down (in the rain) and get off of the mountain. They were 1300 vertical feet above and some distance away from the horses. They made it back to the horses just shy of midnight, packed everything up and mounted up. 2 hours of riding later they finally decided to stop and make a fire. No tents or any other cover. They went in light to be able to go fast. The three men encircled the fire and got some sleep. By 4:30 am they were back in the saddle. At 8:30 am of Day 11 they rolled into camp. Just over 26 hours of gutting it out and grinding by all three of them. Couldn’t be more proud. That was a great hug when my son got out of the truck! Everyone at camp made their way out to shake hands and congratulate all 3 of them (and maybe they wanted to see the ram too).
My son had about an hour at that point to choke down some breakfast and change clothes because we had to catch our flight back to Whitehorse.
One thing I can say for certain, he utilized every moment and it was an adventure of a lifetime for the both of us.
At 5:30 am his pack was loaded in the horse trailer and he was helping the guys load horses. By 6:15 am the truck was rolling out of camp.
This is where two trails diverge. For the first time, he was truly out there with the guys on his own.
Base Camp (Day 10)
I won’t bore you with the details of my day other than to say that I was glued to my phone. Just waiting for any kind of message from any of the inreach devices carried by all 3 guys. It was stressful. It was torture.
I wasn’t able to get the Inreach Messenger app working on my son’s phone. Wouldn’t send the verification code. So I sent him along with the Inreach by itself. I knew any kind of communication from him would be short, if at all.
9:15 am - Received a message from wrangler that they were taking a quick riding break on the way in. They probably had an hour of riding to get to their area.
11:28 am - Received a message from my son that simply said “Sheep1”. I was guessing that that meant that they had seen sheep but I wasn’t certain. Anyone who has ever tried to type on an inreach can sympathize with my son and not criticize the one word messages.
1:03 pm - Received a message from my son that said “Color”. Awesome. The ram(s) they found must have some color. Hopefully he can kill a good Fannin.
4:20 pm - Received a message from the wrangler that they were trying to relocate 2 rams he saw in a draw.
Side note. It’s agonizing to sit in camp waiting on news from your 14 year old son on his sheep hunt. Even more agonizing watching the minutes tick away and knowing that he was down to the last hours of hope in a 10 day hunt.
6:36 pm - I message the wrangler to see if they have had any luck. No response.
I know that they have a long pack down the mountain and an even longer ride out. I began to lose faith. I was in touch with my wife and brother via text all day. At 6:30 pm I texted my brother that I had lost hope that it would happen. They were out of time. I was utterly gutted and dejected. I left the main living/dining area and walked back to my cabin. I was in no mood to eat dinner or anything else. I was sad for my son. He had worked his ass off.
I was texting with my wife when my Inreach Messenger notification came up from my son. “Ram down”
Alone in my cabin I broke down. The stress and emotion of the day….the 10 days poured out of me. I’m not much of a crier but I damn sure did. I cried like a baby. Relief. Pride. Happiness. So many positive emotions after sitting there pouting having given up on them.
In the Field (Day 10)
The guide, wrangler and my son rolled out of basecamp with a trailer full of horses at 6:15 am. They had a long ride to get into the area where they hoped to find sheep.
The “Sheep1” message my son had sent me turned out to be deliberate and not a typo. They had found a lone ram in an accessible area down low. “Color” meant exactly what I had assumed which was that the ram was a Fannin. They studied the ram. He was in a spot where they would be able to get into position for a shot rather easily. Unfortunately, after studying him for a bit the guide determined that he was only 7-8 years old. Not a shooter.
The next step was to continue the journey that they had begun and try to get to the back bowls in this drainage. That meant a lot of miles and a lot of elevation gain. The wrangler split off to go one way and my son and the guide went the other. The wrangler spotted a couple of rams at one point on the way to the top that they were unable to relocate.
Once in the back area they began to pick apart the likely haunts and eventually turned up a band of 7 rams. After careful study it was determined that there were two shooters in this particular band. Both were similar. One may have been slightly bigger but both were the age class ram that we were hoping to find. After some cat and mouse my son was on the gun. The sheep were bedded and within range. He just had to wait for his opportunity. And then that opportunity came. RAM DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!
if you have read this far then all you really care about at this point is a picture of the dang sheep. Well, here you go:
At this point it was pushing close to 8:00 pm. They had pictures to take and a ram to break down (in the rain) and get off of the mountain. They were 1300 vertical feet above and some distance away from the horses. They made it back to the horses just shy of midnight, packed everything up and mounted up. 2 hours of riding later they finally decided to stop and make a fire. No tents or any other cover. They went in light to be able to go fast. The three men encircled the fire and got some sleep. By 4:30 am they were back in the saddle. At 8:30 am of Day 11 they rolled into camp. Just over 26 hours of gutting it out and grinding by all three of them. Couldn’t be more proud. That was a great hug when my son got out of the truck! Everyone at camp made their way out to shake hands and congratulate all 3 of them (and maybe they wanted to see the ram too).
My son had about an hour at that point to choke down some breakfast and change clothes because we had to catch our flight back to Whitehorse.
One thing I can say for certain, he utilized every moment and it was an adventure of a lifetime for the both of us.
NRA4LIFE
WKR
WOW!!! At his age I had a couple dink whitetails under my belt in WI. Congrats to the young man, and a ton of great memories. Screw the consoles.
medvedyt
WKR
marvelous trophy, great pictures and a story for the lifetime. your son will remember it. wish you a great recovery and hope many more adventures together. your son has already two trophies that many hunters will never achieve in their whole lifetime.
congratulations for not giving up.
congratulations for not giving up.
thinhorn_AK
"DADDY"
Unreal. That’s amazing, great write up and amazing animals. Nice job!!!
CHL
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2019
- Messages
- 250
Couple of awesome trophies for your son.
Doc Holliday
WKR
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2016
- Messages
- 2,967
What a roller coaster you experienced, especially on that last day. Congratulations to you and your son, and thanks for sharing your adventure with us.
WBT
Lil-Rokslider
What an incredible story for you and your son!
dgfavor
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2024
- Messages
- 123
Great adventure! Memories for a lifetime! Thanks for sharing.
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