Dall Sheep Hunt NWT - Day #4
After resting yesterday, it was easy getting an early start this morning. Slim cooked us up a "hearty" breakfast of three eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Not bad for a spike camp at the base of a mountain and under a tarp! I knew this morning we were in for a good hike, as we had planned the trip yesterday afternoon.
Slim's plan was for us to go straight uphill to the top of the mountain above camp. It would be a vertical rise of over 4,000 feet, and would take better than an hour. From there we would be able to access the basically flat top of the mountain chain making the hiking down line to check basins on both sides much easier. This was going to let us peer down into the last few basins we could actually hunt from our current spike camp location, and let us plan a stalk/ambush from above if we got lucky and found a good ram.
It seemed we'd never break over the top of that mountain, but we did! Problem was, what we found was another peak that needed to be climbed before we got to what was described as "flat" going. This last section of the climb was real steep and we had to work around sheer bluffs in a few places as we made our way higher. Once on top the going was a lot easier, and the view was incredible!
We glassed and hiked from the ridge above one basin to the next until we reached pretty much the end of the line. Although we found a few rams, we didn't find any worth chasing. To be honest, where some of them were, I was hoping they weren't big enough! Working our way along the top, we came to yet another peak. With typical guide desire to see what is over the next peak, Slim convinced me we should do one more climb.
When we got to the top of that last peak it felt like we were "on top of the world" as all the mountains around us were lower than the ground we stood on. It was a fantastic sight! By this point we had been climbing for six hours and decided to take a lunch break. It was also a good spot to take a picture or two.
After our break we started working our way along the rim of the last two basins, one on each side of the knife ridge we found ourselves hiking. Every few hundred feet we'd stop to glass over the sides hoping to find the mystery rams Slim was sure lived in this section of the mountains. We kept coming up "empty" however and it started to seem like we'd done a huge hike for no good purpose but to confirm that we needed to be moved. This is not what we were hoping for. Finally, Slim gave me the ?there they are over there? sign as he dropped down behind a boulder and started pulling out the spotting scope.
Sure enough, there was a full curl ram, with decent mass, just bedded under a rock rim in the basin south east of our location, and down hill a few hundred feet. He was in a spot we absolutely couldn't get to, but he was in sight! By moving down the ridge a few more yards we got into better position for glassing, and found that this ram was bedded with three "buddies". With the spotting scope we were able to determine that all four were legal, and two were real "keepers".
Where the rams were would be impossible to approach, so we needed them to move from their late afternoon beds if we were going to have any chance at all. The problem was, which way would they go when they got up to feed? If they went away from us, we'd never catch them today, but might get a chance tomorrow. If they came our way, we'd have to scramble down hill and around the point of the bluff to get in position for an ambush. We could only cross our fingers and hope they came our way!
Sure enough, after what seemed like hours the biggest ram simply got up and started feeding around the cliff he was resting on, heading our way! Life is good! Figuring it would take a while to get around to our bench, we took our time climbing down hill over rock slides and boulder fields so as to minimize the noise of our travels. When we got close to the grassy bench that the rams should cross over, we picked a big boulder to hide behind and headed for it. The boulder would hide us for a perfect quartering away shot at less than 35 yards, with the wind in our favor. Twenty yards from the rock a ram came around the corner and caught us flat footed!
After a short "stare down" period the ram simply turned and bedded down at 53 yards. We were not sure if he was the biggest one or not, but he looked plenty big enough for this old bowhunter! Before we could scope him out, two more rams came from around the corner and stood with the first ram. With three rams in sight, we figured out the first one was the biggest, and therefore the one we were after. Trouble was the other two saw us and were focused "hard" on our position trying to figure us out. The stare down continued with me convinced I could hold out longer than three rams. I was right, the two rams turned and looked in the other direction. I came to full draw, anchored, and settled my 50 yard pin just above his back. After the good clean release, the arrow was on its way in what seemed like slow motion.
I watched in horror as my arrow glided just over the ram's back, with the feathers actually brushing his hair. Damn, I should have taken off some yardage due to the downhill angle! The ram jumped up and ran a few yards away from us. Slim ranged him at 62 yards. With the downhill angle, I decided to put the 50 yard pin just over his back and try again. WACK! Came the loud noise as I released the string. The arrow went out sideways falling several yards in front of the ram. My nock had broken, and the ram moved away another 10 yards.
Slim again ranged him, this time at 72 yards, while I nocked yet another arrow. This time the arrow flew well, and found the correct elevation for the kill zone. Problem is, the arrow flew by him four feet to the right! By this time the rams had gotten sick of this little game, and headed up and over the mountain dropping down into a further basin. We were done for the day!
I couldn't figure out how I missed the third shot by well over three feet, until we went down on the point of the bench to retrieve my second arrow. Just as soon as we cleared the point of the bluff we were hiding behind we found ourselves in a 30+ mile per hour cross wind. That cross wind, which we couldn't feel from our original position, had blown my arrow considerably "off course".
It was now after 8:00, and there were no rams left in stalking distance, so we decided to call it a day. There were two ways back to the spike camp. One involved climbing back over the mountain we had spent all day crossing. The other meant dropping off this point to the base of the mountain, and then crossing through several miles of think brush to work our way back. We chose the base of the mountain, as I'd had about all the straight up climbing I felt I could stand for the day.
Working our way off the point of the bench proved to be a good challenge due to the sheer rock faces, slides, shale shoots, and buck brush, but we made it in less than an hour. That is when the real fun began! It took 3 ½ hours of steady hiking though the wait/chest high buck brush to get around the four valley crossing and back to the spike camp. We also had to cross four creeks, with steep banks on each side, in our travels.
I can't remember ever being as tired or as sore as I was at 1:45 AM when we crawled back under the tarp and collapsed. We had hiked almost steady for just over fifteen hours, and it had taken its toll on me!
Tomorrow we'll call for a move so we can set our little spike camp closer to the other end of this chain of mountains. We'll also get some needed rest. Hope you all join us.