- Oct 27, 2014
- 112
- 139
Last spring a drew I drew a sheep tag in the random draw and a few guys on here really helped me out. Here is the story of the whole hunt. If it get a little long winded I appologize. I hadn’t planed on drawing the tag and really started from scratch learning how to hunt sheep. All in all it was a great adventure.
My plan was to hit as many drainages as I could in the unit before the season. I knew that with limited time available off of work I wanted to be able to pull the trigger on opening morning an not regret cutting the hunt short. The first trip hiking into the unit was cut short when I bumped a bear off the the trail in a tight canyon in front of me. The bear ran straight up the canyon and with so few ways for the bruin to get out of the canyon, I decide that he would probably stay in the bottom and I better not push my luck. I turned around and called it a day.
The next weekend my wife and I hiked in a few miles to where we could glass one of the main ridge lines in the unit with the sun at our back. As we sat and ate our lunch I picked up a sow grizzly with three cubs playing in the snow around 11,000 feet. No other animals where seen that day.
July, 3 - A friend came down from Montana to hike into a ridge line that would give us a view of the two of the major drainages in the unit. We left the truck around 11am and hiked 11.5 miles and 5000 vertical feet. On the hike in we bumped into two black bears at abut 30 yards. About a mile from where we wanted to glass from, we stopped to fill up with water. We dumped our packs on the ground and had a snack and started filtering water. As we were packing up our things, Isaac to a look back down the trail we had just hiked and caught a sow grizzly with two cubs crossing the trail behind us at about 300 yards. We had been in that exact spot about 10 minutes before. We pack up our things and moved on with out the bears knowing we were ever there. We hiked to the edge of a steep vertical face that gave us an incredible view of a giant drainage at least 10 miles to the back of it. We glassed peaks that were so inaccessible by horse and would literally take days to get into on foot.
We sat on the edge of that cliff the rest of the night and turned up about 40 sheep spread out across the drainage. It was the first time getting a real feel for the country the sheep liked to live in. As the sun slipped behind the the ridge to our back, we dawned our packs and headed up the ridge to camp so that we would be able to glass the drainage to our west at first light. We gained another 500 vertical feet just as the sun slipped beyond the horizon. It was an exhilarating feeling. The country was as wild as any I had ever been in and we we finding some sheep.
One thing about sheep country is that there never seems to be a good pace to set up a tent. It is either too steep or way too steep. That night we ended up setting up our tent on the ridge line overlooking the meadow we saw the sow and her cubs several hours before. Between the thought of the bears only a few hundred feet below and the gust of wind that kept pushing the tent down on top of us, little sleep was had that night.
The following morning was chilly and clear. It was supposed to be in the mid 80s that day in the valley but it couldn?t have been more than 30 degrees when we woke up. As the sun came up at our backs we we able to pick of sheep on the far ridge lines 2-8 miles away. I was impressed by how far we could glass with the perfect light. All in all we saw an additional 30 or so sheep and had a way better feel for the country they liked to summer in.
My plan was to hit as many drainages as I could in the unit before the season. I knew that with limited time available off of work I wanted to be able to pull the trigger on opening morning an not regret cutting the hunt short. The first trip hiking into the unit was cut short when I bumped a bear off the the trail in a tight canyon in front of me. The bear ran straight up the canyon and with so few ways for the bruin to get out of the canyon, I decide that he would probably stay in the bottom and I better not push my luck. I turned around and called it a day.
The next weekend my wife and I hiked in a few miles to where we could glass one of the main ridge lines in the unit with the sun at our back. As we sat and ate our lunch I picked up a sow grizzly with three cubs playing in the snow around 11,000 feet. No other animals where seen that day.
July, 3 - A friend came down from Montana to hike into a ridge line that would give us a view of the two of the major drainages in the unit. We left the truck around 11am and hiked 11.5 miles and 5000 vertical feet. On the hike in we bumped into two black bears at abut 30 yards. About a mile from where we wanted to glass from, we stopped to fill up with water. We dumped our packs on the ground and had a snack and started filtering water. As we were packing up our things, Isaac to a look back down the trail we had just hiked and caught a sow grizzly with two cubs crossing the trail behind us at about 300 yards. We had been in that exact spot about 10 minutes before. We pack up our things and moved on with out the bears knowing we were ever there. We hiked to the edge of a steep vertical face that gave us an incredible view of a giant drainage at least 10 miles to the back of it. We glassed peaks that were so inaccessible by horse and would literally take days to get into on foot.
We sat on the edge of that cliff the rest of the night and turned up about 40 sheep spread out across the drainage. It was the first time getting a real feel for the country the sheep liked to live in. As the sun slipped behind the the ridge to our back, we dawned our packs and headed up the ridge to camp so that we would be able to glass the drainage to our west at first light. We gained another 500 vertical feet just as the sun slipped beyond the horizon. It was an exhilarating feeling. The country was as wild as any I had ever been in and we we finding some sheep.
One thing about sheep country is that there never seems to be a good pace to set up a tent. It is either too steep or way too steep. That night we ended up setting up our tent on the ridge line overlooking the meadow we saw the sow and her cubs several hours before. Between the thought of the bears only a few hundred feet below and the gust of wind that kept pushing the tent down on top of us, little sleep was had that night.
The following morning was chilly and clear. It was supposed to be in the mid 80s that day in the valley but it couldn?t have been more than 30 degrees when we woke up. As the sun came up at our backs we we able to pick of sheep on the far ridge lines 2-8 miles away. I was impressed by how far we could glass with the perfect light. All in all we saw an additional 30 or so sheep and had a way better feel for the country they liked to summer in.
Last edited:
