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Marathon Fannin Ram;
We can all remember our first Sheep hunt no matter how many years ago it may have been. For most of us there is 20 years of dreaming before the first Sheep hunt has a prayer of taking place. In my case, 1996 was my first trip to the Yukon, but blowing Snow had prevented any attempt at Sheep hunting so that hunt was converted to a Moose Hunt. My return in 97 was in Aug & only now can I understand why my guide thought I was nuts for passing legal rams when I had not even taken a Ram yet.
Of course by 1998 I was pretty sure I was an expert in this Sheep hunting stuff & after a grueling 10 day hunt we located a dandy 39 10 yr old Ram. 29 days invested into my first Ram & I was officially hooked.
All 3 of those hunts were in various regions of the hunting concession called Devilhole Outfitters owned by Kevin & Victoria Olmstead. As a professional Hunting Consultant I have sent a very large number of clients to hunt the Yukon & B/C with The Olmsteads since 1996 with excellent results. Over those years, his hunting areas & guides have produced numerous Medal winners at FNAWS including more than one Gold Medal Winner of both Dall & Stone Sheep.
Now that Sheep Fever had a major grip on me, I continued to return to the Yukon looking for even a larger Ram in between many International sheep hunts. I know I need my head examined but I did pass a few rams that should be in my trophy room today including a 39 3/4 massive broomed warrior in 2005. We had spotted 15 rams with a B&C candidate in the band, but by the time we caught up with them the 42 monster had disappeared. Going home without a ram was very painful in 2005.
Aug 18th of 2006 found me flying into the Devilhole once again for a rematch. I was happy to see I would be paired off with Dan Morner, A German transplant who was also my guide in 2005. We had formed a good friendship & we pushed each other to the max when need be. To me the true sign of a good guide is someone who can read his client by the end of the first day. He needs to know just how far he can push that client & when to back off. It is also important that he can pull any man up by his quivering boots straps & convince him that climbing the Mountain in front of him is a good idea.
Dan had already scored on 2 awesome rams for his clients that season one of which was a 41 Ram with a very unusual twist/curl to one of his horns. During the previous hunt he has seen many rams in the General area so we opted to hunt there to start with. A 10 hour horseback ride had us in World Class Sheep country, with fresh running water & plenty of good grass to keep the horses happy. On the trail in we saw Mtn Goats, Moose, Grizzly, & Black Bear. This specific corner of the Yukon had long been known for superior genetics. Larger Bodied rams generally mean more mass! These Rams average 50-75 # more in body weight than most Dall Rams in other regions. In 2005 one of my clients took a 173 B&C Ram with 43 length & 15 bases that was only 8 years old, Now that is genetics!
The first morning was clear & cold & as I waited for the coffee to brew I noticed we had numerous Sheep pouring over a ridge directly above our spike camp (A very good Omen) No shooters, but Sheep never the less. As we rode out of camp we saw even more Sheep, this was looking good. After about a 3 hour ride out of spike camp we tied the horses & began the final climb where we hoped rams could be. As if it was clock work, the very first ridge we peeked over had 7 Rams Laying approx 1000 yds below us. Due to the severe steep angle & high winds we never did get a real good luck at that Band of rams. Besides it was the first day & we were looking for King Kong himself & we still had too much shoe leather to look like sheep hunters.
Day 2 was a repeat of day one, except now we were sitting in a sheltered spot out of the wind. The more I looked at the 7 rams from the day before the more I realized that 4 were legal & one of them was a Stud. With a tip to tip horn measurement of well over 40 his actual length & mass was deceiving. Even at over 1200 yds I could count at least 12 growth rings. It was obvious now that he had close to 15 bases & would be somewhere between 3840 length. The real eye opener came when he stood & turned around & wiggled that black tail of his. I was looking at a shooter Fannin. Way cool considering this is not a Fannin area (At least not up until now) & I had never taken a Fannin. Now I had my goal etched in my brain.
For the next few days we attempted to approach those rams from every angle, it was obvious that they had a spot that was almost impossible to approach. A 3 sided sheer cliff of loose rock & shale created a barrier that was impossible to traverse without being seen & heard. One day we even tried scaling a sheer cliff while it was snowing & foggy, hoping that the poor visibility would provide us with some cover. This proved to be one of the dumbest things I have ever done. I shutter to think how dangerous that move was. It actually looked like the plan would work until we got strung out on a cliff that was 100% loose rock. Not only did the Rams vacate the valley, but I think they had sore ribs laughing at us who now had to climb back out of there. Multiple times we got within 500-700 yds of the rams, often times fog would obscure the visibility so we could not be sure which one was the big guy. Climbing a vertical face slippery from rain sleet & snow with a pack on & a rifle on my back was not where I wanted to be. Chalk up another time when I promised the Big Guy upstairs I would be real good if he helps me out of this one.
The hunt was nearing completion & we were getting desperate, this had turned into a real live Mission!! Talk about 2 guys pushing each other over the edge. Finally we saw a window of opportunity. The rams were still in there glass bubble but now they had moved to the opposite end of the valley. Even in the dense fog we could traverse our way around the mountain one more time since we had this piece of real-estate memorized. On numerous occasions Dan & I lost track of each other but somehow always managed to hook back up. When we finally reached the opposite end of the mountain over looking the valley we last saw the rams in Ram, Dan took a peek & indicated they were right below us. (I found out later he fibbed a bit here). Dan had not seen the Rams but hoped they were still there, he knew if he motioned to me that they were below us that I would find the Gumption to continue even though we were already completely exhausted. He stayed far enough in front of me that to push me to the maximum yet we had to be careful since every boulder was loose. After what seemed like an eternity we were able to pick out the tops of the horns of the bedded rams below us. At that same moment I felt the breeze blowing on the back of my neck, the thermals were beginning to switch around on us. 15 ft before reaching the magic rock we were had picked out for a rest all 4 rams jumped up & began to run flat out angling away from us. I threw my Leica range finder to Dan as I dropped to a rock for a rest. My first question was how far as he shouted 400 yds, Then I asked for verification on which one was the Big guy since there was one other ram that looked similar in this group of 4. I thought my first 2 shots had missed but later found out they grazed his back. Due to the steep angle I was shooting high. Once I got my wits & had time to think for a second I used the 300 yd cross hairs for the 400 yd shot. This one was the golden shot & he was going no where now! One more to be sure & we were doing the back slap, hand shake, hug thing!!
After the photos & video session we had to get the bark off of him & bone out the meat. At this point we had 1 hour to get out of this hell hole before dark. The bad news was it was a 3 hour climb with a Sheep on your back. All I could think about was how nice it would be to get to the horses & ride the rest of the way back to camp. About 2 hours after dark we reached where we tied the horses up. My horse had decided that the wind & rain was not for him, he had broken his halter rope was was gone. The other horse was still there but did I forget to tell you that he is night blind? So that meant we had a 15 mile walk back to camp carrying all our gear, sheep & leading a night blind horse who was having less fun than us! It was blacker than the inside of a cow as we made or way back to camp. Of course there is no such thing as a straight line when in the mtns, one must try to avoid the boulder mine fields, alders, willows, bog, & it is a real good idea to avoid them cliffs as well. Thank God for my King of the Mtn Clothing, it was all I had on for over 30 plus hours. We had encountered every possible weather pattern from rain, sleet, snow, high winds, not to mention the extreme heat one generates while climbing. The clothing kept me comfortable & my Lowa Sheep Hunter boots kept the tootsies in good shape with no twisted ankles. Proper equipment is one of the most important aspects to a wilderness hunt next to physical conditioning.
Probably not the smartest thing to do, but when we finally made it to camp at day break, instead of much needed nourishment we killed a bottle of Whiskey that I had stashed just for this occasion. Slept like a baby for a few hours until the massive headache woke me. Oh- Bye the way, my horse was sitting in camp waiting for us after he had ate all the oats.
For the record, most of my personal sheep hunts are more like Iron man marathons, once, just once I would love to be that guy that takes that big ram on the first day without breaking a bead of sweat.
I guess if it was supposed to be easy, they would not call it Sheep Hunting!
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