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So, it’s hard to say where this all started but I guess I’ll start with saying I had been putting in for a sheep unit that had a reasonable likelihood of drawing in my hunting lifetime and that I was not focused on success or even horn size, because ultimately I want to sheep hunt, not just wish I had.

So fast forward to this May and I found out I drew while I was at a shoot and a buddy of mine pulled up his successful sheep drawing email and starts hooting and hollering. So I look, and I’ll be damned, I got one too. It’s one of those things you never really expect to draw and never really think about preparing for, but something I really wanted at some point. I’m unlikely to ever buy a sheep tag at auction, less likely to draw out of state and far less likely to pay for an outfitted sheep hunt. Colorado isn’t yet a once in a lifetime license for sheep, but effectively it is when you draw your first in your 40s, especially with the way sheep applications have exploded lately.

So here we are, I’ve got a sheep tag in a somewhat remote unit but it does have some road access and some ATV access, I’ve got pack goats, just added a horse this year too, got an ATV too, but by god this is huge f’n country. Like peaks well over 13,500 feet, not just peaks but numerous prominent ridges, spines and pinnacles way the 1,000 to 1,500 feet or more above timberline.

I had hunted near some of this country, but never with an eye for sheep. So it was back to the drawing board, researching remotely then spent the first weekend out learning the roads and access points, where I could get a trailer too and figuring out which of my modes of travel would be best.

Next scouting trip was late July and I covered over 25 miles on foot in two days, but I saw nearly 60 sheep. However they are all distant and mostly ewes and lambs. I did find a small group of rams way up one trail that would not be ATV accessible. And so figured we’d start there. Just glassing from the trails and it was intimidating as hell thinking about how to access these sheep.






Oh and I should probably mention, I’m not afraid of cliffs or heights but I have tried to keep a healthy distance from death defying falls since defying death in fall at age 18. Basically I fell off a cliff while climbing where I had no business being in the first place. I maybe only fell 20 feet then rolled maybe 60 more, losing my boots in the process. I didn’t break that many bones considering (ribs, nose, bit through tongue, lost some flesh here and there). It also snowed that night before a crew got me out the next day. It sucked, and am thankful it wasn’t worse. Point is, when I look over a cliff I’m usually a foot or two back from the edge. I did pull off a mountain goat hunt in 2019, so it’s not like I’m paralyzed by cliffs. I just don’t want to die.




To be continued , this stuff takes awhile

TAG!

Have you thought about hiring a guide? After all, this sounds like a once in a lifetime hunt and you don’t want to waste your time tending to livestock and trying to figure out how to access the hunt instead of actually hunting. A guide who is familiar with the area might be very valuable. And, I might add, a lot safer than going into a wilderness area by yourself!

big set of balls you got, go for it if you can .you been beat up like that and still go up the hill with your goats for fun . you will be fine

Damn! That was a tumble. You look like Ed Norton in Fight Club.

Congratulations on drawing a tag and best of luck on your hunt.

Pregame
Decided to go in with the pack goats and my wife for the first 4 days of season. From there I’d stay several more days and come out when ready to re energize. Decided not to bring by the horse because we weren’t sure how to best juggle her and the load carrying ability and better all terrain capability of the goats. Someone was going to have to walk anyway. And getting horse and the goats in one trip might be quite the load. I was down to just 4 goats now after putting down one earlier this year. These are all big guys and capable of handling a good load. I’ve got 4 more babies coming up but they aren’t ready for a load yet.



Had right at 100 pounds of gear for the four goats, plus about 20 pounds on me with the spitting scope, tripod, binos, rifle, sleeping and some basic gear. Wife had about 10 pounds, basically just her sleeping bag and water. Packed 8 days of food for me and 4 days for her.

100 pounds of gear and food going in allowed for a comfortable camp and still enough capacity to get sheep meat out. With the goats, and maybe the horse, as she’s new, I’d still have to carry the head anyway.

Day 1

As always, never seemed to be quite ready to go. Despite leaving the house by 7am, we made several stops on the way out of town and didn’t actually hit the trail til 3PM.

On the drive in we saw a band of ewes right off the road that had me double checking to make sure we weren’t already in the unit, not that there were any legal rams in the group anyway.



I was a little concerned about making good time with the late arrival at the trailhead (was hoping for a noon start)and my biggest goat, Ivar (mostly white one), a legit 300 pounder, was being a butthole. He’s obviously out of shape but was being particularly difficult. He’d get 100 yards behind and then cry, and if we stopped, so would he. He wouldn’t use our stops to make up distance. Eventually, halfway up the trail, I had to leash him up and damn near drag him along to keep a quick enough pace to make camp where I wanted by dark.



We made the main drainage of West Founders and things began to open up into glassable sheep country by about 6PM. The mountain to the south, Flagg, is where I’d seen large ewe groups in the summer. The mountain to the north split West Founders from Founders Creek and had lots of sheep habitat. This is where I’d seen the rams (way up the drainage)and two buddies of mine had killed rams in almost back to back years.


As things opened up at the slide lake we sat down and immediately glassed a band of ewes. I was a little thankful they were ewes as they were in some nasty stuff, nearly unapproachable from where we sat. But finding sheep immediately from bear where we’d camp kept our spirits high. The goats were on edge and we finally figured it out, there was a small bull moose in the willows below us.

Sheep were high on the mountain behind us here



As we were running low on light we decided to set camp a little lower than I had hoped. We did that hurriedly and just as we finished a couple bulls decided to light off, putting a grin on our faces.

Nope

Right on Exo !!

Love your cool photo essays !

Cool story so far😁. All that beetle killed timber is depressing. The last time I was elk hunting near timberline when we got on top, you could see for ten miles in three directions and all you could see was beetle kill.

Tag[ing along]

I really look forward to the annual photo essay with the goats.

Exbiologist, thank you for your story and pictures. I enjoyed them. Good luck.

L.W.

This is awesome, can’t wait for the rest!

Good photos and write up, as always! Looking forward to the rest.

Your photo essays are always the best!

I've owned goats and still think they are awesome.....

Enjoy your experiences. Thanks for sharing.

Day 2
We started the day glassing immediately out of camp. A couple does were browsing near camp and one cruised right by us.



As always, we saw a herd on top of Flagg, still just ewes.

We were mostly focused on the mountain to our north and we saw a lone sheep cruising straight down the mountain in a hell of a hurry. I couldn’t get the spotter on it in time. I wanted to believe it was a ram, just because it was alone but really had no idea. It seemed like it got past the slide and into the timber but not really sure as we lost it while fumble fugging with the spitting scope.



With really nothing to go off of, we had to move on and up West Founders. But after breakfast.

After topping off water and loading up Ragnar with a pack, some rain gear, snacks and lunches we set off up the trail for some more glassing vantages.




We steadily worked our way up valley and glassed four more sheep at 2 miles distant at mid morning. They all seemed the same size, so seemed plausible it could be a ram group, plus it was near the herd I saw earlier in the summer.



It was a slog, but we steadily climbed and climbed through the timber to this hanging valley with good ridges and pinnacles on both sides. It took over an hour but we made it sometime after noon. It was super elk as we climbed and then right at timberline we busted a herd of about 10 cows. They pushed off up into open and then paused, apparently they didn’t want to go up over these ridges either. They then ran back towards us and skirted around the ridge we were on.

We paused here at timberline (12,000). The sheep were now out of sight so we figured we’d wait. And eat lunch. And then we fell asleep. By about 3:30 we got restless and moved further up the side valley.

Well up above timberline now around 12,500 feet. We could finally see up to the top of this drainage as it curved a bit. There was a little snow field up there and, we were shocked to see a herd of elk bedding on it and feeding right at the top of the ridge line. This had to be over 13,000 feet. I had never imagined seeing elk up that high in late September!



There were about 8 of them with one bull, then another 8-10 arrived from over the ridge. I’m not sure how or why this happened but all the cows except one went up and over the snow field. The one cow kept running back and forth under the snow and the bull came down on top of the snow, seemingly to try to show her how to get up it or maybe was calling at her. Eventually she lost her mind and started running down valley, abandoning the herd.

That cow ran all the way down toward us. It got to within 100 yards before it started wondering what my goats were and then changed directions down valley.

Now at dusk, the sheep finally reappeared. And as I got the scope on one, it crouched to pee, unfortunately confirming that was a ewe. Glassing the other tree, two were ewes and one was a lamb.


Dammit. Head home. And back to camp for dinner.

Day 3

The bulls bugled all night and the coyotes sounded like they were right outside our tent. It was kinda distracting but still cool to hear. Was literally all night. Eventually I got up to tell the coyote outside to shut the hell up. I walked out into the meadow while it was snowing a tiny bit so where ever that dang coyote was it would see me in the pre dawn light because yelling from the tent wouldn’t shut it up. That seemed to work and the bulls kept at it. Seemed like there was at least 4 bulls surrounding my valley.



Since I was up, I tried to put myself in position to see that lone sheep from yesterday morning as soon as it was light enough.

Instead of sheep today, there were elk plastered all over the ridges above camp. One bull was visible with several dozen cows above timberline and they were strung out for a half mile.

After dawn’s glassing we ate breakfast and saddled up. This time we threw a pack frame on Gunnar too with the empty packs in Ragnar’s packs. Figured if we got into something we’d have enough capacity to get a sheep out this way.


We decided to head all the way to the top of the drainage and if we didn’t get into anything we would go over the top of the continental divide into another drainage where I had seen sheep this summer.

The pass is over the top of Ragnar’s horns here, about 12,700 feet.



On the way up, one bull elk kept bugling in the timber to the north well past when we passed him around 9:30 am. We saw a cow moose down in the willows and just as we crested the divide a bull moose came over the top right along the trail.



We saw a ton of country, but no sheep.




There was more sheep country to see, but it was a long way off. With how far we had hiked, no nap was in order today, needed to get back to where we had last seen some sheep and we were miles from there.

As we got back to our original target country just before dusk, we found a herd of 8 sheep right where all the elk were this morning. We got the scope on them and there was a ram, but just a little guy, probably a yearling with 5 ewes and two lambs. We watched them til dark as they hung out around a large boulder pile.



Camp was just around the corner so we ate dinner, listened to some elk bugle and hung around the fire.

Well, the goats were loose and feeding and apparently Ivar decided he liked our sandwiches more than the cinquefoil and high mountain grass. Fugger left me with one peanut butter and honey sandwich! I coulda killed him if I didn’t still need him.

Katie was heading home in the morning. I had enough snacks to make up for the lost sandwiches for a couple days, but not the 4-5 more days I had planned. And we hadn’t seen any rams.

Katie drove separately, so I didn’t need to pack out with her. However, I wasn’t sure I was hunting where I needed to be. The plan was now to maybe stay one or two more days in this drainage, then relocate to some lesser known options on the other side of the divide. I was gonna need food anyway…

TBC…

Yeah it ain’t pretty, but lotsa feed underneath. Good for big game, tough for hunters.

I’m trying, I’m trying! Couple more days…

Keep it coming. Enjoying the heck out of this story.

Great story and pics so far, can't wait for the rest.

Awesome thread, hell yeah

🤣🤣🤣

Days 4, 5, 6
Early this morning Katie packed out some of her gear, while leaving the rest with me and the goats. I found out later she ran into two guides hunting with a client for a ewe on the way down. They told her they never hunt this drainage for rams and were a little cagey about where they had been camping. They did not give her any suggestions for a ram, which is understandable.

I spent the morning glassing near camp by myself and felt I had covered a ton of it. The season had been open for 4 days now and if people were going to bump sheep into my drainage from more accessible areas, I was hoping they would have done it by now.

With no rams in sight and short in food( F U Ivar), I decided to pack everything up and head home for a day, do some research and make a few phone calls. Then head back in in another day. Oh and Ivar had noooooo problem walking downhill with a half full pack.




When I got home, I talked to the buddies that had hunted there in the past, and they told me that outfitter was full of crap. Said his website pictures are all of rams in this same drainage where they too had killed and I had been hunting the last few days.

I also found less continuous drainages likely to hold sheep, but they were more isolated. I decided I was better off being mobile and bringing the ATV out while having a truck based camp.

Knowing we were being lied to by the outfitter and suspecting they had to have been eyeing basins a bit lower than we had been hunting I decided to give West Founders one more day by Atving in to the bottom and hiking up, not quite as far as we had been with the goats. If those last few lower rocky basins off the same ridge did not work out, I’d motor over to Founders, which has an ATV trail going all the way up over the top into some serious high country. If that didn’t work out, I’d move again to the other side of the continental divide.

Day 5 was heading back in and setting up a base camp.

Day 6 I’m hunting again. It’s a two week season and weather is coming in at the end of it.

Predawn and I’m hunting up the same trail I just packed out of two days ago. Seemed like a waste but I needed to re energize and get some more food.

Two bulls were screaming at each other and I saw one in the aspens raking a small tree. Yeah I hung out to watch a bit, eventually deciding to get to the serous business of investigating this lower basin that we hadn’t glasses previously.

Back up the trail and just as I hit the creek flowing out of the basin, wouldn’t you know it, but I found a ram caped out with meat in bags just off the trail. Guessing the outfitted client was a ram hunter after all. Liars.



Guess we weren’t that far off of a ram or two. So up I climbed, and climbed and climbed. This was an unusual basin with the lower end being heavily timbered and the upper end set back further into the mountain than the other ridges. So the only way to glass it would be from the top of Flagg mountain or to be right on the border ridges and work your way up towards the back of it.

So that’s what I did. It was steep, several times I reminded myself to have three points of contact at all times. I was grabbing shrubs or grass tufts or little trees to pull myself up and up and up. I damn sure didn’t want to go down this way in the way back if I could avoid it, but needed to peak into the basin and glass the pinnacles and cliff faces without sky lining myself the whole way up.

It was an ass kicker. As if the previous several days had been nothing. Had to really watch the thorny cliff rose, but every other shrubby rooted thing was needed to keep my balance while climbing and huffing and puffing. I was in sheep sign and someone had just killed a ram the previous day, when I should have still been here hunting. Definitely moving slower now.











More to come…

Great story and pics. Thanks for sharing. Waiting on the trophy shot.

ttt

Day 6.5
I got near the top of the basin and was gassed. I was a bit above timberline but I had tipped out. I damn sure did not want to go back down and around this basin to only have to gain altitude again. There was stuff worth seeing on the back side of this ridge but I wasn’t sure if the ridge truly cliffed out, or just kinda cliffed out. So up I went. Little by little. Keeping at least three points of contact as we climbed and climbed and climbed. I was going slow and the heart racing was probably more to do with not wanting to fall than actually working hard.

Can I get out on top here or not?





You’re not a sheep Mark. You’ve got a family. Don’t die, don’t slip and fall. Don’t get hurt. Over and over and over I said that to myself. And I went up little by little, and it was never obvious that I could or could not do it.

From afar it looked like I could maybe climb up out near the thimble rock, but it cliffed out in between.

However, the ridge and the sheep trails hugged the close side of the mountain and I just glued myself to the main cliff face and kept as much contact as I could and kept creeping on up. My stomach was in knots the whole way and it wouldn’t take much of slip to be dead or in serious trouble. But I just kept going. You’re not a sheep mark, you’ve got a family. Don’t get hurt. Don’t die.

It got real tight in spots, hands and knees at times and then before I knew it, it flattened out and I was there. Holy crap I made it out. Well I ain’t going back but I did it. I found a seem, hugged the mountain and made my way out. Took forever but I did it. Wasn’t appropriate to take a picture while in the worst of it but snapped a few after I crested out.






It scared the hell out of me. Grabbed a sandwich and sat in the shade on the opposite side and re examined. My surroundings. Onx showed some gnarled cliffs, so after soaking in the new view and listenkng to a lone bull bugle in the timber below. Off I went. Little by little on the sheep trails on the ridge here.


Eventually, I got to the next set of pinnacles and I called it. I just wasn’t willing to do this again.



I could see the sheep trail going right between the pinnacles. I just couldn’t risk it. I could see this cliffed out at the bottom of the pinnacle with a real drop off, so a tumble could mean death. I had to stop here.

From a little lower I got a view further up valley so I sat here at what seemed like a pinch point. Cliff out below, sheep trails above. If a sheep came by, it would have to come by in range with plenty of openings and time to make a decision. By late afternoon I glassed 4 sheep in the shade well past the pinnacles. It was probably the same group I saw a few days prior as they were on the exact opposite side of the mountain. Either way. Nothing to get excited about and think about how to cross the pinnacles or the cliffs or descend down to the creek via the avalanche chute and then back up.

I stayed up here until dusk listening to the occasional bugle, then headed lower to look at some smaller basins that I passed on the way in this morning. Got back down to the trail around dark. It was an ass kicker of a day, but I was still in sheep.

Day 7
My feet hurt, right big toe was getting numb as it sometimes does on hard hunts. I slept in a little and got rolling a bit after dawn. I decided to take the ATV up the creek of Founders, getting different views of the same ridge I was on yesterday, but further up valley, with new views of the next cliff on the north side of Founders. The lower end had some good pinnacles that rounded around with a lake basin on the back side. The far end was like 13,600 feet with some sheepy looking stuff here and there. Figured it would be an exploration day. And if I saw nothing new or exciting I’d pack up and hunt the other side of the divide.

Puttering along the new stuff at 9am, about 45 minutes down the trail from camp, I got a break in the timber above and glassed to my north. To the south was the ridge I climbed onto yesterday.

I look up with the binos and there’s a ram peeking over the top of a rock! Plus two more sheep below him about half a mile away, what seemed like straight up the mountain. I scramble off the 4wheeler and grab the big spotter, but I knew damn well I’d be willing to shoot that ram at this point. First impression was heavy bases and unbroomed tips with the 12x binos . So probably in the 5/8 curl or so range.

But he was gone by the time I got the scope up. But there was nowhere for him to go. It was all barren open slope. Did he come down into the timber? Was he just feeding in the willows? I doubt he baled over the top already. There were a few boulders jutting out, but they weren’t very big, I should see him any second now.

Well either way. Start climbing. So up and up I went to timberline at 12,000 feet. About 750 feet above where I left the ATV with still hundred more feet to go to where I last saw him. But I have no cover left.

There! No that’s a deer. A damn big one at that. Do I sit down. It’s now 10am. I hadn’t seen any sheep all week from mid morning to late afternoon. Did they bed down somewhere? I’m 400 yards from where I last saw him. Should I just charge up the hill and spook them? I’d probably have a shot as there wasn’t much cover they could get to. No, that’s stupid. Be smarter than that.

Just then, a ram was standing in the big boulder where I first saw the ram and two other sheep. And then he was gone! Surely all three were bedded just behind the boulder. This was a different ram, definitely younger and not a shooter. I’m certain that makes for two rams. Was the deer something I mistook for another ram for a half mile away? I doubt it. Their body shapes are very different, even if the color is similar.

So now what? Wait 4-6 more hours for them to get up? I already climbed 750 feet. I’m probably within range if they feed down below the boulders and if I get a little bit higher. Or do I try to find a way around to the ridge above for a 100 yard shot and better view of the rams.

I saw a cairn on top of the ridge. I wonder, is ther access up there? Looks like the ATV trail ties in with an alpine road at the pass. That puts me 1.2 miles away on Onx and close enough in altitude for the top of the ridge. Piss on waiting I’m making my move.

Sheep bedded somewhere in the boulders above.



Back down 750 feet. To the ATV. Up and up the trail to the Jeep road. Then straight up the mountain. Hey wait, where was the road I was looking for? Seemed like what I wanted went through a mining claim and isn’t an open road. Well, another spur seems to go a little further from here. You’re committed now…

Now I’m at 13,200 feet. And the next spur I wanted is closed too. That one went through some tundra and the scree, but unnecessarily seemed to gain altitude that I didn’t need. Th ridge above the rams was 12.700ish. I don’t need to go up to 13,500. I’ll go around on foot. Through a half mile of scree.


Then through some nice open tundra, and then the ridge.




Son of gun. Thought we weren’t doing this again…
Shoulda be easier than yesterday . But just don’t fall on either side.




But we are hunting now. Rifle in hand. 3 points of contact rule still applies. Just shift gun hand so you can grab rocks. Hands and knees when it narrows. Peek over the sides. Onx says that boulder is still further in front of you.
There’s sheep trails here Mark, but you’re not a sheep. You have a family. Don’t die. Don’t fall. Don’t get hurt. Don’t have to peek all the way over the edge. They should be out front somewhere.

What’s that stupid looking stump doing up here?
Holy crap! Sheep! With friends! They’re still sleeping!

Good stuff! Thank you for taking the time.

Day 7.5

So there I was no sch!te about to die. Had three rams bedded at 85 yards. I’m in a cliff edge at 12,700 feet. I’m afraid of getting prone to shoot. Pretty sure I won’t fall off, but what if I drop my rifle while in recoil? It’s a chip shot but there’s a young ram with his face awfully close to the 5/8 curl ram. And I’m willing to take him at this point. I’d like a steady rest. I’ve got a bipod but can’t get the angle right, clear the rocks and point it downward enough. Wait, I’ve got shooting sticks in the pack!

I back up, whip out the folding sticks and they are all kinds a floppy on the rocks. The ram on the left gets up to pee. Is he looking at me? He’s looking my way while I’m fumbling around. The other little ram gets up that was next to the bigger ram. I’m all clear. Bam!

280 AI 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. He never got out of his bed. He kicked/spasmed a couple times. The little rams ram my way then turned back around and fled toward the timber. It was over. Sorta. Now I gotta go get him.

I never did find that way down that I thought I’d be able to pull off from below. So I look again along the ridges and give up. I can’t spend all day looking for a route down when I know I can get there from below, but it’s gonna be a few hours either way.

I punch my tag and hustle back to the ATV. Shot was at 2 PM, I got 5 hours til dark. Took me four hours to get here and take the shot but no since being sneaky now. Just book it. 1.7 miles back to the ATV. A coupe miles back to the bottom of the cliff. 1,250 feet straight up over what turned out be 900 yards.

I was just about out of water, I was tired already. And now I have to climb and climb and climb again. Your reward will be the remaining water when you get there. I had one game bag, a mostly empty Badlands Sacrifice pack with me, so enough to get most of the meat out tonight. No good way to mess with the head today.



Up and up and up and up. Started up from the trail at 4:30 ish. Loose dirt and rocks, holding on to tufts of grass with both hands trying to gain altitude. 3 points of contact Mark. Don’t die. You’re not a sheep, be smart. Don’t fall. It was terrible those last 100 yards. But as I rounded the Boulder at 5:20, There he lay. 7 days in and I’ve done it.







Tried a few selfies but remembered the little tripod I had for a snap on telephoto for the IPhone and tried that. Much better.

Looks like quite the adventure. Thanks for sharing.

Love the goats.

The uphill shot and why I didn’t come from the top to at least gut him before heading back to the ATV.

I got the back straps, tenderloins, and both tears out that night. I got down to the ATV around 8 PM. It was sketchy being totally off balance, but I had my hands free with no rifle (hid it in the bushes below). Was totally out of water. And hungry. I had some cheese with my other gear so I grabbed some of that. It’s wet. It should help. No! It’s all salt and turns my mouth into a paste. Granola bar had some meaty bits and was able to choke that down. Back to camp by 9 for a late proper dinner and clean up.

Day 8

I had hiking pole that I should have been using. So the next morning, with the dreaded climb and all unnecessary gear being stashed in camp or down near the trail, I started hiking up and up and up again. This time with a frame pack to get here and cape and front quarters out.
I basically never use a hiking pole but it really did help with the balance in the super steep stuff, especially on the way back down.

Basically the end. Was back to camp by about 1PM. 23 hours after I shot him.

Found the bullet jacket in the shoulder. Will probably try to find a way to put that on the backpack mount I’m thinking about doing.



The end

Wow!!!

Whew! I’m tired….time to go to bed.

I’ll never get the chance but nice job telling your story with some really nice photos. Thanks.

Way to go!
Huge congratulations on a job well done.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience.

A sheep well earned. Thanks for sharing.

Nice well earned hunt, thanks for taking us along!

Alright! Well done, man! And well earned.

Congrats, and per always - thanks for sharing.

Man, what a trip. Excellent!!

Good stuff, congrats.

Thanks for sharing man, awesome. Bad ass!

Great story! Love that feeling when you finally wrap your mitts around those horns!

Congrats, great write up! Thank you for sharing

Awesome hunt all the way around. Thanks for your great writeup and photos.

Super write up and photos. Congrats on getting your sheep. Thanks for taking us along!

Well earned! Thanks for the writeup.

Heck ya man!

Thanks for sharing....

Great composure on the hunt & the read, congratulations on the sheep.

Really enjoyed being able to come along on your hunting adventure - thank you! And congrats on a terrific trophy - just a beauty of a ram well done!

Great write up. Much appreciate the time and effort you put into it.

That was an amazing hunt and very well chronicled. You are one in a thousand able to outfit and stalk yourself into a high tough country sheep hunt. My late Brother was a Wyoming guide who was always sorry he didn’t have more sheep clients. Even then only a few were honestly up to it physically and most not really able to climb like you. Several that could got scared at some of the narrow tricky approaches to good elevation. Sheep and goat hunters are special athletes but more than legs and lungs they need be able to overlook the risks to get close enough to the game for a reasonable shot and still be able to accurately shoot and often steep down angles.

Using pack goats is a very smart move and something I’d never heard of. Above timberline on loose shale and rock slides my Brother depended on two of his favorite mules but he always said they were noisy and usually had to be staked or hobbled well below. Those goats of your’s I’m guessing hold that rocky ground much better and furthermore probably looked like relatives to the sheep. Sheep have some of the best vision of all so again using pack goats is a very smart clever plan.

To sum it up you’ve treated us to a one of a kind rough country high elevation hunt for sheep that you planned and executed by you and your wife with NO guide. Self guided sheep and goat hunts are almost unheard of unless you’re local and know what to expect and then it’s risky. What you have here is the makings of a good hunting story suitable for print in the better publications. I can only add total my admiration

Rick

Congrats, hard earned trophy!

Very well done.
Both the doing and the telling, I think...

Fantastic, well earned, congratulations! Thanks for sharing the adventure!

Congrats & Thanks for the ride along!

Very cool Mark, thanks for taking us along with you.

Thanks all. I enjoy trying to get the story of the adventure aspect of these hunts down on paper.
And Woodpecker, thanks for kind words. It really is more meaningful to me to do this myself than to pay for a guide. While a guide might be a better use of my time, I’ve got the equipment and ability to do things like this without their help. This is about the hunt for me, and someone else doing the hunting and prep work might take some of that away from me. This is essentially a once in a lifetime hunt and I wanted to do it from beginning to end.

Getting this done solo was hard, but more rewarding that way.

My late Brother hunted desert sheep in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains in the late 90’s. Hard tag to get but his buddy was from Elko and got one. The two of them went in with two horses two mules and told me they glassed quite a few sheep but hadn’t figured an approach. The stumbled onto an old mine road up to 9000’ , very lucky. After a day or two glassed three nice heads and about ten or more ewes. They climbed up a draw then over and saw all of them bedded down or eating. Crawled another four hundred yards or so to find a shooting location when all of a sudden out of nowhere two jet fighter planes came over the ridge very very low scattering every living thing for a mile. They never shot a thing. Fighter training out of Fallon Naval Air Station

Rick

Wow !!!!

Great adventure, Mate !

Kudos, you are 1 tough Fella !

My brother and I were hunting Dall's in the Alaska Range. 3 times over several days we made a stalk on one or more full-curls, only to bump caribou which charged right through the rams. On our 4th stalk, before we were in position, two F-15s?? came up the valley, a couple hundred yards out, but below us.

I told Bob, " Now, those guys know how to hunt sheep!"

He said, " One more failed stalk, and I'm calling in an airstrike."

"On the sheep or the caribou?"

"It just doesn't matter!"

Great story and awesome pics!!! Congrats on the ram!

Most excellent.
Thanks Mark for taking the time to post it all up for us to enjoy.

Great story, felt like we were with you! And a Big Congrads, a much younger M e dreamed of sheep hunting!

Well done and well told!! Thank you for sharing!

Hell yeah! DIY is so rewarding especially on a once-in-a lifetime hunt. Congrats!

Well done and I really enjoyed the daily journal/pictures format. I use to post some of my hunts in that fashion several years ago and got a kick out of the guys getting impatient for the next post. I can appreciate the effort just posting with pictures takes let alone the actual hunt.
Congratulations!

Congrats on your ram.

Domestic goats can carry pathogens that cause respiratory disease in wild sheep. CPW recommends you keep pack goats out of bighorn sheep habitat. See the passage below from the sheep and goat regulations brochure.

It’s a domestic sheep grazed unit and a hypocritical stance since they keep signing an MOU with the wool growers to not recommend closures of sheep grazed allotments in exchange for the Wool growers acknowledging that sheep carry diseases.

CPW also recommends I not use lead ammunition.

The MOU expired in 2019 and has not been renewed. Grazing allotments are being vacated in this unit to protect the bighorn herd. Many of them were grazed for the last time this summer.

"There are other risks to the herd so I'm not going to worry about the risk I'm creating" is an interesting position to take.

I didn't post to pick a fight. Only to educate those who read this and think it would be cool to take pack goats on their sheep hunt.

Bravo. Thanks for the adventure. Like someone else said, I’ll ever get the chance to do it but I felt I was there with you.

Great read and pics. Awesome job of putting your hunt/adventure to words. Thanks for sharing! Well done!

This was a fantastic read and a great hunt. Well done and thanks for sharing with us. I have only been on one sheep hunt, a ewe in the Missouri River Breaks, great times and hope to hunt them again sometime.

Not necessarily accurate.


https://napga.org/wp-content/upload...-common-misunderstood-publications-2.pdf

man, oh man: what a fine story. i'd of paid for a magazine to read it ...

Someone always has to throw a wet blanket on the fire😡
Great saga you took us on, Mark.

Thank you for taking the time to chronicle your most excellent hunt! Felt like I was there almost.

Congrats on the sheep! Well done.

Bad Science is often the ghillie suit of a political agenda.

Good for you. Thanks for sharing your hunt for a very well earned trophy!!