TMA Sheep Hunt Report - 08/30/17
Time for a post-hunt report. It started with my son drawing a coveted TMA early season
sheep tag back in late February. He did not know if he could pull it off from work, so he was
not able to commit until a full week after the draw results were posted. As a result, we
missed the chance to book the "better" spots to be dropped off by 40 Mile Air - and to be
truthfull, I'm not really sure where all these spots are anyway. My son was able to get time
off for the 2nd half of the early season. Jake at 40 Mile reserved us a spot that they had not
dropped someone off for a couple of years. It was a river bar located at the upper part of the
Tok River
Spent the summer getting my azz into shape. Dropped to under 200# and did a lot of lower
body weight training. I was also rehabbing a partially torn achilles tendon injury from last
summer. I didn't go on a spending spree for lightweight pack, bag, etc., but did get some
Black Diamond carbon fiber trekking poles as I knew this would help with a heavy pack.
Brought a Leica Televid 20-60x65 that paid bid dividends. Did not bother with bino's.
Took the ferry from Juneau to Haines and drove to Tok from there. A nice drive that I hadn't
done in something like 30 years. We arrived in Tok the day before and checked in with 40
Mile Air. Made sure I had contact info in my DeLorme InReach device and did a test before we
left. Stopped by ADF&G and they had just plugged two 42" rams out of the TMA that
morning. They said the number of mature animals was up and we were pretty stoked to say
the least.
Stayed at the Hunter's "Terminal" that nite, so we'd be ready for the morning departure. Next
morning, we were second up. They had to pull some guys out of the field ahead of us. I was
flying with Leif and my son withMa Jake.
Neither of us have ever flown in a SuperCub. We
got dropped off at the gravel bar at 11:00 on Friday. Here's the obligitory plane shot. We
ended up hunting the valley visible above the plane's tail.
Pulled out the spotter to check out some sheep just above the landing spot. No rams, just
ewes and lambs. Crossing the Tok River to the south side looked like a bad idea and not
really necessary for our hunt plans.
Put in 4.5 miles and 1,500 vert to make it to a decent camp spot. This was about 500 vert
above the river floor and on a ridge with good visibilty up to the head of the valley. Set up
camp and did a little spotting. Saw 3 rams with one looking pretty good sized (this was the
one we ending up getting). Plan was set for tomorrow.
Saw the rams again the next morning. Took off for the 2.5 mile hike to get up to them.
Took a "gulley shot" up the moraine to keep ourselves hidden from their view. Some really
nasty terrain and almost like another planet. I dubbed it the moraine from hell.
After a couple of hours of hiking we figured we were pretty close and peeked over the top of
a lateral moraine. Spotted the big ram 600 yds away. No way to close the distance without
exposing ourselves to view. We mulled it over for 1/2 hour while eating some food and
hydrating, then decided to make our break while he was feeding. Got up behind the next
lateral moraine and took a peek - we were busted. Two rams heading up the steep scree
above us. They both took sentry positions and gave us the stink eye.
We decided to back off and head to the head of the valley as we had seen rams moving up
and down this corridor. Made it up to the to the top of the valley and looked off the back of
the pass to see a couple of sub-legal rams. Made the long hump back to camp - 9 mile / 13
hour day. I was pretty whooped. We decided to leave those sheep alone for a while and let
them settle down.