Well, I'm killing time in Whitehorse, Yukon awaiting the Alcan flight that will take me to the Ogilvie Mountains, where Jim and Adrienne Fink operate Blackstone Outfitters. I am hunting Dall sheep, with moose and caribou on the menu. I've had an uneventful trip from Atlanta to SLC to Vancouver and then on to Whitehorse, a surprisingly bustling town, touristy, and packed with college kids. I've seen two Starbucks, a Walmart, Staples, and McDonalds. I've seen two separate First Nation dramas involving massive police and EMT/ambulance responses with the upshot being drunken Indian bad behavior... seems this might be a common occurrence.
Travel requirements had me two days in Whitehorse, waiting, killing time with another hunter and a long-time guide for the outfit. My sleep cycle has been disturbed by jet lag, Pacific Time Zone, and Sheep Fever. I've been in this bed with a street light from across the street boring a hole in my brain for so long now I had to get up an repack the gear one last time, and with still more time, I decided to update the backpackers with this little tale.
I have been doing this type of hunting for several years, and have developed quite a basement full of gear to choose from. I am using a Mystery Ranch G6000 pack this time. The volume is right, it's not as heavy as a Grizzly, and I like the side pockets, one of which I can use for the butt of my NULA .30-06, and balance that on the other side with a nalgene. As a guided hunter, I won't need a spotting scope, the swaro 10X42 range binos are my optics. I've got Hornady Superperformance GMX 150gr ammo, and the NULA is looking ungainly this year wearing a big ole Swarovski Z5 3.5-18 BT, dialed in out to 500 yds.
Went with a Kifaru sleeping bag 0 degree Slick, Neo-air pad, with backup zlite pad cut down to function as a sit pad while glassing. I'm very comfortable in the Sportiva Trango Evo GTX boots, wool socks and liners. Throw in some bug dope and a steripen, some Westcomb rain gear, Arcteryx atom SV coat for warmth along with some puffy pants, and we are GTG. It's about time for breakfast, and a blast off for camp.
More to come...

looks like you are set up to go!

I wish you and enjoyable experience and look forward to seing some photos upon your return.

stay safe.

BBerg

Good luck to you, man. Hope it's a great hunt.

Good luck Sir, I'm envious

Enjoy the moment Doc, and stay safe and good luck.

Good luck!! Hear those sheep guides are the real deal, better get to stepin:)

Geez, Don, that is SOME scope you are packin', must make that little NULA a bit top heavy, eh?

Glad to see that you are still using MR packs on these jaunts, I have had great trips in past years with mine and have a 10-12 day Elk, Moose and both species of deer trip planned for Oct. 1 to about the 12th, as this is when my buddy can get the time off from one of his two jobs.

We will be hunting on a pair of traplines, much of which are not accessible to the public in the area where I was born and raised and these lines belong to one of my cousins. He is in northern BC hunting Stone's at present and will be hunting Moose, when my bud and I are on his traplines, but, he has taken several HAWG Elk there and I am "hopeful".

I hope you get a monster Dall's, a humungous Moose and an enormous Cariboo, that would be a trip of a liftime. My wife was an RN in the Yukon in the '70s and loves Whitehorse and wants to return.....so, I might hunt there in a year or two and take her along.....lotsa bux, but, it would be a wonderful experience for both of we elderly geezers/geezettes.

So, just give 'er max and have a fantastic trip, then post lots of pix and details.

Doc, again I can't wait to read up on the results! Best of times to ya! Good luck and stay safe! Interesting you went with the Kifaru bag again. You must trust it with your life.

Go get'em!

I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the story! Good luck!

Best of luck on your hunt. I can't wait to hear more.

Doc, I need more story, as soon as possible....

Best of Luck.

Best of luck, Don! Hope you get some bigguns!

Good luck on the hunt man!!! Cant wait to see how you do!

Can't wait to hear (and see pics, lots of photos pls.) more. Good luck!

First Day Sheep! Home Early.....more to come, eh! Lovin' Canada
Don

Wow!!! Cant wait to see more pics!!!!! COngrats!

Don,
Beautiful animal, congrats!!!!!!!!!

Wow..that looks great! Congratulations and welcome to the Yukon!

welcome to the Yukon even if i know it s not your first trip here.

all the best and cant wait to read the rest of the story.

Wow! Way to go, Don! Congratulations.

Don, simply gorgeous animal. And it looks like perfect bullet placement to boot!

Again, congrat's.

Great job Doc! Looks like a beautiful ram!

Looking forward to hearing the story....

Congrats again!

Its a beauty Don! A little broomed on the left and a full curl on the right. Looks to be 9 1/2? I'm sure we haven't scene the "end" yet.

Gagger of a Ram Don, way to go!

Are/were you a little disappointed the hunt ended so early? They take so long to get here and then their over so soon..

Great ram and pic, thanks for sharing.

What's that jacket?

Very cool sheep and picture! Can't wait to hear the story!

Congrats on your ram. Looking forward to the rest of the story and pics.

Beautiful sheep love the broomed horn. Can't wait for the story.

Doc,
You are in the right part of the world. I am jealous having always wanted to take a Dall, but now too busted up to hunt sheep. Forget about Starbucks and Wal-Mart. The Yukon and people of the North in general have a wonderful way at looking at life and plan for the future. They are sturdy and don't take things for granted. Revel in that and all of that grand country.

Watch you backtrail when you get a moose down. You are on the trip of a lifetime and we all want to hear more about it.

Doc, glad to see the jacket getting some field time!!!

Congrats on a nice ram and good shooting also! Looking forward to the story.

Don,

Fantastic ram. I look forward to more photos and stories.

Wow that was quick! Congratulations!

Well guys, I've been trying to get back to life around the "ranch" here on the East Coast. I've finally gotten a little time to put the story together. As some of you may remember, I had a Dall trip with Blackstone Outfitters of the Yukon back in 2009. The outfitters (Jim and Adrienne Fink) graciously offered a steeply discounted return trip since I was not successful that year (although I did get a grizzly). That years trip was very frustrating, and pushed me past my physical limit. I covered more miles than I care to remember and had all I could take, and still call it a vacation! With that said, I was determined to do all I could to make sure that if 10 days of forced march were required, that I would be mentally and physically ready. The mental part was the big one!
Blackstone has a camp on the Dempster Highway in central Yukon. Some hunters drive to base camp, but both times I chartered Alkan Air out of Whitehorse, after a nice stay at the Edgewater Hotel. I met a guide who's day job is conservation officer in Alberta (Paul Weisser), and his first words to me in the Edgewater, were "I'm not guiding you, I want an old fat guy". I'm used to taking these guys with a grain of salt, and as I was to later learn, Paul has been in on over 200 sheep kills, and is hard as a nail at 54, still carrying a Trapper Nelson pack. Anyway, we all got to camp (me, Paul, and Greg from Wisconsin-another hunter) and met some outgoing hunters, one successful one from Mexico, "Oscar", and one from Wisconsin who was skunked (guides say he quit). I was soon all licensed up (grizzly and moose licenses as well, available at a hefty trophy fee) and flying out where my guide Ryan was waiting, at the foot of a locally named site, named after a previous hunter, Neimark Mountain. Ryan had flown in first and had set up camp and assessed the grizzly situation (tracks, nothing fresh). The tent was a nice three man Sierra Designs model that proved waterproof and windproof and very spacious, since I was used to a two man tent! Ryan had spotted rams on the back side of the range to our east, and before we went to bed that night, we spotted rams to the west. The plan was to stay planted at that tent site and pick a direction each day to radiate from and look for a sheep. I have dreams of a record book ram, fellas, but I was skunked here once, so I was thinking I would take the first one that bested the 37"er I got in 2007. We went to bed that night with very gusty winds but above freezing, no precip.
The next morning, the test began, the day before my 52nd birthday. Ryan had made the command decision to head up our valley to the north, and to glass the range to the west. We stripped our packs down to daypack mode and headed out. Before long, Ryan spotted a lone ram sitting in a bed at the top to the west, and a plan was formed. This was roughly where rams were spotted on the way in 24 hours ago. I was told the plane had gone way out of the way to keep from spooking them, and thus Ryan didn't have any idea if there was a shooter in the bunch. We were going up to check it out. We continued up the valley to the north until out of sight of the sentinel ram, then began our way up. I think the altitude was about 5000+ feet at the top. No matter how I hard I pre-trip cardio, I cannot keep up with these friggin guides when the steepy-steep starts. Anyway, we start pussy-footin' along the top after about a two hour climp, checking each drainage on the backside. Ryan would sneak over first for the look and see, then he'd motion me along. On the third such drainage, he slid back down to me saying he'd found my ram! So up we both go for a look, me with my spanking new Swaro 10X42 EL Rangefinders.............800 yards. Now, Ryan, unlike every guide I've every been with, had a really crappy spotting scope, it looked like something Capt Hook might have been carrying, I checked it for Civil War surplus markings, even! I'm thinking of my Swaro spotter I left at home for weight considerations, and kind of regretting not bringing it. I don't know how he can see anything through that scope, but one things for sure, we need to get closer. This getting closer process is were he nick-named me "two-step Donnie". As in, takes two steps before he rests! Now I resemble that remark! I take at least 5 steps! We are moving as fast as possible, Ryan says "Doc, I need to be honest with you, your chances of getting that ram are way higher if we get there fast". That's guide-speak for move-yer-azz! We pick our spot to crest for a peek, and we do it on our bellys, him first. Thumbs up. This is them moment where my doctor training comes in handy. What?, you say! I used to have a surgery professor that would tell us that when the do-do hits the fan, first TAKE YOUR OWN PULSE. So I'm thinking rounds chambered? safety position? scope all set up? mentally prepared to chamber another round?, don't point the rifle at the guide, don't make a sound (wedding ring on the stock, etc), wind direction? All this going through my mind as I crest and see the 8 rams bedded below us all looking away down hill, with the wind blowing 10mph gusts cross. The two biggest rams were very close to each other both in position and in size. It was very hard to tell which ram was more mature, with the bigger curl. Ryan makes the determination on which to shoot, and we wait, and wait, and wait. The shooter ram has got to put a tiny bit of distance between himself and the others for a safe shot. This is where the funniest thing go through your mind...........
I lurk sometimes on the optics forum on the 'fire, and the arguments are rabid sometimes so I never join in much. I've got a Swaro Z5 scope with 3.5-18X magnification. I've got the yardage pegged right at 200yds. The swaro EL's have angle adjustment, and have read the actual distance at 237, but the horizontal distance at 200. I have the scope set at 18X. Frankly, I can pick out at hair to shoot at, but I have enough time to be concerned that if they got up and ran suddenly, that I might have a hard time finding the right ram, or any ram at all at that power. That's when I started thinking of all the hunters who like the fixed 6X (Brad) scope. I dialed it down to six. Now I can see all the rams, and all the surrounding country-side. It didn't feel comfortable to me (have shot so much at targets on 18X), so I slowly crept up to 10X, this seemed about right. Finally my guy got up to circle, made the distance from his fellows, and Ryan gave the go ahead. Bang with the NULA .30-06, and story over. One shot through the thorax, midway up and the ram stood there for a moment, the blood loss visible through our optics, no second shot necessary. The rest of the band just hung around watching for the longest. Down in the far valley a group of lambs and ewes were undisturbed. There were more rams about a mile out that we'd spotted earlier that were to be tomorrows subject if we hadn't seen this band. They were undisturbed. I just laid there, stunned, where Ryan stood and starting wooping the victory dance. It took us about an hour to get down through the rocks to the sheep, but things went much faster once Ryan showed me how to "shale-surf"....WOW, that was fun. Many photos followed, then the skinning and quartering. A light rain started, and once done, Ryan pointed out our path home. I had my day gear, and I carried a ham, shoulder, ribs and backstraps and tenderloins, and Ryan got the rest. It was as we descended with the load that I mentally questioned whether or not I could do this alone. I hate to think I couldn't, but man was that load heavy. I suppose that boned out, I could have moved the meat, horns and cape, maybe! It was about two miles to the tent, and we were eating sheep meat by the fire that night.
The plan was after the proper cape management the next day to go down the valley and look for moose, maybe a bear. To cut to the chase, after that day and the next, seeing nothing but beautiful country, I decided to take the next supercub ride out of there headed for home. Several concerns were playing a role here:
1. already have a nice moose and grizzly mounted at home
2. could use the "trophy fee" towards next years hunt, or taxes, or college education, or retirement, or............
3. mucho man-points with the wife for coming home early
4. getting back to work a week early cuts down on the overall cost of the hunt the most, so
I take my ride out of there to base camp instead to further hunting grounds. Great trip, shower, female cooked meal! Life's good.
Later that night, Jim asks me to do him a favor, and pick up another party of guides and hunters that are floating the Ogilvie River hunting moose. An Austrian and his 18yo daughter and Jim's son Logan and a lady guide(think she was more a horse girl than a guide). Well I drove about an hour up the Dempster Highway till I got to the gravel bar, picking my way out to the rivers edge in the Suburban (noting 4WD on the floor). Well three hours pass, and I start to wonder if this is a Yukon "snipe-hunt", jokes on me! The sun is going down and its pitch black, and I'm wondering if I can find my way back to the blacktop across the sand/gravel bar, also wondering if the river rises much????
Soon then I see a light out on the river, and I flash the headlights on the Chevy, and I'm to later learn, the inhabitants of that raft were beyond overjoyed to see those lights. Suffice to say that they had scored on about a 60" moose, yes, it was the Austrian girl, Elanore, couldn't have weighted 110lbs (oops 55Kg), who shoot the moose. I was in clean clothes and tennis shoes not expecting such, but the weight of the quarters and the available help prodded me into offering my services. We got all quarters in and the rack and cape, but I was a wreck, oh well. On the trip home the Northern Lights put on as spectacular a show as I've ever seen. No television or video can tell this tale, you just have to see it.
The flying home was uneventful, but I did share the charter with the Austrians (two men in their 50's and their 18yo daughters). The Austrian teenagers were off to "university" this fall and their dad were old friends from the airforce. They had been vacationing from South America to Central America and on to this moose hunt. The girls confided in me that they couldn't wait to get back to Vienna for a proper meal at McDonalds, hmmmmmm
Don

Guide Ryan at our tent camp on the first night

Reaching the top of the ridgeline prior to seeing our rams. The wind was howling. Tried to push me down!

We had left the tent that morning in the valley below

Another view of the ram

Hornady 150gr GMX Superperformance factory ammo, sub MOA for this rifle and deadly. Concerning though, two dented primer misfires during the sight in process.

Ryan calling for moose

That sounds like a exciting trip!! Congrats!!

Awesome job; great pics and a spectacular ram!

Awesome pictures and story! I'm sure your death march hunt made this success sweeter. I'm surprised you ditched your Western Mountaineering Versalite down bag for the Slick bag.

Thanks for sharing.

Great ram and post doc, thanks for sharing. Glad the Yukon worked out for you this time. I still remember one picture of a route you took (or were planning) from the last hunt with a section of the path labeled "OMG", it left an impression.

Congrats Doc!

I just went back and read some of your 2009 post. Sounds like you had already earned this one the last time you were there.

Congrats again, Don! Glad you had a much better outcome on this one.

Would love to hear more about your gear... likes/dislikes.

I always use my WM bags for camping around here, and I'll have to tell you that the Slick was just too narrow around my shoulders. I don't remember the size I have, but I do know that it never got close to zero while I was camping, thus the temp rating (0) was never tested. I came away from the sleeping conditions with two salient thoughts: 1. Use the WM bag next trip, and 2. consider the noise that a NeoAir pad makes, and the sleep deprivation you may inflict on the tent-mate

That is one that I will not allow my tent mate to bring:) only the exped's in my tent:)

Great story and pics, that for sharing and congratulations on the hunt!

I've learned to always bring extra ear plugs. Although with ear plugs I *almost* slept through a bear that was knocking on our tent.

I ended up with a Montbell U.L. #0 bag due to a good sale. I just couldn't bite on the slick.

Beautiful ram Sir.







This is a known issue on Hornady TAP Duty Ammunition in 5.56 as well. They have issues with the primers they use....

I like the multicam jacket. What jacket is that?

The jacket is a rare Westcomb Mirage in Multicam that was made for the Japanese army and has eVent.

Great ram and story!

Is this the crappy spotting scope?

Looks like an Bausch & Lomb Balvar, but I'm not sure...
I had one years ago, and it was a pretty nice spotter.

Congrats! After the last trip, you were due! Great job!

Great trip report. Congrats on your ram. What a great adventure!

Eric

Bushnell elite 15-45x60 : not the best but hard to beat and it works even when it s really cold ....

OK, I'm an optics snob, but it didn't look like my swaro. And hey, Ryan was doing the carrying and the sheep evaluation, so I was not going to find fault with his technique. He's a guide of some noteriety, and I trusted his program.
Don

The camo pattern looks like the new British pattern here, called "All-Terrain" . I wish I could find a pair of rain pants to match with full side zip, and a hat
Don

I didn't know that, thanks. I'm going to be working up a load for a new 7mm Rem Mag, so I hope to be avoiding factory ammo for the near future.
Thanks,
Don

what work for him and for you .... and the result is here.

Looks like it worked out just fine

Congrats again on a great ram.

Don,

we cant even get those jackets here ...

but if more people write down to westcomb who knows.... they ll release more for us little mortals.

all the best.

Phil

I spoke with Westcomb, here in Vancouver, when that jacket first made it's appearance on the 'Fire and they were pretty adamant that there would not be more of these made, for hunters,etc. The issue is really one of production costs and relatively limited market as not many Canadian hunters will pay the price for gear of this quality.

Westcomb, is, without question, the finest outershell gear I have ever seen in almost 50 years of serious outdoor work, recreation and using a lot of highend products. It is costly and "more" than many hunters really NEED, but, it is superb and, IMHO, worth the prices they ask.

I "think" that "Wild Things" in the USA makes some eVent jackets in "multicam" and the few items I have bought from them are very fine in quality and they are nice people to deal with. Marie, the owner, called me one morning to enquire if I were interested in a camo. jacket of eVent fabric and was willing, a few years ago, to make me some clothing that is "custom" and fits the way I prefer my stuff to. This is real, old-fashioned service and worth checking into for anyone looking for this type of clothing.

Just a suggestion, I would also like to have a jacket/pants exactly like Don's, very versatile gear, IMHO.

Wild Things makes some very good gear. We issue the soft shells, top and bottoms. The event jacket is cut to fit ovr body armror and I find it to be big in the body without a vest on. If I found myself with the jacket that Doc has I would be all over the WT pants in event like a fat kid on a smarty.

nice sheep Don