So after 11 years of putting in for this draw I though in June I would try to pull this tag as my thought was maybe with the recession guys might be 999 it. Come August I found out I got the draw! I probably have never put so much research into this hunt with asking so many people on statistics, terrain, prepare for the Nov weather conditions and if there is anything different method then hunting other areas in general. The individuals that helped with that info was instrumental to say the least! I ended up selling my old mathews bow and upgraded to the new Hoyt carbon spyder which although expensive shed at least 3 pounds between the bows! A huge thanks for Accurate Archery in Alberta Beach for rigging me up and having faith in this bow! We have hunted with teepee tent and as they are light and stove is handy for backpacking in, they are kinda tight sitting in the tent from dark (5:20 pm to 6:30 am) with no stand up room. I ended up hooking up with Vantage Point Outfitters in BC and Jim and Bill and told them my scenario and they custom made me a wall tent. We are talking a 10 foot x 12 foot 5 foot walls.. Weight .. 10 POUNDS!!! unreal!! that's a 60 lb tent without poles from Deluxe or cabelas or wherever.. And the price was sick!! Then they rigged me up with a stove to heat that thing made out of titanium with dampers and 7.5 foot pipe that weighed 2.7 POUNDS!!! The set up was sick!! We set up the tent on the farm with a mock run by hand sawing trees and such to rig up the tent with no poles. Good thing it rained a few days as we seen the seams start to drip on the inside just a touch. We ended up putting a silicon base treatment together and painted the tent with it. Well it snowed and rained on this hunt and it help up perfectly! I also got that Marmot -40 sleeping bag as I heard of the severe weather people have encountered on this hunt. We only got to minus 12 and with that tent and stove I was hot as fawk in that bag lol but I just put my arms out and unzipped the leg area and eveything was fine. That bag by the way was the so comfortable and roomy that if your going in freezing temp I highly recommend it!
After all that was in place and and groceries were bought and all our meals dehydrated we packed our mystery ranch bags to about 90 lbs per guy.. just the 2 of us went in at first with thoughts of people coming to hike in and help scout areas later. I had booked 17 days off work and the family for this hunt of a lifetime draw so we had all our stuff packed for 17 full days. With about 8 ish days of food with us we had all our rations in the cooler at the truck if need be we would bomb down there for supplies.
Finally with work and such it worked out finally to roll into Canmore Sunday Nov 13. We hiked into camp and found a spot with minimal amount of water. Next morning we split up and start trekking. The way I went for the day it started snowing so heavy could barley see. I ended up headed up a finger to get up to alpine through all the rock slide junk and finally made it to the top. With no avail not much for sheep country as in feed and such so I hung around there for awhile taking the view in as the sun popped out late afternoon. On my way back to camp as dark was settling in, I get down to the drainage and not 1 not 2 but 3 separate ram tracks have come down one mountain through the drainage (where if I would have just hung out there I would seen them) right beside my fresh boot tracks in the snow and going up the other mountain.. essentially right behind camp! Although discouraging its a moral booster as there are sheep around. I know there were 3 different because the came one way and went the other at diff locations on my descent.
So that night at camp out comes the maps and maybe tomorrow's hike we go up the other side of the mountain as they were heading a certain way and being in the rut I can't see them going backwards if there were no ewes there in the first place.. kinda logical.. so we made that plan. So Tues we both head that way and end up coming to cliff'd out waterfalls and no real path to get up to alpine as it all shelf's out and the alpine is super tight anyways even if we got up there it would be sketchy. So we decide to head to head back down and pick other routes to check out and in hopes find a better camp with water and a decent basin to at least glass in... for my lazy days when I don't want to hike
Any ways a ton of country side was laid the boots to checking things out. That night we took out a satellite imagery map I had made and it really showed grassy areas of alpine that would definitely be appealing for sheep or at least ewes would want to be hanging out in.. Plan made we at what ever costs are getting to this one basin.
Wednesday Nov 16 we trek waaaayy back there. Start climbing cliffs and water falls.. start gaining elevation and Eventually I get to about 7400 ish feet and I see my buddies boot marks which is knee high snow keep pushing on. I finally stop and radio him.. " Where are you?" thinking he would have stopped and glassed at above treeline to see whats shaking. He says " I'm up over your head at 9200 feet checking thing out" " there are 4 ewes down there I seen and that's it." I say " Should I come up with you?" He says" Nooo better stay there it's nasty weather and nasty to get up here. You stay and glass and I will ridge walk this mountain and check things out." So I take my gear off open my pack and start layering all my down on then my shells over top. I have a little snack then get out my binos and my down mittens. I hunker around a tree and settle in the snow. I start glassing.. "where are those ewes I wonder" then boom I find ewes.. Cool! I wonder.. Anything in the outskirts hanging around.. Then dark sheep appears.. I study him.. yup he is legal and the is another lighter guy with him that is pretty tight to legal.. I radio I got rams.. He says nope.. they are ewes.. I said better take a look as he only counted 4 before and now I'm seeing 6 sheep. So He gets out spotting scope and confirms they are rams with at least 1 shooter.. I start getting excited.. Hes telling me to just keep watching. Next thing he says in 4 more rams coming from out of no where into the picture with at least 2 were close shooters.. And by shooters they were great rams but not the oldest of rams by any means.. Then he says one ram is acting really funny running back and forth checking things out as if Grizzlies were on their tail.. But that doesn't make much sense as they should be sleeping and we haven't ran into any tracks as of yet.. So regardless we make a plan to if anything we have to get close to these rams and see what we are dealing with. I gear down again and put everything in my pack and start making my way into these rams and ewes. All the mean while my buddy with birds eye view coaching me what path to take so I don't come right in on them. hour later ish I meet up with my buddy and get the whole story of he has been watching in person and not radio tid bits. So then I gear down again and drop pack off and grab bow and range finder and start the stock. we get into about 100 yards or so and My bud says wait a min.. That ram kept running over to this spot and I wonder whats going on.. So he went for a little tour and and looks back at me and his smile was sooo big and he started whisper yelling!!! " THIS IS THE GUY YOU WANT" in the softest tone he had.. I was like really.. like is he big!? He's says oh very big.. I get over there and start checking him out as hes bedded down with a ewe just maxing and relaxing and this guy is a monster!! The blood starts flowing and we checked our selves.. Ok lets do a mock stock on those other rams and see what they do. Just to get a feel what this guy may do. So we did. we ended up getting to 20 yards to 3 rams fighting and bumping heads and pushing around. Other then the odd look at us they could care less as they had a ewe in heat with them. So we figured they have been running back to make sure the big guy wasn't going to shop up and lay a liken on them to take their ewe. Everything went smooth on that attempt so then we thought.. hmm if he goes down there and bumps him to me that would be great. But what if he bumps him and he goes every other 99 possibilities but come my way. and what of he gets to 20 yards and I'm not with him.. So we decide lets go together and see how close we get.. After awhile we get to 50 ish yards straight on top of him. I knock arrow and put 40 yard pin in the bread basket.. Nope 1/2" over his back.. our hearts sank.. couldn't believe it! How did I forget that shooting straight down let gravity work and just use my 20 pin.. Fortunately that ewe being in heat they didn't go very far.. we stalked up close again to 50 yards and he stepped into a little open area in the finger cliffs and As I put one into his heart half way the arrow in flight he made a step to the right and it went into hip butt cheek and disappears.. My buddy looks at me laughing .. will he die from that.. I said eventually and he wont go far cause his bum will hurt...
Meanwhile all this happened in 4 mississippi's and he came back in sight and arrow was not visible and he tried to follow ewe and then just pilled up and took about 10 foot swan dive onto his right tip
at least it stayed together! and steam rolled about 800 m down slope
Ended up the arrow went in front of left hind leg and out right front armpit!! Took everything the arrow was supposed to do! So Here he is with some pics of that tent! He is tentatively 185'' With a right beam at 43" and left beam 38" Aged art 12.5 years old. Pretty much what dreams are made of!
Sorry if I was kinda all over the pace I'm trying to remember details as they happened.
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