The Hunt of a Lifetime

[JoeVon]

      Every year as hunters we eagerly await the results of the Special Permit drawing to see if our long awaited dream hunt has finally come true.  This year was no different, the results were posted, and like usual it was to the phone to see if one of many buddies had better luck than myself.  It was a slow year for our group of friends, a few cow tags here, a multi-season elk or deer tag there, and even one lucky guy drew a Cougar Tag, again….   But to my surprise, one morning in mid-July, I received a phone call from the “hold out”, Ron.  I call him that, because unlike many of us, he was waiting to receive his results the old fashioned way, by snail mail!  Well I guess his patience had worn thin, because he’d succumbed to the ways of the internet to see what tags he’d drawn.   When I answered the phone at 6:30 that morning, I could tell something was different in his tone of voice, he sounded excited, and when he told me that “I’d never believe what he drew”, I could hardly wait to hear.  He’d drawn the tag that he’d wanted the most, a California Big Horn Sheep hunt in the Tieton Unit for the last half of September and the first ten days of October.  I knew then and there that I had to be a part of this, even if it meant giving up the majority of the Early Season General Archery Hunt, so plans were drawn, and this is how it unfolded….

[JoeVon]

       The beginning of August marked the first chance for a scouting trip, and while many sheep were seen, most were Ewes and Immature Rams.  The next three trips were spent learning the unit, talking to locals, and trying to find places where the bachelor groups of rams that we were told of were hanging out.  By the end of August we still hadn’t seen what we were looking for, but Ron had a line on an area that was supposed to be holding a few rams, so we decided we’d leave a couple days early for the hunt and check this area out just before the season started. 

[JoeVon]

       We rolled out of town on September 13th, and after a quick two hour drive we found ourselves setting up camp on the banks of the beautiful Tieton River.  That first evening was spent glassing from a perch across the river.  We spent two hours before dark looking, grid searching the hillsides with the spotting scopes while only seeing Ewes and Small Rams.  As Ron was picking up his stuff, he yelled down to me asking “if I’d seen enough”?  I replied yes under my breath, but as I moved the spotter to one last rock bluff, I found what we’d made the journey for.  Nine Rams had just fed out of a steep timbered draw and I could tell in those final moments of daylight that at least three of the nine warranted a closer look.  We hurried back to the truck in the fading light with high hopes of big rams for us to chase in the coming days.  The next morning we spent glassing a few familiar spots from the highway, but just couldn’t find what we were after, so off to the top of the hill we went to try and find a route into the spot where the band of nine rams lived.  That second evening turned out to be a bust, the nine rams never showed, and nothing else did either, but we did find a way to get into them when they did.  This wasn’t what we were expecting going into the season opener the following day, but as hunting go’s, you just take the punches and “keep the faith”.

[JoeVon]

  Opening morning was here, and Ron had a hunch that some of the rams may have been held up in a big canyon that we hadn’t had a chance to look at yet, so we took the gamble and at daylight Ron, Mary (Ron’s Wife), and I started our trek up the canyon.  It seemed like we marched for a couple of hours in the early morning heat, stopping when we could glass out of the canyon, but spots to glass were few and far between.  If we’d have seen a ram in there it would have been some close quarters sheep hunting!  We decided we’d had enough of following the well traveled path and at that point cut up the hill to put us on a ridge that paralleled the highway and all the canyons above it.  Upon reaching the top we were met with great views of the countryside but that was about it.  The afternoon heat was beating down and it seemed like the sheep were in the shade and not visible to us, so we slowly worked our way back to the trailhead to work up another game plan and get some much needed hydration.   For the afternoon hunt Ron and Mary headed up one of the many ridges off of the highway for a quick hunt while I went back up to “The Perch”  to try and glass up some more sheep on top for the following morning.  Ron could have shot a decent ram that evening but decided in the end that it wasn’t what he was after, especially on the first day.

[JoeVon]

The second day of the season we decided to hike up a ridge that would put us in view of where the ram from the previous evening had headed to.  Upon clearing the pine trees that obscured the sheep hills from the creek bottom below we were instantly greeted with a great view of the ram from the night before.  After thoroughly looking him over again, Ron decided to pass on him for the second time.  So on up the ridge we trudged. As we reached the next saddle to glass, a group of ten rams was spotted, with one definitely being a “shooter”.   In a few moments a game plan was made and Ron and I were off to try and get to a point that would put us with in range of the bedded rams.  We climbed up the ridge to a rock face that kept us from going any further, then slabbed across the hill to get to the rock outcropping that we thought we’d shoot from.  When we got to the rock out cropping we got set up for a 400 yard shot up the canyon to where we thought the rams would feed out to once they finished with there afternoon nap, and there we waited.  For three hours!.......  Finally the rams stirred, and as they fed out one by one, we watched and waited.  The big ram was in the back of the group and as he fed out, he walked directly in front of a half curl ram, so we were only waiting for the big guy to clear and the shot would be made.  I was on the spotting scope talking Ron through what was going on, two steps til’ he clears, now one step…..and BOOM!  I head butt the spotting scope from being startled and as I do I see a puff of dust at the rams feet!  The only thing was, that Ron hadn’t fired as the smaller ram was still in danger of being shot in the result of a pass through.  One of the other four tag holders had been watching the same ram from above and fired just seconds before we were going to!  We were dumbfounded!  In the resulting chaos, three or four more shots were fired by the other hunter, and I’m glad to report that he did end up getting the ram.  No words could explain how we felt as we skulked off the hill in disbelief of how the day had unfolded. 

[JoeVon]

Here's where we sat waiting for the big ram to get up and give us a shot!

[JoeVon]

We could also see this group of ewes across from us feeding on this cliff.

[JoeVon]

On day three of the hunt, we again decided to head up a new ridge in search of the elusive nine rams that we’d seen two days before the opener.  From looking at the map we thought that once we reached a point three quarters of the way up we’d be in good shape for some action if the rams were out.  As Ron and I started our hike up the ridge we immediately ran into a little rattler, coiled up between where the two of us stood to take a quick breather before moving on.  After a few choice words the little guy moved on and we continued up the hill only to find his mother tucked in under a rock, waiting for the golden rays of sun to take the chill out of the morning air.  I’m no snake lover so I kicked into high gear and got the heck out of dodge! Luckily we didn’t see anymore for the rest of the day.  
    
       When we made it up the ridge far enough to see the rock bluffs, the rams were instantly spotted, but unfortunately they were feeding the wrong way for us to have any shot at them, but we still continued on, just in case.  We finally reached the point that put us at the same elevation as the rams and settled into see what would happen.  Here we waited for a few hours.  As luck would have it, another hunter skylined himself on a ridge in the direction of where the rams were feeding, and as they spotted him they turned and bolted running directly towards us!  Once they were out of sight of the other hunter, they slowed and milled, feeding towards us, just not within shooting range.  This gave us a great chance to look the rams over, and it was decided that any of the big three would be worthy of Ron’s Tag.  The rest of the day was spent watching the rams, headbutt, kick, and push each other around until a solitary Mountain Goat appeared above them and spooked them back into there timbered draw to bed for the evening.  We hiked to the top of the ridge and made a phone call to have our friends drive around and pick us up to haul our weary bodies back to camp.

[JoeVon]

Here are the "Original Nine"...




This is Ron, the tag holder, patiently waiting for the rams to come our way some more.

[JoeVon]

       Day four of the season was upon us, and we’d put the big rams to sleep in the timbered draw, so we figured walking down from the top, to the saddle across from them would be a sure bet to get some action going in the morning.  It’d be a whole lot easier too!  As we neared the top of the ridge, our hearts sank.  The top half of the unit was covered in dense fog completely hindering our ability to see anything.  We had hopes that the fog would lift so we strapped on our packs to head down to our saddle and vantage point for the morning.  The fog was still hanging around as we set up our spotting scopes but every few minutes a patch would blow out allowing us to glass for a few seconds here and there.  After an hour of fog in and fog out, we started hearing rocks rolling.  I thought for sure it was coming from across the canyon but Ron said they were rolling below us.  As it worked out, Ron was right and fifteen minutes later, five rams were working there way up the hill to cross the ridge just 35 yards away from us!  The biggest of the five led the band, a ram that was 5 or 6  years old but he just wasn’t quite what Ron was after so we watched as they all crossed into the timber only to explode back over the ridge when they cut our scent trail from walking in that morning.

       Not long after, the fog cleared and what we saw was pretty shocking.  The band of nine rams were all up on top of the bluffs, some feeding, some bedded, but all within 150 yards of Mary and our friend Mike.  Mary and Mike had come down with us in the morning but they went to a different vantage point to see if they could spot anything from there.  If we’d been with them, we’d have had our pick of the rams.  Ron and I packed up our stuff as quickly as possible and started making a stalk on the group.  When we reached the top, the fog had started to blow through again, giving us cover to move as it rolled in and out.  We’d stalked to within 100 yards of the rams twice but were either to far down the hill or to far up the hill, so the third time we decided to head straight at them.  It worked perfect.  The two of us worked our way up behind a big fallen log and surveyed the situation.  One of the “Big Three” in the group was furthest to the left, and Ron said he was going to take him as soon as a smaller ram cleared from behind the big guy.  While we waited for the smaller ram to clear Ron noticed a sheep in the middle of the group that was looking away and had great mass but was a lot shorter than the first, Ron instantly changed his mind. As we waited for the heavy ram to clear the group I felt the dreaded chill of wind on the back of my neck and in moments the rams disappeared over the rim and into the fog.  We walked back to the truck in disarray at what had just transpired, I couldn’t believe it had happened, we’d came so close again.

[JoeVon]

I took this picture just after the fog cleared and not long after Ron spotted the Rams up towards the top of the hill.



This was one of the nicer rams in the group.

[JoeVon]

Here is another with one of his buddies.



I took this picture while waiting for the fog to clear and liked how it turned out.

[JoeVon]

      The fifth day of hunting was short, we mostly just glassed from the bottom of the canyons, and morale was low knowing that we had to break camp and head back home so we could make it to work the following day.

      The next day that Ron had available to hunt was Thursday, September 23rd, and as luck would have it, so did I.  We left town at 3 a.m. and were hiking into sheep country at daylight, this time from the bottom of the canyons.  We chose a ridge this time that put us further east than we’d hunted yet thinking that possibly we’d get into some new rams.  The first three hours of the hunt were uneventful, spotting a band of 20 ewes with a few half curl rams mixed in.  As we neared the top of the ridge Ron noticed a sheep trail that would take us one more ridge to the east so we decided to head out it to see what the next canyon over held.  Looking back now, we were walking too fast, only because the going was so good on the well used sheep trail, and as we rounded the knob to over look the next canyon, the biggest sheep we’d seen yet jumped out of his bed just 80 yards above us and was off over the ridge.  We did our best to get into position for a shot, but one was never afforded, and we watched as he crossed four more ridges over the next half hour.  If we’d have tried to follow it would have taken us two days!  We did notice however, that he found a spot he liked on the far ridges, and there he scratched himself out a bed for the evening.  Lucky for us, we knew just how to get to him the following morning. We worked our way back down the ridge to the trucks and headed to the washboard gravel road that would take us to the top of the ridge and our new camp.

[JoeVon]

Ron, glassing up into "Sheep Country".



More glassing...  The big ram bedded in the top of the draw furthest to the left after we spooked him.

[JoeVon]

A picture of the high camp...



One of the few mountain goats we saw while hunting...