A long day of walking downhill found us back at the trailhead. I would talk about how crushing the packs were, our hamburgered hips, compressed spines, and deformed scapula, but I wouldn’t want to let on that I am getting soft. I am pretty sure I could have marched another mile or two with that load on top of the 12 or so we'd covered so far, but I was really, really glad I didn’t have to find out.




Packing up for the long march out.



Back at the trailhead we put meat and gear out to dry, unpacked and had a few celebratory beers. Dinner was again based around sheep tenderloin and we were still riding the high of success so early in the hunt. The lingering question however, was of course “what next.” With a handful of days left to hunt we’d be silly to head home so soon, though we really hadn’t considered trying for more than one sheep and we thought we’d be lucky to find that.



On one hand we were entirely satisfied and would go home happier than we thought we could be if we left now. It would almost feel greedy to try for another, let alone the possibility that a miserable failure on round two or a troublesome event could leave us with a bad taste (a best) when we could easily quit while we were ahead now.


Though these thoughts crossed our minds and came out in conversation, in reality there was never really a question. We were going back in.


There was however a problem. It started raining that evening and didn’t let up all night. We awoke to blown rivers and swollen creeks. All of the prime real estate involved stream crossings that were now functionally impossible and it was still raining. Not to mention the clouds were now on the deck and seeing the trail ahead was a challenge let alone being able to search for animals in the distance and high above. We were shut down.


Over the course of the next few days morale began to circle the drain a bit as the rivers continued to rise and rain continued to fall. We got a break on two consecutive days and took the opportunity to try and find an alternate drainage to explore that didn’t involve the water hazards. One of these days was a waste of time entirely where we wandered around in the bushes at lower elevation and never found a logical path above treeline and into sheep country.

The day after, we spotted a small flock of lambs and ewes at the top of a short but steep drainage only a few miles from the road and we hatched a plan for a long day trip up the valley and over a distant ridge with the hopes of finding something tucked away in some unseen nook or cranny.



“When you see someone putting on their big boots, you can be pretty certain that an adventure is going to happen.”
-Winnie the Pooh



We set out from the trailhead in steady rain. Our path basically lead directly up a steep cascading creek that we hopped back and forth across and clambered around in as we gained elevation sharply. Our destination was only a few miles away but would gain over 5,000 feet to the head of a hanging valley above.

Above treeline the travel eased as we were able to leave the creek behind and travel through open meadows. We started seeing sheep immediately. Through breaks in the clouds we found groups of lambs and ewes in practically every direction. Throughout the course of the day we would count over 60 sheep and we had the chance to study all of them without seeing so much as a sickle horn in the lot. All lambs and ewes.





The final scree slope leading to a ridge above the u-shaped valley was arduous, a bitch if you will. One step up and two steps back type terrain. We were in the clouds again and it was starting to snow. Having passed so many lambs and ewes along the way we thought there had to be some rams in the area, but where were they? Well above the green zone now and in the crags and rocks above we thought for sure we would pick one out atop some rocky prominence keeping overwatch of the flocks below, but nothing materialized.















We were soaked to the bone in a building snow storm and had seen everything we could on this mission so we retreated. The relatively small creek we bashed up earlier in the day had swollen and we essentially waded and scrambled it back to treeline and the flats beyond and back to the trailhead at dark. I would have probably been drier (definitely warmer) had I laid down in the creek. We got a fire going and were eventually able to wring and evaporate enough moisture our of our gear to keep us happy.










Another weather day had all but passed when the clouds broke and the rain subsided. We took a quick look at the major drainage we had traveled up at the outset and it was still puking mud and whole trees, small ones, but trees just the same. Things didn’t look good but in this country water is fast to rise and fast to drop. With clear skies above and cooling temps there was a chance it would drop to the point where we could cross it and get back into the high country that offered better prospects. We’d have to wait for morning to find out.




The trailhead was now part of the river...









Morning dawned clear and crisp and the river had dropped significantly. We packed hastily and with two days left to hunt planned to blast in as far as we could get, camp, and then hike every peak and ridge we could with light packs to see what we could see.

Crossing back and forth across the still high and muddy creek was tedious at best and the going was slow. Soon enough we reached the point where our route left the drainage and climbed to a high bench. Having learned a lesson from the last time through this front range country we stopped to glass before we planned to hurry towards the end of the trail and our intended route up and over the front range and into the high country beyond.

I saw sheep immediately, quite a few of them. What was more, there were rams. I don’t know what had transpired in the last few days of no hunting pressure, bad weather, and new snow, but the southern aspects of almost all of the peaks we could see had sheep on them. Small bands of lambs and ewes lower down with a ram or two above in each case. We had three strong possibilities in front of us but being so far away we couldn’t begin to tell which, if any, might be legal. We had to make a call, right, left, or straight ahead. Each option would take the whole day if not more if we were even able to get close enough in that time. We'd have to move quickly if we were to have a chance.

At the head of the drainage immediately in front of us I picked out a sheep that looked to be considerably larger than any of the others. I could tell he was a ram but couldn’t come close to judging horn size being 5+ miles away. We made a decision to go after him based on body size alone and had hoped that we weren’t passing up a better option somewhere else. We didn't have time to deliberate, we had to pick an objective and get after it with the clock ticking.

Again we dropped our big packs (camera included) and pared down the bare essentials and we set off as quickly as our still sore legs and wet booted feet could carry us. We were soon breathing hard and sweating in the crisp air and leaving real estate behind us at a satisfactory pace. We stopped at intervals to glass the three possibilities at a few intervals. Unfortunately the big bodied ram that we thought might be our best chance was the first to disappear behind terrain as we got closer. We were able to rule out the two other possibilities as we got closer and got really good looks at them through the scope, but still didn’t know if our plan A was close to legal or not. We would have no way of knowing until we were on top of him and too far committed to change our plan.




On the approach, plan A in the distance.


We forged on crossing two minor valleys each with streams that afforded a nice chance to refill water bottles, catch our breath, and charge uphill reinvigorated. We had come a long way and still had a long way to go with the biggest challenge yet to come. A long, steep, serrated ridge waited for us above. To get into position above the sheep we’d have to run the ridge for a half mile or more and it looked fairly heinous, maybe a show stopper. We wouldn’t know until we were there but it was our only shot. When you don’t have any other options, the choosing is easy.