psycho
Well-known member
I really tried to help my dad do this tag justice but him being 78 with an injured foot creates challenges.
My dad never understood how rare this sheep tag was until after the hunt. He grew up hunting deer as meat for the family but lost interest or time to go hunting more than 40 years ago. Now that I got a taste of adventure that hunting brings a few years back we started hunting together. I started applying for every tag no matter how small the chances were. I even started applying my dad for them as he doesn’t do computers much. I figured that if we get a sheep or goat tag we would just do as we normally do and go have fun hiking around. We might get an animal or we might just spend a week together with me listening to his old hunting stories as that’s what it’s all about. This year my dad hit big with a Cali bighorn sheep tag and a bull elk tag even though he only had about 3 points. I tried to explain to him the odds but it just didn’t sink in.
He has been limping for a few years with pain in his ankle the doctors have not been able to solve. About a month prior to the hunt the doctors diagnose it as worn out cartilage between the ankle and foot bone and put him in a corrective boot. Immobilizing open toe plastic thing. While wearing the boot you cant use your ankle so walking in rocks is nearly impossible. Without the boot it just takes one step without paying attention and it drops him from the pain. My mom sewed some toe covers for him to keep the toes warm while hiking.
I went scouting a few times and never saw sheep but found some good areas that I liked. We hiked into the wilderness with his boot about a mile on day two of the hunt and it was slow going. While he was resting I went to the top of the mntn and saw sheep a few miles off so we decided to head back and come out a few hours earlier the next morning before it got hot. By the time we got back the fabric toe cover was destroyed and useless. He never tried the leather one as the boot was just too slow. The next morning we hiked in 3 miles and found 4 rams that were still about a half mile off but walking away. We decided it might be too dangerous to try this without horses since he was still limping along and could get real slow if he stepped on his ankle wrong. We got back to the jeep late that afternoon and decided to spend one more day looking for easy sheep but then would need to hire somebody with horses.
I called 22 guides in search of an answer. A few were close but none had the right plan, price and horses. I figured we were just going to give it another try by ourselves when one of the guides texted me a photo of a recent successful sheep hunt and said he knew where another was that would be less than a mile hike. After a lot of back and forth a deal was struck and we took the 9 hour drive again. The following morning the “sub guide” had us on the sheep first thing. He was good as I don’t think I would have seen these sheep as far up as they were. The problem was he took us straight up the gully in full view of the sheep and with the thermals working against us. We never had a chance. It was too late though. My dad had blown all his energy hiking straight up the mountain for nothing. I could tell my dad might only have one hike left in him for the week. A drove around spotting sheep for a few days but they were always at the top of the mountain and it would be tough for me to get up and down and just not possible for my dad. I finally tell the guide that I want to go where we saw the sheep the last time I was here but drive the road far to the east to just see if we can see them across the valley. He told me there are no sheep up there and it’s a waste of time.
It took us several hours of driving up the switch backs when we came to a creek crossing the road and found fresh sheep sign. Scanned the mountains to no avail. We drove another half mile to the next ridge to find a heard of sheep walking right down the road. We all bailed out and found two rams in it. The guide told my dad to shoot as they were 450 yards out and now getting skittish and walking away. I told him not to shoot as I know where the road goes and we could just drive right up to them as they will head straight up the hill which will slow them down. I also wanted a minute to talk to my dad alone if he really wants to shoot a smaller ram. As we drove up and discussed his options, it was obvious this ram was his or he would be going home with nothing as he didn’t have anything left for another hike. Sure enough as we neared them they headed straight up and my dad dropped him at 70 yards. Hiking up to him my dad went down a few times as his ankle was about done. After photos, skinning and packing meat it was even worse for him headed down. More than a few times I saw him with four points on the ground in the steep spots trying to baby that ankle to get to the jeep.
NDOW says he is a 6 year old scoring 129 and my dad is happy to have him. I will cherish the memories of these two weeks. If I only had time to get him to rest up before his bull elk hunt. Just added Link to the elk hunt.https://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?286344-Old-hunter-with-a-limp-part-2
My dad never understood how rare this sheep tag was until after the hunt. He grew up hunting deer as meat for the family but lost interest or time to go hunting more than 40 years ago. Now that I got a taste of adventure that hunting brings a few years back we started hunting together. I started applying for every tag no matter how small the chances were. I even started applying my dad for them as he doesn’t do computers much. I figured that if we get a sheep or goat tag we would just do as we normally do and go have fun hiking around. We might get an animal or we might just spend a week together with me listening to his old hunting stories as that’s what it’s all about. This year my dad hit big with a Cali bighorn sheep tag and a bull elk tag even though he only had about 3 points. I tried to explain to him the odds but it just didn’t sink in.
He has been limping for a few years with pain in his ankle the doctors have not been able to solve. About a month prior to the hunt the doctors diagnose it as worn out cartilage between the ankle and foot bone and put him in a corrective boot. Immobilizing open toe plastic thing. While wearing the boot you cant use your ankle so walking in rocks is nearly impossible. Without the boot it just takes one step without paying attention and it drops him from the pain. My mom sewed some toe covers for him to keep the toes warm while hiking.
I went scouting a few times and never saw sheep but found some good areas that I liked. We hiked into the wilderness with his boot about a mile on day two of the hunt and it was slow going. While he was resting I went to the top of the mntn and saw sheep a few miles off so we decided to head back and come out a few hours earlier the next morning before it got hot. By the time we got back the fabric toe cover was destroyed and useless. He never tried the leather one as the boot was just too slow. The next morning we hiked in 3 miles and found 4 rams that were still about a half mile off but walking away. We decided it might be too dangerous to try this without horses since he was still limping along and could get real slow if he stepped on his ankle wrong. We got back to the jeep late that afternoon and decided to spend one more day looking for easy sheep but then would need to hire somebody with horses.
I called 22 guides in search of an answer. A few were close but none had the right plan, price and horses. I figured we were just going to give it another try by ourselves when one of the guides texted me a photo of a recent successful sheep hunt and said he knew where another was that would be less than a mile hike. After a lot of back and forth a deal was struck and we took the 9 hour drive again. The following morning the “sub guide” had us on the sheep first thing. He was good as I don’t think I would have seen these sheep as far up as they were. The problem was he took us straight up the gully in full view of the sheep and with the thermals working against us. We never had a chance. It was too late though. My dad had blown all his energy hiking straight up the mountain for nothing. I could tell my dad might only have one hike left in him for the week. A drove around spotting sheep for a few days but they were always at the top of the mountain and it would be tough for me to get up and down and just not possible for my dad. I finally tell the guide that I want to go where we saw the sheep the last time I was here but drive the road far to the east to just see if we can see them across the valley. He told me there are no sheep up there and it’s a waste of time.
It took us several hours of driving up the switch backs when we came to a creek crossing the road and found fresh sheep sign. Scanned the mountains to no avail. We drove another half mile to the next ridge to find a heard of sheep walking right down the road. We all bailed out and found two rams in it. The guide told my dad to shoot as they were 450 yards out and now getting skittish and walking away. I told him not to shoot as I know where the road goes and we could just drive right up to them as they will head straight up the hill which will slow them down. I also wanted a minute to talk to my dad alone if he really wants to shoot a smaller ram. As we drove up and discussed his options, it was obvious this ram was his or he would be going home with nothing as he didn’t have anything left for another hike. Sure enough as we neared them they headed straight up and my dad dropped him at 70 yards. Hiking up to him my dad went down a few times as his ankle was about done. After photos, skinning and packing meat it was even worse for him headed down. More than a few times I saw him with four points on the ground in the steep spots trying to baby that ankle to get to the jeep.
NDOW says he is a 6 year old scoring 129 and my dad is happy to have him. I will cherish the memories of these two weeks. If I only had time to get him to rest up before his bull elk hunt. Just added Link to the elk hunt.https://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?286344-Old-hunter-with-a-limp-part-2
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