Hunting the North

by Kaden Romain

t was only the morning of day two. The alarm went off just before daylight as we lay motionless under the tipi suddenly remembering that we were not at home anymore. We were in the mountains of BC, the place many of us dream about for 300+ days a year. As we lay there still waking up, we heard a distant elk bugle over the ridge. Rolling over in my sleeping bag, I could see my father grinning ear to ear while taking it all in. No better morning alarm than the scream of a bull elk.

It was mid-September and the plan was to head back into the mountains in search of sheep for a week followed by spending the remainder of the time looking around for an Elk. A few minutes later we heard him again, except he sounded closer this time. We thought it was just the direction he was bugling so we really paid it no attention and continued to wake up and roll out of the sleeping bags. Today we were headed deep into the Sheep Mountains. With a 9-12 hour hike ahead of us, we thought an early start would be best. About 3 minutes later, we heard him again… and he was CLOSE! We suddenly realized that he was coming straight for us and quickly. We rushed out of the tent and began to put our pants and boots on. Not even 2 minutes after we scrambled out of the tent and before we could get our boots on, we look up on the hillside and there he was! Staring straight down into camp is a mature bull elk, frothing at the mouth and covered in remnants of Elk wallow! We were completely caught off guard as it all happened so fast! Dad and I grabbed our rifles leaning on the tree next to us and took aim. Strangely enough the elk was not too interested in us scrambling around at 80 yards and seemed to be looking just past us. As fate would have it, we had a foldable cow elk decoy leaning against a tree in camp facing the hillside above our tent and that had his utmost attention. Unintentionally that was just the way it was facing when we leaned it against a tree before going to bed. When he finally realized that he shouldn’t be standing there it was too late. The bark of the 338 faded as the bull slid down the dewy hillside to rest only 80 yards from our tent. What a morning! Neither of us had even got our boots tied yet and we had a beautiful 6 point bull elk needing to be packed out. Fast forward a day later and after numerous full game bags we were charging into sheep country. First it’s the excitement that carries you forward. The anticipation of what’s to come. Then as the fatigue sets in and the muscles cramp it’s the mental fortitude that pushes you ahead. It doesn’t seem to matter how much you’ve trained, how many weighted packs you’ve done or how many times you’ve walked to the top of the mountain behind your house. Sheep hunting will always push you. Slow and steady we crested the first ridge and into the alpine. It was a beautiful day and we were ahead of schedule. With a small water break and a look at the surrounding country we hit the trail again to get over the next ridge, and hopefully the one after that before nightfall. We spotted a few ewes and lambs along the way but nothing to get too excited about. Six hours later had my father and I making a moss bed to pitch the tent over. Any added cushion is a welcome addition to the Thermarest. It was a beautiful evening. The sun was starting to get low and the golden light was hitting the mountains all around. Across the way we could see several bands of sheep, some even containing rams but nothing that had the “mature” look to it. We would continue to watch them over the next few days to make sure the big one wasn’t hiding out with them. We both enjoyed our freeze dried dinners and cleaned up for the night. It was a calm and relatively warm evening and not a cloud in the sky. Now I am by no means an expert sheep hunter as compared to many. But at 10-15 years of experience, a couple podcasts, reading books or even talking with any aged sheep hunter will tell you the one basic rule: Don’t stand on the skyline! After spending the past hour high on the ridge making our camp away from the skyline, cooking our dinner, and talking with my dad, I started to get comfortable and got complacent. We were glassing sheep several kilometres away and had already glassed all of the country closest to us many times before making camp. No sheep around. I distinctly remember standing up to stretch my legs, remarking to Dad how beautiful this country was and that there

could be a ram ANYWHERE here, since we were right in the middle of sheep heaven. It was exactly then I looked down the rock chute directly in front of me and saw it. The unmistakable shape of sheep walking out from a hiding hole in the mountain. And they weren’t just any sheep. They were big bodied and dark in colour with horns visible to the naked eye at 300 yards. I hit the ground like a sack of bricks! There were rams under us the entire evening and we had NO idea! As I peeked over the edge with my binoculars I saw that none of the band was looking in our direction but working across a shale slide to a patch of grass below us on the mountain. I immediately motioned Dad over and let him know we had rams spotted. It was clear to see that the lead ram was legal. He stopped multiple times giving us every good angle we could have asked for. A brief moment later and we confirmed he was beyond legal by both age and curl. The quiet of the mountain was disturbed, if only for a moment. As quickly as it started it was all over and the ram lay motionless in the creek bottom below. What a feeling. We hadn’t even been in the alpine for a full day and the sheep tag was notched! After a few hugs and high fives we knew that we had a long night ahead of us. It was probably going to be dark by the time we got down to the ram as he slid much farther down into the chute than we had hoped for. We got to the ram and made quick work of deboning and caping him out under the headlamps. It was then a case of making it back up what seemed like the entire mountain we had spent today climbing. With one heavy pack and one lightweight pack we switched back and forth going up. It was slow going and had pockets of snow along the way, but we made it. By the time we got back to the tent it was well into the night and temperatures were plummeting! We could tell it was going to be a very cold night. Fortunately a few sips of rye had us warmed up as we tucked into our bags and set the meat away from the tent to cool off for the night! We were sure tired out but tomorrow was a camp day. We had nothing to do but rest the legs and finish caping the ram. Boy, did we sleep well that night! We were so very fortunate to have things work out like they did. Waking up in the morning found us with a fresh skiff of snow. We slept in, finished working on the ram and spent the day keeping warm, drinking coffee and glassing the surrounding hillsides. We saw a number of sheep over the next 2 days but nothing that piqued our interest. We watched a wolverine run an entire ridge in about 4 minutes that took us 1 hour to walk. He then proceeded to “belly slide”, “barrel roll” and “cartwheel” down a snowy chute that would have killed a human. He descended the entire mountain in just a few minutes and disappeared into the forest below. What an amazing creature! After some discussion we decided to head back to base camp and spend the next few days just enjoying our time in the mountains. Sometimes you can get so caught up in the chase of the quarry you don’t take the time to enjoy the rest of the trip. Returning to base camp we discovered the elk carcass had been dragged away by what we assumed was a Grizzly bear, pulling it straight up a hill only 100 yards from camp. That was an impressive feat considering it was almost too heavy for Dad and I to drag away from our camp on level ground. Lesson Learned: Shooting an elk right in camp seems like a great idea until you realize you’re bringing the apex predator of the mountains into camp as well. But you can’t always pick where they end up. We were extremely careful that night as we gathered the remainder of our base camp supplies and headed away from the site, giving us some good room between where the carcass was and our camp. Despite our best efforts, the bear decided to pay us a visit during the night after sneaking into our campfire and giving us all the adrenaline rush of our lives. After a few tense moments he left into the darkness never to been seen again but still leaving us with a sleepless night keeping the campfire stoked and our boots on. That would be the final adrenaline rush of the trip as the next days were filled with eating elk and sheep backstrap, drinking glacial water and taking in views that many would dream of seeing. The hunt was over and it was a success any way you looked at it! Until next time.