A year ago was a tough situation and one that was hard to cope with but I'd learned a lot from it and feel that I can be a better sheep hunter because of it. I wasn't so sure at the time that I wanted to go again but I began to feel like I couldn't end on that kind of note. Something that was suppose to be a dream trip/hunt for me couldn't end like that. So in October last year I booked a bush flight back to the Brooks Range for the trip that I would later call "Ramdemption".
With most of my gear already acquired from the first go around, I didn't have all that much to do to prepare. I learned a lot from the first trip about what was good to have and what I could do without. My partner and I found that we had some duplicate items and talked about ways to shave some weight from our packs.
I bought a new rifle with a synthetic stock and retired the walnut stocked 7mm and cut almost 2 lbs. My partner bought a new and better spotting scope, that was far lighter and smaller which saved some space. We collaborated and will share a stove and cook pot for boiling water. All in all, I have my pack down to about 54-55 lbs for the trip in from the airstrip. We'll have a base camp setup at the strip with our remaining gear and a tent setup with a bear fence around it.
Our plan is to go into a pre-determined place on the map that is about 6 miles in and a climb of about 2500 ft if I remember correctly, but may go in as far as 10 miles if we see something good. If we don't find what we're looking for we have another back up area in the opposite direction from the strip and will head that way.
With everything I think I need for a successful trip, I'll be leaving tomorrow August 13th for Fairbanks, which is 6 hours away. The next morning, the 14th, we'll be flying north above the Arctic Circle into the northern Brooks Range. Our extraction date is the 25th but may come sooner if we get our rams and want to come back early. However, I hope we're there for the duration as it may be my last chance to visit that part of the world and I want to take it in for all it's worth. There's something about being somewhere that few people will ever know. A place that's at the furthest reaches of this continent where the only sound you'll hear is the wind, flowing water and the occasional bush plane flying in the distance.
I'll see you when I get back!
Here's some photos from Saturday's hike, saw 6 rams, a couple looked full-curl but tough to tell with only binoculars. One is pictured below, the other two larger rams were too far away to really tell but looked close.
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