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I got an opportunity for a Dall sheep hunt in July 2021 in the Yukon due to the US border closure and outfitters offering hunts to Canadians at discounted prices. I picked North Curl Outfitters since they have the highest concentration of sheep in their concessions and it was a ten-day backpack hunt with four days of pre-scouting and six days of hunting starting August 1, the season opener. These would be some of the hardest ten days of my life... yet!
I was 48-years-old with a toddler at home and had limited time to get in shape before the hunt. However, I took every opportunity to work out and walk with my pack on, often after 9:00 pm when she went to sleep.
Closer to the hunt, I wasn’t fully confident in my physical abilities; however, mentally I was prepared—it was a dream hunt and I had been on a few unsuccessful bighorn hunts in Alberta and knew the meaning of “sheep shape”. This hunt was no different; however, the mountains in the Yukon are a bit more forgiving than the steep Rockies that I had chased bighorns in. But on a backpack hunt you never know, weather is always a factor and it almost came to my detriment!
I want to take a moment to introduce my guide Logan and his 16-year-old protégé and sheep guide in training, Langdon. Logan is what you would call the ultimate mountain man, he is a former Canadian rodeo champion and has won numerous titles, too many to list. I was introduced to him the night before we left and his firm handshake would leave no one in doubt that he means business and those hands have been hardened with work. I’ve never seen a man climb mountains up and down with both hands in his pockets all the time. He told me during the hunt that mountains make him feel at peace. I also met his older brother in camp who was guiding a couple in another area at the same time and over supper, he jokingly told me, “Don’t piss off Logan. He’ll just make you walk farther.” I took that advice to heart.
His young protégé Langdon on the other hand was a tall, lanky ranch hand on Logan’s farm and it was his first sheep hunt. I was told that he would help me pack my sheep if we were successful and that he came at no extra cost. I was nervous about Langdon, as I thought he wouldn’t last past a few days—he was nervous at the dinner table and didn’t speak much and hardly had any muscle to his tall lanky frame. Langdon would prove me wrong on the mountains in the days to come.
We were dropped off on a lake 6000-feet high about 45 minutes south of Whitehorse. It was a beautiful ride on a floatplane looking down the numerous lakes, water systems, the uninhabited landscape and pristine beauty. My hopes and spirits were high and the hunt was finally happening. I absorbed every moment of it, as it was my first trip to the Yukon and what a beautiful place. I thought to myself the only thing that would top this would be me holding a ram against this backdrop. I tried to control my excitement and did not want to get ahead of myself; after all, it was still a hunt with no guarantees.
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| Glassing for Dall sheep in the splendour of the Yukon. |
After landing with Langdon, we met up with Logan at the lake who was dropped off earlier and met his pooch, Charlie, who I hadn’t met the night before. Charlie was a smaller dog, breed unknown, had a pack strapped on him with his food for ten days, and couldn’t have looked happier to be in the mountains. The hunting party was now complete. I warned Logan that I would bring up the rear and will reach the destination, it will just take more time. Logan gave a nod and a smile; I would discover during the hunt that he was a man of few words.
The lake was surrounded by three mountain ranges and was known to hold good rams according to Mac, the owner of the outfit. Right away Logan pointed to the mountain to the west of the lake. We filled up water from the lake and drank the cool crisp mountain water until our bellies were full and then started the climb. We climbed about 2800 feet and reached the top in a few hours. Logan was just getting warmed up while I was covered in sweat and with a 50 pound pack, my age was showing. I had a little burn in my legs but it was sheep hunting and you don’t think of those things.
The sun was bright and the days are long in the Yukon summer, there is never total darkness at night—it was beautiful! These are no trees on the mountains, just some willows and small brush on the foothills and lichens on the rocks throughout. Logan told me we should try not to skyline ourselves at any time, as Dall sheep have excellent vision. We were to use the rocks as a backdrop wherever possible. The tops of the mountains are pretty bare but they have a beauty to them that has to be seen to be appreciated.
We made our way to the top of the first mountain and were walking on a ridge with Logan and Charlie in the lead and me and Langdon about 30 yards behind. Langdon had done well to keep up; I was still nervous about him but the young lad was in good spirits.
All of a sudden Logan dropped to the ground and waived for us to get down.
“Sheep!” he whispered.
My heart was racing as I had never seen Dall sheep with my eyes before, only in pictures and videos.
Logan asked us to crawl forward behind a boulder for cover and once there, he pointed about 500 yards down a slope where we could see about 14 rams with two legal ones, including one that was heavy and full curl. Through a spotting scope, Logan mentioned that he was definitely a shooter and worthy of consideration. I got my first look at Dall rams and it was a breathtaking sight. To see these animals, pure white with impressive horns against a mountain backdrop was a sight to take in. As I zoomed in on the biggest ram I could see he was full curl and definitely heavy. In the Yukon, to harvest a ram they have to be full curl or eight-years-old. I thought this is easy—first day and in a few hours we have two legal rams in sight. Was I ever wrong!
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| Some of the rams after they bedded down for the night. |
Logan asked us to stay behind the boulder as he wanted to sneak in a bit closer to get a better look, as there were a few rams bedded out of sight and there could be bigger rams in the group. While he got closer to them, I looked at them with my binoculars and what a sight! Our excitement was short lived though, as we saw the whole band get up and run across from us, stand for a while, and then walk away down the mountain edge out of sight—they looked spooked. Logan came back and couldn’t explain it. He thought maybe they picked up a glare from his spotting scope. We decided to wait to see where they would go and saw them go down the mountain and up the next mountain, which was higher of course. That evening they were bedded down across from us on the other mountain about a mile away. We still had three days of pre-scouting so we decided to keep our distance and camped on our side of the mountain out of their sight.
The next morning we were up early to see the rams were still bedded and by late morning, they slowly fed their way across the mountain and out of sight. We decided to follow them but our path to get to that mountain would take a whole day, including staying overnight at the base of the mountain and then climbing up the next day to the top, something that the rams covered in less than an hour at a leisurely pace. One has to respect nature and how adapted its creatures are.
We could not find any new rams; however, we spotted several ewes and lambs, which was a good sign. We glassed all day with no sight of them. At last light glassing, we saw a giant ram come up a cliff from the other side of the mountain, butt heads with another ram, and disappear back into the cliffs after a few minutes. He had only one horn—the other one looked broken off from our distance. Logan mentioned that he was heavier and bigger than the one we had seen the day before but the hunt was young still.
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| Manak in the Yukon splendour. |
The next two days were spent walking on this mountain, glassing the various peaks and mountains across, walking along the cliff where the giant ram had come from, but no rams were sighted.
The evening before the opener we were walking back to our tents after a long day of glassing when Logan suddenly spotted a band of rams in the distance on a slope where the mountain receded to the plain below. We looked through the spotting scope and it was the band of rams we saw on the first day with the big one perched high on a ledge looking out for everyone’s safety. We skirted around them and made it to our tent to make a plan for opening morning. It was decided we would walk along the slope on the other side and climb up higher from where they were bedded to see if we could get a shot opportunity at the big one. My spirits were high going to sleep that night. ■
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