ALASKA

This is Brent and I thought the best way to show pictures from my trip would be here. A little background on this hunt.

On August 7th with too many airplane, airport problems to describe we finally made it to Fairbanks. We were supposed to get there at 5 PM but we didn't actually get there until 2 AM. The next morning we were supposed to catch our next flight to Bettles in a 7 passenger plane at 8 AM but because of all the smoke from the recent forest fires we weren't able to leave for Bettles until 3 PM. We then took our next flight in a smaller plane into the area we were to be hunting for Dall Sheep. My guide was already there and had been renting this cabin for his clients for the past 20 years. However the owners of the cabin had just passed away 2 weeks before we got there. I have to share the story of this cabin because the history of it is absolutely amazing to me. A WWII veteran, named Bill, decided that he was done with society and decided to leave his family and friends and head to Alaska to get as far away from civilization that he could in search of gold. In his travels he met a native american (eskimo) woman and they were married soon afterwards. At the time the American government gave 160 acres to any native alaskan in any area of there choice. They chose an area that had several rivers and streams converging to be their homestead. Now with a new born baby on the way, Bill built this "cabin" to live in through their first winter through temperature dropping into the -50s in the middle of nowhere.



It was about 8X10 feet and it has had a few repairs since being built in the 1960s. That next spring Bill built their next cabin pictured here that they lived in for the next 26 years.

In those 26 years they raised 4 kids in this one room cabin. Both of their daughters later became Miss Alaska. This is the cabin that we stayed in the first night and the last night. After their fourth child was born, they decided that they had outgrown their cabin so Bill got started on the next one which took him 2 years to build. This is where Bill and his wife Lill lived until their death just two weeks before we arrived. The only way to this place is by plane or boat. Bill had his own plane to get supplies and had made his own runway, greenhouse, smokehouse, and pumphouse during his long life there. This was absolutely incredible to me that someone could live this primitive most of his life. In 1998 Bill was given a TV and a satellite. This was the first time in his life that he had ever seen television and my guide said that for the next 11 years you couldn't peel him away from it.


Okay, back to the hunt. I have wanted to hunt Dall Sheep since I can remember. I remember sitting in the garage around 12 years old, thumbing through my dad's old Outdoor Life magazines that he saved in boxes, and thinking how awesome it would be to someday hunt sheep in Alaska. Two years ago Laurie gave me the okay to book my dream hunt. I invited Travis Probst and my good friend Brad Shaw to come along. Those 2 years were agonizing to say the least but the anticipation of this hunt was also part of all the fun for me. When we finally arrived at the cabin, I was coming out of my skin excited. The next day we loaded up the packs and headed up the drainage to our first of many base camps. I thought that I was in good shape until I had to follow my 51 year old guide. We nicknamed him "the machine." I swear the guy is a cyborg with a pack on. For 9 days all we were finding was bands of lambs and ewes, not a ram to be seen.

































































































































On the night of the 9th night we were sitting around the fire at about 11:00 PM, which is still light as day at this point, roasting some marshmellows that our guide surprised us with out of his pack. (Whoop dee doo, marshmellows. When all you have eaten for 9 days is oatmeal and mountain house meals a marshmellow never looked so good.) My friend, Brad, happened to look over his shoulder just in time to see a bear crossing the creek about 60 yards away. This wasn't no dinker bear, it was a huge Grizzly and he was heading right towards us. I had laid my rifle next to my tent which was about 50 yards away in the opposite direction of the bear. While everyone froze, I sprinted to my rifle. By the time I made it back to everyone else my guide was yelling at the bear to get it to leave. I had already expressed my concern to my guide many days before this about the bears and he blew it off as no concern. According to him he had just ran the bears off in the past without any problem. This bear was not scared of my guide at all, in fact his yelling only made his approach directed more toward us. My guide then told us all to head to the creek away from the food. The bear then turned his path toward us instead of the food. My concern was now quickly turning to shear panic. Despite everything my guide was doing to get the bear to leave, he kept coming. Now at 30 yards my guide said, "We are going to have to shoot this bear are you on him?" I said, "Where do you want the bullet!" I then shot and quickly chambered another round. Before I could get my crosshairs on him for a follow up shot he was laying dead just 30 yards from us.
















We thought that this now dead bear laying so close to camp could pose the problem of another bear or possibly wolves to come to the bear. All four of us could not move this bear so we had to leave him there until morning. I laid wide awake in my sleeping bag all night with my rifle across my chest. The next morning we took care of the bear and headed out for our sheep hunt. After a few more miles of hiking we finally found our first band of rams. The problem was that there was only one legal ram in the bunch. It was Travis' day to be the first shooter and after a few shots Travis had the ram.














The next day, the last day, my guide and I headed up the mountain one last time in search of my sheep. Travis decided to stay behind to nurse his blistered feet and Brad stayed behind to take care of the sheep and bear hides. My guide and I were able to cover a lot of ground and towards the end of the day we found a band of rams that had two rams that were one inch shy of being legal. That last walk back to camp was tough for me. I have wanted this and dreamed for this for so long and I was heading back with nothing. Another day and time I guess. I still have something to dream about. All in all, I had the time of my life with two great friends.
















I have to thank Laurie from the deepest parts of my heart for letting me chase my dream. She is an amazing person that I only hope to follow for the eternities.