My Yukon Ram

As the floatplane lifted off the Yukon River outside of Whitehorse, I could hardly believe it, as up to two years ago I had never thought about hunting sheep.

It was an Alaskan caribou hunt (my first outfitted hunt, as I usually go DIY) that I had been on that sparked my interest. There were sheep hunters in camp at the same time and seeing those horns, hearing the stories and talking to the guides had started my wheels turning.

I’d spent that fall and winter checking out sheep hunting outfitters and eventually decided I wanted to go on a horseback hunt to fulfill a dream from way back. After significant research I settled on Widrig Outfitters in the Yukon as they seemed to offer the wilderness experience I was looking for. I spent the next year and a half making sure I had all the proper gear. I didn’t need to upgrade much as I had been upgrading a piece or two at a time over the last number of years, although I did do some work on my rifle such as bedding and tweaking the trigger. I stepped up my work outs and when the time came to fly out at the end of July, I felt ready.

It took 18 hours of traveling to get to Whitehorse where I overnighted. In the hotel lobby the next morning I met the other three hunters who were hunting with the same outfitter. We were picked up by the outfitter’s daughter who transported us and our gear to the float dock. Our gear was loaded, and we were off to base camp. The two-hour flight through some of the most beautiful country imaginable was unbelievable. Dropping down on the lake where base camp was located was like entering another world. There was a main cabin and several smaller cabins for hunters and guides. There were horses saddled up and ready to go. After being greeted we were immediately taken to check our rifles and then to drop any unneeded items in our cabins.

Before noon we were on our horses for an 8-hour ride to our halfway point at a spike camp where we camped with two of the other hunters and their guides. They would be headed in a different direction in the morning. The country we rode through was simply amazing, especially crossing rivers and seeing the mountains surrounding us. Early the next morning we had breakfast and packed up our gear before my guide, Alex, and I were off on the second leg of our trip, which included a 6-mile ride through the Northwest Territories. We arrived at the location to set up our spike camp mid-afternoon. Spike camp was in a basin with a creek running through it and the only trees were willows. The remainder of the day was spent setting up camp, gathering firewood, and preparing gear. We had a bit of time to glass the mountainside across from our camp and spotted some sheep, but Alex said they were nothing we were interested in.

The next morning was August 1^st and opening day. Alex had awakened before me to gather horses, so I started a fire and got coffee going. Soon Alex was back with the horses and saddled them up. We had a good breakfast and were off on an hour’s ride to the first mountains we were hunting. Approaching the mountain, we saw some ewes and lambs but no rams. Alex said we would tie up the horses and work our way around the side of the mountain on foot. Once the horses were tied, we took another look at the mountainside. By then, a group of seven rams had appeared and one was definitely a shooter as he was way past full curl and had a lot of mass. Alex said we would need to climb the steep backside of the mountain so we wouldn’t spook the ewes and lambs. We proceeded to make the climb which was basically vertical at the end.

Once on top we peered over and there was no sign of the rams. After doing some looking around, we found that they had dropped down through the basin where the horses were tied up and were making their way up the next mountain slope. At this point all we could do was watch and see where they ended up. In the next hour they had made their way up the neighboring slope and bedded down on the point facing us. That had us pinned down so all we could do was wait and see if they would move on.

We sat through a driving rainstorm and after a couple of hours the rams started to move down the slope and out of view. Alex said we had two options: go back to camp and see if we locate them the next day, which could be an issue as they were headed to the Northwest Territories boundary less than a mile away, or we could climb up after them, but the action could be fast as they might see us before we saw them. I said I was up to another climb so let’s go for it.

It was a long climb but not as steep as the one we had made in the morning. Once on top we slowly crept along as it was a rolling slope, and we could not see very far in front of us. We seemed to be running out of ground when a caribou ran out. I had just looked to my right when Alex yelled that there were sheep on the left and threw his pack down. I scrambled to get into shooting position, wrestling to get my pack off. As I finally got into position Alex yelled that that my ram was the farthest to the left and at 340 yards. I quickly lined up in front and top of the shoulder and fired. I reloaded as Alex yelled to shoot again, but the sheep was already down and not moving. I just sat and watched the ram lying there. I was thinking two years ago I had no thoughts of pursuing sheep and now my trophy was lying 350 yards away.

As we walked down to where my ram lay, the remainder of the group stood looking at their fallen leader. Once I had my hands on my ram it was so much more than I had imagined, a mature ram in as beautiful place as one can imagine. The bullet had taken out the shoulder and lungs but with no blood on the hide, making for beautiful photos. Once the photos were completed, we got to work caping and quartering the sheep for the pack out back to the horses. Luckily the trek was mainly downhill with Alex shouldering the larger part of the load. Back at the horses we carefully mounted up with our heavy packs on. It was a long ride back to our spike camp, as shortly after we were underway the wind picked up and heavy rain started falling.

It was late when we finally arrived. Alex took care of the horses, hung the meat, and made dinner while I started a fire to warm us up and dry out. We slept well that night. The next day was spent relaxing in camp and getting the cape and horns cleaned up. The following morning, we loaded up and made our way to the other camp to visit with other hunters who had also harvested several nice rams. After spending the night at their camp exchanging stories, we made the long ride back to base camp to spend a few days relaxing before the trip home.

This trip was everything I was looking for in a hunting adventure and more. If you have a dream trip, I highly recommend that you find a way to make it happen as you will never regret it.