My 2018 Alaska Dall sheep hunt was one of the hardest I’d ever done. Backpacking 13 miles to basecamp through the extreme terrain of the Wrangell Mountains, continual rain that flooded our designated trail, and health issues exacerbated by heavy exertion contributed to a challenge I’ll likely never encounter again. But the story of that hunt, and some of its difficulty, began a long time before the year I went…
My grandfather was one of my fishing and hunting mentors, and in 1994, I had a chance to hunt Dall sheep with him. We ended up cancelling, saying, “We’ll go next year.” But his health began to deteriorate, and next year never came.
So this sheep hunt was a little about making good on that trip with my grandpa. And while he wasn’t there to join me, I thought of him every step of the way. The trip definitely wasn’t easy, but it ended up being a kind of tribute and honor to him and all that he had taught me.
