Gravy Train Through High Cotton

After shuttling everything across the river in the canoe we headed up the canyon to get a closer look at the herd with the two rams.

We had to hike past a rock outcrop where four medium sized rams had been bedded that morning. As we got directly across canyon from the outcrop we noticed a single ram several hundred yards out. At first no one gave him much attention as we all assumed it was one of the rams we had seen earlier.

He was locked on to us and was definitely coming closer to check us out. The closer he came the more impressive he looked. A5F9213D-D36D-4AEC-96DE-9E7260A1CA76.pngA03F4A37-93A7-4909-9B28-CE642ED268D3.jpeg866F1A73-364C-4480-AA0E-EC92927B2947.jpeg07DEAF2A-634F-4781-82FC-92764758C10A.jpeg
 
I assume now is as good a time as any to break it to everyone how Rocket Ram got his name?🤷‍♂️

Let’s just say that while all the other ram groups were posturing, kicking each other in the testes and bashing heads, ole Rocket was participating in other activities…
 
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On the way home Friday afternoon, I was feeling a bit antsy. Should I stick with my scheduled elk hunt with my boys or head up a day early to capitalize on the action and have more time to sheep hunt.

As I talked it over with Brandon, he advised me to relax and take my time getting back to my sheep unit. There were new rams showing up every day. He suggested I make sure everything was taken care of that I needed to do with family and work and head up when I was ready. It was getting better every day. No sense in rushing.

When I got home, my boys were both excited to hunt on Saturday. Sports have been a big limitation on their woods time the past couple years.

Both boys were still trying to kill their first elk and with only my mountain goat in the freezer for meat no one was going to be picky.

Turns out that mentality is pretty dangerous for elk. My youngest son and I doubled up on cows. No stress of not having enough meat in the freezer this winter!



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Dad shot the lead cow, now the fun begins!
 
Rocket was the ram that we watched cross into the unit the previous morning. He was about a mile from where we had last seen him. He was definitely one of the larger rams that we had seen so far.


We got to watch Rocket and his buddy ram for quite a while. He was close, so close to what I was looking for but I still wanted to see the rams from the morning.
We got a lot of video and pics of the two rams.D73FAD25-583F-4B1B-9690-2CE973636E4A.jpeg1E157AAF-5F2C-49C2-92F3-BBD80A442F26.jpeg
 
We finally got to a good spot to glass the herd of sheep that the two rams had been in that morning. We found several small rams but the two mature rams were nowhere to be seen. We watched the herd for a couple of hours expecting the larger rams to come drifting in among the ewes at some point.

Eventually Rocket and his buddy saw herd from where they were bedded and moved a couple of ridges over to join the herd. As they were nosing around the herd, I was hoping the other rams might make an appearance but they were no shows. Evidently they had drifted off from the herd

I noticed that several times where rams would walk into a herd, sniff the ladies and move on when the ewes showed no interest in their advances.

Apparently Rocket wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what to do with the ladies…
 
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