We slid our way down the rocks to the ram and a second version of the happy dance began."

It is so hard to put into words the thrill, excitement and honor of being in the ranks of successful sheep hunters. My story is very similar to the rest of the “chosen few” – how I could hardly contain myself when I looked at my draw results on the computer. My husband Joe and I kept opening and closing the ODFW website on the computer to see if this was really true. I had actually drawn a bighorn sheep tag for the McClellan Unit, which is in my own back yard (so to speak).

As best I can recall this is only the third time I had even applied for a sheep tag. After we got ourselves under control, we contacted our great friend John Marciel, who has been with me on nearly every hunt; John himself has successfully taken a bighorn sheep.

John and Joe were my primary hunting crew but I had other offers coming out of the woodwork. Our good friend and neighbor Walt Kight also offered to help, and he knows sheep hunting extensively, so I had a tag and some really good support lined up.

I started walking up every hill I could find at least four days a week to prepare. This was hard for a horseback junky to have to give up some saddle time to get myself into shape. We had our plan in place for the hunt, did the scouting, glassing and packed our camp in with the pack animals prior to the arrival of the big day.

The temperatures had dropped; it was quite cold the day before the hunt opened. We headed out early, on foot, with my heart pounding, on opening morning. I could hardly believe I was actually heading out to hunt bighorn sheep.

About 45 minutes into the first climb I saw the first ram. He was only 150 yards from us, alone and not too worried about seeing us. He looked HUGE through my scope, but John told me he was a “runt” and promptly placed a stick in my gun barrel to discourage my arguments that I really wanted to shoot him.

hat discussion was over and the hike resumed. We walked for seven hours that day and never saw another ram. We found out later why we hadn’t seen the sheep we expected to see; we heard ATVs and found their tracks.

We called the authorities, as we understood that this was a non-motorized vehicle area. It was so disappointing to find that ATVs had driven out all the game, after all our planning and preparation. It was even more apparent when after two more days of hard hunting, only seeing one buck deer.

Joe and John had to get back to work so we rode the horses out on Monday afternoon.

Monday evening we started our “plan B” hunt, glassing the Rooster Comb area of Fields Creek, and then we took Tuesday as a scouting and resting day. Walt and I saw the same three rams that day. We headed up Wednesday morning before the sun came up and spotted the rams.

It was nearly 11 a.m. before we decided where we could start a stalk and not end up pushing the rams over the top of the mountain. As anyone who has ever hunted sheep very well knows they do not live in flat areas in the McClellan Unit. We climbed, crawled & scrambled up the rims & loose rocks and finally got a good look at these rams. They were just leaving the draw where we had seen them and were heading out to bed down. It was 500-plus yards and just not a good shot. We discussed what to do, and I decided not to pursue a stalk since I worried we might just end up spooking them out too far. So down the mountain we came.

Thursday we had the assistance of Donny Binschus on the ground as our eyes to guide us after we located the rams that morning. We left the road on foot up a long ridge to where we had last seen the rams. Donny lost sight of them but we thought we had a pretty good idea of where they were, so Walt and I walked around to that area. No rams.

We came back to a timbered area and jumped out a nice 6X6 bull elk, he made quite a bit of noise, so we decided to just sit for a bit and see if Donny could find the rams again from his view point across the canyon. Still no rams at noon.

About 3:30 p.m. Donny saw the rams and tried to direct us to them – but we were actually one complete draw south of where he thought were were. So it was a frustrating afternoon, moving up and down the rims. I can now say I’m no longer afraid of heights after this day of hunting.

Finally I got into position at about 6 p.m., but the shooting position was rotten. So close but still unsuccessful. Off the mountain at dark again.

Friday: same crew, same plan, same three rams. We were determined this would be the day. We got up the mountain, just about to where our three amigos were located, and – what the heck, Walt was looking at four young rams we had never seen before, within 40 yards! We tried to back off on the rimrock, but it was too late. The four new rams blew out of there like rockets and took our three rams with them.

They were running too fast as they broke out of the timber for me to get a shot at any of them. My heart sank.

We sat in disgust for a little bit and then contacted Donny, who had seen where the five rams went. We started our stalk. After lots more walking, climbing and crawling, we figured out where to come in above the rams.

On the way down, I saw a gold-colored animal coming up the rocks toward us at a rapid rate of speed. It was a cougar stalking my ram! But we were NOT going to ruin this stalk to shoot at the cougar.

We finally got our position – a crazy little pinnacle, and my big ram was under a mahogany only 75 yards away, directly below me. I scrambled around and got him in my sights with a good clear shot but he was facing me head on and I had no rest for my rifle.

Walt was saying “You can wait … ” when bam! I shot the ram right at the base of the neck with my Ruger 7mm Magnum, and he tipped over backwards upside down. Walt finished his sentence: “until he turns broadside.” I never lost sight of the ram in my scope and he never moved again. I had a good shot, I had chased this ram for several days and I was not going to wait one more second for him to turn broadside.

At that point I pretty much went berserk. We slid our way down the rocks to the ram and a second version of the happy dance began.

We got the ram down under a tree to dress him out and stop him from rolling to the bottom of the mountain. I called my husband and advised him we were going to need a crew to haul out a ram! Donny and Joe and our brother-in-law Shane Giffin hiked in with the pack gear to get this wonderful ram off the mountain. We finally got the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – a beautiful 162.5/8 Bighorn Sheep Ram.

I cannot express enough thanks to our friends and family who helped me make this event one that will NEVER be forgotten.