Skunked and Sheeped

Sorry to say, but after an hour hike in and three hours of looking, I didn't see a single big game animal. I saw a couple Blue Grouse who couldn't get over the shock of seeing me, so they kept running up the trail in head of me. I was tired, but I was sure their internal dialog sounded like this: "I think there's someone behind us. Yup, and I think he's following us, don't look back." "Okay, he's still back there and he just keeps coming, what does he want?" " Maybe if we just stay on this trail he'll get confused." "Now I'm freaked out, we're gonna die! We're gonna DIE!!"" Wait I just noticed this seventeenth deer trail we passed, what if we, and I don't want to confuse you, but what if we go a diferent direction on one of these trails?" " Oh yeah, it's so crazy it just might work." " Where'd that guy go?" or something to that effect. Again it was early and I was tired.
So I slipped right in without skylining myself, quietly set up the tripod and went to work. Hours later, no deer, no elk, no goats , no moose, nada, zip, zilch. That's why it's called hunting, not shooting I guess.
On my way out I saw a coyote track on top of my inbound tracks, so that was cool.

On Sunday I saw a hunting show about a Desert bighorn hunt down by Lake Powell.

This is a ram, and if you compared him to a Rocky Mountain Bighorn, you'd see like most desert species he's thinner and short haired. His horns are also thinner, than his northern relative. Here is a ewe and lamb.

A lot of the animals in Anasazi and Freemont petroglyphs are sheep. For a long time they were present throughout the Southwest. But as domesticated sheep moved in hundreds of years ago, they brought diseases that reduced sheep numbers in Utah to the low hundreds.

Fortunately several groups, mostly hunting-based, have raised millions of dollars and bought large tracts of habitat to bring this species back. Transplanted sheep were brought in to boost the genetic diversity and numbers. Now Desert bighorns are regularly seen in the Virgin River Gorge next to I-15. They are also scattered in the San Rafael Swell and along the Green River.

The tags are very rare, and my dad has been putting in for many years for one. The above mentioned show really displayed the difficulty of killing one, even with a tag and young guys helping. We'll see where we are when dad draws the tag( my walker pushing his wheelchair.)

It also showed the austere beauty and unforgiving terrain of the desert. I work with the scouts and I try to alternate between high mountains and deserts for longer campouts. I think those places where we quickly learn our weaknesses are the places where we can build lasting foundations of strength and confidence. We can say " I survived there, I can survive here."