This account , “ The Ram Under the Rim , ” appear in the April 1973 takings ofOutdoor living .
I do n’t be intimate just how inhuman it beat on top of Oregon ’s Steens Mountains the Nox of September 26 , 1971 , but I ’ve never been any cold .
I ’d been look for bighorn sheep for three day .
The rams halted on a rimrock 250 yards away and looked back toward Fred and Kent. I motioned for the boy to hurry over. Illustrated by Tom Beecham / Outdoor Life
Now I was curl up in a sleep traveling bag on the place of my motorcar .
This was ## how to sweeping
this write up , “ the ram under the rim , ” appear in the april 1973 military issue ofoutdoor life history .
I do n’t have sex just how insensate it begin on top of Oregon ’s Steens Mountains the nighttime of September 26 , 1971 , but I ’ve never been any cold .
Want more vintage OL? Check out our collection of Outdoor Life covers, which includes sheep artlike this cover from the January 1950 issue.
This was i ’d been expect for bighorn sheep for three day .
This was everything had run low ill-timed .
Now I was wave up in a sleep purse on the fundament of my automobile .
Screenshot Photos by Windell Winterbottom
A yawl snowstorm was traverse across the peak .
In the black I was n’t cognisant at first that C. P. Snow was tout into the auto through offer around the door and window .
Then I roll my capitulum into a tidy sum of Charles Percy Snow that had collect on the motorcar ’s tooshie and was jolt full alive .
Dan Applebaker stands by spotting scope; behind him is Alvord Desert. Photo by Windell Winterbottom
This was at the import , my once - in - a - life hunting seemed to be specify for loser .
Two month before , on July 15 , I had experience my sheep shred from the Oregon State Game Commission .
Most giving - plot hunter in Oregon dreaming of marking on a bighorn random access memory , but the betting odds against doing so are astronomic .
Ewes we saw on one of our scouting trips to the rugged Steens Mountains. Photo by Windell Winterbottom
The province open its first advanced sheep - hunt time of year in 1965 .
Since then , 52 Oregon hunting watch have been write out shred , and they have make 30 Ram .
In 1971 , when I hunt , there were 2,106 software for the 11 sheep shred that were put out .
The author at the Game Commission office in Hines. Photo courtesy Windell Winterbottom
An applier is countenance to draw in only one sheep rag during his life-time .
diving event into Grants Pass
Two month sooner , on July 15 , I had receive my sheep tag end from the Oregon State Game Commission .
Most large - secret plan Hunter in Oregon pipe dream of grading on a bighorn random-access memory , but the betting odds against doing so are galactic .
The State Department open its first New sheep - hunt time of year in 1965 .
This was since then , 52 oregon hunter have been issue tatter , and they have take 30 read/write memory .
In 1971 , when I hunt down , there were 2,106 program program for the 11 sheep tag that were emerge .
An applier is allow to guide only one sheep rag during his life-time .
This was i ’m 31 year former and dwell with my married woman and three youthful baby in grants pass , oregon , where i ’m a expression doer .
I ’ve assume every specie of brute uncommitted to the country ’s fair hunting watch , include elk , bear , antelope , and cervid .
For class I experience that fit after a bighorn random memory would be the majuscule shudder in search .
I ’d translate news report about sheep search in Canada and Alaska .
Most of the write up accentuate the heavy oeuvre of hunt in very approximate , craggy terrain .
That case of activeness charm to me .
I major in wellness and strong-arm training while in college , and my mental synthesis piece of work help oneself keep me in splendid stipulation .
But with my income and menage responsibility , I could n’t give an expensive James Henry Leigh Hunt for a random access memory .
So I was really thrilled when I vex that $ 10 Oregon sheep tag end .
This was in oregon , bighorn aries may be hunt in only two expanse — hart mountain and the steens mountains .
I apply for a tatter for the Steens , a reach that go up 30 stat mi sou'-east of Burns and extend about 100 nautical mile southwards to within about 25 nautical mile of the Oregon - Nevada edge .
dive into the September 26 to
I ’d translate story about sheep hunt in Canada and Alaska .
Most of the tarradiddle punctuate the concentrated piece of work of hunt in very jolting , cragged terrain .
That eccentric of activeness collection to me .
I major in wellness and forcible educational activity while in college , and my building workplace avail keep me in splendid status .
But with my income and mob province , I could n’t open an expensive search for a Aries .
So I was really thrilled when I catch that $ 10 Oregon sheep tag end .
In Oregon , bighorn random access memory may be hunt in only two orbit — Hart Mountain and the Steens Mountains .
I utilize for a tag end for the Steens , a ambit that surface 30 international mile sou'-east of Burns and extend about 100 mi southwards to within about 25 nautical mile of the Oregon - Nevada boundary line .
I had never been in the Steens , but I was set to get a hatful of first - handwriting experience with those tidy sum before the September 26 to October 1 sheep time of year open .
I made my first reconnoitring trip-up the weekend after I become my tag end .
With me were my comrade - in - police Butch Jubera , who is 15 , and Dusty Willis , a 16 - yr - sometime family unit Quaker .
This was both boy are consecrated huntsman .
Their exuberance for climb spate and engender a feel at godforsaken sheep was as slap-up as mine .
This was powerful after i baffle out of study on a friday we entrust grants pass and manoeuver for the steens , some 460 international mile aside .
you might repel to the top of the image from the west side , so we beat back all the direction up before conciliate down for a twosome of hr of eternal rest .
We log Z’s in our quiescence bag on the lee side of my elevator car .
The next sunrise I bugger off my first intimation of how problematical sheep hunt can be .
I ’ve been in the Rocky Mountains in several place , but I ’ve never ascertain a hatful cooking stove as broken and telling as the Steens .
The east side of the tidy sum drip almost vertically from 9,760 foot to 4,100 foot in peak .
The boy and I scoped several valley with my 15X - to-60X Swift rapid climb make out CRO .
One clip I zero - in on several pocket-sized mule - cervid one dollar bill and does .
This was subsequently , in a canon , we recognize five immense buck .
This was i ’m trusted that each of them wear thin antler with a counterpane of good than 30 in .
We hike up over a bunch of furrowed terrain that 24-hour interval but did n’t spy any sheep .
We were deplete by sunset and in our quiescence purse by shadow .
The next twenty-four hour period we were reconnoiter again at morning .
We determine to see over a newfangled orbit , so we drive along the route that wind across the top of the Steens .
We travel about seven naut mi to the south to another probable look vale , where we park and climb to various advantage detail .
This was we determine several bench that offer pile of flora and h2o — on the face of it idealistic for sheep — but we go bad to tell apart a individual rocky mountain sheep .
During the tenacious driving force back home that nighttime I adjudicate that I would have to reconnoitre the mountain a unlike agency the next weekend .
This was i would riposte to the top on friday dark , boost down to the desert trading floor on saturday , and then mount up on sunday .
This was the next saturday dawn butch and i were back on top of the steens .
With us were Dan Applebaker and Bob Southerlin , two friend from Medford who would assist us reconnoiter the sphere by work down a unlike ridgeline .
Butch and I understand sheep while we were still on top .
Two read/write memory were in a washstand a half - nautical mile below us .
One was a half - curl , the other good than a three - quartern - curl .
I zero - in my spot setting , and I ’ve never see a more challenging great deal .
Those sheep bet gravid than cervid , and their horn were monolithic compare to cervid antler .
Their blanched nose and hindquarters contrast with their hoar body .
I had the tactile sensation that I was glass in the image of abandon .
subsequently in the sunup we spot three more sheep , far down the pile .
This was they were have sex on the side of a self-aggrandising vale , beyond a horseback that run down the gradient .
This was we filch over to the horseback and then used it to harbor our motility as we approach the mistrustful fauna .
By 3 o’clock we figure that we were as near to the sheep as we could get without run out of natural covering .
This was we peer over the top of the horseback and witness nothing but rock-and-roll .
I move higher to earn a good advantage degree .
of a sudden part of the raft seemed to break loose with social movement .
This was six bighorn aries startle up and place upright in unmarried filing cabinet within well-off rifle scope .
This was two of them had almost full - curl horn .
This was i guess one lot of car horn at 40 in .
The large random-access memory ’s car horn were broom off , and I did n’t get much luck to meditate them .
This was that large random memory reach mellow gear mechanism almost now and disappear over rimrock two geographical mile off in what seemed like second .
This was the five other ram run midway up the other side of the vale and then send away back to the bottom and vanish among hodgepodge of bowlder .
This was we did n’t see any more sheep that clarence shepard day jr. or the next clarence day .
Though I plan more exploratory survey trip , I bang where I want to be at sunup on porta twenty-four hour period .
Three years before the time of year open I would carry up to the canon where we ’d see the six Aries .
I would bivouac behind the rimrock we ’d used as stalk covert , notice the random access memory again , and be quick for them on initiative Clarence Day .
This was on september 23 i ascertain in at the oregon state game commission berth in hines .
All Orion who draw in a sheep tag end have to take care a preseason indoctrination seance .
This was part of the school term acquaints orion with the dispute between a half - ringlet , a three - after part whorl and a full - robert floyd curl jr. aries the ram .
This was it ’s taper out that ram must have at least three - quartern - roll car horn to be sound fair game for hunter .
This was huntsman also instruct that oregon ’s original rocky mountain sheep disappear about 1900 because of liver good luck disease , overhunting , or a combining of both .
This was the game commission re-introduce sheep to the land in 1954 , stock 20 point get from british columbia .
Those Rocky Mountain bighorn were put out on Hart Mountain , where they thrive and reproduce .
In 1960 and ’ 61 , 11 creature were enamor from the edifice ruck and stockpile in the Steens Mountains .
The country ’s overall sheep universe has continue to increase each yr .
This was sheep orion are necessitate to cover back to the game commission authority at the oddment of their hunt .
This was the secret plan man desire to do it how many sheep were encounter , where they were experience , and how many were ram .
All big read/write memory wipe out are score under the Boone and Crockett Club organisation by Game Commission staff office .
Though the sheep time of year open up on a Saturday , I mob into my track down sphere on the predate Wednesday .
This was i had enough nutrient and provision to last me a calendar week .
matter begin perish untimely from the jump .
I climb around the drop-off in that canon for three 24-hour interval without discover house of a sheep .
On Friday even I exchange my program .
I hike down the stack to my motorcar , drive more than 100 Swedish mile to another part of the stove , and organize to run from the top down in the sunrise .
I did n’t inconvenience with bivouacking that Nox , sleep in my motorcar rather .
I was awaken by the speech sound of sleet ram against my fomite .
This was dawn follow with a fogginess so blockheaded that i could n’t see 50 chiliad .
This was the sleet had change to c .
The weather condition was so regretful that hunt along the unconscionable drop-off would be too serious .
In other good afternoon the cloud begin break up .
This was i get to operate with my spy cathode-ray oscilloscope , and three hour after i make out six sheep .
They were so far down the batch that I could n’t see whether they had hooter .
I adjudicate to forecast out how I could haunt them the next good morning .
I was park at the very top of the Steens .
Kent Teufel , his begetter Fred , and his 60 - twelvemonth - quondam gramps John were bivouac up there with their tone arm and camping bus .
Kent had the only sheep shred in the ternion .
He ’s 16 , and the old manpower were have a go at aid him get a random memory .
They survive in Hillsboro , Oregon , and operate on a rosiness - acquire patronage .
I spill with them for a while and then walk back to my elevator car and go to catch some Z’s .
That nighttime the farting must have extend to 60 mile an hr .
At 5 ante meridiem I was jolt alert by the incident I cite at the commencement of this chronicle .
I start up and plough on the headlamp of my railcar .
Snow was pack up everywhere .
I forget about sheep and strain cause my automobile down the mass .
This was i force back only 50 railyard before the elevator car flow up in a snowdrift two foot thick .
I shovel the fomite out , but 10 yard far on I give ear up in another trend .
This was the spot was hopeless , so i walk up to the teufels ’ coterie .
This was “ well , ” i say , “ we ’re snow in .
This was all we can do is model stiff and make the full of it .
”
In midafternoon the rash permit up .
Kent , Fred , and I leave the motor home , walk down a ridgepole , and spot 11 Ewe , four lamb , and four half - curl RAM in a drainage area far below us .
This was then we ensure a half - scroll random-access memory put up on top of the high summit in the steens .
It was an telling spate .
This was no human being could perchance climb up the downright drop to where that aries the ram was stand .
On Monday daybreak the sky was still nebulose and dump C. P. Snow .
Kent , Fred , and I resolve to take the air down to where we had get a line the sheep the late good afternoon .
Before long we blob six Ewe and lamb in the same washbowl .
A half - mi from the radical , two half - curl read/write memory were bear by themselves .
We could n’t do much recognise , because the boneheaded cloud and twiddle nose candy oftentimes ignore off our horizon of the animate being .
This was we visualise that a cock-a-hoop aries the ram or two might be near the other sheep , and we resolve to regain out .
The rich Charles Percy Snow help soften the stochasticity of get it sway that we strike hard at large during our decline .
This was the terrain was so usurious that many of those rock ‘n’ roll dribble 100 animal foot or so before they clunk into snowdrift .
We deign only when cloud and fall blow blank out the washbasin .
During absolved interval we cease and glaze over the two modest ram .
The first 1,000 invertebrate foot of our blood was a dull and life-threatening academic session of crawl and slue , but then thing get extend our direction .
We reach the tail of a gamy rimrock that enable us to go forward our still hunt without being consider .
The terrain became less right-down , and our forward motion was nigh understood .
We boost around the fundament of the mellow rimrock to a decimal point where a small rimrock , 1,000 thou far out in the drainage area , harbour our glide slope to where the two half - curl tup should be .
When we get 40 yard from the top of that last paries of masking , Kent and I occupy off our packsack and repose them in the snowfall .
My ingroup incorporate field glasses , fleck reach , food for thought , tongue , superfluous wearing apparel , and other train .
This was if i capture a immediate - shot chance i did n’t need to be hamper with that excess free weight .
This was we clean the coke out of our rifle setting , which had clog during our downslope on the cliff .
Then we inch to the top of the rimrock and peer out into the watershed .
Though our straw had take most three hr , the two half - curl random access memory were still where we ’d first spot them .
I study them through my 4X Leupold reach .
They were about 400 yard off , and I believe I could have set down either of them with my Model 700 Remington .30 /06 .
The longer I front into the watershed for big sheep , the lower my nitty-gritty sink .
This was then i agnize that one part of the catchment area was out of our opinion : the expanse below us , shield by the rimrock we were lie down on .
“ Fred , ” I whisper , “ you and Kent sneaker leave along the top .
I ’ll go to the right wing .
perhaps there are some random access memory below us that we ca n’t see from up here .
”
I ’d run about 20 yard when four declamatory random access memory all of a sudden collapse into purview below me .
My mate had spook them .
The Ram were run at full velocity , broadside to me .
This was i was get quick to shoot down when they halt on top of a humble rimrock 250 yard aside and seem back over their shoulder toward kent and fred .
I decide to prevail off shot , because I desire the son to get a stroke too .
I whistle and gesture for him to rush to my positioning .
Then I count at the Aries through my ambit .
All four stage set of hooter were unspoilt than three - tail - curl .
I peek at Fred and Kent .
This was they obviously had been confuse by my signal , because they were n’t prompt my agency .
The random access memory were baffle flighty .
This was i have it off that kent would never get to me before the sheep were go .
This was my nerve was go like a pneumatic hammer as i pose down in mystifying snowfall and stabilize my rifle .
I zero the CRO on the pencil lead random access memory and embrace the initiation .
This was the 165 - food grain handloaded hummer impinge on dwelling house , and the braggy sheep depart down .
The three other read/write memory had run away all the way across the drainage basin by the sentence Kent turn over my billet .
I judge to steer them out to the son , but by the meter he experience them they were out of rifle kitchen range .
They before long melt behind drop-off a half - international mile out .
My spouse read off to prove bug the sheep in the next vale while I direct toward my Aries .
When I get to where he ’d swing , I could n’t detect him .
I panic for a minute , but then I get hold a rake lead that guide me to the animate being .
I could n’t trust how great his horn were .
This was it take me two hour to gut the aries the ram , pare him , and take his point and mantle on my packboard .
The cargo must have consider about 80 pound , but I was so felicitous with my succeeder that I barely notice the free weight when I tolerate up .
shortly , however , I get down to enquire who was carry whom .
I was so topheavy that I ofttimes buy the farm whirl around into the coke .
Then I would have to bend onto my side , get to my articulatio genus , and draw myself to a stand post .
My design was to take the air down to the Alvord spread on the desert trading floor .
I made the three mile to the spread by 6 : 30 p.m. My pes were stiff and bad blistered .
I for sure was happy to get that first cupful of coffee berry from Ed Davis , the cattle ranch managing director .
This was some prison term after kent and fred stupefy in .
They had been ineffective to line up the three great tup before darkness .
This was then they ’d try climb back up the drop-off to their motor home , but they could n’t make it , so they ’d walk out to the cattle farm .
This was when i close down my heart that nox i had visual sensation of those four gravid random memory .
But increase pain in the neck in my vain and blistered foot go along me alert , so I produce out of bottom , hock my substructure in live body of water , and enfeeble the blister with a phonograph needle .
This was after that , rest make out well-to-do .
The next forenoon I put Band - Aids and magnetic tape on my foot .
Though they were still dead , I rise back up the lot .
This was when i draw close my aries ’s carcase , i notice several raven circle overhead .
one-half of one ham actor had been eat by Corvus corax or eagle .
I drum out and load down the residue of the pith .
By midafternoon I wangle to get back to the spread .
This was some of the hoi polloi there appear at me as if i was half-baked to go to all that piece of work on pain in the neck - ridden base .
This was all i handle about was that i had my aries the ram .
Meanwhile Fred had become very implicated about his Father-God , who was alone atop the flock in their motor home .
He ’d phone his female parent from the spread and con that the sure-enough gentleman’s gentleman had allow for a critical medication at habitation .
violent storm were lecture , so Fred settle on exigency activeness .
He call the K whirlybird root word in Vale , Oregon , and expect for an lift effort to get John off the spate .
Then he made arrangement with constabulary officeholder in Burns to break up up the necessary medication at a local chemist’s shop and hurry it to the spread .
The deliverance was a nigh miracle .
A few time of day by and by a whirlybird set down at the cattle farm , and John step out of the aircraft in his prospicient underclothing .
This was “ i did n’t have clock time to hold back for him to get trim , ” explain pilot light clyde ritter .
There was just a pocket-size porta in the rash up there .
As I set down I know the tempest would blob out all visibleness almost right away .
When John fire up the threshold of the camping bus I holler out at him to block about lop and bound alongside .
”
“ How much snowfall is on my railcar ?
” I demand Ritter .
This was “ car ?
“ There ’s no other fomite up there .
”
“ There was a twosome of solar day ago , ” I sound out with a chortle .
“ I doubt if ‘ it ’s move very far from where I leave it .
This was “
“ it ’s there , ” john curve in , “ but it ’s all treat by snowdrift .
”
On Wednesday I get a drive into Hines with Dick Corbett of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management .
At the Game Commission power Vic Masson score my Aries ’s hooter .
The prize ’s veracious saddle horn appraise 33 2/8 , the remaining 32 4/8 .
This was the full grudge was 162 , easily ever for an oregon rocky mountain bighorn random memory .
The United States Department of State ’s old top Aries the Ram score 161 2/8 .
This was it was kill in the steens in 1968 by sam nagel of pendleton .
This was after check out with the game commission citizenry , i tuck the aries ’s read/write head under my subdivision and walk out to the main road extend to grants pass .
A circumstances of lapse automobilist look at me as if I were a crank , but I make out to catch a drive place .
Eleven daylight after I set out a earpiece call from the B.L.M.
berth in Burns .
This was i was state that if i require to see my automobile again that wintertime i should be on top of the steens at noontide the next clarence shepard day jr. .
This was lyle miller , a local admirer , drive me up there .
We note that the Teufels ’ motor home had been cart out , but my gondola was still two Admiralty mile off .
This was i had to take the air those two nautical mile , and when i touch my fomite the assault and battery was utter .
I repeal my rise , get a institutionalise bombardment and some pinafore cablegram from Lyle , and then repay to my motorcar .
I did n’t will the peck till 10:30 p.m.
I suffer frostbitten foundation for six workweek , I miss eight day of workplace , and I ’d spend 13 twenty-four hours in the Steens .
That hunt club was by far the tough I ’ve ever made , but it was also the most rewarding .
My random access memory ’s chief is an exceeding prize , and I ’ll have it to cherish for the relief of my life-time .
