Sky just got in. He and another lab worker went on a hike up Pinnall mountain trail this weekend. They left Friday afternoon, and drove to the trail head. They hiked up Juneau Creek Friday evening, and set up camp at the base of the mountain. Saturday morning they awoke to something sniffing around their tent. The only thing they could think of was a Grizzly, so they were pretty scared. What ever it was would walk away then come back sniffing again.
Finally Sky gripped the pistol and unzipped the tent. As he crawled out he saw a Dall Sheep Ewe standing about 30 yards away. His partner climbed out of the tent, and she was surprised. She had spent days and days trying to get close to a group of sheep three mountains away with no luck. Sky's partner stood still and the Sheep started walking towards them. Soon it was sniffing them. Sky said it reached out and sniffed his hand, then snorted, and jumped back. Then it walked up to his partner and sniffed her. After sniffing her several times the sheep licked her hand, then moved forward and rubbed against her.
Both these biology majors were in shock with the action of this ewe. They could not believe this animal not only came into camp, but walked up to them and sniffed and licked them. They sat around camp watching this ewe most of the day, as it fed away from their camp.
They then went farther up the trail then the weather went to blowing. They reached a saddle where they wanted to spend the night. They set up camp then they found out what can happen up in saddles after dark. Wind came up to the point they could not hold down the tent and it kept blowing over with them inside. After several hours they got up, broke camp and headed down to the trail head. By the time they got to the Jeep they were wet from the waist down. His partner's feet was cold and hurting. They threw their sleeping bags in the back of the Jeep and went to sleep. Good thing they are both short people. This morning they woke up to beautiful blue skys, but they no longer wanted to hike, they wanted to come home.
I asked if they got pictures of the sheep, he said yes she took some. I told him I want a copy next time he sees her. I've seen Dall Sheep in the same area, and had them come to within 30 feet of us. Sky is just so excited about this experience, he never believed he would ever be close to a sheep in the wild like that.
