September, was when a lifelong dream of mine actualy came true.My wife and I got the chance to go to Canada.
Three Canadian clients of the previous year orgenised the whole adventure for us and "Thanks again guys!"

We were picked up at Calgary and driven down to Lethbridge, where we had dinner with all three our new found friends and their familes.We spent another weak in Alberta, where we met various prospective clients and saw awsome places like, Waterton, Banff, etc.

Our next stop was Sparwood BC.Here we stayed at a smallholding outside Sparwood,which belongs to one of the friends of ours. He lives there whith his family and is fortunate enough to be able to keep four horses.
It was from here that, I will just call him "Fidget" and his hunting friend "Grey",would take me into the Rockies for a three day pack trip.

The Friday afternoon, his wife dropped us off whith the trailer and would meet us Sunday at a predetermined place.We had a packhorse and another horse each.
Fidget had his sights on sheep and elk and Grey was looking for a nice muly buck.I were playing toury for a change and had my camera ready.
Clear skies quickly turned into rain and most of the friday afternoons four hour ride, was done with my head pulled in under a wide brimmed hat,but it was lovely being out in the rain.Where I come from it is a rare sight.
We made camp in the dark and after getting a fire going with all kinds of wet wood, we enjoyed a late night snack, watered the horses and tuckin for the night.
Pancakes over the fire had us up and going the next morning.Looking up a breathtaking glacier, Fidget told me that we were entering, prime, sheep habitat and we would stop every now and again to glass the slopes.
It did not take long before we spotted goats and four sheep and it turned out that the sheep were all rams.It also turned out that the rams were just above the spot where we were gonna camp that night.Grey then camley mentioned that we would only reach the spot by nightfall and that we had spectacular but treacherous terrain ahead of us.
Axe and saw came in handy,when every now and again the horse trail was blocked by fallen trees from the previous storm and the snow also was getting thicker, to my delight, obviously.
At some places we had to walk and it got realy interesting, when we had to cross a glacier and Fidget told me that I have to be carefull when I reach the middle, because that is where his other packhorse,previously lost its footing and rolled down the mountain.
We rode into the campsite just before dark,with Hornady's Phillips Peak in the background.The dogs picked up a mountain lion's tracks and after closer inspection, we saw that he wamoosed down the slope infront of us.
I spent the last minutes of daylight, looking down at a billy goat, through a spotting scope and wondered how lucky a skinny guy from Africa can get.
Light rain and freezing temperatures got us to sleep in a tent that night, except Grey, he was happy to face the elements in his sleepingbag.They do not get tougher than this, I hope.
The Sunday morning we discovered why the dogs whent nuts all night, a Grizzly and her cub past our camp and she was a big mamma!While discussing the bear, Fidget suddenly went nuts too and could not decide what to do whith his cup of coffee while getting his rifle and binoculars out.
The four Big Horn sheep rams, appeared only 100 yards above our camp and did not notice us.Grey and Fidget glassed and exchanged comment for a while and then decided that none of the four were fit for the taking, because their horns did not meet the point of the eyes.They were very impressive to my standards, so much that they had my coffee getting cold on me.
After braking camp and saddling the horses we were off again for the last five hours of the 50 km trip.
On our way out, I heard the familiar whistle of an elk and Fidget got him coming so fast that we could hear branches braking in his way. a Sudden change in wind direction and he was queite again.Fidget bugled some more, but he was gone.
We returned home that night without elk, sheep or muledeer,but with an experience I will go back for and maybe one day I will be so lucky to exchange my camera for a bow or rifle.
The most beautiful experience of my life.

Weidmannsheil!!!

Omuhona ... Quite a coincidence .. but I was in Sparwood this morning .. They have a couple of feet of snow right now with more coming .. Twenty miles west of there they probably have twice as much .. !!! And twenty miles east they have none !!! I think that I just might know this 'Grey' guy ... Is he really ugly and is not always totally sympathetic to sick safari hunters ???

Richard

"Fidget" is the guy you know so well.Not even the possibility of a Leopard hitting the bait, could get him to sit still for five minutes.

'Fidget' ... Amigo, that is too funny !!!