2019 Newsletter
The year started out with great anticipation of Wendy receiving a new hip replacement that never transpired so we headed north and into Scoop Lake. As soon as we got into Scoop we lit a few fires for a little habitat restoration. Late May Wendy was getting the greenhouse and garden planted with the help of Tiffany and Devan. With the arrival of June, Charlie and the boys began to show up for year two of the building project at Denetiah. Building a lodge 130 air miles from town with no mechanical assistance and accomplishing what they did is amazing, my hat is off to them. You will need to bring your family and experience the beautiful lodge on the most pristine lake loaded with rainbow trout; sit back and view the mountain goats, stone sheep and grizzly bears roaming the mountainsides. We built this to share with friends and clients who want to get away from life’s stresses, relax and enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer from the comforts of luxury. For corporate retreats or your next board meeting with no interference other than taking time to catch a rainbow, ask how you can reserve the Denetiah Conference Center for your next meeting.
August was upon us before we knew what was happening and our first sheep hunters were arriving into camp. We no sooner got them into their respective spike camps and our Yogies were arriving for our second week-long Yoga Retreat of the year. This is always a fun week filled with relaxation from the sauna to paddle boarding or going for a horseback ride. We are currently taking bookings for our Summer Solstice Yoga retreat in 2020.
Opening day of sheep season we were eating sheep steaks. Justin Jackson was the first and Gary Raba was the second successful clients. The first hunt went pretty quick and we were excited to see the second round of hunters arriving. We had previously located a couple good rams so had great anticipation of early successes. Waking up to snow falling on August 16th was not in the plan. We had a week of steady snow with accumulations of 12”-36” throughout the sheep ranges. Sheep were gone and trails were impassible as the snow had broken off trees and caved in the trails. The second hunt of August! I have never seen the likes of it. Needless to say, the hunt was more of a lesson on survival.
Wendy Greeno was attempting to finish her grand slam but Mother Nature wasn’t cooperating. We had her husband Dave with their two boys at Scoop. They got the chance to make an August snowman and get in some target practice.
I have had people tell me there are some things you can’t put in newsletters such as the tough hunts. Well, it’s the tough hunts that build character and make us appreciate the challenges Mother Nature can throw at us. The next round of clients came in, thankful they had missed all the snow everyone was talking about and success on the snowy hunt sucked. These new guys got into the hills to now experience trails that were an unbelievable mess. It made getting around with horses very challenging. The snow drove all the grizzlies into the higher terrain where we expected to find moose, goat and sheep to primarily find grizzlies roaming the hillsides in search of their next meal. One day Garth who has worked for us for 20+ years said he saw more grizzlies than bull moose. Oh yeah, did I mention that our grizzly hunt is closed for conservation reasons?! I would have liked to drop the politician who closed the hunt off in one of those high mountain basins with 6 or 8 hungry grizzlies. We did harvest some moose, we also lost meat to grizzlies before we could get back to the carcass with pack horses. Trina who was helping Tyler guide Wendy Greeno took a video of eight grizzlies at one time around them while trying to glass for sheep.
Not sure anyone of our clients would say they had an easy hunt this year. Well, maybe Ron who got his elk on day one and then a very good bull moose a couple of days later. Or possibly Jackson who shot his ram 600 yards above his tent the first day out. The largest goat of the year was taken on the last hunt in October by Dennis Coffey. For Dennis to get out of his camp the guides spent the day in a canoe busting ice so I could land and pick them up. Normally this location wouldn’t freeze till much later in the fall. Wendy Greeno returned in October as well to finish her grand slam, remember the snow started when she arrived on August 15th. She returned on Oct 3rd and the snow started on Oct 4th. She is returning August 1st next year hope it doesn’t snow August 1st.
The success of a hunt is often reliant on weather and good guides. We are fortunate to have a very dedicated team and when you see the effort they put in to open up the trails laden with snow and overcome the challenges it makes me proud to have them on our crew.
Darwin, Wendy, Tiffany and Trina
and the Scoop Lake Crew