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The Alaska Double
By Gregory Fleming, Springfield, Va.M
y adventure started at the Great American Outdoor
Show. I didn’t plan to book a hunt, but was led to Mike
“Buck” Bowden, master guide and owner of Hidden
Alaska by my friend Ed Laidlaw and Ed’s dad, Don. Buck had
a 2018 Dall sheep hunt opening. I was saving for years to go
on a moose hunt, but this was a great opportunity. I spoke
to Buck, and he said this specific sheep hunt was also during
grizzly season. I was intrigued to say the least, but still felt it
was a dream out of reach—I was concerned about the money.
“When I was your age, a moose hunt was $1,500, and now
they are $15,000, so don’t wait around thinking you’re going to
save up more money and things will be easier because the price
just keeps going up on these hunts,” Don said. I ended up book-
ing the sheep hunt. The moose would have to wait.
While prepping for my hunt, some weekends were spent
with my dad as his health was failing. He passed away in
August, and I left for my sheep hunt nine days later. The hunt,
I was hoping, would give me time to think.
On the third day of the hunt, we were up at 5 a.m. to pack,
eat breakfast and find rams. Our goal was to get a double—two
rams shot by two hunters at the same time. As breakfast was
prepared, I scanned the mountain; sure enough, the sheep were
about 4 miles away. Everyone dropped what they were eating
and we took off after them.
We completed a five-hour stalk to get within 336 yards of
the rams. Guns leveled, we both shot, and before I knew it, my
ram was down. The other ram was uninjured and managed to
get over the mountain—no sheep double.
On day six, while cresting a dam, I spotted a grizzly way off in
the distance. After another five-hour stalk, we closed to 310 yards
and waited for the perfect shot. I shot ... and missed. My guide
Matt and I spent the next four days trying to find that bear again.
Matt told me if you miss like I did, the bear will be two
mountains away by the time he stops. And that’s exactly where
we spotted him, but when we finally arrived the bear was gone.
We had to be right on top of it.
Then, out of nowhere, the bear appeared, feeding in front of
me at 40 yards. I didn’t have a good shot. As the bear turned its
head, I got the gun up and waited until I got a perfect broadside
shot. My rifle roared, and so did the bear. I chambered a new
round, but the bear ran out of sight down over the mountain
before I could get a second shot.
We found the bear an hour later, and after skinning and
packing made it back to camp at 1:30 a.m. as our headlamp bat-
teries ran low. We celebrated for an hour and then went to bed.
On the ride home, I reminisced about the great hunt—the
thrill, the solitude, the exhaustion from hiking 80 miles for my
sheep and bear—and I realized I got a double after all. That
was worth every penny.
I looked up at the sky and toasted my dad. Usually he hears
the play by play directly from me after each hunt, but this time
he was able to see the entire thing for himself. ahPhotos: Matt Rees