Cadomin - Day 'minus 1'

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, it all begins. I arrived yesterday, so today was for a last look around to determine where to go in the morning, and to recalibrate the thinking about what is a big ram.

Today can be summarized in three words: cold - snow - wind. And the peculiar absence of hunters with a tag for this last day of the middle season (OK, that is a lot more than three words). Did everybody tag out? Give up? I only met one other guy, whose wife has a tag for late season.

I didn't see the gagger, the monster, the one that makes you go "WOW!" I did see a lot of very pretty rams, full curls, a few heavily broomed rams, and one that goes full curl and then some but with an incredibly tight curl. If all the rings I saw are really annuli, he was well over ten years old. Any of these I would shoot in a heartbeat, if this weren't Cadomin. All of them were safely on the mine.

The wind was terrible. Even though the temperature rose throughout the day, so did the wind force. In one location it was impossible to get off the parking spot without snowshoes. As I put my foot on the windblown snow, to my left a miniature avalance occured. The "designated trail" was largely invisible, and packed with 2 1/2 feet of snow. Tough going.