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.

CADOMIN! That's what this hunting season is all about. Everything else takes a back seat. Sure, I've chased moose with a bow a few mornings, and even halfheartedly looked for elk around the Cadomin mine during a scouting trip, but all focus and all preparation goes into the late season WMU 438 hunt for a big ram around the Teck Resources Cadomin mine. I have two mule deer tags for November as well, but the quest for a big buck will have to wait until I draw again. The plan is to look for a buck and a doe early on in the month, put some meat in the freezer, and go back to prepping for the sheep hunt.

 I'll put some gear considerations and choices on here as time progresses, starting off with what I consider the most important: boots.

For reference I should start by saying that my feet start getting cold as soon as the weatherman suggests that it might freeze overnight. And my feet are small, smaller than the starter size of most men's boots. So I need some serious insulation, and I have limited choices. And a limited budget.

The climbs and hikes in Cadomin aren't the longest and the toughest. Still, there will be shale, and loose rock, so some support around the ankle is required. There might (will) be deep snow and icy conditions. After the hike up there will be long periods of inactivity. And it will be cold.

Plan A was to buy an oversized pair of insulated leather boots, with sturdy soles, and combine that with heat insoles by Thermacell. Unfortunately, I could not find a boot that could accommodate the rather thick insoles, be roomy enough to allow blood to flow to the toes, and provide sufficient hold for the foot inside the boot. Besides, many boots that I looked at seemed to concentrate the insulation in the shaft of the boot, not the foot. So all that stuff went back to the store.

After long consideration, and talking to friends that have done this hunt, I opted for a pair of Schnee's Hunter Extreme pac boots (http://www.schnees.com/product/2613/schnees-insulated-pac-boots). And because I'm paranoid, I also bought a pair of Arctic Shield insulated boot covers (http://www.basspro.com/ArcticShield-Boot-Covers-for-Men/product/55198/). These can go over the boots after the hiking is done, and in extreme conditions a chemical heat pack can be added easily to hopefully keep my feet warm all day. By the way, if you are ever considering buying these covers, I strongly suggest you try them out in a store. I had to buy a LARGE, instead of the manufacturer suggestion of a SMALL to get them to fit.

I'm skeptical about any solution, but this is the one I'm going with. I may pick up a pair of those traction cleats that wrap around your boot (since the rubber foot of the Schnee's won't accept real crampons) to improve grip when things get icy. You may ask me at the end of November how things turned out.