Arctic Hunt

Arctic Hunt

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock has hunted all over the world. But this guy isn't one of these "let's go someplace where I can hunt or fish during the day and then cuddle up in a 4 poster bed with a glass of wine at night." Nope, this ain't for the faint of heart. Mike had flown in on a Dall sheep hunt 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. He was dropped off via a plane for a 10 day trip and everything that was going to be with him was on his back in the form of a 55 pound pack. "We got fogged in for 2 days and I said to my packer that I could not stand sitting still any longer so I said let's go for a walk. We happened to walk 4 ½ miles down the river, across this river with many fingers and it, and this huge Arctic grizzly with silver tip, just beautiful, so we decided to take our boots and our pants off and we made the long hike across and we snuck up the bank and got closer and closer and I actually used my ski poles for balance and for shooting sticks and we were able to make a great shot on a grizzly bear, while we were still 20 feet into the river, the exciting part is that it then took off down the river, we didn't find it until the next day but we found a half-mile down looking like a rock but a beautiful, beautiful Arctic grizzly, the trophy of a lifetime to say the least, and fond, fond memories of directing that out of the river the next day, sitting by itself when we finally found it, but that was one of the best hunts I've ever been on by far.
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