WAPITI RIDGE OUTFITTERS ”SUMMER FUN IN THE BEARTOOTHS”
We met Justin Jarrett of Wapiti Ridge Outfitters in February of 2007 at the Western Hunting and Conservation Exop in Salt Lake City. The conversation naturally started with big game hunting and all the trophy hunting packages Wapity Ridge Outfitters offers. The talk turned to fishing as I thumbed through the photo albums. “J.J.” had out to view. I asked about the summer pack trips they offered and the next thing we knew, we had a trip booked for the beginning of August.
We do several trips throughout the various seasons and I asked J.J. “what sets your trips apart from all the rest?” He assured me that we would have a great time aboard experienced mountain horses in some of the most beautiful country in God’s Creation. “Everybody catches fish on this trip” he claimed and “nobody has ever left our table hungry.” “We will ride beautiful mountain trails, see lots of game and all of this at a leisurely summer pace.” The date was set and I couldn’t wait to get in the saddle and see if it was all he boasted about.
Leonard Reeves (#931,PA) went along on his son Patrick Reeves’s (PA), Wyoming bighorn hunt and submitted the following report:
“Two surgically repaired knees and the ravages of accompanying arthritis ended my sheep hunting several years ago. However, when my son Patrick drew a 2006 Wyoming bighorn tag for area 5, I decided that I had enough left to at least give kibitzing a try. Patrick agreed that accompanying him on the hunt would be fun for both of us.
I hunted the same area in 1999 with wonderful results, I booked my hunt with Dean Johnson Outfitting, who proved themselves superb in their trade. Naturally, I recommended them to Patrick, who contacted Dean Johnson. Dean advised him that, although he was still doing some guiding he had sold his outfit to Justin Jarrett who, until the time of the sale, had been one of his elk and mule deer guides. Justin now trades as Wapiti Ridge Outfitters. In his typically enthusiastic manner, Dean extolled the sheep guiding prowess of a young guide working for Wapiti Ridge by the name of Chris Nielson. “He really knows how to locate a good Bighorn,” he said. Dean was prophetic.
We were scheduled to arrive in Cody on September 10, to begin hunting on the 11th, but became somewhat disillusioned when in mid-August we began receiving word of fires burning across area 5. We spoke to many locals about the status of the fires, including members of the game and fish commission who were offering guaranteed postponements until 2007. In other words, if a successful applicant wished to decline hunting in 2006 due to the burning he would be assured of a license for the following year. Patrick was undecided until he spoke to Chris Nielson who discussed having gone into the area on a scouting mission just days earlier. Chris concluded, with the confidence that became his trademark, “Come hunting and we’ll be fine.” We did and we were.
WYOMING
Justin Jarrett’s Wapiti Ridge Outfitters
“Having been on four sheep hunts and two excellent trips to Africa plus nine other western states hunts, I can say this hunt with Justin Jarrett of Wapiti Ridge Outfitters was the best of the fifteen hunts I had. It was a long and scenic ride into camp on trails with sheer drop-offs of hundreds of feet. Upon arriving at camp the operation showed that it had all good equipment, tents, etc. The horses all appeared to be fine and healthy. After settling in we had a fine dinner.(more on that later). The next day, after a pre-dawn breakfast we left our base camp at approximately 9,200 ft. and rode up an additional 1,500 ft. I counted a total of fifteen rams that day, their location made some inaccessible, some were too young and the remainder were of no interest to me. On the second day of the hunt we spotted eleven rams that were different from those we saw the first day. It was determined after a long period of scoping that again there was none that I wanted to shoot. The rams were very young or heavily broomed back. I was looking for a mature animal that still had his lamb tips. After a day of scoping we decided to start back to camp. Even the ride back to camp was exciting, a grizzly bear was casually walking on the trail in front of us. Day three started out brisk and clear but shortly after daybreak a combination of fog and low clouds reduced visibility to yards, making hunting all but impossible. Thursday, October 26, day four, we spotted eight rams, one of which had the horns I was looking for. Fully grown and not broomed back. I prefer to have this type of ram to the broomed sheep preferred by most hunters. My ram was facing us on a different