It may have happened decades ago, but a hunting story as epic as this one stands the test of time. A hunter once got in a plane crash while flying to a hunting expedition. Despite being stranded in the wilderness, he still went hunting anyways.
Writer Donald L. Jenkins wrote about his crazy hunting trip in the 1960s issue of Outdoor Life, which later became digitalized. The hunter planned to go hunting for some sheep. Jenkins explains, "I was thinking about a hunt for Dall sheep when I left my home state of Colorado and drove up the rough and dusty Alcan Highway to Alaska back in 1949."
However, an August hunting trip to the Wrangell Mountains did not go according to plan. High winds caused the plane to actually crash into a mountain side. It's a fairly scary experience that would have had me screaming my head off.
Jenkins explained, "Our approach was nice and slow, full flaps down. The wind seemed to be slackening. Our wheels were almost on the ground. Then a big ground gust hit us. We slipped sideways and hit the ground hard. We were off the ground again like a rubber ball, Herb working frantically at the controls. We hit hard again and I heard the motor roar as Herb gave it full throttle trying to get back into the air. But at this elevation the little ship wouldn't respond. Our only chance was to ride her out."
Hunter Vs Plane Crash
Fortunately, the hunter, pilot, and the rest on board survived the plane crash into a small mountain. They quite literally got lucky but ended up stranded on the mountain. The hunter spent that night inside of the cabin as a bad storm went through. But the next day while studying the cliffs, he saw his prized sheep.
The hunter wrote, "They'd picked an impossible spot. But look at the size of those horns! Studying the cliffs again, I thought I saw a way to climb down the face of the top cliff and onto the shoulder under it. If I could somehow make it down the next sheer drop, it would put me right above those sheep. I'd have a shot straight down at about 100 yards."
And so the hunter put aside his survival story and continued with his hunting trip. He ended up climbing down and going to where the sheep was. That's when we get this gem of a description.
He wrote, "I sat down and lit a cigarette, gazing over at my fallen ram. There was no rush now, I had the best trophy that I could ever hope to find. Just wondering what he looked like up close gave me new energy to scale that last cliff that stood between us. I worked my way down the face of it, finally jumping the last 10 or 12 feet to the bottom. The soft shale broke my fall and I raced down the short distance to my sheep. The horns looked perfect, not too massive but a full curl and a quarter in length. My field measurements showed the horns to be identical — 13 ½ inches. at the base and 44 inches long."
Talk about epic!
