Editor’s Note: Pat Reeve and Nicole Jones’ TV show, Driven with Pat and Nicole, airs on the Outdoor Channel Tuesday nights at 8:00 pm and Friday nights at 10:00 pm EST. For the last 3 years, this husband- and-wife duo has won a Golden Moose Award for excellence in TV production from the Outdoor Channel. “Driven” features big-game hunting around the world, but its main focus has been whitetails. Pat and Nicole wear the Mossy Oak Treestand and Break-Up Infinity camo patterns.
On our Alaskan Dall sheep hunt after climbing high, we finally had spotted a Dall sheep ram that possibly was a legal shooter. To get to that ram, we had to climb further up a steep mountain over jagged and loose rocks. We came to a waterfall that made the rocky terrain wet and even-more dangerous to climb. Next we encountered a sheer rock face that we couldn’t climb up. To get around this rock face, we had to walk across a narrow loose-shale path. At that point, I was so physically exhausted that my body just locked up. My mind was willing to go, but my body said no. I couldn’t move. On top of that, I was scared to death. To make matters worse, I couldn’t look down, because I’m terrified of heights. The guide said, “Come on, Pat. All you have to do is walk across this path.” The path he wanted me to take only was as wide as one of my feet. I told the guide, “I ain’t doing it. This is where my stalk stops. If you want to continue, I’ll wait right here while you check out that ram.” This rock face was so steep that when I stood up, my shoulder was touching rocks.
I couldn’t get my camera out of my backpack. I was afraid that if I let go of the rock and tried to get my camera out, I would fall and wouldn’t stop rolling until I reached the bottom of the mountain. I was so scared and nervous that I started laughing. Finally I reached a place where I could get my camera out. I kicked a rock and watched it bounce down the mountain. I thought, “That rock is doing exactly what I would do if I fell off the side of this mountain.” Nicole and I stayed by the waterfall, while the guide went up that mountain just like he was a mountain goat. When he finally got back to us, he said, “I’m glad you didn’t climb with me, because that ram wasn’t big enough to be legal.” I thought to myself, “Thank God. I won’t have to make that climb.” We turned around and started walking back. The guide said, “Why don’t we go down this way? We can shale-surf.” He pointed to a shale rock slide, jumped, hit the shale with both feet, slid, jumped again, and in a few seconds, he was at the bottom of the mountain. Nicole is an adventure junkie. As soon as she saw the guide shale-surfing, she jumped off the rock and slid. Just as she was about to come to a stop, she would jump again and slide. I knew how much Nicole would kid me if I didn’t shale-surf down the mountain. I said to myself, “If Nicole can do it, I can do it.” Finally, I got down off that mountain.
We hunted Dall sheep for another 8 days. Finally, on the ninth day, we found a legal ram. Each day of the hunt we traveled 20 to 25 miles on horseback or on foot. At night, we ate warmed-up Spam and went to sleep. We got wet most days. We endured that kind of hunt for 9 days, until we finally found a ram. We had seen about 50-different rams, but none of them were a legal size.
