In The Rough // Stone’s Sheep & Friendships That Take Us Places

Friendships are formed at the most serendipitous of times, and for many of us, these lasting bonds have been the product of a hunt we have shared together. From sitting around a campfire to helping repack a horse on the trail, setting up camp and playing a hand of cards while we wait out a storm, to the pinnacle moments leading up to that final stalk, these are the times that we remember the most.

Great friends make anything worth while, even through the days of endless up hill battles and physical mountain barriers. It is clients like Matt Comment have become more like extended family that make our time in the mountains together all the more enjoyable. A little under a decade of hunting together, and a thousand memories later, Dustin has helped Matt achieve a great deal of his western hunting goals. A little younger, and with some run-and-gun type diaries, you won’t want to miss their throwback Stone’s Sheep Hunt from 2012 that aired last night on our YouTube Channel!

Dustin Roe “This is my buddy @mattcomment. Matt and I have had some awesome adventures together over the years. We have spent days in the mountains, pulling horses and moose out of bogs, enduring rain, snow and bugs, we’ve taken planes, horses and our two feet pretty much everywhere you can go. Matt was there when I proposed to my wife and was the MC at my wedding. Matt lives out east but his heart lies out west …The ‘In The Rough’ video from his first sheep hunt… this hunt was a serious grind and a long pull with loaded packs… watch as Matt takes an unsuspecting ram of a lifetime. Dreams do come true even for those who think it never would. Always a pleasure brother!”

This year we started out with a very different fall in mind for 2020. Before our season in British Columbia kicks off, many of the crew would be up in the Northwest Territories for almost a week now guiding clients to the ‘ghosts in the green’, sharing stories and building friendships over a rack of Dall Sheep ribs under the midnight sun. Sadly this year it is just not the case. Now with July almost behind us, we are having to look to our season and the Stone Sheep opener with a game plan, and a few plot twists for the faces we were meant to be greeting. We were fortunate to be booked up and anticipating rekindling some old friendships and making some new ones over a successful stalk, but it seems the World situation had other plans. With the crazy ups and downs that this past spring has brought with the Novel Virus COVID-19, and what it has meant for the global community, our hearts go out to every single one of our fellow colleagues and clients. Right now, more than ever, our hunting community has banded together to help fight to maintain our way of life, and we’ve been working along side the people who are being hit the hardest in tourism. The tough will persevere, and we are very grateful for the Canadian clientele we have been able to book in the wake of our current situation.

 Between letters to our provincial and federal government, to meetings with other tourism sectors, and advocates for the reopening of our border and our season- we’ve been exhausting all of our resources. At this time, we are moving ahead and in a slightly different direction that we had so carefully planned out for this year. You can be assured that we are ‘doing what it takes’ to adjust to the curve ball that we have been thrown this year, and can’t thank our clients and crew for working through these uncharted waters with us. We have had over whelming support from this years clients, and have relayed information as quickly as we have sourced it ourselves. At this time, we are going to welcome some of our Canadian guests and a skeleton crew to see us through the season as it unfolds. As soon as anything changes with our travel restrictions between the Canadian and United States borders, our plan will be reverting back to our original schedule and will continue to ‘do what it takes’ for everyone.

Our team has been relentless in their mission to make sure that we will be operating within the new restrictions and policies. It won’t wain our enthusiasm as we are thrilled to be able to operate in what capacity we can. I am sure we can speak to the countless other folks who are trudging through, but we know one thing will undoubtedly remain the same- and that is our passion for what we do, and for those clients we get to share these hunts with.

 Life is made up a little moments that become the chapters of the story in our lives. This too will go down as one such chapter, and it will be one that we hope to look back on and learn from, and remember fondly for what good will have come of this unforeseen season. Here’s to the clients we will be welcoming in a few short weeks, and to the ones that will be coming once this storm settles down. Here’s to the crew that would have travelled far and wide, that makes this team feel complete and steadfast. Although we are not together now, it will be that much better when we are, doing what we love. We couldn’t do this with out any of you, and are looking forward to seeing you all soon!

-The Team at Backcountry BC and Beyond