Episode Details

Episode 54: Friendship in Paradise

Where: Immigrant, Montana, in the shadow of Emigrant Peak
Guests: Mike & Alison Himmelspach (dear friends, horsemen, hunters, and excellent storytellers)
Theme: How a tight-knit Yellowstone community became lifelong hunting partners—plus deep cuts on horse packing, Montana wind, Fort Peck boat hunts, New Mexico Oryx, and the grind of unlimited bighorn sheep.

Summary

Mike & Caitlin return to their old home to sit down with friends Mike and Alison Himmelspach. We trace the thread from summer softball nights to ranch gates and trailheads, then dive into the craft (and chaos) of horse packing—Decker vs. Sawbuck saddles, strings up to 12+ animals, and what really counts as a “wreck.” We swap Fort Peck stories (including Caitlin’s genius blaze-orange life vest), relive Alison’s once-in-a-lifetime Oryx hunt on White Sands, and unpack the patience and scouting behind the Gardiner-area unlimited bighorn units where both Himmelspachs tagged rams. Bonus: an Alaska Dall sheep dream, fjord horses, and why Paradise Valley’s beauty is matched only by its wind.

Highlights & Topics

Yellowstone roots → lifelong friends: softball teams, dog-sled buddies, and the small-world web that ties park people and valley ranchers together.

Horse packing 101 (and 9-1-1): balancing panniers and manis, reading mules and horses, using breakaways, and preventing “yard-sale” wrecks on sidehills.

Guide life reality: 2:30–3:00 a.m. mornings, slick trails in the dark, keeping clients safe (and smiling) through weather and nerves.

Paradise Valley primer: Gardiner Basin to Yankee Jim Canyon to Livingston—stunning country that can blow trucks off I-90.

Fort Peck boat camp: deer and cow-elk plans from the lake, hot pike/walleye/smallie fishing…and a life jacket pressed into duty as blaze orange.

Oryx on White Sands: a gritty, team-effort New Mexico pack-out; why shot placement differs from deer/elk; toughness of African antelope in the desert.

Unlimited bighorn units: over-the-counter tags, 3/4-curl rule, tiny quotas, daily check-ins, and the sheer scouting it takes to notch a legal ram.

Alaska sheep attempt: Brooks Range, grizzlies, and stout little mountain horses; why “big country” has a different meaning up there.

Mule deer Thanksgiving buck: a wide, heavy three-point that kept getting bigger the closer we got.

Turkey hu