If you asked me what my biggest dream was 5 years ago, I would say "be on the radio".

If you asked me what my biggest dream is today, it's "chase bighorn sheep around Pikes Peak and be on the radio".

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southeast Region is at least living out one half of my dream, as they set out on an early morning hike on August 5, 2021 to search for bighorn sheep (don't worry, I've got the other half taken care of).

45 parks and wildlife staff banded together, strapped on their hiking boots, and went looking for herds along the Colorado mountaintops. According to their Twitter feed, the trips began in 1988 and the team has continued the study every year since. The researchers leave at 3:45 a.m. and hike up (in the pitch dark, no less) to an area where the sheep will move past them so that they can survey the herd. Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported that Colorado has 80 herds of bighorn sheep, and only 18 of those are native. The rest were started by none other than CPW themselves.

What, exactly. is the purpose of this? Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Aaron Berscheid said in a video that it's to classify ewes and lambs and rams as well as to keep track of herds on the mountain. He continued to say:

We've been doing it for close to 30 years now, so we've got great defensible data that we can track and make sure that the herd is healthy and doing what it needs to be doing.

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CPW, can you take me with you next time?

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