This Really Gets My Goat

[ishootbambi]

Well I dunno if this is the right section for this but as an Albertan I'm going with it. I've kinda sworn off these inter web forums for a while as I'm pretty convinced they do more harm than good for our past time, but I feel the need to thank BC in general for allowing friends and family to hunt the province without the necessity of an outfitter. The best way I can think of is to share the story and pictures with other hunters.

So back in the spring of this year, my better half got to scheming with her sister to arrange a hunt for mountain goat for me with the brother in law. She may love me so much that she wanted to make me happy....or maybe she was just tired of listening to me whining about wanting one. Either way, she was hoping to surprise me by telling me the day before I was to leave that I was going. The wrinkle there is that there's a boat load of paperwork to arrange beforehand so I got to anticipate things for several months.

Finally the summer was winding down and I found myself heading northwest. Like a long way northwest. Like around 2200 km to the NW corner of BC from the SE corner of Alberta. I stretched it over 3 days stopping to see friends along the way, and picked up BR (BIL) as well. One last night in civilization and it was off into the wilderness for a week give or take.

After the long journey through mountain valleys we reached the base of the mountain where things got vertical in a hurry. We bushwhacked through the forest and scaled the rocks to get to the edge of treeline. We decided to camp in the shelter of the low conifers as the wind was givin er pretty good. We went to bed with 14 goats within eyesight and under 350 yards.

[ishootbambi]

We awoke well rested the next morning and as soon as BR unzipped the door on his side of the tent I could see goats at under 200 yards.





The previous night there were 5 billies right there, and one was nice, but not quite what I was looking for...especially on this, now my first day to legally hunt as per the permit to accompany. I was surprised and impressed at the length of the hair on these things already being it was only late August. I made it clear that if there was an 8 incher and a 10 side by side that I would shoot the one with better hair even if it had smaller horns. I told BR I was hoping to get a good looking billy to have mounted life sized and hair mattered most. He assured me we would have ample opportunity to look over several goats and I would be all but guaranteed to get one. I have heard that before, but only a few minutes in it was looking like he was correct. This was the best of the bunch low on the mountain.

[ishootbambi]

We decided to skirt this group through a wash and leave them undisturbed. First, I didn't want to leave an animal unattended in bear country for so long, risking not only spoilage but marauding Grizzlies. That and I was hoping to find a mammoth old warrior with a big poofy coat. Not only that, but BR had a sheep tag in his pocket. We were planning on spending a couple days over the mountain looking at Stones, hoping to add to his collection. He has taken 3 already but I guess some guys never lose the desire to chase them curly horned beasts. At 40k for an outfitted hunt I likely won't chase them myself so I was hopeful to just be part of a successful hunt for a Stone ram. There are some things I want that I will have to spend a crapload to get but I don't long for a Stone.

Anyhow, up to the top we went, feeding on all sorts of wild berries on the way. It was plain to see where the Bears had beaten us to the berry patches. Aside from giant purple seed filled grease pies, some bushes were stripped absolutely clean, while others were untouched and loaded with fruit. Fresh bear sign was everywhere...and so were the bears.



They never really got too close to us. Well, I shouldn't say that... They never appeared close. Their evidence was all around us but we didn't see any close by.

Once we crested the summit at a cool 7400 feet on the topo map, camp was set up and we cooked up some grub. BR went with the Mountain House all week but I can't stomach that crap.

[Surrey Boy]

Good job! Glad you came.

[Ride Red]

Aaaaannnnndd!!!

[ishootbambi]

After a solid meal and loading up on water to rehydrate ourselves from the long climb, we looked into the closer basins near camp and discovered several more goats, the majority being billies. We also located the first two Stone rams of the trip. They were just young uns so we headed back to the tent for a good night's rest as the next few days we were headed for the real ram country.

Every year after a long hot summer I look forward to the first breath of crisp cold air in the fall. To me that signifies the kickoff to autumn...and more importantly the official start of the hunting seasons. This morning was it. We had frost every night at the top, and the little spring we were drinking from had ice each morning. There is nothing as invigorating as filling your lungs with cool mountain air! It was quite a change from the blistering heat I drove up here in. It was hard to imagine only two days before I was blasting the A/C while wearing shorts and Jesus boots.


BR didn't want to forge too far into sheep country and take the focus off the goats. He really wanted to hone in on finding me a great billy, but I assured him I wanted to spend a couple days looking for sheep. With that, we packed up camp and made tracks for the far ridge to get into the next basins. It was amazing to me how steep and deep this country was carved out of the rock.





We didn't carry water with us as BR knew of a source on the other side. Well, it was dry...except for the patch of snow in the rocks. I was thirsty enough to melt some snow, but that particular drift just didn't look right.




As I crept around the side I discovered that snow was kind of floating with nothing underneath. It may have held my weight but if it didn't I wouldn't be here to write this.

Now if you look way out in this pic there is a grassy plateau over yonder. On the edge of it sat the most colossal freaking beast of a goat you can imagine....and there wasn't much I could do about it. On the right of the picture you can sorta see the razor edge ridge leading to him. It wasn't a safe option on a calm day but with the wind blowing hard it was downright suicide!





The only way to him was to drop off the mountain, skirt the whole thing and come up the far side of him. The map showed about 5 horizontal miles and a crap load of elevation drop then a climb back up. We were already a long ways in. He was a whopper goat but he was safe. As I was admiring him however, BR located more young Rams below us.

[Everett]

Keep it coming

[tuner]

You're welcome!!! From B.C.
Great story and pictures thanx for sharing.

[ishootbambi]

Soon the weather turned for the worse. A light rain began to fall and we had now made the decision to push a little farther into sheep country. As we gathered our gear and pushed up the next ridge a scene I wasnt expecting to see came into view. A pack string of 8 horses carrying four men came from the direction of our goat camp. BR knew of an outfitter in the area but they seldom venture this far from their base camp he told me. They had been near goat ridge and did not find the sheep they were looking for. Worse, they had to come through the ram basin we were going to check out and were now going back through it to get to their camp. I looked ahead of their train and saw two more young rams running like I've never seen sheep run before. From what I saw of Stones they are nothing like bighorns in their behaviour and choice of habitat. Meh, whichever...that kinda kiboshed our sheep dreams. As the rain turned into snow, we decided to head back to goat camp to get serious about the big white beauties.

After once again setting up the tent and unpacking we went for another look into what I affectionately called Hells Canyon. We saw several billies in there the other day, but this would be the first time we laid eyes on the old boy I would eventually put a stalk on. He had a big black smear across his arse, so we promptly named him Schitty Bum. He only gave us a few minutes to look, but he had the unmistakable blocky shoulders and wicked hump of a mature billy. BR verified through the scope that he had "pretty good pipe" on top but more important to me was the shaggy wooly hair he was rocking. He was a few hundred yards below us and the only goat on our side of the canyon. With a rifle I could have plowed him right then and there but I was hoping he would come up top to feed and I would have a chance to slide an arrow through him. At this point I thought patience was the right move. Besides, I was looking across the canyon at another mega giant. The billy we called Number 1 was 1200 yards across from us. His body was enormous with big black horns that matched. BR described him as having waffle cones upside down on his head.

[ishootbambi]

Sorry for the slow going. Typing and linking on an IPhone is pretty tedious. And now I'm really gonna aggravate a few....but I gotta work early. I'll have to finish up tomorrow.