2020 Goat Scout and Hunt - Tag soup, Story and pictures.

[backcountry98]

It was in mid June when everyone gets the news that LEH results are out. This year I got lucky and drew an Eastern Region 3 Mountain Goat tag. This would be my first time chasing goats. I got the mountain hunting bug after an unsuccessful sheep hunt in 2016. I have been hunting mule deer up in the high country but I knew I was in for a tough go. Typically all goat hunts are hard.

I began looking into previous forums, Google earth reading and watching videos of sex identification and getting ahold of the local biologist for recent info on those goats. I had a few friends in mind that might be interested in joining a scouting trip and the hunt so I put the word out, unfortunately, no luck. They were all interested but work would be conflicting. Come end of July I was getting desperate, going solo on my first goat hunt was not exactly what I had in mind. I knew one friend who was interested in hunting and wasn’t working due to the virus. So I figured what the heck maybe he will join. (This I found out later was a stretch. Not everyone wants to be chasin’ goats on their first time out.) I called him and specifically asked “would you be interested in doing something really hard but kind of fun?” and he said sure. So the planning began
that evening.


The morning of August 12^th came around and we were on the road early to scout out this spot I had looked over dozens of times online and had enough gear and food for 4 days. On our way up an access road we spoke to a local FSR road builder and he gave us a couple pointers before getting in there. Wasn't too far in when we came to our first glassing spot. It didn’t take long before picking out our first goat. He was by himself and well over a mile away and my cheep Tasco spotting scope didn’t give us a great view but either way it was still exciting.
We put away the glass and continued the climb. I wanted to get to a certain point by that evening. I decided instead of gaining an extra 800 vertical feet we could save the energy and side hill to the creek for about 1 mile and then proceed up the mountain from there. About half way across I realized this was a huge mistake. It took way longer to get across then expected and It looked okay at the start but most of it was no fall zone. To make it worse the vegetation was super lush and slippery. I made it very clear to my friend that its important to have a firmly planted foot with both trekking poles in the ground before taking the next step. He did have one pretty good fall but thankfully was in a spot that wasn’t going to kill him. It was amazing how fast he picked up speed as I stood there helplessly until he dug in his hands and feet to come to a stop. Shaken up with a decently deep cut on the elbow and half a fingernail gone but still wanted to proceed. It was a tough grunt to the top. My poor choice of route had our energy drained and we had to camp just below the summit. (North side past the summit was the initial plan). I learned the hard way on that one. It should really never take 3.5 hours to go one mile.


Tired and sore we went to bed early. Waking up around 6:30 the next morning to a loud wind like sound. Except the tent didn’t move at all. My friend said, “You think that’s an avalanche?” Frantically trying to get my mummy sleeping bag unzipped to open the tent. I stick my head out to see a chunk of snow rolling at the bottom of the draw... ...and then the whole thing came down. We were safe up on a bench above the draw and got to see this 30ft long 20 feet wide by 4 feet deep slab break loose and come down into the bottom of the draw. Impressive really. That was some good excitement and entertainment for the morning. Kind of cliche, but goes to show mountains don’t give a shit about you.


We packed up camp and headed down the draw to search for a way up onto the ridge. We found a spot and hoisted the packs up with ropes, as it was too steep to keep them on. We glassed for a bit and re-found the billy from the day before. He was only 1100 yards away and got a decent look at him. Definitely a cool animal to watch do his thing, eat, bed, eat, bed.


We re-set up camp and did another hike to the west ridge to do some more glassing; besides looking over some incredibly beautiful country we found no four-legged critters beside the screaming hoary marmots and pikas. Either way BC has some beautiful yet dangerous places to check out, especially once you leave the vehicle and strap on the boots and pack.


Due to the limited area that we could go, the next morning we decided we would take it easy and slowly make our way out. At our final glassing spot we re-found the lone billy but that was it.

[backcountry98]

A few days after the scout, I received a call from my buddy that he wasn’t interested in doing the goat hunt in early September. I understood; goat hunting isn’t everyone’s dream hunt lol. (I later made it up to him and took him mule deer hunting in the any buck season and he shot his first deer.) The plus side to this scout trip was the awesome weather.




Story of the hunt will be posted shortly.

[Nykw]

What a great hunt and a huge learning experience. If you're going to start hunting, may as well jump both feet in and do the hardest thing you can so the rest is easy. When you're in a shitty spot wishing you could be at home drinking a beer, it's not until you get home and look back at the experience and appreciate the hardship and challenges you overcame both mentally and physically. If you are able and willing I'd recommend everyone go out and do a goat hunt.

[twoSevenO]

So did ya make it out at all for the actual hunt?

Cool pics! Side hilling is not only harder than it looks, it can also be very taxing on the feet too, especially if not wearing stiff enough boots for it.

[3than]

Super nice pictures.

[whitlers]

Good on you getting out there. Looking forward to hearing about the hunt.

[backcountry98]

So did ya make it out at all for the actual hunt?

Cool pics! Side hilling is not only harder than it looks, it can also be very taxing on the feet too, especially if not wearing stiff enough boots for it.

Yeah I did the hunt, just typing up the story now.

Thankfully I was running a good set of boots (Lowa GTX Evo Extreme) and ankles weren't bad at all. Buddies boots a bit on the soft side though.

[jimzuk]

That looks like a great area. I love stories about goat hunts. Looking forward to the rest of the story

[HarryToolips]

Look forward to the rest, great pics so far....

[backcountry98]

The Hunt:

Well turned out I found a new partner for the hunt. Took some time talking him into it but my dad finally gave into the idea. Unfortunately my plan for 7 days was a no go but I was thankful that I had someone to go with for 4 days.

Aug 31 we were on the road weather was marginal in the valley so it was going to be a slog to get to camp. And that it was, no more that 100 yards of visibility from fog, windy, and intermittent rain. The lush vegetating was saturated. But it was only three hours to camp this time. It was 6pm as we set up the tent; I collected wood and gave an honest hour at trying to build a fire but was hopeless. So into the sleeping bag with the wet clothes and let my body heat dry them out. Not an overly pleasant feeling but it does kind of work.



In the morning it wasn’t much better, still foggy and still really windy. And some rain to go with it. We tuned in our VHF to Environment Canada’s weather broadcast and it would be a full down day. We took it slow that morning due to the inability to glass. Come noon there would be some breaks in the fog down towards the main saddle. It wasn’t goat habitat but it was something to look at. I did watch a nice Black Bear cruising some alpine meadows. And about an hour later a mature boar Grizzly Bear was feeding on grass and berries just below camp at 500 yards out. He walked with purpose and serious swagger. He had a very pronounced silver back. After watching him for 5 minutes a short 1-minute fog bank rolled through and when it re-cleared he had disappeared. Wind was well in our favour so there was really no concern. A few minutes later I picked out some alpine mule deer feeding in some adjacent meadows. An early dinner and a couple games of crib and that was a wrap for day one.

Day 2 was much better, still windy but the sun was out. Slightly disappointed that the billy I found on the scouting trip was nowhere to be seen. But I knew that would be a slim chance anyway. We made a plan to traverse over to that ridge and check the backside. We got to the top and found a whole lot of nothing. Lots of old tracks and shit though



We glassed across the drainage for an hour and found a Nanny and a kid about 1200 yards out. They were then joined by a second nanny and bedded down in the snow. Considering the tough terrain we decided to work our way back to camp and make a plan for the next day. That night it turned ugly again 11 hours of steady down pour and wind loud enough to make your ears hurt. Somehow that sierra designs tent held up and we stayed perfectly dry.



Next morning I took a quick look at the main saddle and found 5 mule deer feeding. I don’t know what it is about them, but Mule Deer in any subalpine setting is simply badass.



We packed our things and headed for the north side through the sub-summit draw. On our way up we came across a sinkhole in the snow pack. It was about 4 ft in diameter and we could hear the creek running underneath. I shone a light down and it was at least 20 feet deep. We chose to hike the east side of the draw the rest of the way. On the north slope we had to traverse a large bowl to get to the opposite ridge. It was 330 yards across the wet snow that was at a 40-degree gradient. No crampons or ice ax, and it was damn sketchy not a place were you want to fall.