why not one more goat story to get us through COVID... from the past

[porthunter]

Sweet, threads like this are needed more and more, looking forward to the rest!

[dru88]

What a great story so far I can't wait to read the rest.

[boilerroom]

thanks for taking us along- great story so far!

[jimzuk]

Awesome story so far

[bang flop]

ok, back to it. domestic duties complete....

Well, let me tell you how the first k or two went on this hike… blow down, more blow down, brush, alders and thick shit. It wasn’t that it was blow down… it was blow down at the perfectly wrong height… can’t get over it, can’t get under it. Tough slug, but we made it to the desired avalanche chute. I didn’t really seem to notice how tough that part of the hike was as I was focused on GOAT! Wondering if he would still be there when we got to the top.

“One foot after the other” were the words spoken throughout our ascend. The steep hike kept getting steeper, but we made it to the tree line in half decent time.

as always... it was way steeper than it looks...

[bang flop]

We climbed past the deer tracks and grizzly bear digs and hit the tree line. We started glassing for our prize… where was he? “Shit, he is standing….” So I ducked into the trees, catch up to buddy who is leading the way and tell him the goat was standing. We get to the next vantage point and the goat was again peacefully napping, oblivious to our presence. I thought that was weird, but buddy says that goats will often get up and turn in the middle of a nap to face the other direction. I took his word for it.

By this time the goat is within range, laying on the edge of his cliff in all his glory.

[bang flop]

I thought I was going to be a lot more jacked, but I felt surprisingly calm as I knew many things could still go wrong. The goat is first ranged at just under 300 yards. I think to myself… “Let’s do this…” but buddies experience said we should close the gap a little, so we drop 15 yards to use the wind driven stubby tree’s as cover.

Now we get to 187 yards… no more cover and can’t get closer or we will angle ourselves out. This was to be the spot where it would all unfold. Pack off, get settled in and prepare for something completely new.

[bang flop]

If I were on this hunt alone this is wherethe story would have ended… or at least a shot would have rang out. Being new to goat hunting I didn’t reallythink about post shot… where is the animal going to go? Is that a good place to shoot the goat?

Many little chit chats back and forth onthe mountain… but one thing sticks out in my head that buddy said… “there is abetter than 50% chance that goat will push himself off the precipice if youshoot him there”. Hmm… that isconcerning, we didn’t have a whole lot of options. I was not interested in shooting my prize andwatching it fall off a 1000’ cliff and popping like a balloon… we need to bepatient and wait for the beast to rise and begin his afternoon feed.

The wait seemed like hours. The wind drove right through the layers ofclothing. Tuque on, winter gloves on,zippers done up tight, draw strings synched down a couple of “hot hands”packets into the gloves.

[bang flop]

All of a sudden, the words “he’s up” are whispered. Quick scramble back to the scope… lined upready to crack one off… but the white giant needs to take 10 steps to the safeside of the hill. The goat stood therein his bed looking directly at us, I’m not sure he knew what we were, or justdidn’t care. Patiently we waited for aminute, then the beast lays back down… damn… more waiting.

By this time we are freezing and decidethat a fire is needed. Pull some lichenand old mans beard from the trees, snap a few branches and scour around lookingfor anything to burn. It was verydifficult to get the fire lit, so I pulled out a few fire starting sticks andthat got things rocking. It was a verycozy relief to feel the warmth from our small mountainous fire.

[bang flop]

The fire was short lived before the goat that was looming above us decided to pull anchor and make a move….

It was obvious he knew we were there as he walked 10 feet, looked back, moved a little further and bedded back down justout of sight… damn, is this going to happen?

Being late in the day, we had two choices,head down the mountain and chalk it up as an amazing experience, or march up there and see what happens?

The weather was turning into the shits. The side valleys full of snow riddled clouds. Option 2 was in order. We back tracked a little and gained some elevation to verify the goat didn’t pull a fast one on us and takean unknown escape route on us. There still lay the sleeping beast…

We decided that my brother would stay back at this vantage point to keep an eye on the goat as buddy and I make the stalk to close the gap on the goat. As we close the gap, we kept looking back at my brother to get an idea if the goat was on the move… but mother nature had other plans as the fog and snow bombarded us and couldn’t see very far... After 50yards of the stalk we looked back and couldn’t see anything.