Its been five long years since I got the idea in my head that i wanted to hunt mountain goat, and at that time it has slowly gone from a desire to a full blown obsession. Living in the lower mainland I spend much of each september dragging and chasing goats in some of our GOS areas with limited success (by limited success i mean missing a billy in the trees after a perfect stalk because my safety was on and my scope on 9x), each year coming away with more and more knowledge and experience. This year was to be my year. The route to the alpine was picked and i couldnt wait for sept. 10 to roll around. That all changed in mid june when to my surprise, I recieved a mountain goat leh authorization for 5-15 (Eureka), my plans had suddenly taken a change. Having just spent the last year and a half living in williams lake and spending a great deal of time in the area i wasnt about to let this opportunity go to waste, this would likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity. The season started sept 1 and i was ready to go. I knew most of the goats were located near the peak its self and after studying a video I picked up in wholesale sports of stuart Mailtland guiding for goats in the area I knew where i wanted to focus my attention. It wasnt until day 4 of my hunt that i was able to cut a trail through the timber and up an old goat trail to the alpine ridge where i knew there where goats, this cut many miles off the existing access points to the area but was a little sketchy. unfortunatly it was late in the day and this was the last day I would have my buddy with me. Day 5, i headed back up the same trail, only this time solo and a little before 10 am I was once again in the alpine glassing for goats. After an hour or so the warm sunshine and long hike began to get to me and soon i passed out. After a short nap I woke up and began glassing and after a few minutes spotted my goat far across the alpine bowl. From where I was I could tell it was a billy, so i grabbed my pack and set off across the ridge. Almost 45 minutes later I was closing in on the billy. I cut the distance down to about 300 yards and with little opportunity to get closer and the billy now aware of my presence I decided to take the shot. I lined up my 7mm and with a good rest squeezed the trigger.......missing the goat cleanly. I loaded and fired again......again missing the goat...... at this point i was starting to paniic...maybe i had bumped my scope. I took a deep breath and paused line up my sights. BANG.... a short stumble and a slide down the snow chute and my quest was over. After so long it was almost anti-climatic to finally cut my first goat tag but I was none the less proud to have done it solo at 23 years old. He was no monster by any means, 5.5 years old and 8 3/8'' horns. A few quick pictures and i loaded up my pack with the head and meat and headed out. with nearly 90 lbs on my back it was long after dark before I made it back to camp. I attribute a great deal on this hunt to the fact that i was in such good shape for this hunt, if not i doubt i would have been able to pull this off the way I did or have so much fun doing it. The animal was harvested on sept 5 so with a long season ahead its onto the next adventure. hope you enjoy the pictures. I would also like to thank my buddy Kyle for allowing me to drag him along on the early parts of this adventure.
ps. never uploaded pics before so it will take a few minutes.
Evan
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