MattErickson
08-17-2016, 12:13 PM
Well they say money burns a hole in your pocket… so does a mountain goat tag!
After getting back home from my sheep hunt I rested my feet, took a much needed shower, washed out my pack and cleaned my rifle. While packaging up all of my sheep meat all that I could think about was the mountains
The mountains and the goats… While we were sheep hunting we saw lots of nice goats on adjacent mountains and they really peeked my interest.
With a fishing trip planned for august 21st-28th I realized I still had a bit of time that I could either lounge around on the couch… or go and chase goats.
Without much consideration the backpack was repacked, truck loaded and I was off
Day 1:
I arrived at the base of the mountain and after a quick search around I found the start of the trail head and began the climb. 3 hours later I was making the transition into the alpine and the excitement of the upcoming hunt began to escalate.
I hiked another hour up and found a small hollow with some shelter from the wind. Someone else had obviously camped here earlier as there was a nice stash of firewood and some bags of unused salt (Frustrating they didn’t pack out the plastic or their mountain house containers).
I set up camp and as it was only 2pm I set out for an afternoon hunt.
On the adjacent mountain I glassed 6 billies, 5 sheep and a group of nannies and kids.
The cliffs on the north side of the mountain is where I had been told all of the goats liked to hangout so I worked my way along the top, peeking into the cliffs from as many angles as I could.
The day ended with some rain, intense wind and fog rolling in and no goats found on my mountain. Hopes were high as I crawled into the tent for a good night sleep.
Day 2:
I was amazed that my tent survived the winds throughout the night but there was some disappointment as I opened the tent door at 430am to see nothing but thick fog everywhere.. back to sleep
7am rolled around and it was still fogged in and the rain had started…
8am the rain stopped and although there was still lots of fog I was getting antsy so I put on the rain gear, loaded the pack and started hiking.
Around noon the fog finally started to lift. It would blow in and out every 5 minutes or so but I was still able to glass so I was happy.
After checking out all the cliffs and not finding any goats I looked to the adjacent mountain. There was a few different groups of goats and a couple lone goats that I assumed were billies.
I decided to work my way around to another ridge closer to the goats so I could look them over with the spotter but also look back into the cliffs by camp from a better angle to be sure nothing was hiding there.
At 3pm I was on the other ridge and confirmed there was a good billy on the other mountain that I might just have to go after tomorrow if I didn’t find anything on my side.
I started to make the long trek back to camp but decided to go along the other side of the mountain to look into new country. As I crested the one pass I was able to see into a small basin that had been hidden by the fog when I went by in the morning.
I threw up the binos and below a big section of cliff I found a goat. I snuck up to the edge of the basin behind some rocks where I could set up the spotter.
It didn’t take long to confirm that it was a billy, not a monster billy but still something I wanted to pursue. It was 530, the rain and fog were starting to come in and I knew the goat would get up to feed fairly soon.
I pushed the pace as I went around the backside of the basin to get into position above the goat, on the flatter parts I was jogging as I knew I didn’t have any time to waste.
As I approached closer to where the goat was I peered over the edge of the mountain, no goat…. I sat down in disbelief as he was supposed to be there (they sure can move fast!). 5 minutes of glassing and I found him just about to go around the corner and out of sight. He was feeding and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep up but I was going to try.
As I neared the area I had seen the goat the last time I peeked over the edge…
There he was, bedded down again on a little knoll quartering away, looking down and 230 yards away. I steadied myself for the shot in the intense winds.
BOOM… I watched the bullet hit just behind the shoulder and the goat went belly up and rolled off the backside of the cliff.
FIRST GOAT DOWN!! I was elated! My first mountain goat!! I could hardly contain my excitement.
Just as I started my way down to him some heavy fog blew in and I could hardly see 100 feet in front of me. I got to where I thought the goat was bedded, looked down and nothing…
I continued down the mountain below where I thought he was and began my search. After looking for over an hour I couldn’t find anything, no blood, no hair, no goat…
It was 8pm and I knew I didn’t have a ton of light and began considering heading back to camp and looking for him in the morning. I climbed back up the mountain and up to a different cliff.
I was standing there feeling terrible that I couldn’t find my goat when I noticed a bed on a little knoll further down, I walked over there, looked down and behold… there was my goat!
Overjoyed I descended down to him. I was surprised at where he hung up and couldn’t seem to get him to move at all. I realized his horn had gotten wedged under a root in the ground. I cut away the root so that I could move him…
That was a mistake… as soon as his horn was free he started rolling down the mountain
He finally piled up again against some small trees. I took my pictures (I’ve found the easiest way to do it solo is to set up a video camera on the tripod, take some video and then pull stills off of the video after) and started the deboning process.
I hung up all the meat in game bags and realized it was already 930 and the sun was going down.
I wasn’t sure how far I was from camp so I hustled up the mountain and started in the direction of camp.
30 minutes later I was at the tent… I couldn’t believe how close I was and then the celebrations really started as I knew the packout would be an easy one. I had a mountain house and went to sleep.
Day 3:
I slept in a bit, had coffee and breakfast and went to get the goat.
By 1030 I was back at camp and decided I would pack all my gear up and head down the mountain. I took all the meat, the horns and camp down in one shot.
That was the heaviest pack I’ve had and my feet sure took a beating coming down the mountain.
I must have horseshoes up my rear end to have been able to get my first sheep and my first goat a couple weeks apart! Looking forward to archery deer season here shortly!
Hope everyone is having a great season and good luck to all on upcoming hunts!
After getting back home from my sheep hunt I rested my feet, took a much needed shower, washed out my pack and cleaned my rifle. While packaging up all of my sheep meat all that I could think about was the mountains
The mountains and the goats… While we were sheep hunting we saw lots of nice goats on adjacent mountains and they really peeked my interest.
With a fishing trip planned for august 21st-28th I realized I still had a bit of time that I could either lounge around on the couch… or go and chase goats.
Without much consideration the backpack was repacked, truck loaded and I was off
Day 1:
I arrived at the base of the mountain and after a quick search around I found the start of the trail head and began the climb. 3 hours later I was making the transition into the alpine and the excitement of the upcoming hunt began to escalate.
I hiked another hour up and found a small hollow with some shelter from the wind. Someone else had obviously camped here earlier as there was a nice stash of firewood and some bags of unused salt (Frustrating they didn’t pack out the plastic or their mountain house containers).
I set up camp and as it was only 2pm I set out for an afternoon hunt.
On the adjacent mountain I glassed 6 billies, 5 sheep and a group of nannies and kids.
The cliffs on the north side of the mountain is where I had been told all of the goats liked to hangout so I worked my way along the top, peeking into the cliffs from as many angles as I could.
The day ended with some rain, intense wind and fog rolling in and no goats found on my mountain. Hopes were high as I crawled into the tent for a good night sleep.
Day 2:
I was amazed that my tent survived the winds throughout the night but there was some disappointment as I opened the tent door at 430am to see nothing but thick fog everywhere.. back to sleep
7am rolled around and it was still fogged in and the rain had started…
8am the rain stopped and although there was still lots of fog I was getting antsy so I put on the rain gear, loaded the pack and started hiking.
Around noon the fog finally started to lift. It would blow in and out every 5 minutes or so but I was still able to glass so I was happy.
After checking out all the cliffs and not finding any goats I looked to the adjacent mountain. There was a few different groups of goats and a couple lone goats that I assumed were billies.
I decided to work my way around to another ridge closer to the goats so I could look them over with the spotter but also look back into the cliffs by camp from a better angle to be sure nothing was hiding there.
At 3pm I was on the other ridge and confirmed there was a good billy on the other mountain that I might just have to go after tomorrow if I didn’t find anything on my side.
I started to make the long trek back to camp but decided to go along the other side of the mountain to look into new country. As I crested the one pass I was able to see into a small basin that had been hidden by the fog when I went by in the morning.
I threw up the binos and below a big section of cliff I found a goat. I snuck up to the edge of the basin behind some rocks where I could set up the spotter.
It didn’t take long to confirm that it was a billy, not a monster billy but still something I wanted to pursue. It was 530, the rain and fog were starting to come in and I knew the goat would get up to feed fairly soon.
I pushed the pace as I went around the backside of the basin to get into position above the goat, on the flatter parts I was jogging as I knew I didn’t have any time to waste.
As I approached closer to where the goat was I peered over the edge of the mountain, no goat…. I sat down in disbelief as he was supposed to be there (they sure can move fast!). 5 minutes of glassing and I found him just about to go around the corner and out of sight. He was feeding and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep up but I was going to try.
As I neared the area I had seen the goat the last time I peeked over the edge…
There he was, bedded down again on a little knoll quartering away, looking down and 230 yards away. I steadied myself for the shot in the intense winds.
BOOM… I watched the bullet hit just behind the shoulder and the goat went belly up and rolled off the backside of the cliff.
FIRST GOAT DOWN!! I was elated! My first mountain goat!! I could hardly contain my excitement.
Just as I started my way down to him some heavy fog blew in and I could hardly see 100 feet in front of me. I got to where I thought the goat was bedded, looked down and nothing…
I continued down the mountain below where I thought he was and began my search. After looking for over an hour I couldn’t find anything, no blood, no hair, no goat…
It was 8pm and I knew I didn’t have a ton of light and began considering heading back to camp and looking for him in the morning. I climbed back up the mountain and up to a different cliff.
I was standing there feeling terrible that I couldn’t find my goat when I noticed a bed on a little knoll further down, I walked over there, looked down and behold… there was my goat!
Overjoyed I descended down to him. I was surprised at where he hung up and couldn’t seem to get him to move at all. I realized his horn had gotten wedged under a root in the ground. I cut away the root so that I could move him…
That was a mistake… as soon as his horn was free he started rolling down the mountain
He finally piled up again against some small trees. I took my pictures (I’ve found the easiest way to do it solo is to set up a video camera on the tripod, take some video and then pull stills off of the video after) and started the deboning process.
I hung up all the meat in game bags and realized it was already 930 and the sun was going down.
I wasn’t sure how far I was from camp so I hustled up the mountain and started in the direction of camp.
30 minutes later I was at the tent… I couldn’t believe how close I was and then the celebrations really started as I knew the packout would be an easy one. I had a mountain house and went to sleep.
Day 3:
I slept in a bit, had coffee and breakfast and went to get the goat.
By 1030 I was back at camp and decided I would pack all my gear up and head down the mountain. I took all the meat, the horns and camp down in one shot.
That was the heaviest pack I’ve had and my feet sure took a beating coming down the mountain.
I must have horseshoes up my rear end to have been able to get my first sheep and my first goat a couple weeks apart! Looking forward to archery deer season here shortly!
Hope everyone is having a great season and good luck to all on upcoming hunts!