Krag Dwellers Part 1

[ditch donkey]

Well after reading Koppers wild adventures chasing goats over the last few months, I decided to write up the adventures that I have had with these wild creatures that live on the peaks.
Backing up a few years I had the pleasure of accompanying a friend on a successful goat trip. It was some of the most miserable moments of my hunting career but by far the most rewarding and memorable one by far. I truly found out first hand the highs and lows of mountain hunting and the emotional rollercoaster these trips can be. unknowingly at the time it set me up for borderline obsession with hunting the beast the color of winter.

[ditch donkey]

Part 1 The beginner goat

This adventure started out with my buddy and I casually deciding we both wanted to do a backpack hunt and do something over and above the usual moose or deer trip. So having spent a bit of time as a kid in a particular valley that held goats we applied for the Leh. As luck would have it my partner drew the tag.

This was our first year hunting goats and really our first time living on a mountain. Naturally we started out in the early spring researching everything we could from friends and co-workers from goat behavior to locations to gear preperations.
Throughout the summer we made scout trips in and hiked around getting used to our gear and learning our area. On our last scout trip in a week before the season opened we happened to glass a stud of a billy on the skyline just above us. We were ontop of the world physically and emotionally as we watched this billy move across a razorback ridge. How hard could this goat hunting really be, we already found a shooter goat. should be simple just come back in a week and get this guy.

As remote of a location as you may be in , one is rarely as alone in the wilderness as you might think. As we hiked off the mountain we met another fellow who informed us he was just "Hiking", but the premium german glass strapped to his pack told me he was most likely just as interested as to what was living on that mountain as we were.

[ditch donkey]

Our shift schedule allowed us to make our first trip in a few days after the opener. Weather was decent but had cooled off dramatically and a skiff of snow had covered the mountain tops. We made our way up the old FSR in my Suzuki sidekick, which was stuffed with two hunters, packs, guns, and other "just in case" items to deal with this old deactivated road. As we reached our final stretch of our road we met a parked pickup truck with a group of three glassing a slide. We have just rolled in on the outfitter with client looking to fill a bear tag.
Turns out my partner knows this guide from his childhood days and we end up having some good conversation with him. He tells us they are killing time filling a bear tag because they just finished killing a 10" billy days previous right up where we had been on our scout trip. They are extremely happy with this goat saying that he is rather exceptional for this area. As you may have guessed this so called "Hiker" we had met worked for the outfitter.

So now we are back to starting point Zero looking for another white walker. That's just hunting for ya . So with plenty of time in front of us we make the plan to head up a boulder field and gain some elevation. We begin accending the mountain and after a few hours we reach an intersection of three ridges that we plan to investigate. Making camp we set up tents and string our food cache up the biggest miniature tree available.
One conversation we had with the outfitter was regarding the early cold front that had moved in. His theory was that when a early cold snap moves in it sends the goats into the timber to stay out of the elements so there coat can catch up. I'm not sure if this is exact science but it seemed to be the case because there wasn't a goat to be found anywhere on the slopes. After 3 days of glassing a few drainages we had only seen a variety of "Goat Rocks" most of which we had glassed time and time again always just being another rock just like the last time.

[Jagermeister]

I really like your writing style.....and the topic too!

[Brez]

Keep it coming. Very well written so far

[ditch donkey]

https://i.imgur.com/SxRnNZK.jpg

Day 4 .
At this point the only wildlife we have observed are a couple Bull marmots who seem to be constantly laughing at our inability to locate a goat
There is only one direction to hike now that will take us to a new viewpoint and it is the steepest so naturally we left it for last, but up we go.
On route to this mountain top we cross a grassy slope which leads us to yet another boulderfield. we hike up to just below 8000ft elevation which is one of the higher points in our area.
Peeking over the edge we can now see into a hidden drainage and even though there are no goats visible there are at lease some obvious goat trails crossing some shale slides. This is encouraging and we set up to do an afternoon of glassing.
As it so often happens in the mountains the weather rolls in and we are soon layering up into our rain gear as it is a mix of rain and sleet begins to whip past us. with the sleet comes layers of misty cloud which soon removes our visibility.
We hunker down for maybe an hour waiting for a break in the weather but it dosnt seem to be in the cards so we start our decent back to our camp.
As we navigate our way through the boulderfield with very limited visibility the miserable conditions warrants a soup break. Out comes the jetboil and we are cooking some Ramen noodles. As we wrap up our lunch the wind changes and the fog starts to clear up, when all of the sudden the fog rolls out there is an unfamiliar figure below us about 400 yrds in the grassy slope. Binos comes out and quickly confirm a rather large humped grizzly bear is wandering past us on what would have certainly been a perfect collision course with where we would have been had we not stopped for lunch. The bear is traveling in a perfect b line towards our tents which are visible in the distance. The bear isn't aggressive looking and seems just happy doing bear stuff. He has us on full alert fearing he will soon be raiding our camp almost in front of us. without warning he bolts at a full tilt run and closes the gap to our camp in seconds stopping maybe 30 ft from my tent. We are now also trying to scurry down closer so we don't loose sight of the bruin. As we approach camp with guns drawn the bear finially looks our way and makes eye contact with us at approx. 200 yards. But this bear dosnt care much he simply gives us a fair once over look and casually walks away side hilling the mountain with the agility of a goat. We breath a few deep breaths and collect ourselves, seems like we have had as good as a encounter as you could ask for. The only complication is the game trail we hiked up here was the same direction he left in. Neither of us are stoked to spend the night in the tent mere yards from his footprints but it seems safer than walking down the mountain behind him. The next morning we wake up after a nervous sleep and take up a nice casual glassing session from the tent. Still no sign of goat we decide to pull out a day early and retreat home.

A couple lesson we took home from this hunt were; - we made camp at this game trail at the intersection of three mountain ridges. Clearly bears use this for the same reason we did. so camp will now be off the beaten path more.
- Secondly bears can move faster than I initially thought. Absolutly no way you would ever outrun a bear in the mountains or anywhere.
- The goat may have been holed up in thick timber as the outfitter said with the early cold snap because we certainly didn't see them.
https://i.imgur.com/zl3alAd.jpg

[ditch donkey]

Thanks its really cool writing this and reliving the moment. as I write it more details of those days are coming back and it feels like reliving the hunt.

[ditch donkey]

Fast fore ward acouple weeks into October. We lost a few weeks due to the usual work , wives,and vehicle breakdown, but were back in. We have hacked our way up the valleyto the headwaters of that hidden valley we had seen the goat trails in.
We had less time available and it was closing in on the end of the season so wewere a do or die deathmarch up this valley for a goat. After driving throughthe night and crashing bush through the early morning we were close to the headwaters as the first rays the morning sun lite up the slopes around us. At this time our once confident attitude towards hunting goats has been reduced toits lowest, but we are certainly proud of our work and efforts to conquer this country. We are certainly experts at finding white rocks in that area of our province. Hey that rock just walked behind a shrub exclaims my partner. He is abit of a bullshitter at times so I don't really get to excited but my partner is also chatty and he has been rather quiet for the last minute so I look over.he is focused on a saddle between to peaks so I point my glass up there. With the sun shining against the slope there is a goat plain as day all lite up and glowing. Even from the distance we are down here in the valley there is no mistake . Well at this point we are two giddy school girls grinning from ear to ear. We check our maps and start planning our attack. We had a fairly low end spotter so we hadn't been able to see any horn profile, but It was solo and seems to have a patch on its rump, were climbin no question. We had to backtrack to where we had come up the valley to get behind the saddle with our goat. For some reason we felt it necessary to travel like ninjas as quiet and stealthy as possible to get to where we would start climbing. Looking back I'm sure that goat didn't give a shit about these two ninjas 2000 ft below him doing sign language to maintain ultimate stealth.

By mid morning we are up 1000ft. Everthing always looks easy and quick from the map and valley below. The incline of the mountain has reduced us to a steady pace with no shortage of breaks. At approx. half way up my partner informs me that in order to shave weight from his pack he left most of his water below and now needs to share my supply. And because I'm so OCD about having spare everything in my pack As I'm packing plenty. Closing in on 2 oclock weare close to what we believe is the last steep nasty section before we crest the top. This stretch is a mix of boulders and loose nuggets that require a guy to climb like a chimp using all hands. Below us is a slide/ cliff that would be certain death . I'm feeling the climb and I start to lag behind. I'm feeling rather scared and uncomfortable which is a feeling that seems to gowith most goat trips iv been on since. I'm ready to call it quits and get somewhere safer as I keep thinking about my wife and newborn daughter back athome. Without warning everything around me is moving and I'm in the middle of a rockslide , and there is really nothing between me and the bottom of the mountain below. I don't remember much about that moment but I manage to grab ahold of the only rock that seemed to be stationary. My partner just ahead of me decribed what he herd was like a dump truck dumping off the edge. the whole mountain range was ringing with the should of boulders crashing down the mountain. Sick to his stomache expecting to see nothing left in the spot I had just been he saw me clinging to the rock and came down and helped me over somewhere stable. I was pale as a ghost just shaking we sat there for awhile aswe calmed down. We figured there was no way that goat didn't hear that , hemust have buggered off we were sure of it.

[ditch donkey]

We gather our selves and well it certainly seems like a better plan to go up and over rather than go down the way we came up. That goat is long gone by now. I start organizing my gear and my partner says he is going up without his pack to double check what so ever the crest. Shortly he is giving me the motion of horns on his head. I grab my gun ditch my pack and scurry up to join him. Ill be damned but there is a goat bedded down facing us asleep,about 500yards away . We quickly check him out vith binos. His horns look like billy profile and his bases are bigger than his eyes. We have both looked overa bunch of billy quizzes online and feel pretty confident but this our first goat in real life .
Staring at him from one side of the saddle and he is at the far end. There really isn’t much between us and the goat for cover but there is a small depression. He hasn’t woke up yet but is facing us bedded, so we start to crawl on hands and knees through this depression and were now 377 yards. That’s it were out out cover we are as close were gonna get. There really isn’t much to rest on just smaller rocks around us. I don’t recall much except the goat got up and locked eyeswith us. Luckily he was broadside and my partner got as comfy as possible and let one fly. Looking through the glass I thought I saw hair fly but really I hadn’t got a great look due to the 7mm mag that just went off beside me. The goat just stood there unphased by these two cowboys. Shot #2 goes and once again I may have noticed some hair but who knows. The goat casually walks away. Panic sets in we jump up after him looking for a better rest. Shot 3 goes and it probly didn’tconnect due to panic and the fact that my partner was probably running while he shot. The billy climbs up a small rock face and we manage to close the gap abit. We are exhausted , short of breath, panicing, and dehydrated as we had left our water in the packs and had been rationing all day. Our goat stands there and then turns go go up and over and out of our sight into the nex tdrainage. Last shot and nails him in the shoulder and the goat goes off the ledge and land s back on our saddle. We did it, finally hit him.
We slowly make our way over to him as we don’t have the energy to go any faster . We take a minute to thank the goat for the harvest and go over to get our hands on him. Before even grabbing the horn my partner reaches back picks up its tail and yells f#$k ya its got balls. Now we are excited we have the most basic confirmation that we had a billy.

[Kopper]

Glad you’re posting dd. HBC is in dire need of a hunting story; and a goat one to boot!

[ditch donkey]

https://i.imgur.com/YksCt1n.jpg

[ditch donkey]

Next next hour is spent taking some photos and the usual celebration. But we are both seriously noticing our dehydration situation. Problem 2 is our kill kit and headlamps are back in our packs. Daylight isn’t goingto last too much longer so we decide to open the goat up for the night and bline back to our packs while we have daylight. We don’t want to mess up the cape job as it will be a first for both of us and also for deboning. So we boogie down the mountain collect our packs and make the trek into the night to get down to the valley bottom.
The next day we are back up as light as possible to collect mr billy. We come up the good side of the mountain to avoid the nasty section from the last day. We reach the goat at some point mid day and get to work with caping and deboning. We pull off the cape and instantly see his boiler room is riddled with holes . Even pulling a perfectly mushroomed barnes bullet from the shoulder. Apparantly all the shots had connected perfectly. That goat sucked up his fair share without even flinching. We took awhile to cape and process but by late afternoon we had the entire cape including a rug section and all the meat. Loaded. All that was left was a gutpile and a few bones for the birds.Once again we hiked down into the dark finally completed and exhausted.

[ditch donkey]

https://i.imgur.com/QtrPD2D.jpg

[ditch donkey]

Lessons learned fromthis trip were the importance of not leaving your backpack with out the basic especially headlamps. Make sure you have enough water, and always expect it to take longer and be farther than you think.
The Biologist was eager to do our inspection when we home later, informing us that our area has a 5% success rate for residents and the last resident to harvest out of there was 3 years previous from his records.That made us feel like a million bucks. The goat had 8.5 inch horns and was aged at 6 years, which was an solid mature billy for that area by the biologist. We also had the section of rug material from the hide and when the biologist saw it he laughed and informed us that we didn’t need to leave the giant balls attached . We packed those nards off that mountain for no reason considering the taxidermist refused to include them in the rug .

[RE1960]

Thanks for posting , it was a good read nice billy.

[LuckyHorseshoe]

Excellent read!

[silvertipp]

Thanks for the well written story
congratulations

[decker9]

Great story dd!! Thank you for taking the time to share it, huge congrats on a great billy!!

[ditch donkey]

Thanks, i can’t take credit for the goat it was my buds i was the pack mule on this trip.
it was truly a great adventure we shared together. we did have a few more goat adventures after that year which i’ll try and write the part 2 soon.

[ydouask]

Well done dd. You have been bitten, there is no known cure ! ;)

[HarryToolips]

Well written story, great pics, and congrats to you and your partner on the nice billy...

[brn2ryd]

great story!
looking forward to Part 2

[LuckyIfYouGetOne]

Awesome write up thanks for sharing!

[jac]

Great read thanks!!!

[decker9]

Thanks, i can’t take credit for the goat it was my buds i was the pack mule on this trip.
it was truly a great adventure we shared together. we did have a few more goat adventures after that year which i’ll try and write the part 2 soon.

You both deserve credit in my eyes, sounds like a heck of a team effort!! Great goat partners are next to impossible to find, you and your partner sound like a great team! I’m looking forward to hearing more on your goat adventures.
I gave it my best last week forvmy leh, found a slug of a billy (10”+) on day 1, day 2-3-4 were nothing but heavy snow and fog, hoping to be able to share a story come February!!

[Brez]

Thanks for the great story. Really brings me back - especially these quotes:

"For some reason we felt it necessary to travel like ninjas as quiet and stealthy as possible to get to where we would start climbing. Looking back I'm sure that goat didn't give a shit about these two ninjas 2000 ft below him."

"I'm ready to call it quits and get somewhere safer as I keep thinking about my wife and newborn daughter back at home."

"That goat sucked up his fair share without even flinching."

Enjoy your future hunts, and please post them up for us.

[nature girl]

Wow that was a great story thanks for sharing it.
Great your buddy and you had a great time. Definitely goat hunting can be tough at times.
Atleast that rock saved you from sliding down the mountain any further.
And good your buddy got the goat.

[IronNoggin]

Very well written tale of an excellent hunt!
Pictures were first rate too!

It is this type of great content HBC was designed for!
Many thanks for helping lead us back to the right direction here.

I too am right looking forward to the next installment!

Cheers,
Nog

[The Hermit]

Cool... nice to read a hunting story!

[250 sav]

Nice to read a hunting story. Thanks

[BeerMan]

Best story and pics in a while. Thanks!

[bchunt90@gmail.com]

Good read bud!

[Bugle M In]

Great Job, Great Story.
That photo of you with the billie brings back memories!
The way the Ridgeline runs down to the point and then obviously down the mountain etc, and on the side of slope like you were, almost to the exact distance, was exactly how it looked for me with my billie.
Its like a picture of the past for me, and brings back some fond memories of me, my dad , and my cousin from Germany,
who both helped out in the hunt that week.
So thanks for that!

[ghost]

great story it is the type of reading that makes me want to hunt goats.

[ditch donkey]

Well i’m glad people enjoyed the adventure. i drafted up part two today hopfully have it posted later this week when i get a slack day.

[Night Hawk 3]

Great story!

I too hunted a goat in the mountains on an overnight trip some years ago in the Bella Coola region, and it was extraordinary in so many ways. I'd love to do it again....

And, like you, my goat soaked up 4 rounds of 180gr 30-06 at a reasonable distance (before I had a LRF) with barely flinching and I was starting to think there was something wrong with my rifle, or my shooting... it was the 5th round that eventually dropped it. And, like you, upon examination, there were 5 shots neatly placed right in the boiler room - tough buggers these goats.

thanks for posting!

~John

[Bugle M In]

They are tough!!!!
Shot mine at extreme close range!
(Wasn't sure what part of the goat I was aimed at)
Each time I shot, you could just see the goat "soak up the shot" (best way to explain it).
The Hair just puffed up whee the bullets entered, and each time, the legs just shuttered slightly.
But damn, the thing just slowly walked away.
Each step, another round went into him.
Each round, he just took another step!
(It was odd for sure).
Finally my rifle had no more ammo.
5 Rounds, all behind the shoulder for the most part.
So, he went from like 15 feet, and walked about another 15 feet with bullets in him.
And then out of sight, over the spine of the mountain.
Next time I saw him, he was rolling like a boulder out of control.
If it was for one lonely boulder, in the middle of nowhere, that goat would have rolled 3000 feet, atleast!
Instead, I had about 1000 feet to drop down to him.
Boy was I lucky.
Man, was that goat tough!

[kennyj]

Awesome tail!! Goat hunts always seem to be an adventure.
Thanks for sharing your hunt.
kenny

[ditch donkey]

Part II The expert amatures

As the new year kicked off the usual planning for the next season goat trip was quickly underway. Being an Leh hunt we made our applications hoping for a tag. With odds that usually wouldn't allow a back to back seasons we didn't expect success but could only see. We make plans as if we are going and even have a GOS goat plan B picked out if leh fails. And surprise I drew the tag. We are excited to be back on for our second goat. We start upgrading gear and chasing the white rabbit of pounds and ounces and even some version of a fitness routine. Meals are improving and we are feeling like serious mountain hunters now. Our confidence is high once again since we have now successfully taken a goat out of a zone with low success rates. We are confident that we shouldn't really need to do much scouting, we know where to go and simple hunt. After all last time our scouted goat was scooped out from underneath us so might as well start fresh when we get there.

[ditch donkey]

We make it to the head waters of our valley a bit later than expected due to some mechanical issues as well as hwy construction. The old trail in is now in rough shape due to heavy spring run off and vegetation growth on the trail. It is now a struggle to get in with the quads to where we had previously driven the Suzuki. We also have a third member joining us. We take the quads in a far as possible and then embark on foot to the base of the mountains. We Reach the base of the rockslide and decide to make camp and continue in the AM. We wake to a skiff of snow in the valley and after a usuall breakfast of oatmeal we fill our water bottles and head up the slide.https://i.imgur.com/ImE4rDd.jpg

[ditch donkey]

We start climbing and by mid day we are up in our new glassing roost scouring the slopes for goats. Once again we are hunting in September and the weather has recently changed with a cold front on our doorstep. In spite of our efforts with three of us scanning we can not locate a goat. We retreat down off the peak to a relatively flat spot and set up camp. The day wraps up with us having our usual mountain house dinners and off to bed. We rise at the crack of dawn and partake in our usualy morning routines. The one item we pack up every trip regardless of weight is a pop bottle of carolanes for coffee. A few creature comforts go a long way into keeping you comfortable on the mountain which in turn helps keep you on the mountain. We make the 1 hr pilgrimage back up to our viewpoint and notice some fresh tracks and pellets alongside some fresh urine in the snow. Cant say for sure weather a goat has walked by in the night or maybe we had bumped one out of the spot on our way up the previous day. Either way we never did see any goat . We spend that day glassing from this location moving just enough to see into a few other nooks and crannys in some nearby areas. Still no sign of goats. The day is fading and finally a goat appears. Off in the distance just visible through the binos a goat is walking a razor ridge skylining itself. Now through the spotters we can see this creature looks big and burley, but unfortunately there is a few kms between us and this white walker. Realistically he isn't far from where we had started our journey back closer to the quads. Now we are all warm and fuzzy feeling conjuring up a plan. https://i.imgur.com/azLDwTq.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/PVZ48mL.jpg

[ditch donkey]

Ideas get bounced around about what our plan of attack is going to be. Its approaching evening , Either we go down to the tents and spend the night and leave the mountain in the AM, or Do the usuall midnight run off the mountain in the dark. Well our ambition wins and we elect to have another quality dehydrated meal pack up our tents and scurry down in the dark. I really dislike navigating the mountains by headlamp but when time can be saved this seems to be what happens.
Now we managed to follow our route down easily enough until we had to navigate a slippery section of a slide with some water running down. Lesson learned from this moment was to always strap the guns into the packs when navigating dicey spots. I ended up slipping and loosing my footing and my gun went for a tumble through the rocks. nothing too bad but enough to make a dent on my scope tube and make me loose confidence in it. Had I had my rifle strapped in I'm sure it would have faired better.
Anyways we continue down reaching the creek below. Now we are back into grizz sanctuary judging by the semi recent sign we had seen on the way in. Its been a long day but we continue to hike out through the valley drainage and arrive at the quads. I'm not entirely sure about the time at this moment but we are well into the night. We saddle up the steel horses and start our ride back towards the general area of the mountain with the goat. When we arrive at our destination we set up a tarp tent and grab our sleep bags and call it a night. I'm guessing it was close to 2 AM.

[ditch donkey]

Morning arrives and I wont even lie to ya and say we were out of bed at the crack of dawn, because it was easily 9 am when we surfaced from our slumber. Feeling a lack of confidence in my rifle I went for a stroll to take a few poke shots at some rocks to check my guns zero. 3 shots manage to connect at the rock I aimed at so I feel things are still holding together with my trusty VX3. Ill also include that when I contacted Korth Group afterwards about getting my scope fixed they over exceeded my expectations and fixed me up. Most of the mountain holding this goat is not visible from the valley bottom, but there is one rocky peak that I figured I glass before we start hiking up. I pull out the spotter and low and behold there is a goat tucked in the rock. The morning is running out but we hit the hiking sometime before noon. We chose a path that followed some run off down a chute which turned into a mess of scrub alder and devils club . Soon enough after wasting time and energy fighting the shin tangle we chose to go straight up the mountain where the timber was a better choice . We followed a labyrinth of mule deer game trails up the mountain until we finally got close to the tree linehttps://i.imgur.com/4EZ3K1H.jpg Hard to see the goat but it is in this pic bedded in the rocks . about 25 ft from the 3 standing trees on the rock is the goat bedded facing the left

[ditch donkey]

Upon reaching the opening in the tree line we dropped our packs for a well deserved rest. As my partners set up for an afternoon coffee I continued to take a peek at what was visible at the edge of the trees.
I immediately notice goats scurry past me about 200 yards above me in a shale slide. Easily two nannies both with kids in tow. They make quick work scrambling up to the top of the saddle and out of sight. This was the first we had seen of this nursery group. I'm not sure if I had spooked them directly but I retreated back into the cover of the trees. upon hearing of my new found group of goats the three of us crept back into a spot to take a better look. There are both nannies perched above us with the kids presumably on the other side out of sight. They seem rather calm bedded up there now, either they had not seen us or they felt secure enough up in their beds. Now the big solo goat could be seen across the bowl from our location feeding on the slope. We had him through the spotter and by our accounts he seemed like a stud. The across distance of this bowl faintly registered at 800 yards on our rangefinder. Now we had the issue of these nannies bedded between us and our billy. The weather had been good up until now but we had been aware of a system due to blow in on us and we knew we had precipitation on route. A message was sent to a wife back home via Inreach to have her check the weather report and the news wasn't good. The clouds had begun to blow past us taking visibility away at times, but things were still very reasonable. with some distance to gain to make a play on this goat and the band of nannies in our path the decision was made to drop back into the timber make a fire to wait out the night. We had lost sight of all the goats due to the clouds and we really didn't have enough daylight to get where we needed to be. We gathered as much firewood as possible to ride out the night. We had all made the decision to leave all the camp gear back in the valleybottom. All we had was our clothing systems and a fire. Unfortunatly this is also when the photos from this trip stop.https://i.imgur.com/NFbqLFc.jpg

[ditch donkey]

Now i won’t go into detail regarding who was big spoon little spoon that night. but we had our usual MH dinners and kicked back to enjoy our cozy fire as darkness fell. Things were ok for a few hours we had been bullshitting for a few hours when flakes of snow started to fall. Now the fire was great but the scrub mountain juniper firewood we had sure had a pungent smoke to it. the wind wasn’t in our favour and the smoke had become a real nuisance. The snow fall picked up to a steady pace and soon we were wearing all layers with our rain suits on. Now over the years i have purchased a great many used items from SR80 and the first light clothing i had from him was certainly worth every penny. Now this was my first night spent around a fire waiting the night away and I really don’t look foreward to doing it in the future but somtimes it can’t be helped. By far the longest 10 hours of my life. By morning we had close to 3 inches of snow and it was still comming down. Throughout the night I had many conversations in my head regarding how fast i planned to get off this mountain with the first rays of daylight. But once the sky brightened we felt slightly mere at ease and were faced with a decision about our next move. Everything was socked in still, and the snow was still falling. There was no visibility to check the locations of our goats and the practical safety of our climb ahead was weighing on us. The decision was made to pack off the mountain and head home.
Afterwards we watched the weather network to monitor our areas weather and that storm did not let up for 3 days which helped to justify my decision to leave the mountains. At the end of the day one does not want to jeopardize his whole future goat hunting career over one goat opportunity.

[ditch donkey]

So after a week or so Letting the weather clear up, we were back headed in to where we left off. This was our last ditch effort to pull a rabbit out of our hats. We made good time getting back into where we had departed from but now there was a considerable amount of snow down low in the valley. And unfortunately by the tracks on the road up the fsr we were not the only ones up in here recently. as we get back to the end of the road for the pickup before disembarking with the bikes we once again find a familiar truck parked. The outfitter is up in here again. So we cruise up through the snowy trail which is will soon be more ideal for a sled machine. as we pull in to where we planned to disembark up the mountain, we are soon back in conversation with the outfitter who has a guide and client up our mountain. He is surprised to see us again but congratulates us on our previous success. We had killed one of his plan B goats the previous year. Anyways we decide to pull out and our once choice is to go look for a new billy. As we leave the outfitter asks us if we know a spot that matches a quick description he gives and since we havnt caused him any grief with his clients he says there is a goat at this new location. Not knowing whether this is a goose chase or not we decide to go look since we really don't have an alternative. So upon reaching this new spot only a few km away we quickly locate two goats up on a rock face. Not sure if this is the one he described but its a pair of goats never the less. Upon further investigation we can determine that this is indeed a nanny with a young billy. He is Mature by definition but clearly not sporting much age, maybe 2 year old. his horns don't appear to be even double his ear length. I'd wager maybe in the 7" range. Now we move a bit closer and the goats even start feeding in our direction. We havnt even had to climb up much in elevation thanks to the recent dump of snow. The goats are now within closer to range and the decision is getting closer. Deep down I know this goat is too young but the pressure to be successful is weighing heavy. We banter back and forth about the young billy and the goat feed there way out of sight. Iv reached the decision that this isn't my goat . He isn't big enough to be wall material and not really enough meat to warrant the work . He is definatly more valuable left on the mountain for now. We keep moving closer to where we lost sight of them just to see how close we could get. The sound of pebbles grabs my attention and I look above us to see the nanny. She has some how got above us and is now spooked. She takes off for higher ground soon followed by the young billy out of sight. We spend the rest of the day just enjoying the afternoon in the mountains and soon plan to head home. on our way down we once again cross paths with the outfitter and client who turns out were also unsuccessful getting close to that big billy back on the other mountain. The client, an older fellow from louisianna takes interest in us young resident hunters and is awestruck that we can have these opportunities readily available to enjoy these adventures. For the price he paid to be there that week I could afford 8-10 seasons worth of time and gas to go looking for these amazing creatures that inhabit the peaks of our province.