Boulder River North Goat 2016

[Gringo31]

 

[X-Force]

Following along!

[whacker1]

tag

[2MANY]

I see a goat to the right of the snow patch.

[RB]

Access to the Three Fingers trail head was the biggest hurdle in the beginning. Everything I found on line stated the road was washed out and had been closed for a few years. I called the ranger station out of Verlot and was told the same and there is no money to fix the washout. The rangers told me that the road was closed about 10 miles from the trail head, and where I wanted to go was about six miles or more in from the trail head.

After talking with a guy who knows a guy who has a friend that goes up to that area quite often I heard that people were driving up close to the trail head and the road was passable. I drove up to investigate and found that indeed there was enough room to drive up the road and it was in really rough shape! I never had to use four wheel drive, but I think I bruised a kidney on all the huge pot holes in the road.

In the end I was able to make it to a washout that was impassable for my truck. If I had a Jeep I could have drove right to the trail head. The washout was two miles from the trailhead which was way better than 10 miles. I found this in July, but due to being short handed at work (mandatory OT) and a huge family road trip to Wyoming in August I would not make it back to this spot until early September.

[Skyvalhunter]

Hey Ryan that looks like a piece of cake for a good Ol Montana guy!!

[mtndew]

I felt very strongly that I would draw this tag this year. Just had a gut feeling that my 18 points would pay off for me. I was genuinely surprised to see that I didn't draw it. The disappointment was tempered by drawing a moose tag. I will be following this post with great anticipation! 

[2MANY]

Show me a WA trail head that doesn't have a Subaru parked at it!!!
LOL

[RB]

Show me a WA trail head that doesn't have a Subaru parked at it!!!
LOL

No doubt! Lots of Subies up there, one day there was an Audi A4 parked there, but almost every time I got up there a Jeep was parked at the trail head. That is how I was able to get to the washout the local Jeep crowd made it happen 

[RB]

I felt very strongly that I would draw this tag this year. Just had a gut feeling that my 18 points would pay off for me. I was genuinely surprised to see that I didn't draw it. The disappointment was tempered by drawing a moose tag. I will be following this post with great anticipation!

I had 20 points and had put in about 4-5 times (can't remember it has been so long) prior to points, so i figured it was about 25 years to draw. If you draw PM me 

[RB]

After researching I decided on Green Trails maps and a topo map of the area. One of the reasons I chose the area was a comment from a good buddy that has hiked a lot around here and in Nepal, and as he put it " I would not go up Whitehorse I have never been beat by a mountain as bad as Whitehorse" 

So here are the maps I used, and add two miles to all the distances due to washout.

[RB]

Having most of what was needed for the hunt some things needed to be replaced or upgraded. The spotting scope by far was the most needed piece of equipment, it allowed 100% confirmation on sex of the Goats. The range finder was very helpful as well.

The plan was to have someone go with but due to my schedule it just did not work out and I did this entire hunt solo, so I picked up a Delorme in reach and was very thankful to have it!

[RB]

I was finally able to get up to the Goats on labor weekend, it was just an overnight trip, but it took quite a bit more time to get in than planned. It was a six hour walk into Goat Flats to where I wanted to start scouting. Several people told me this is the place to start because it is aptly named.

The day was overcast and raining hard the Kuiu rain gear worked good, but I was sweating so much from the hike it did not help much. About four hours in the rain let up and was able to dry off a bit. After finally getting to Goat Flats there were several good tent sites, so it was easy to set up camp. When camp was done it was time to glass!

[RB]

Later in the day the clouds moved out and visibility was several miles, but this really made the rocks stand out

I found multiple Goats in this area including a nice Billy

[RB]

The next morning I woke to dense fog, so it was fruitless to try and scout, so packed up the gear and headed for the truck. This Grouse just sat there and all but let me pet it this is not zoomed on an iPhone 6.