Naches Pass Goat

[frazierw]

I'm writing this up for my dad, he drew the tag in 2017, but due to the fires, the game department let him postpone his hunt until this year.  We started our scouting trips in August; luckily the unit wasn't too far from home.  The initial scouting trips were to get some good looks at where the goats liked to hang out, and where we wanted to spend our time when the hunt started.  The other opportunity that the scouting trips provided was the chance to practice identifying billies, and get better at judging how big these goats are.  The tag started September 15th, and by then we knew the area we wanted to hunt.  My dad, brother and I headed up on opening day to see what we could find.  We really didn’t intend on killing anything, because my dad wanted my uncle to be with us as well.  We had a great day on the mountain and saw a ton of animals.  We saw 3 bulls, 2 bears and over 20 goats.  We got a look at four goats that we thought might be billies.  One of them was way down a ridge and we didn’t get a great look at, one we got a pretty good look at, but wasn't sure if it was a billy or not.  We spotted another one we tried to get a good look at, but when we moved in closer to him he had moved.  We really wanted to get a look at him, because from a distance he looked like a good goat.  The last one we looked at for over an hour, but decided he was maybe 8" and not the goat for us.  We head back to the truck that evening after watching a bear climb a tree and seemingly try to rip the tree in half before he jumped out and took off.  We made plans for the three of us and my uncle making four, to head back up the next weekend and see if we could get the job done. 
 
We got back up there on the next Friday (9/21) and set up camp planning to head up to the same spot in the morning.  We wanted to try and get a good look at the goat that was way down the ridge last weekend, and see how big he was, and then depending on what we saw, head in to get a good look at the goat that had moved before we got a good look last weekend.  We got up to a good glassing spot with a great view of the ridge the first goat spent the whole day on the last weekend and he was nowhere to be seen.  We did spot a goat on a different ridge next to us, when we got the spotter on him, we thought he was dead.  Finally he lifted his head a little; he was just zonked out from the night before.  We glassed him for a while, and decided he was a juvenile billy, and not the goat for us, so we started the hike to see if we could find the other goat we wanted to get a good look at.  About an hour later we had a good view of the hillside the goat was on the previous week, and we spotted 2 goats immediately.  We were about 550 yards from them, which allowed us to get good looks at both goats.  One was definitely bigger than the other, and the bigger one was definitely a billy (he gave us a view that made it undeniable).  All four of us picked him apart in the spotter and decided he was right around 9".  My dad wanted at least a 9" billy, so we thought this was the goat for us and we were going to make a move on him.  It took about a half hour to get off our ridge line and start the trek to the hillside he was on, in that time the goats had moved and the fog started rolling in.  We decided to wait out the fog since it seemed to be moving in and out pretty quickly.  WE.  WERE.  WRONG.  The rain started and the fog never went away.  We sat in the trees trying to stay dry, hoping the fog would lift until about 4.  With no end in sight, we decided to pack up and start the trek back to camp, and try again tomorrow. 
 
Sunday morning we wake up, and the wet ground from the night before had frozen and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  This time we were going to head straight from camp to try and find that goat from the day before.  After about two hours of hiking, we could finally see the hillside and that goat was sitting out on a rock outcropping soaking up the sun.  He was in a great spot to make a move on, so we figured out a plan and took off.  We had a good wind, and knew there was a clearing directly above the goat.  We decided to get straight above him, sneak through the trees, to the top of the clearing, and then take a shot.  It took about an hour from where we first saw the goat that morning, to get directly above him.  We couldn’t see him but we had a good landmark to use so we knew where to start our decent.  My brother led us down through the trees, making sure to stay in the dirt as best as possible so we were quiet.  After sneaking down this hill for about ten minutes the trees started to reveal a rock out cropping where he was.  Using trees for cover as we were sneaking we made our way further down, my Dad peaked around a tree and spotted the goat through an opening.  He was still lying down, broadside, looking at us.  He took his pack off, used it to rest his .300 win mag, we got in position behind him.  The goat was still in the same spot we saw him that morning.  I ranged the goat, 103 yards.  Dad got settled in and we told him to shoot when he was ready.  One pull of the trigger and the goat never moved.  He was dead before he heard the sound of the gun.  We were all ecstatic.  We made our way down there and the jubilation set in.  We took lots of pictures, got the goat taken care of and ate some lunch in the warm sunshine.  Then we loaded our packs and started the five mile trek back to camp.  We measured him when we got back and he was 9 1/4" on his left side and 9 1/2" on his right.  Dad couldn’t have been happier.  It was truly the best hunt ever.  The country these animals live in is amazing, and being able to share that with all of us together made it unbeatable.

[zwickeyman]

Great pics, congrats

[X-Force]

Thanks for the story.

Im glad your dad could get back in there this year.

Very cool. OIL for sure.

[huntnfmly]

Very cool congrats to your dad thanks for sharing

[jackelope]

Heck yeah...great write up. Congrats to your dad and to all of you on a successful hunt!

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats to him on a great goat and sounds like a amazing time in the mountains

[Widgeondeke]

Great read this morning.  Thanks for sharing  and CONGRATS!

[jackelope]

@addicted

[trophyhunt]

This is my first choice for goat, great story, really nice billy!  The coat looks really good for September, congrats!!

[Katmai Guy]

Awesome! Congrats to your dad and crew.  Beautiful goat.

[frazierw]

I'll add a few things i learned on this hunt.

1.  Good optics pay for themselves.  My brother and I both bought new spotting scopes in the last couple years and they were invaluable on this hunt.  Trying to decipher 2 inches from 500 yards is tough.

2.  These animals are awesome.  So fun to watch they way they move and the amount of country they can cover.

I was glad to spend the time in the mountains with family, bringing home a trophy for my dad made it even better.

[CedarPants]

Great story and congrats!!

[lewy]

 Nice work!

[Bushcraft]

Congrats!

[MtnMuley]

Doesn't get much better than that.

@benhuntin --  Here's your answer to your goat issue.