2018 Mt Margaret Goat tag

[bucksnort]

This year my son was lucky enough to draw the goat tag for Mt Margaret.  I was hoping it was me when the emails for mountain goat started coming up before the results were visible. But my 20 points weren't good enough this year. His 8 points were.  This was the first year he put in for an actual tag since college and sports never allowed for it.  So the planning began.  We called biologist and got some info.  It was pretty exciting being the first hunters to hunt goats in what he figured was nearly 50 years since the mountain blew in 1980 and the population didn't support a hunt since the early 70's in his research.  I scouted in September and saw lots of goats! That was encouraging.  But I also realized those things live in some god awful spots! 

We headed up the first weekend in October and headed out from Norway Pass trailhead for the 3 mile hike to the hunt boundary. 2 miles in we saw a huge goat and were treated to elk bugling like crazy! What a spot with Mt St Helens and Spirit Lake below you and Elk bugling like crazy. We watched and enjoyed the show for a while and headed on our way. We put a lot of miles in on Saturday but just didn't have the right goat in the right spot show.  It was weird to be up on the trails and run into people mountain biking, running and sight seeing with dogs running loose. On the way out we saw a good goat we thought we could make a run at in the morning if he was around. It was good to have a plan and we headed back to camp.

The next morning greeted us with good weather and another hike up the hill.  We found the goat we had seen the night before and put the glass on him to make sure he was "worthy".  Just as I was getting ready to put the spotting scope away my son looks to our right to another peak and says "hey there's another one". I swung the scope and knew he was a much better goat right away.  My son and his college roommate who came along to help(thanks D we never could have done it without you) looked and agreed he was the one.  So we packed up and started the 2 mile trek to him. Did I mention the country they live in? We went straight down for half of it and straight up the other half. 

When we got to where we thought he should be we couldn't find him. He had to be there but we thought we should see him by now.  Well, when you look from a position higher than him things look different. I walked around a tree snag and found myself in a stare off with a Goat about 30 yards away. Can you say pants around your ankles? I motion for my son to move up to me and the goat says I've had enough and takes 2 steps and literally disappears off the side of a shear cliff.  I'm cussing up a storm and kicking myself for being so stupid.  We walk up to where he was bedded and look around and down the cliff when I look to my right and he's standing there looking at us. Fire drill! We take a quick look through our bino's while my son gets lined up and he says what do you think? I know he's a good one but he is standing on a 6 inch ledge and a very large drop.  I said drill him and we would figure it out after the wool flew. My son made a good shot and the goat shuddered and disappeared aroung the cliff wall.  I knew he was hit well and was done.  A few hugs and hollers and I said there he goes! he rolled down the hill about 75 yards before stopping just before another drop full of brush that would have been a total nightmare.  It took us an hour to go the 75 yards down the "cliff" to him.  we took some pics, caped him out, boned him out and packed up for the pack out. It turned out to be 6 miles to the truck and we managed to get out just at dark

This will go down as one of my best hunting memories since I was right behind my son when he shot a once in a lifetime animal.  Definitely one of the most demanding hunts physically and mentally I have done and will probably ever get the chance to go on.

[Ridge Hunter]

congratulations to you and your son, sounds like a great memory!!!

[Widgeondeke]

Nice write up. Thanks for sharing
Congrats to the hunter

[jackelope]

Awesome!! Was hoping someone would have one of these new tags. Thanks for sharing!!

[High Climber]

Congrats! Glad it worked out for you guys!

[Duckhunter14]

Very cool! Well done 👍🏻

[carpsniperg2]

excellent congrats to him

[Katmai Guy]

Congrats!! Great goat and thanks for sharing.

[CaNINE]

 

[SuperDave]

Nice looking goat, congratulations and thanks for sharing!

[lokidog]

 

[Tjv28]

Great hunt. Looks like he got a little roughed up on the tumble down. Taxidermist should be able to fix that

[trophyhunt]

Very nice! Congrats!

[RB]

Great story, and AWESOME Billy!

[Ridgerunner]

Awesome billy a d story


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