Goat Rocks goat- pics to follow...

[huntindoc]

Can't believe it's taken me 3 weeks to get back on here!  Work keeps getting in the way of all these important things.

First of all, thanks to everybody who helped me find my goat.  Great area.

A funeral slowed hunting down a day, and we had camp set up and were hunting by 1pm on Nov 1.  Took longer to climb the hill than I expected, and then one of my buddies came up lame on the way in (should have put him down...) so we weren't looking for goats till 2:30.  Didn't take but about 10 min to find the first goat, and after looking for 20min, had found about 5 or 6 animals.  Didn't really understand the lay of the land and were the animals were, so headed directly toward them.  Found a small billy just below us on the rims, but way too small.  Moved on north, expecting to close the gap only to find that we were about 1.5 miles away with a deep canyon between.  Let's hear it for hunting adrenaline!  I kept moving forward on a snowy cliff until my brother talked some sense into me.  Too steep and slick.  As I started easing back the way I had come, I slipped off and slid about 20 ft.  Tore up my hands a little, didn't bang the rifle, and suprisingly didn't get too beat up.  Scared the crap out of me.  If I had slid 20 feet earlier on the cliff, probably wouldn't be writing this story!  Anyway, we talked it over, and elected to wait till the next day.  We did get some great pics (to follow), and put a dandy billy to bed.  He was lower than most of the nannies, and off by himself.  Saw 27 goats in the first 4 hrs!  From a mile away, the billy was heavy and plenty long.  Made the walk off the moutain seem short and easy, even with the cold and snow.

We left the trail head before dawn and made great time getting up to where we were had put the billy to bed.  Fired up!  He hadn't moved 200 yrds.  We looked him over again from 850yrds.  We was moving east, still very low on the hill.  He was feeding very actively by himself.  I had been told that the goats didn't mind hikers as long as you stayed on the trail.  Bull crap. Should have just waited and put him to bed, but I guess I was too fired up to wait.  We started across a slide on the trail, and he started leaving.  Tried to keep up.  Had him at 450, and should have shot.  I thought I could get closer so I gassed it up the valley, watching the goat parallel me on the hill.  The problem was that he kept going up.  When I finally got to the ridge where I expected to shoot from, the goat was gone!  He had gone into some trees, and just didn't come back!  My brother came puffing up yelled "there he is up high!"  I saluted him at great distance.  Mistake, but I missed him clean.  The problem then was that I had to climb to the very top, over 7000 ft, to make sure I missed.  Interesting fact was that there was only about a foot of snow, but only 2 goat tracks, one going out, and one coming in.  2 coyote tracks as well.   

As I effectively blown out the upper end of Johnson creek, we decided to hunt back to the west where we had seen all the other goats the night before.  Again, got into the steep, slick country.  This time, it was grass under the snow.  Very steep.  My brother slid twice, screwed up his knee pretty bad.  I eased over each little finger, exptecting to see goats at any time, and finally noticed the hind end of one going over the point we were heading too.  As I reached that place, a draw opened up that contained at least 20 goats.  2 good billies in the bunch.  During the approach, we got seriously rimmed up, scary steep again.  Fortunately there were trees to keep us from going air born!  As we closed on the goats, again they were gone!  I saw some white flashes in the trees 450 yrds away.  I don't know how we spooked them as we were in cover the whole time, but the whole bunch left.  I was flat ticked off!  My brothers knee was killing him, so he headed down the draw to the bottom, and I would meet him there at dark.  I went on west to make sure the Billies had left, and as I crept up to look, there was the entire bunch, right from where I had just been. 1/2 mile behind me!  They were standing on the cliff face we had crawled down!  They didn't spook, so I let them feed out of sight, and hauled over there to have a look.  As I started to glass the slides, I looked over my shoulder, and there was my goat, back in the same place on the west side!  First thing I noticed when I looked was the sun glinting off the horns.  Aaahhhh!  I got back into the trees, and covered the draw for the 3rd time, easing into a shooting position.  I looked the goat over at length...  Good length, mass twice the width of the eye, roman nose, dark spot on rump, good blocky body and chest....plus both my hunting buddies were banged up, and a snow storm was forcasted.  The goat would die.

One shot from the 300 Weatherby, about 120 yrds.  I saw hair fly, the goat whirled around the corner and was gone.  It was steep enough it took 10 min to get to where I shot.  Hair was there, no blood.  I followed the presumed track, only rock, no signs at all.  I went back to the site of the shot again, and started peering off the down hill side.  About 10 feet down, there was a scuff mark in the needles.  I lowered myself off the first ledge, peered off the next cliff and there was my goat!

The next hour went fast as I tried to belay my goat off the cliff.  Problem was my rope wasn't long enough.  Had to drop it twice.  Fortunately, the 200yrd tumbles didn't bang the face up too bad.   I got it off the cliff, pictures taken, and caped and gutted.  Had to leave the carcass on the hill and retrieved to the next day.  Got to the lower trail after nightfall.  Got to the truck 3 hrs later.  All in all, it was a 15+ mile day with > 10000 ft elevation change.

Great hunt!  All that and no pics!  I will post them with measurements hopefully tomorrow.

Later

[LittleJohn]

Great job.  Sounds like a hunt of a lifetime!!!!! I spend allot of time in that area and can almost see the rocks when I was reading your story. Congratulation again

[Dean44]

Wow, Huntindoc, that is a great goat story. Thanks for taking the time to write and share it.

Dean44

[longstevo]

Pictures...?

Great story.

[carpsniperg2]

wow sounds cool can't wait to see pictures i love to see those special tags filled congrats

[shanevg]

Awesome story, can't wait for the pics!  Congrats!!!

[klickriverchromer]

Sounds awesome!!!! I'll need to see photos to confirm that it was though

[PacificNWhunter]

Way to go, look forward to seeing the pic's.

[Bighorse]

Photos please.  I want to see how tired you looked.

10,000 vertical feet in a single day is some very serious hiking.  Your write up did a good job of capturing the risky elements of hunting goat. 


I'm willing to bet that peeling the skin off that animal by yourself completely exhausted was very challenging.

So was it a Billy?  Horn length? 

What are you gonna do with it? 

Did your brother help with recovering the meat?

Standing by

[whacker1]

great write up

[280ackley]

Nice write up, can't wait for pics.

[eastside boy]

Man...that sounds awesome, can't wait to see and hear more about it!!!!!

[Ridgerunner]

PICS, PICS, PICS!!!!!!

[jackelope]

.

[jackelope]

not really pointless, cuzz it's a pretty awesome write-up...but some pics would make it that much more awesome.

on with it now!!!!