Goat Rocks West OIL Journey

[fishngamereaper]

Seems guys went to the Plat school of story telling.

[Rainier10]

This is banworthy.

[jackelope]

The angry mountain trail is a nightmare. Not sure how far up it you got, or if they ever spent anymore time cleaning it up, but holy hail. When I tried it, it was a half ass trail/not trail. I think maybe I made it half way.

[jackelope]

There’s a problem with Tman’s last post and it locked up the thread. I saved his post and then deleted the post that created the problem.

This is what it said:

I throw my rifle up and look at it quickly through my scope.  I'm 95% positive it's a billy, i take aim at the shoulders and fire. Happened so quick.  I put the rifle down and just see a rock the goat was on.  I got really confused, how did it not drop right there? Where did it go, did I miss?  I run to the rock and see a tuft of hair but no blood.  I look over the rock cliff and it's a good 30-40 foot drop straight down to the next bench.  I see what I think is patches of hair, but can't verify until I get there.  I work my way down the edge area, trying to find a way to the bench below.  I find a crease in the rocks and am able to climb down to the lower bench.  I confirm the hair in several areas.  I'm nervous walking on this sidehill due to the rocks being set and steepness. I work my way to the small patches of trees on the bench trying to figure out a safe way to get lower.  I look up again and see 2 goats on a rock overlooking the next lower bench.  1 goat is a kid and the other is a nannie.  I start wondering again, did I shoot at the nannie up above? Did I shoot this goat and wound it, should I shoot again?  I work back around the patch of trees on the bench and the 2 goats are gone.  I'm able to work down to the rock they were standing on and there was a goat, all dirty and not moving. The goat is right next to another cliff, which is much bigger than the one above me.  I'm able to get by the goat and it wasn't breathing and I was able to poke it and I verified that it was indeed a dead goat.  It was my goat.  Such a relief. 

Now the hard work.  I know I need help with the goat.  I didn't feel comfortable on the rock cliff and on the wet rocks and I know it's getting late and I didn't want to be on the bluff in the dark or going down to the trail in the dark.  I make the decision to get to my truck and then call reinforcement's for the next day.  I send my buddies the pin location and we make plans for the morning. 

We get up to the trailhead and plan on going along the lake trail and then hike up to the goat.  It's only 600 yards off the trail, but it might as well have been 100 miles. We hike up and get within 100 of the goat.  We see it on the ledge.  Only problem is, we are cliffed out and cannot make it any higher to the goat.  We make it back down to the trail and it's too late to make it back up to the goat with any daylight left.  Defeated, we begrudgingly head back to service for more reinforcements.  My 2 buddies couldn't make it back the next day so we reached out to more people we know and got another couple buddies to come help the following day.

We get back to the trail the next morning and with a new plan of hitting the trail to Nannie peak and then come down again.  While starting on the trail, my one buddy tells me that there's a guy coming to help, no one in our group has met or talked to the guy but he's helped pack out a goat already this year and he wants to help.  I'm all for the more help.  We get a mile or 2 up the trail and turn around and there's a guys buzzing up the trail.  We introduce ourselves and have great conversation going up the trail.  We make it to the old horse camp and then me and the new guy make it down to the goat.  We spent several hours working on moving the goat and processing the goat.  We get it all packed out and to the truck a little short of 12 hours from the time we started on the trail.

The next pictures are my first time putting my hands on and seeing exactly what I had killed.  It was an amazing experience and I'm forever grateful for the help and can never thank anyone who helped me with this hunt.  It's amazing how many great people are on here that help total strangers without asking for anything in return.

[jackelope]

I think the pics locked up the thread.
I pm’d you my cell #. Text them to me. I’ll resize them and add them.

[jackelope]

Pics.

[LDennis24]

Awesome!

[Rainier10]

Sweet

[actionshooter]

Congrats!!

[X-Force]

Beautiful Billy.

You kept hammering. Sometimes that’s what it takes.

Congrats!

[trophyhunt]

Great story, congrats! 8-9” horns??

[teanawayslayer]

Great story, congrats! 8-9” horns??

hard to tell from the pics

[Naches Sportsman]

Awesome story and way to get er done!

[grimace]

Congratulations! Lots of determination and hard work, well done.

[LDennis24]

If I recall the field judging correctly, isn't a 9" horn 1.5 times the ear length? This one looks all of that. Hard to tell when the ears laying back though.