Once I figured out I didn't draw any primo tags this year I started sending the usual texts and making calls trying to figure out who drew what. A guy I used to work with, Shayne, ended up drawing the same goat tag I had in '15. Having an obsession for hunting goats, I immediately offered up a weekend of my fall to help. I wasn't really sure what his plans were for the hunt but just wanted him to know the offer was on the table.
Shayne kept me updated though his scouting trips and let me know that he had seen lot of nannies and kids and few nice billies. Not wanting a really short haired goat or deal with the wildfire smoke, he decided to chase elk for a few weekends and let the smoke clear out. As most of you know that's about the time we got our first storm of the year which dumped a lot of snow in the mountains. Talking with Shayne, I could tell he was getting a little nervous about the potential of not being about to get into where he needed to be but I tried to assure him we could get it done. Looking at the forecast we saw it was going to warm up for a week which gave us a little confidence.
The weekend prior to our trip, he made a trip in with his dad. Visibility was poor and they were in a foot of snow a mile into their hike. Needless to say that was not the best weekend to kill a goat. After giving me an update of their trip, we started to hash out our plans for the following weekend. We planned on a four day trip and had a rough idea where we wanted to camp. He also mentioned that one of my good hunting buddies and HT member, Brandon or Easternmt, would be joining us on the hunt. Everything was starting to come together and I knew it was going to be a great weekend.
We hit the trail at about 8:30 Thursday morning and knew most of the day would be devoted to the hike in and setting up camp. Three miles in, half of which was straight up through snow and deadfall, and 2000 vertical feet later we finally decided on a campsite which would leave us a short but steep 1000' climb to the top. We cleared a spot in the 8" of snow for the tipi and let it melt out since the sun was out. In the meantime we found a less than ideal glassing spot and tried to find a goat in the snow and decide on a route for the following morning. I told Brandon and Shayne where I wanted to go and neither one expressed confidence in my route planning abilities. I assured them 'if trees can grow there, we can go there'. I got to listen to that phrase the rest of the weekend in a sarcastic tone as it's not true 100% of the time. With no goats to be seen, we decided we better get camp setup and wood cut for the stove. Once all the chores were done we boiled water for dinner and ate while we glassed until dark. It was a long day with no goat sightings but I had high hopes for the following day as the snow was starting to melt and expose some of the south facing hillsides.
Shayne kept me updated though his scouting trips and let me know that he had seen lot of nannies and kids and few nice billies. Not wanting a really short haired goat or deal with the wildfire smoke, he decided to chase elk for a few weekends and let the smoke clear out. As most of you know that's about the time we got our first storm of the year which dumped a lot of snow in the mountains. Talking with Shayne, I could tell he was getting a little nervous about the potential of not being about to get into where he needed to be but I tried to assure him we could get it done. Looking at the forecast we saw it was going to warm up for a week which gave us a little confidence.
The weekend prior to our trip, he made a trip in with his dad. Visibility was poor and they were in a foot of snow a mile into their hike. Needless to say that was not the best weekend to kill a goat. After giving me an update of their trip, we started to hash out our plans for the following weekend. We planned on a four day trip and had a rough idea where we wanted to camp. He also mentioned that one of my good hunting buddies and HT member, Brandon or Easternmt, would be joining us on the hunt. Everything was starting to come together and I knew it was going to be a great weekend.
We hit the trail at about 8:30 Thursday morning and knew most of the day would be devoted to the hike in and setting up camp. Three miles in, half of which was straight up through snow and deadfall, and 2000 vertical feet later we finally decided on a campsite which would leave us a short but steep 1000' climb to the top. We cleared a spot in the 8" of snow for the tipi and let it melt out since the sun was out. In the meantime we found a less than ideal glassing spot and tried to find a goat in the snow and decide on a route for the following morning. I told Brandon and Shayne where I wanted to go and neither one expressed confidence in my route planning abilities. I assured them 'if trees can grow there, we can go there'. I got to listen to that phrase the rest of the weekend in a sarcastic tone as it's not true 100% of the time. With no goats to be seen, we decided we better get camp setup and wood cut for the stove. Once all the chores were done we boiled water for dinner and ate while we glassed until dark. It was a long day with no goat sightings but I had high hopes for the following day as the snow was starting to melt and expose some of the south facing hillsides.
