warnniklz mountain goat hunting 2018

[warnniklz]

My buddy Cavan ended up drawing a mountain goat tag this year (I'm kind of hung over and tired right now... so bear with my writing). He drew the same tag I was unsuccessful on back in 2012. So he called me back in June right away when the draw results were posted. After some discussion... well the fact he could only get certain days off in August (I wanted to take the week after off because moose opened for archery). None the less we discuss the dates and lock them in place. Now Cavan has never done any sort of mountain hunting. He usually spends his time "road poaching" mule deer and sitting in swamps for moose, with a warm dry camp to go back to. This would be all new to him. Even though I was unsuccessful... I assured him that knowing what I know now, we have a good chance of pulling one off the mountain.

August 1 was opening day of his draw (closes February 28 2019). But we would have to wait until August 5th to make the 6.5 hour drive from Williams Lake to Smithers. We made the drive without any issue. Stopped at the Riverhouse Restaurant in Smithers for something to eat. After dinner we drove to the base of the mountain. I hadn't been there in 6 years, but found it like I had been there yesterday. We kicked the seats back to sleep for the night. I was out like a light but I guess Cavan had a hard time sleeping.

We were up at 4:30 the next morning with the sun and started up the trail. I figured the trail would have been brushed and cleared, as the back country club hikes the area quite a bit. But I was wrong. None the less it wasn't a tough trail up. Although my aerobic conditioning sucked ass... Playing quite a bit of baseball this year had my anaerobic on point. We were making time up the hill before the sun got too high in the sky. We were up the hill in 3 hours.

This was when I was up there on this day (August 18) 2012

Here's August 6 2018

Everyone kept saying "Oh it'll be so hot up there". My reply was always "oh we'll have snow packs up there". Well not so much this year.

But back to the story... we had a quick look at the basin shown above before heading up to a little watering hole I knew about.

 

[warnniklz]

We got camp set up. All we heard was "It'll be hot!" and the forecast said +30 Celsius during the day and a low of +14 Celsius at night. I left my sleeping bag, tent and thermarest at the truck. I knew I could get back and grab them if need be. I figured my tarp, sleeping bag liner and window shade would be good enough for sleeping. I also keep a set of thermal underwear in my pack, designated for just sleeping in... well I left those at home.

 

[warnniklz]

I did some glassing behind camp

 

[warnniklz]

As I was glassing behind camp I came across some goat sign to show Cavan there is indeed goats around

They were all pointing to the main basin where we first looked.

 

[mtmiller]

Awesome so far. Looking forward to more.

 

[Mica Man]

Keep it coming then get some rest!

 

[Lonesome_God_outdoors]

Anxious to hear the rest of the story

 

[406LIFE]

I really enjoy hearing these hunts from us Average Joes woth hard to draw tags. Keep up the story and pics.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Boy... if your hung over and riding the struggle bus today i gotta say you put out a decent story. Can't imagine what a drunk stories like haha. Keep it coming man these are my favorite kinda threads.

 

[Elkhunter24]

excited to hear the rest of it!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Bring it on!Lemme' guess..2ft. of snow.

 

[warnniklz]

So headed back to our glassing point. Lots of white rocks that we kept trying to turn into goats.

I was packing up to head and look over the edge of another part of the valley. I just got my pack on and Cavan said "Goat... 100% goat"

 

[warnniklz]

The goat was standing in the little run off just below the lowest snow pack. So I dropped my pack and busted out the spotter. Got the spotter set up and acquired the goat in my spotter.

Cavan said "let's go get it"

Looking at the goat through the spotter and being the first night... I was on the same page as him... but I've been on the ridge before.

 

[warnniklz]

I wasn't sure what the genetics were like in this area, I figured they would be decent. Region 6 in BC has good goats everywhere... but this range was a little isolated and I had yet to lay eyes on a goat in this particular area. But when I spotted this guy with the spotter, even though Cavan wasn't picky and didn't know a good goat if one stabbed him... I knew this guy was looking sexy.

Cavan wanted to go after him right now. We were a kilometer and a half as the goose shits from the goat. It was getting later in the afternoon. The goat was on the move, and if we did make a play, best case scenario is we would be coming back to camp in the dark. The goat was moving, but he was looking for a place up high to bed up for the night. Our plan was to watch him for the rest of the night until he bedded.

He ended up working his way up a seam in the rocks. When he got to the top, he got himself into a little bit of a situation. He couldn't go any higher and was probably shittin himself think about going back down. After an hour or so contemplating the situation he got himself into, he finally made his way back to the bottom.

It was starting to get dark so we decided to head back to camp with a little light left.

 

[warnniklz]

Like I said, everyone said how hot it was going to be. So we went minimalist with camp. Cavan was going to sleep on the ground, but I convinced him to buy a cheap sleeping bag rated for +10 Celsius at the surplus store. I let him sleep on my thermarest. I had a sun reflector that goes in your car window and a sleeping bag liner. We would sleep under my cheap backpacking tarp. We had my sleeping bag, tent and extra sleeping pad back at the truck if needed.

That night the wind picked up... holy balls!! On the good note... our camp held up like an anchor. The wind cut right through my sleeping bag liner. I only had my Sitka merino core lightweight base layer on. Probably still a little damp from sweating. I was cold.

I was able to slide my pack beside me in the middle of the night to block some wind. But the wind was still blasting me in the ass. I got a couple hours sleep. Cavan didn't fair much better. He was a little warmer, wearing his hoody and was able to hide somewhat in his sleeping bag. An ember from our cold little fire had burnt a hole in the sleeping pad. So he was sleeping on the ground anyway.

We basically just toughed it out until morning and what sleep we did get was just through exhaustion.

 

[warnniklz]

Knowing we had a goat in the area, just over the hill, we were up and ready to rock first light. We packed light and headed over to our glassing spot. We spotted our goat down low again. But we also spotted two other goats at the bottom of the ridge we had to cross. So we had to figure out who was what. Looking through the spotter at the two new goats, I had them pegged at young billies. The other goat was still the one to go for, but now we figured we had options.

We made a quick plan. Our plan was we would cut along the bottom of the ridge so we wouldn't skyline ourselves. I figured the goats knew we were there already, but we were so far off, they didn't care about us. So we gathered our gear, and started off on our picked out path. We hit stunted spruce and shintangle right away. Also the basin started to drop off quickly. So I called an audible and went with the plan I liked better.

We started climbing up to the ridge. We came to the first set of rocks we had to climb. It wasn't big at all... well in m eyes. I make a quick climb up and I look back down at Cavan. He stood there looking at me. That's when I realized "oh yeah, he's a comfort hunter and doesn't hunt vertical". With a little coaxing, he gave his nuts a tug and made his way up.

We made it half way down the ridge and found a little hollow to set up and take another look at the goats...

Cavan

 

[warnniklz]

Our first goat met up with the two other goats. They were headed away from where we wanted them to go. It was getting mid day, the sun was getting warmer. I figured they were looking for a place to bed for a bit. The one goat we were interested in was up high on a bluff behind some spruce trees. We could only see his ear twitching and every so often, him kicking up some dirt. The other two goats were lower but I had a better look.

Cavan started asking me about which goat was what. I told him the one behind the trees was the one we wanted. But I didn't like the looks of the other two. If they were indeed billies, they were young. Too young for me, but he said he wasn't going to be picky.

We watched them bed down and figured it was warm enough we could catch up on some sleep. We napped for a couple hours and woke to the goats in the same spot. We watched them for another half hour and we started to get some movement. The big goat started to make it's way down to the other two. The big goat kicked the one goat out of it's bed and laid back down. The goat that jumped up squatted.

"Bad news" I said, "that one's a nanny".

The other goat got up, it squatted as well.

"more bad news... the other one is a nanny as well"

Cavan kind of put his head down, "what about the third one?"

"well..." I began, "I'm still sure it's a billy by looking at him, but it's a little early for billies to be hanging out with nannies"

The two goats started heading back towards where we wanted them. But they started climbing a big ass scree slide. They looked like they were headed up and over. The third goat wasn't liking being alone I guess and started to follow them. So it stood up and stretched out. I could see him peeing and the sun reflected in clearly in the spotting scope.

"Got good news Cavan, that third one is 100% a billy"

Cavan was getting antsy about the goats heading upwards, so we got our packs on and continued along the ridge.


Looking back along the ridge, the back side is about a 200 foot drop straight down.

 

[warnniklz]

As we moved along, the goats started to head back towards us. Cavan was getting a little more excited. I gotta say, so was I. Our pace quickened as we started making distance. It's a two hour hike non-stop across the ridge, but I figured this last quarter was going to go by pretty quick. We started discussing different scenarios and different attack plans. We goat to a little hollow and the goats were getting closer.

Naturally we wanted to get above them, but there was one part of the mountain we wanted to get up along so we could drop in on them. But it dropped off pretty good on the right and I wasn't sure if we could get around the back. By this time the goats made it onto some bluffs.

Cavan pulled out his rangefinder. "let me have a quick look..."

A moment passed... "500 yards" He turned and looked at me.

 

[Taylor13]

Damnit, I found this thread too early! Now I’m just pressing refresh hoping for the rest of the story!

 

[warnniklz]

Cavan was sporting a 30_06 pushing Barnes 165 TSX... more than enough to put a goat down. But he hasn't shot a whole lot past 300 yards. He was telling me on the drive up that he was comfortable out to 200 yards. But now sitting at 500 yards and the goats not being overly antsy, inside 400 yards he'd take a poke.

The wind was coming hard into our face. So we figured we'd move down to the next knoll and see what happens. All of the sudden the nannies were up and running. It took a moment for the billy to react, but once he seen the nannies go by, he went chasing after them. In no time they were up and over the ridge.

Now I admit, I think we could have taken a little more precaution moving in on them. But Cavan was standing there watching them disappear through his binos. "What the hell?" he questioned. At that moment I realized what had really happened. "Check the wind" I said. The wind was now hard at our backs swirling around. "They winded us"

Cavan was up and motoring over the ridge.

We got up and to the spot right where the goats ran through.

We started glassing again to see if they held up some where. I have never seen a hunter that had no intention on ever hunting a certain critter two months earlier, go to so dejected so quick.

We spotted a goat up in some crags way down the backside of the valley.