BOY wasn't fortunate to find the mountain goat that he wanted two weeks ago, so he invited (more like bribed) me to try to help him find a shooter in a different area this past weekend. The kitchen pass was easily obtained because I planned on heading to ID to hunt birds that weekend anywho's. So, Wednesday night we drove to the new area that he'd scouted in the summer where he'd seen about 30 head of goats in a little over 2 hours on top of the mountain. Thursday morning we packed the horse and mule, pulled on our waders and headed out.
Here BOY, Spin and Pepe are after crossing the East Fork of the Salmon and changing out of the waders:
We followed the trail to where two creeks converge near the base of Sheep Mountain. A view of the trail with the snow covered Sheep Mtn in the distance:
Base camp at the base of the mountain:
Once we got camp set up we headed up the hill, straight up the hill, to try to see if we could find any goats. No goats were spotted, but we did find a nice 25" 4pt chasing some females around about a 1/2 mile away. That night some weather blew in and dropped about an inch or so of snow on the ground. The next morning we headed up the hill right at daybreak with BOY just always over the hill and through the woods from me. Once I drug my fat arse about 80% of the way up the hill I see BOY waving me on! Billy's been found! I finally make it up to where BOY has the spotter set up and look over the billy and nanny that he's been watching for the last hour or so. A quick discussion of the proper hand signals and BOY's off to see if he can sneak within range. I take over driving the spotter only to watch the billy bed down and start sleeping! About 45min later I can see BOY slipping over some rocks about 200yds from the goat, but Billy sees him as well!!! The nanny takes off for other rocks, but the billy stands and starts pawing the ground so as to say, "Bring it!". A couple of rifle shots ring out and GOAT DOWN!!!!
Once I navigate the lunar like, nearly vertical landscape over to where the goat fell we drag the goat about 20yds to get the Money Shot!
Now here's where the trip gets much less fun. We get the pictures taken, the goat skinned/boned, and start heading out.
BOY ready for the pack out:
Fat man heading upward and onward:
We had to cross a pretty sketchy stretch across the lower end of an avalanche shute to get to where the goat was. So, using our heads we decided to head straight up from the goat to the ridge above where it fell figuring the ridge would be less crumbling than the 85% slope we were on. It's now 4:30pm. About 2hrs later we make the ridge and start heading towards where we left the spotter and some other gear only to have the ridge decide to turn into a cliff!!! At this point it's quite dark and our only option is to head down the aforementioned avalanche shute until we can find a place to cross. About 3/4 of the way back to the level the goat was on, my crampon catches in some rocks and a take a tumble feeling a sharp pain in my left knee. At first blush, this didn't seem to good, but fortunately my knee would support me even if it didn't feel all that great. We cut our own tracks and follow them back up and out finally reaching camp at 11:30pm!
I guess the easy packs I had earlier this year where an attempt at karma to get me ready for this pack!
Once home we taped the goat at 9.5" and 9.25" which BOY was quite happy with. Now if I could just get the stuff to quit moving around in my knee when I bend it....
Here BOY, Spin and Pepe are after crossing the East Fork of the Salmon and changing out of the waders:
We followed the trail to where two creeks converge near the base of Sheep Mountain. A view of the trail with the snow covered Sheep Mtn in the distance:
Base camp at the base of the mountain:
Once we got camp set up we headed up the hill, straight up the hill, to try to see if we could find any goats. No goats were spotted, but we did find a nice 25" 4pt chasing some females around about a 1/2 mile away. That night some weather blew in and dropped about an inch or so of snow on the ground. The next morning we headed up the hill right at daybreak with BOY just always over the hill and through the woods from me. Once I drug my fat arse about 80% of the way up the hill I see BOY waving me on! Billy's been found! I finally make it up to where BOY has the spotter set up and look over the billy and nanny that he's been watching for the last hour or so. A quick discussion of the proper hand signals and BOY's off to see if he can sneak within range. I take over driving the spotter only to watch the billy bed down and start sleeping! About 45min later I can see BOY slipping over some rocks about 200yds from the goat, but Billy sees him as well!!! The nanny takes off for other rocks, but the billy stands and starts pawing the ground so as to say, "Bring it!". A couple of rifle shots ring out and GOAT DOWN!!!!
Once I navigate the lunar like, nearly vertical landscape over to where the goat fell we drag the goat about 20yds to get the Money Shot!
Now here's where the trip gets much less fun. We get the pictures taken, the goat skinned/boned, and start heading out.
BOY ready for the pack out:
Fat man heading upward and onward:
We had to cross a pretty sketchy stretch across the lower end of an avalanche shute to get to where the goat was. So, using our heads we decided to head straight up from the goat to the ridge above where it fell figuring the ridge would be less crumbling than the 85% slope we were on. It's now 4:30pm. About 2hrs later we make the ridge and start heading towards where we left the spotter and some other gear only to have the ridge decide to turn into a cliff!!! At this point it's quite dark and our only option is to head down the aforementioned avalanche shute until we can find a place to cross. About 3/4 of the way back to the level the goat was on, my crampon catches in some rocks and a take a tumble feeling a sharp pain in my left knee. At first blush, this didn't seem to good, but fortunately my knee would support me even if it didn't feel all that great. We cut our own tracks and follow them back up and out finally reaching camp at 11:30pm!
I guess the easy packs I had earlier this year where an attempt at karma to get me ready for this pack!
Once home we taped the goat at 9.5" and 9.25" which BOY was quite happy with. Now if I could just get the stuff to quit moving around in my knee when I bend it....
