Colorado Mountain Goat.... A novel in the making....

[warnniklz]

This thread is cool!!! If you're on Facebook or Instagram, the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance has identification quizzes all the time. I find they help quite a bit.

 

[LopeHunter]

You are in shape, getting in some time at altitude and are familiar with navigating steep terrain. You are ahead of 95% of the hunters that have headed into G12 with a goat tag. Some risks you can't train for but by being in shape you have a better chance of avoiding such as twisting an ankle. In G13 a guy snapped his femur crossing a shallow creek when slipped on a round rock and current torqued his body as he stumbled. Only takes a few seconds. Your prior experience being a guide undoubtedly showed you how the mountain just does not care. Heartless rock and ice. Keep the posts coming. Fantastic pics and recaps of the journey so far.

 

[sneakem]

It is quite the journey so far. I have to say that this is the portion of the story that is probably the least interesting to anyone. But after waiting a lifetime I think that its pretty serious part for me. I want to know that there is nothing holding me back from success when I lace my boots on for season. This is redundant, excessive training, but I also have a firm grasp as to what this is going to take. Like LopeHunter Says.... The mountains are heartless, unforgiving, not matter who you are or how good of shape your in. The mental part of this trip will be huge part as well..... They say the goat hunting starts... where the sheep hunting stops...

I'm sure their will be plenty of boring posts between now and then about training, hiking, preparing to pack in.... hopefully I will be able to fill in some of the doldrums with some scenic photos to at least keep it interesting.

This weekend I modified the plan a little. Instead of slowly breaking myself in, I said to hell with it and strapped on the big boy pack with about 55 lbs in it. So much for taking it easy...lol. I did keep the hike relatively mild at about 6.5 miles round trip and a relatively moderate grade. Felt pretty good all in all, realized that my pack needed a little adjustment and I'll likely play with my packing to get my pack balanced out with my gear that I'll be taking on the hunt. My pack felt weighted to the right because of my tripod, which pulled down on my shoulder a little. I think that when I add the gun opposite that it will balance a little better as the tripod is probably as heavy as my gun. I could go lighter on the tripod, but I don't like to mess with my optics set up, as my eyes are my best friend in the mountains.

Not a huge trip... one that the family and friends could tag along on... fourteen of us...

Holy pack of kids... minus adults..

 

[1_pointer]

Love that last picture!! Sweet training crew!

 

[sneakem]

So the Adventure continues....

Spent the last weekend in the flattops. Training was fairly light, hiked roughly 7 miles round trip with no weight, followed by a little spelunking in the spring cave. We had the kids so no adventures to the lake or into the stream, but fun still the same. Followed up with a couple of days of wading strong currents ripping some lips. Definitely not your typical training regimen, but then what could be so bad about putting 6-7 miles a day wading up strong current and over large rocks...

To top it off we made it home Sunday night and noticed that my bank account was short several hundred dollar. I looked into it so see if the was any foul play going on and turns out I was charged by the AZ G&F for a tag... Better yet I know I dreew it in the 1-2 pass as I had nowhere enough points to draw either of the particular December Coues hunts... Jackpot Year I guess... goat tag...hybrid prong horn tag... rut coues hunt... Guess that I'm the low odds draw guy this year. Karma from donating to all these wildlife groups maybe??

Anyways some pictures...

 

[7mm08mo]

Sounds and looks like a stellar so far for you. Good luck in your adventures.

 

[FishN4Eyes]

Some great photos and narrative.

Will be following this one closely.

Keep it coming!

 

[TRS_Montana]

Great photos! Really enjoying this thread.

 

[noharleyyet]

Nice pic tome sneaks...look fwd to these installments.

 

[marksjeep]

Congrats on the tags. Great updates and pics, thanks for sharing them.

 

[sneakem]

Conditioning for the hunt continued this weekend. Went with the big pack again, loaded to about 50 lbs. Decided to crash a different wilderness this weekend, had plenty of company. Funny thing is most people are surprised to see someone carrying such a big pack. They quite often comment about how I must be going in for a week long trip. I think many of them are surprised that I am just walking in carrying this monstrosity just for a fun day walk. They obviously leave in disbelieve that any sane soul would voluntarily punish themselves like this...lol Managed to catch a few small brook trout at one of the high country lakes along the way, during my lunch stop... drug the family along for the ride as well.

 

[sneakem]

T minus a week and a half until the hunt begins for me. Spent a long weekend covering several basin I haven't look at so far. Put down some serious miles this weekend with a big heavy pack. I have concluded that there are plenty of goats in almost every basin in the eastern 2/3 of the unit and scattered few in the western 1/3. So it really boils down to mark an X and hunt there. It is very rugged, very physical country, especially anytime you leave a trail. But the trail system is great to get you to a starting point where the suck begins...lol Just thought I would share a few photos.

 

[Southern Elk]

Good luck!

 

[Labman]

Are you hunting the opener? That hair looks thin yet.

 

[Alabama]

You take some amazing photos; both landscape and zoomed in on animals! What camera setup are you using? Thanks for sharing and good luck on your hunt, I'm sure you'll do great with all your preparation and research.

 

[Oak]

That is giant country. It's getting frosty up high, but the forecast a week out is looking better (FWIW).

 

[Southern Elk]

That's quite the warning on that sign. I can't say that I've ever seen one like that.

 

[rmyoung1]

Looking forward to following along. Pretty awesome opportunity you've been granted. Good luck

 

[SFC B]

Man, I love pics of real wild places....they just never get old

 

[Muleyhunter78]

Awesome stuff, I also leave on my goat hunt in a week and a half. Hopefully we can both connect on the same animal in very different areas. Good luck!