Day one began with an early morning rendezvous with Gerald. We pointed the truck East and the adventure officially crossed the line from internet fantasy to reality.
Along the way we picked up a handsome young lad from the midwest who was mumbling something along the lines of "spooning...for... goat meat..." We all loaded up and made one last stop for real food, before driving the .6 miles to the trailhead.
No excuses left, time to pack this up the hill-
On the trail-
Gerald was trying out the new Mystery Ranch prototype called the "Gypsy Homestead".
There's no trail in to the basin we'd be camping in, which was a big part of the allure of why I wanted in there. It's a bit of a downfall mess getting in there, but luckily it's only .6 miles so we were able to make it up just in time to glass before dark set in.
Within five minutes of being in the basin we spotted what we knew would be our number one target. He was bedded maybe 450 yards from camp, and from Gerald's excitement I could tell that it was a goat we needed to dedicate the rest of the hunt to.
That night Gerald experimented with a new type of freeze dried meal that resembled what you'd find in the scrap pile of a Whole Foods bakery.
We went to bed with big dreams of shooting the giant billy above camp when Randy and Loren arrived late morning the next day.