AKHawken
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2017
- Messages
- 24
I was fortunate enough to draw the Revillagigedo Island DG-006 mountain goat tag this year. After a fantastic vacation in Scotland with Shanon Millman and before I head to Utah for antelope, I had a couple of days to hunt. Nol;an Hooker was kind enough to come along for the fun. I rode the ferry to Ketchikan on Thursday, September 4th, Nolan picked me up, and we headed to our flight service. The fog of the morning finally burned off by about 1:30, and we were off for a couple of days hunting. We landed on a lake and set up camp. Since we could not hunt the same day you fly, we decided to hike up a ridge and glass an area I suspected would hold a great billy or two. We have seen one good-looking billy in its wallow/bed flying in. Through the binoculars and spotting scope, we located two great billies that first evening, one right where I had seen goats before and had helped Pat Heuer take a B&C goat in 2009. It would require a long stalk and a climb to drop down on the area. The next morning, we hiked up and around to an area well above where the goat was last seen. It was a roughly 2-mile stalk, gaining about 1,000 feet in elevation. Along the way, we explored both sides of the ridge, looking for goats. We met face to face with a couple of wolves.We found lots of goat sign, beds, wallows, tracks, and hair. The goat was not in its wallow/bed. We now needed to get into position before his return. We would have to drop about 400 feet in elevation, easing into position in the timber just above the wallow/bed. It was super hot out, sitting in the cool timber would feel good. We arrived around 1:00 pm and began the wait. Anyone who knows Nolan and me knows that patience is not our strong suit. Just before 3:00 pm, the billy we wanted appeared and started digging in his wallow, then bedded down. He was just 43 yards away. My dad’s 30.06 did its job, and we had a great billy on the ground and lots of work to do. On public lands just out of sight in the mountains behind Ketchikan. An incredible experience shared between friends. Lots of hard work went into packing this white buffalo off the mountain, but it was so worth it. It was a short hunt, but we packed about as much into it as one day would allow. We got up the next morning and waited for the fog blowing in from the east to dissipate. At about 1:00, our ride plucked us off the lake, and I made the 2:30 check-in for the ferry home. My thanks to Nolan for all of his help, young back, and sharing the experience. All I can say is WOW!
