Well, the plot thickens.
On our hike out I point out three goats at the cliff base from which we just descended. Low light, so I only give them a cursory scan with the binos and hit the rangefinder - 323 yards above us.
Hmm when we were slipping and sliding our way down we must have pushed some of them way lower.
Back to the trailhead to meet Lee, Beau, and Jeremy. Beau stayed way low and glassed from afar in case they rolled around the west face. Lee and Jeremy stayed at the glassing point on the mountain.
At the trailhead it seemed like groups of people had watched the same movie title, but saw a different movie.
It goes like this, now that the pieces are put together.
Just after we dropped off the ledge and crossed the canyon to the opposing cliffs, the Teo big bullies had carved away a nannie and were chasing her below and to our west. We ascended to the east, putting us out of the view of this trio. We continued put 600' of climb to where we has seen at least seven goats. We assumed the remainder of the 12 were somewhere in the same area, just not visible.
With we hiked up and above the group that eventually turned put to have nine. We sat there among them on a very steep and slippery slope, hiding in a small stand of old spruce as the goats harassed each other below us at ranges from 40 to 90 yards.
All the while, the folks in glassing positions saw where we had disappeared into the trees and they were wondering when we were gonna drop down and shoot one of the two big boys tending a nanny lower from the goat group we were positioned above. It had to be frustrating for them to watch for this long period of time, knowing how close we were to the big bullies and we were not moving in on them.
We had no way to know the two big billies had carved away a nanny and were further below in a much more shootable and retrieval position. We couldn't see that far down the face and we were pinned down above the other group that fed even closer to us.
To add insult, among the three goats we saw on the way out were the two big billies. I can't believe I just assumed they were part of the group we had watched this afternoon.
Ugggh. 323 yards above the trail and only 700' of vertical to climb out of the canyon and cruise down a fine trail to the vehicles.
We're all laughing about it now. I'm still shaking my head that one nanny could lure the two biggest bullies away from a herd of 12. But, I guess it shows how little I know about goat hunting.
I'll try bug the crew for a few images of goats at close range and post them later. I'm really glad I wasn't tempted to shoot one of these two 5-6 year old billies. It just didn't seems right. I thought we had just grossly misjudged them.
The good news is we didn't misjudge them. We were just looking at two different billies. I am embarrassed to have hiked by them at last light and not have spent the time to examine them.
Oh well, a thought to ponder in the tent tonight.
