AIROHUNTER
Active Member
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After much deliberation I am sharing my story. I still struggle with the outcome feeling somewhat blessed and disappointed at the same time. Enjoy-
When it was all over I sat there thinking about how I could have done so much better, that I had not given it 100% and at the same time still feeling thankful and blessed.
Back in May of 2012 I had the good fortune of drawing an Idaho Mountain Goat. To say I was excited was an understatement, in 2011 my wife drew and harvested a California Bighorn ram in our home state of Oregon, at this point I desperately wanted a ?once in a lifetime? opportunity of my own. To complicate matters in 2012 my hunting partner and Idaho resident drew a Rocky Mountain Bighorn tag in unit 27. It was going to be a banner year!
Within the first hour after getting my results of being a tag holder I started making contacts. I called everyone and anyone I already knew that I thought could be of some help, I called Biologist and Forest service and so on. Reaching out is a great way to figure out what you don't know, what you need to know and solidify what you already know. Mountain Goats prove to be most difficult because not a lot of people ever get the chance to hunt them, even the most veteran of hunting contacts I have had very little to share and trying to find past hunters is difficult because there are a scarce amount of tags, 2 to be exact for this unit and only since 2005. Still I managed to put some pieces together, enough to provide me a level of comfort for the task at hand.
First order of business was a scouting trip. I decided to make a first attempt during a spring bear hunt in late May. Before I had my results I had told my 14 year old daughter that I would take her Bear hunting. When we got over there for our Bear hunt it was obvious that it was too early in the spring to explore Mtn Goat country, with so much snow still on the ground I decided to return in late July to look for goats. Morgan and I headed up again in late July as planned and learned a lot about the ?lay of the land? we even managed to find some shortcuts in the hunt area. I hadn't really expected to see many goats on this trip, all of my resources had warned me summer was just a tough time to find them but despite the difficulty Morgan and I had actually seen quite a few. After a good hard long weekend of scouting I returned home to Oregon even more excited about my opportunity. Later that week Morgan informed me of a fire that had broke out some 12 miles to the Southwest, the entire access was now closed and all further scouting trips were on hold. To make matters even worse Morgan was facing similar issues with his Sheep hunt. Fires had halted everything. Day after day and week after week I watched the fire grow and the closures shift, although my hunting area didn't appear in danger my hunt was, there was no feasible way to get there due to the closures.
It was clear to me by mid September of 2012 that the smart decision would be to take the rain check offer and hunt in 2013. There was always a chance the unit would be open by mid October but with the lack of scouting and the high elevation I didn't want to take a gamble with the weather, I still had more questions than answers about the topography.
There seemed to be a bright side, I knew without a doubt that I would have this great opportunity in 2013 and I would have even more opportunity to scout and prepare, it seemed almost a blessing rather than a curse. After countless hours spent of Google earth, hunting forums, state websites dedicating myself to learning as much as I could, fast forward to May of 2013 and I am back in Idaho on a Spring Bear hunt and planned Goat scout. The Bear hunt portion went really well, we seen 16 Bears in 3 days and my buddy Chris filled his tag, having never even seen a bear in the wild before this was quite the experience for him. Chris had volunteered from day one to accompany me on the Goat hunt, getting him on a Bear was just a great way to for me to return the favor. After Chris had got his Bear we shifted gears and headed up to Goat country. Most of the week had been mild rain and drizzle but at 9000ft it was pure fog, another opportunity lost. Feeling a bit frustrated we returned back to Oregon and made plans for later on in the summer. I thought I would likely return once in late July and again at the end of August, that should give me a level of comfort with the unit. Not too far into summer and I got ?the call? FIRE!
Morgan called to inform that some fires had broken out during the recent lighting storms and although they were nowhere near close to my hunt unit access was already limited because the main road was closed. Then like a bad dream another fire broke out in the very area I would be hunting. Could this really happen to me again? I know fires are fairly common and to tell the truth I haven't really paid much attention to fire activity in those areas in the past but it seemed like I was being punished. The only benefit I had this year in regards to sitting back and monitoring the fire was my experience from last year, I knew where to look, I knew who my contacts were and the deadlines I had. It still wasn?t any easier, I had Vacations and work schedules to deal with as well as two great friends who had adjusted their lives and seasons around my hunt. I had purposely played Oregon?s draw system in a way that would not provide much opportunity for my daughters this year banking on having an open calendar in 2014, if I was to rain check again everything gets screwed up and another year is nearly wasted. I decide that I had enough standing by and that it was time to roll the dice and make things happen. The moment I had found out the three other tag holders had rain checked I knew I had the entire unit (well at least the parts that were open) to myself, that was the break I needed. The day before I left I got word from the forest service that the other closed portion of my hunt unit would be open Oct 1st. I also learned that my shortcut road/trail was now also open; things were really going my way.
With so much anticipation Chris decided to leave his home in Bend Friday night and make the 2-1/2 hour drive in the late evening instead of the morning, although we had plenty of hunt time he didn't want to be late Saturday morning. When he arrived at my house we quickly decided that we might as well sort gear, pack the truck and head out, neither of us were going to be able to sleep. We left my home at roughly midnight for the 6 hour drive to Boise. Things were going pretty well and we were making good time but just before daylight we realized that first we would be in town early and Morgan would be still sleeping and secondly we needed a nap. I pulled the truck over at an exit set the alarm for 30 minutes and what seemed like 30 seconds later we woke up. Not nearly satisfied we decided we would grab another 30 minute wink. When we awoke the second time we felt refreshed, we took off on the highway once more with only little more than an hour till Morgan?s house. When we arrived Morgan came outside in a sweatshirt, shorts and flip-flops proclaiming he was ready to go, got to love a guy who can just roll with it. We again consolidated gear repacked the trucks once more and were off.
It's a pretty long, narrow and rough road to Atlanta. 60 miles will take half the life out of your truck and a solid 2 hours of your day. Upon arrival I was quick to notice that the storm from the prior week had left about 6-8 inches of snow in the upper elevations of the hunt unit that would certainly complicate some of my plans. I knew we were due to have some rain coming on Sunday and possibly Monday, I had hoped that could help melt off some of the snow, I didn't have a strong desire to run up and down goat country in the snow. Little did I realize that rain I had hoped would help would be anything but helpful. It started raining Saturday night just after we set up camp and didn't stop. We tried to sleep but hearing that rain on the wall tent all night was tough, it was pouring. Despite the rain we somehow decided that we would hike a load into where we would spike out for the trip. We had decided if the rain wasn?t that bad or if it let up enough we would just go for it. Well after a 6 mile hike into the basin we would be hunting having soaked feet and useless optics we decided to ditch the gear return to base camp and dry out. Knowing that weather would blow over soon it was for the best. Having spent Sunday evening in the tent listening to the rain and Monday hearing the rain hit the roof waking up to more rain on Monday had my spirits down. Even though I knew we had enough time, not being able to get out there after all this time was frustrating. Now all that being said between the rain storms we wrangled out of the tent and periodically glassed the adjacent cliff faces. During our brief glassing sessions we did manage to spot a few different groups of goats. I was feeling confident that in time we would have success.
Tuesday morning came and so did our break in the weather. Although it was far from clear skies we didn't have that steady downpour like the last 48 hours and the fog was minimal. As we set out that morning it wasn?t long until we found goats. The first group we seen were really high and had was an obvious Nanny/Kid herd. It was encouraging to find some so quickly. A few hundred yards up the trail we spotted another goat. At 600+ yards it was tough to tell if it was a Billy but it didn't matter there was no way we could get at this animal. Hoping to find an easier target we elected to move on. Shortly thereafter we saw another goat all the way at the top of the mountain. It looked huge and majestic sky lined on the top of the earth, it might as well been on Mars because again it was another impossible stalk. The morning was certainly off to a great start, we had spotted several goats before we even reached the halfway point of our basin. Just before we arrived to the location we had stashed our gear several days before I spotted this goat laying along a bench carved out of a rock spire. It was an incredible site, the kind of make believe you envision when you think of goats in their habitat. We quickly dug out the spotting scopes to judge the goat. We were confident that we could get to this goat and we knew the goat was well within shooting range but was it a Billy? After several minutes of looking through both spotting scopes we determined it must be a younger Billy. It didn't have a lot of mass but was a fine looking goat so the stock was planned. We left Chris behind to keep tabs on the goat while Morgan and I slipped around and came up the adjacent side of the mountain. I could have shot the got from where we had first seen it. At 400yds it was well within range of my 338 Win but the topography could make a follow up shot very difficult. As we came around the edge of the ridge I noticed the goat was gone, where had it gone? Chris signaled the goat had moved up the drainage. As Morgan and I scrambled up the mountain contemplating how to make our next move I caught the goat staring right at us. It had positioned itself in a rock chute and was watching us scramble up the mountain. Morgan gave me the range ?210 yds.? I dialed the scope and settled the crosshairs. I had decided early on that a solid shoulder next shot would be the anchor I needed on these tough animals, I squeezed off the shot and the crack of thunder put the goat to its knees. It was all but over with and while I considered another round the goat settled its front legs over the edge of the bluff and just then as it settled its head down it managed one last push and over the ledge it went. Dang it!!! Please don't break a horn. It tumbled ever so slowly and many times looked like it was going to stop but still managed a solid 300yd roll.
Before we could approach the down goat we had to go back to where we dropped our packs and then down the hillside until we could find a spot to navigate to where the goat lay. Chris having been directly below us and the goat had a great head start. As Morgan and I trucked hard over towards Chris and the goat I grew nervous. ?Chris do you see him? Did he break? Is it a Billy?? It's nothing new for me, every time I take an animal I get extremely nervous until recovery. I could tell by Chris?s hesitation something wasn?t right. ?I think it's a Nanny? Chris replied. Dang it, I was very focused on not taking a Nanny, knowing the importance of harvesting males over females it was the last thing I wanted. My once in a lifetime hunt seemed to deflate quickly. I just stood there pondering what had happened and what could I have done differently. Did I see what I needed to see or what I wanted to see, did I convince myself otherwise of what I knew. How did I not realize it, why didn't they know? Still somewhat deflated we took pictures and took care of the goat. At this point we now had to pack out the goat, our 4 days of food and preparation and all of the camping gear we packed in several days ago. I had suggested that we make two trips but Chris and Morgan were certain we could get it all in one trip and so we did.
Now as the time passes by and I reflect on my opportunity I realize a few things. First what great hunting partners I have being on call for two seasons to unselfishly help me achieve a dream. Many times during the hunt I had been miserable waiting, imagine their feeling not even be able to have a tag, just along for the ride. Second, I feel blessed that I was given the opportunity to experience such a wonderful hunt, just weeks prior I felt that I had wasted this opportunity but now I choose to look towards the silver lining. I still hold myself somewhat accountable for not giving my best and challenging myself more but at the end of the day I walked out the Sawtooths with a beautiful majestic creature and memories very few will ever have the opportunity to fulfill.
My favorite hunts are because they were with friends and family not just because "I got one".
When it was all over I sat there thinking about how I could have done so much better, that I had not given it 100% and at the same time still feeling thankful and blessed.
Back in May of 2012 I had the good fortune of drawing an Idaho Mountain Goat. To say I was excited was an understatement, in 2011 my wife drew and harvested a California Bighorn ram in our home state of Oregon, at this point I desperately wanted a ?once in a lifetime? opportunity of my own. To complicate matters in 2012 my hunting partner and Idaho resident drew a Rocky Mountain Bighorn tag in unit 27. It was going to be a banner year!
Within the first hour after getting my results of being a tag holder I started making contacts. I called everyone and anyone I already knew that I thought could be of some help, I called Biologist and Forest service and so on. Reaching out is a great way to figure out what you don't know, what you need to know and solidify what you already know. Mountain Goats prove to be most difficult because not a lot of people ever get the chance to hunt them, even the most veteran of hunting contacts I have had very little to share and trying to find past hunters is difficult because there are a scarce amount of tags, 2 to be exact for this unit and only since 2005. Still I managed to put some pieces together, enough to provide me a level of comfort for the task at hand.
First order of business was a scouting trip. I decided to make a first attempt during a spring bear hunt in late May. Before I had my results I had told my 14 year old daughter that I would take her Bear hunting. When we got over there for our Bear hunt it was obvious that it was too early in the spring to explore Mtn Goat country, with so much snow still on the ground I decided to return in late July to look for goats. Morgan and I headed up again in late July as planned and learned a lot about the ?lay of the land? we even managed to find some shortcuts in the hunt area. I hadn't really expected to see many goats on this trip, all of my resources had warned me summer was just a tough time to find them but despite the difficulty Morgan and I had actually seen quite a few. After a good hard long weekend of scouting I returned home to Oregon even more excited about my opportunity. Later that week Morgan informed me of a fire that had broke out some 12 miles to the Southwest, the entire access was now closed and all further scouting trips were on hold. To make matters even worse Morgan was facing similar issues with his Sheep hunt. Fires had halted everything. Day after day and week after week I watched the fire grow and the closures shift, although my hunting area didn't appear in danger my hunt was, there was no feasible way to get there due to the closures.
It was clear to me by mid September of 2012 that the smart decision would be to take the rain check offer and hunt in 2013. There was always a chance the unit would be open by mid October but with the lack of scouting and the high elevation I didn't want to take a gamble with the weather, I still had more questions than answers about the topography.
There seemed to be a bright side, I knew without a doubt that I would have this great opportunity in 2013 and I would have even more opportunity to scout and prepare, it seemed almost a blessing rather than a curse. After countless hours spent of Google earth, hunting forums, state websites dedicating myself to learning as much as I could, fast forward to May of 2013 and I am back in Idaho on a Spring Bear hunt and planned Goat scout. The Bear hunt portion went really well, we seen 16 Bears in 3 days and my buddy Chris filled his tag, having never even seen a bear in the wild before this was quite the experience for him. Chris had volunteered from day one to accompany me on the Goat hunt, getting him on a Bear was just a great way to for me to return the favor. After Chris had got his Bear we shifted gears and headed up to Goat country. Most of the week had been mild rain and drizzle but at 9000ft it was pure fog, another opportunity lost. Feeling a bit frustrated we returned back to Oregon and made plans for later on in the summer. I thought I would likely return once in late July and again at the end of August, that should give me a level of comfort with the unit. Not too far into summer and I got ?the call? FIRE!
Morgan called to inform that some fires had broken out during the recent lighting storms and although they were nowhere near close to my hunt unit access was already limited because the main road was closed. Then like a bad dream another fire broke out in the very area I would be hunting. Could this really happen to me again? I know fires are fairly common and to tell the truth I haven't really paid much attention to fire activity in those areas in the past but it seemed like I was being punished. The only benefit I had this year in regards to sitting back and monitoring the fire was my experience from last year, I knew where to look, I knew who my contacts were and the deadlines I had. It still wasn?t any easier, I had Vacations and work schedules to deal with as well as two great friends who had adjusted their lives and seasons around my hunt. I had purposely played Oregon?s draw system in a way that would not provide much opportunity for my daughters this year banking on having an open calendar in 2014, if I was to rain check again everything gets screwed up and another year is nearly wasted. I decide that I had enough standing by and that it was time to roll the dice and make things happen. The moment I had found out the three other tag holders had rain checked I knew I had the entire unit (well at least the parts that were open) to myself, that was the break I needed. The day before I left I got word from the forest service that the other closed portion of my hunt unit would be open Oct 1st. I also learned that my shortcut road/trail was now also open; things were really going my way.
With so much anticipation Chris decided to leave his home in Bend Friday night and make the 2-1/2 hour drive in the late evening instead of the morning, although we had plenty of hunt time he didn't want to be late Saturday morning. When he arrived at my house we quickly decided that we might as well sort gear, pack the truck and head out, neither of us were going to be able to sleep. We left my home at roughly midnight for the 6 hour drive to Boise. Things were going pretty well and we were making good time but just before daylight we realized that first we would be in town early and Morgan would be still sleeping and secondly we needed a nap. I pulled the truck over at an exit set the alarm for 30 minutes and what seemed like 30 seconds later we woke up. Not nearly satisfied we decided we would grab another 30 minute wink. When we awoke the second time we felt refreshed, we took off on the highway once more with only little more than an hour till Morgan?s house. When we arrived Morgan came outside in a sweatshirt, shorts and flip-flops proclaiming he was ready to go, got to love a guy who can just roll with it. We again consolidated gear repacked the trucks once more and were off.
It's a pretty long, narrow and rough road to Atlanta. 60 miles will take half the life out of your truck and a solid 2 hours of your day. Upon arrival I was quick to notice that the storm from the prior week had left about 6-8 inches of snow in the upper elevations of the hunt unit that would certainly complicate some of my plans. I knew we were due to have some rain coming on Sunday and possibly Monday, I had hoped that could help melt off some of the snow, I didn't have a strong desire to run up and down goat country in the snow. Little did I realize that rain I had hoped would help would be anything but helpful. It started raining Saturday night just after we set up camp and didn't stop. We tried to sleep but hearing that rain on the wall tent all night was tough, it was pouring. Despite the rain we somehow decided that we would hike a load into where we would spike out for the trip. We had decided if the rain wasn?t that bad or if it let up enough we would just go for it. Well after a 6 mile hike into the basin we would be hunting having soaked feet and useless optics we decided to ditch the gear return to base camp and dry out. Knowing that weather would blow over soon it was for the best. Having spent Sunday evening in the tent listening to the rain and Monday hearing the rain hit the roof waking up to more rain on Monday had my spirits down. Even though I knew we had enough time, not being able to get out there after all this time was frustrating. Now all that being said between the rain storms we wrangled out of the tent and periodically glassed the adjacent cliff faces. During our brief glassing sessions we did manage to spot a few different groups of goats. I was feeling confident that in time we would have success.
Tuesday morning came and so did our break in the weather. Although it was far from clear skies we didn't have that steady downpour like the last 48 hours and the fog was minimal. As we set out that morning it wasn?t long until we found goats. The first group we seen were really high and had was an obvious Nanny/Kid herd. It was encouraging to find some so quickly. A few hundred yards up the trail we spotted another goat. At 600+ yards it was tough to tell if it was a Billy but it didn't matter there was no way we could get at this animal. Hoping to find an easier target we elected to move on. Shortly thereafter we saw another goat all the way at the top of the mountain. It looked huge and majestic sky lined on the top of the earth, it might as well been on Mars because again it was another impossible stalk. The morning was certainly off to a great start, we had spotted several goats before we even reached the halfway point of our basin. Just before we arrived to the location we had stashed our gear several days before I spotted this goat laying along a bench carved out of a rock spire. It was an incredible site, the kind of make believe you envision when you think of goats in their habitat. We quickly dug out the spotting scopes to judge the goat. We were confident that we could get to this goat and we knew the goat was well within shooting range but was it a Billy? After several minutes of looking through both spotting scopes we determined it must be a younger Billy. It didn't have a lot of mass but was a fine looking goat so the stock was planned. We left Chris behind to keep tabs on the goat while Morgan and I slipped around and came up the adjacent side of the mountain. I could have shot the got from where we had first seen it. At 400yds it was well within range of my 338 Win but the topography could make a follow up shot very difficult. As we came around the edge of the ridge I noticed the goat was gone, where had it gone? Chris signaled the goat had moved up the drainage. As Morgan and I scrambled up the mountain contemplating how to make our next move I caught the goat staring right at us. It had positioned itself in a rock chute and was watching us scramble up the mountain. Morgan gave me the range ?210 yds.? I dialed the scope and settled the crosshairs. I had decided early on that a solid shoulder next shot would be the anchor I needed on these tough animals, I squeezed off the shot and the crack of thunder put the goat to its knees. It was all but over with and while I considered another round the goat settled its front legs over the edge of the bluff and just then as it settled its head down it managed one last push and over the ledge it went. Dang it!!! Please don't break a horn. It tumbled ever so slowly and many times looked like it was going to stop but still managed a solid 300yd roll.
Before we could approach the down goat we had to go back to where we dropped our packs and then down the hillside until we could find a spot to navigate to where the goat lay. Chris having been directly below us and the goat had a great head start. As Morgan and I trucked hard over towards Chris and the goat I grew nervous. ?Chris do you see him? Did he break? Is it a Billy?? It's nothing new for me, every time I take an animal I get extremely nervous until recovery. I could tell by Chris?s hesitation something wasn?t right. ?I think it's a Nanny? Chris replied. Dang it, I was very focused on not taking a Nanny, knowing the importance of harvesting males over females it was the last thing I wanted. My once in a lifetime hunt seemed to deflate quickly. I just stood there pondering what had happened and what could I have done differently. Did I see what I needed to see or what I wanted to see, did I convince myself otherwise of what I knew. How did I not realize it, why didn't they know? Still somewhat deflated we took pictures and took care of the goat. At this point we now had to pack out the goat, our 4 days of food and preparation and all of the camping gear we packed in several days ago. I had suggested that we make two trips but Chris and Morgan were certain we could get it all in one trip and so we did.
Now as the time passes by and I reflect on my opportunity I realize a few things. First what great hunting partners I have being on call for two seasons to unselfishly help me achieve a dream. Many times during the hunt I had been miserable waiting, imagine their feeling not even be able to have a tag, just along for the ride. Second, I feel blessed that I was given the opportunity to experience such a wonderful hunt, just weeks prior I felt that I had wasted this opportunity but now I choose to look towards the silver lining. I still hold myself somewhat accountable for not giving my best and challenging myself more but at the end of the day I walked out the Sawtooths with a beautiful majestic creature and memories very few will ever have the opportunity to fulfill.
My favorite hunts are because they were with friends and family not just because "I got one".
