Idaho Mountain Goat - When Dreams Don’t Do Reality Justice

[DarkTimber]

I've been dreaming about hunting Mountain Goats since I read an article in Bowhunter magazine by Dwight Schuh about hunting them in Idaho during my junior year in high school. I was in study hall and had slipped the magazine inside my text book so the teacher couldn't see I wasn't doing school work. That was 19 yrs ago but I can still see the picture of Dwight sitting in front of his tent, caping out the head of the goat like I read the article yesterday.

When I logged into the Idaho Fish and Game website in May to check the results and saw the word "Successful" you'd have thought I just shot the biggest buck of my life the way I was shaking. Not many people understand that, but I think most of the group here gets it.

Before I get too far into the story I need to give credit where credit is due.   I’m a member of the Professional Bowhunters Society.  This group includes some of the most experienced bowhunters around, bowhunters willing to share their experience and knowledge with their fellow members.  So the first thing I did when I found out I’d drawn was to post on the PBS website asking for any insight into the area I’d drawn and mountain goat hunting in general.  The response and help I received was amazing.   Guys I’d never met before were messaging and calling me to help out in any way they could.  Some had intimate knowledge of the area I drew, some knew nothing of the area but had hunted mountain goats elsewhere and shared what they’d learned, some had other contacts that they referred me to that might know something, others offered up their gear and even their house as a place to stay on the trip out.  The help I received from this group was instrumental in my hunt.      

Now let’s get on to the hunt.  I’m going to start from the beginning. The hunt itself is only a small part of this story. The preparation and planning was a much lengthier process and I enjoyed it just as much as the hunt itself, well almost.  I know there are a lot of guys out there that dream of hunting mountain goat and may never get to.  Maybe they’ll never draw a tag, maybe they can’t / won’t pay the money to hunt them guided or maybe they’re past a point in their life where they’re physically able to make it a reality.  Whatever the reason I’ll try to share as many details as possible so hopefully you can get an idea of what the experience is like.  If you’re not the type that likes to read all the details I get that too, check back in a bit and you can see the highlights.

Cool...
 

[DarkTimber]

I’ve been applying for most of the states that offer mountain goat tags for about 12 years.   They’ve always been my number one dream animal to hunt.  For a lot of guys it’s wild sheep but for me it’s always been mountain goats. Maybe it’s because they’re not flashy like sheep. Their horns aren’t much to look at, only a couple inches separates an exceptional goat from an average goat.  Maybe it’s the terrain they live in, as I’ve read goat country begins where sheep country ends.  Maybe it’s their beautiful white hair with long chaps and goatee.  Or maybe it was just the thought of the adventure.  Whatever the reason they’ve always stood out to me as the pinnacle of bowhunting.


I had a few requirements for the units I applied for and the hunt / experience I wanted.   I wanted my hunt to be a true backpack hunt.  I didn’t want a unit that held goats in highly traveled recreational backpack areas.  I didn’t want to hunt goats that were at all conditioned to seeing humans and I didn’t want to see numerous people daily on my hunt.  I wanted truly wild goats and I wanted them remote and alone.  The unit I drew offered all that!    


By mid-summer I’d spoken with the area biologist, wildlife officers and the previously mentioned PBS members.   I felt like I’d spoken with just about everyone willing (and a few that weren't) to talk to me about the unit I drew and goats in general.  I’d spent hours looking at topo maps and aerial photos and I’d narrowed my areas of interest down to two main areas.  One area really stood out, as it would require backpacking several miles, ascending a mountain and dropping into a basin below that had no trails leading into it.  From there, if need be I could top over at least two more mountains into further basins all historically known to hold goats. It would be my number one focus.  

Season would open for my hunt on August 30th and I could hunt all the way through November.   I wanted to hunt late enough to allow the goats to have their winter hair but not so late that I risked snow in the high country which would make spotting them extremely difficult.   I decided I’d start my hunt around the second week of September.   I also planned a 4 day scouting trip in mid August.  

Although I spent a lot of time looking at the area on the computer, the magnitude of the terrain really set in when I saw it on paper.

 

[BDann]

Keep it coming....  

[DarkTimber]

Once I had my area picked out I felt a little guilty, like I should be doing more. From 1,700 miles away there's only so much I could do though. I focused on getting my gear ready, getting in the best shape I could, and practicing with my bow. I've been doing Crossfit for about 5 years and felt like I was already in great shape.  I continued to do Crossfit 4-5 days a week and added running 5-8 miles 2-3 days a week.  I knew nothing would truly prepare me for the type of mountains I’d be in but I certainly intended to do all I could to help. I took advantage of a small cool front at the end of July and took the kids out to a local mountain to train with a weighted pack. It's a total elevation gain of about 1,000' in 3/4 a mile. I found their pace to be just about perfect for me with a 50lb pack and the climb felt great.

 

 

[Chumster]

Great read, I'm in!  

[Stickbow]

[BrushWolf]

This is going to be good.    

[Jeff D. Holchin]

Perfect timing for a good hunting thread, Aaron!  Bring it on and don't be bashful with the pics...

[DarkTimber]

I planned my scouting trip for August 24th – 27th.   I’d fly to Idaho, rent a car and drive straight to the trailhead and pack into the basin for a long weekend scouting trip.  I was excited to finally lay eyes on my first mountain goat.  Unfortunately a last minute business trip I couldn’t get out of got scheduled for the 24th and 25th.   So instead of eating a freeze-dried dinner high in the mountains of Idaho I was eating in a restaurant in New York.  For some that may not sound so bad, for me it was a giant punch in the gut.  With the season opening only a week later and only about 3 weeks until I planned on starting my hunt I decided it would be best to just add a few days to my hunt and scout with my bow in hand. My brother Mark would be joining me on the first 10 days of my hunt to help glass, hopefully help with packing chores, and just enjoy the hunt together.   As luck would have it, he drew an Idaho moose tag this year as well so I planned to go out with him the first week of October to help him on his hunt. We planned to fly into Idaho on September 13th to start my hunt.

As the last couple weeks until my hunt approached I finalized my gear list.  Most of the gear didn’t differ too greatly from what I typically pack for an elk hunt with the exception of adding a spotting scope and tripod.

All my gear loaded into 2 checked bags and a carry on ready to fly out the evening before my hunt.  
 


We landed in Idaho a little after noon on September 13th.  After picking up the rental car and making couple stops to pick up fuel for the stove and other last minute items we headed toward my unit.  It was nearly 5:00 pm by the time we reached my unit and it took almost an hour after turning off the pavement to reach the drainage we planned on going up.   By the time we got all our gear loaded in our packs and started walking it was around 6:30.  I knew we wouldn’t make it all the way into the basin that evening so we planned to get as close as we could to where we planned to climb over the mountain and set up camp. We’d save the climb for early the next morning.  After setting up the tent next to a creek and filtering some water we quickly downed a couple Mountain House dinners and hit the sack, tired from a long day of travel.  Despite my excitement for what the next day held, sleep came easy.

We were up before daylight the next morning and after a quick breakfast we started breaking down camp and getting everything loaded in our packs.  It was just getting daylight as we had everything packed up and ready to start climbing when Mark looked up on the mountain directly above us and said “that looks like a goat”.   I quickly pulled out my spotting scope and sure enough there were 4 goats above us.   We watched them for about 15 minutes and I determined it was a couple nannies and kids.  Then another goat crested the top of the mountain and came down toward the others.  I wasn’t entirely sure what it was but guessed him to be a billy, although he didn’t appear to be an old one.  I put on my digiscope adapter and snapped a couple quick pics.

 

[Gator1]

This is gonna be good.

[DarkTimber]

Since the goats were on the mountain we had to climb anyway the plan didn’t change.   We loaded the spotting scopes, shouldered the packs and prepared for the climb.  Knowing there were goats above made the packs feel a little lighter, at least it did for me.

Spotting scopes set up from Camp 1
 

Loaded and ready for the climb ahead
 

The climb was steep and once we were about ¾ way to the top we started hitting quite a bit of loose scree, which only made things harder but by about 9:30 we reached the top.

Mountains never seem to look as steep in pictures, but you get the idea
 

The view from the top was worth the climb
 

[Buckeye1977]

This is getting good! Keep it coming!

[DarkTimber]

As soon as we reached the top we sat down and started glassing the basin.   Within a couple minutes I spotted what I immediately knew was a very large billy.  Although I’ve never hunted goats before and am far from an expert at judging them in the field, I quickly learned like most other species when you see a large one, a truly large one, you don’t need to be an expert, you know immediately.  This billy dwarfed the other goats we’d seen.  His body was absolutely huge and you could just tell by the way he carried himself he was a fully mature animal, even from over a mile away. In picture above he was in the middle of the bowl in the center of the picture (the one with the very small patch of snow).  He bedded in the middle of a rock field almost all the way at the top of the mountain with absolutely no cover with 500 yds in any direction.   I wanted him badly, but even with a rifle he’d have been untouchable.   All I could do was hope to locate him again later in a better position.  


After glassing for a couple hours, no other goats were spotted within the basin.   We talked over our options.  Our original plan was to drop down in the basin and set up camp next to the lake since it was the closest water.  We decided since the only goats we knew of that were in a stalkable position were on the same mountainside we were already on we’d stay up top for the afternoon.  We had enough water to last us the day, then we’d drop down to the lake that evening if nothing panned out.  

We started working our way around the mountain toward where we’d seen the goats come over earlier in the morning.  We hadn’t gone far before we were cliffed out.
 

I decided to drop down the spine to get a better angle back in the cliff edges to make sure no goats were bedded there.
 

Mark was content to sit at the top and wait for me to make my way back up.
 

[HARL]

[Dry Creek]

Getting good, keep it coming!!
         

[Warden609]

This is great!! Keep it coming!!

[DarkTimber]

With no goats spotted in the cliffs, we had to climb back up and over the top to the opposite side of the mountain and side hill around.  That side was entirely covered in scree and trying to side hill was slow and frustrating.  

 

Eventually we made it around the cliffs and started approaching the area we’d seen the billy earlier that morning.  Mark stopped and I eased ahead slowly.  As soon as I crested the rise I immediately spotted him about 100 yards ahead standing at the base of a rocky peak.  

 

[DarkTimber]

As soon as I looked at him through my binoculars I knew he wasn’t a goat I wanted to kill.  His face was very short and his horns thin.  He was a beautiful goat, but he wasn’t mature.  I was content to sit there and watch him show off.

 

As we were watching the young billy it started raining.  Once he’d moved out of site we quickly put our rain shells on and started moving forward towards a point that would allow us to glass the area we’d seen the other 4 goats earlier that morning as well as the opposite side of the basin. We hadn’t gone far when we looked down the ridge and spotted the 2 nannies and kids crossing an open hillside headed for the peak of the mountain in front of us.  A few minutes later we spotted 2 more much larger goats further down the mountain following the same path.

[elkken]