Back To British Columbia

[Al Kidner]

Keep the pics comming! Goat hunting is top on my list too!

A.K

[Jack Shanks]

Al, I'd be glad to.

Brian is booked with the same outfitter I hunted goats with in 05. I was giving him a taste of what to expect.

My guide,Spike Lewis and I are glassing for goats here. They are amazing animals and live in the most beautiful places on earth.

[Jack Shanks]

The adventure actually starts with the plane ride thru a tight valley and then a landing on a glacier fed lake.

[John3]

One of Mooseman's (Michael's) Moose at sunset up in BC. What a place to be. Everyone who loves to bowhunt in true wild places should get to British Columbia at least once. About my 2nd day in BC I knew I would be coming back. October 2009 I am chasing Moose. Good luck with the goats.
John III

[Al Kidner]

I'm thinking of booking with the same oufitter as Jacob for a BC goat hunt. I'm yet to talk to the outfitter in regards to the waiting list but thats one animal I'm soooo keen to hunt.

Just love all the pics too. I've 'em saved on my puter to look in on & dream away.....

[Jack Shanks]

I'm hunting with the same outfitter Jacob hunted with. Troy still had a couple of openings for this year when I last talked with him a few weeks ago.

Another picture of the Coast Mountains BC.

[mmgrode]

Oh man, those pictures are simply beautiful.  I'd also love to see more.  Goats are on my short list also.  Cheers, Matt

[Quill Flinger]

Hey Jack, you take some great pics! Thanks for sharing 'em!

I've now got a camera & will be taking some shots when next I head to the mountains.

Good hunting & I hope you get up close & personal to many goats.

[Jack Shanks]

John,

The area Michael and I hunted in 06 for goats was also a beautiful place. I'll see if I can find some pictures from that trip and post them later.

Matt, the pictures really don't capture all the beauty. You owe it to yourself to go and experience it first hand.

Thanks Brandie, I'm looking forward to seeing some of your pictures now.

[Jack Shanks]

John,

Here's a picture of the goat mountain that Michael Schneider and I hunted in 06. It took us more than a day of hard backpacking to reach the spot this picture was taken and another two days of hard backpacking and climbing to reach the goats. There was a group of six billies hanging out just under the snow on the slope in the middle of the picture. We weren't able to get within bow range of a billy before running out of time. Toughest hunt I have ever been on.

[John3]

What beautiful country! I would stop to "look" out over the mountains and drink them in. Michael would smile a bit and tell me he did the same thing for his first ten years in BC. Jack thank you for this thread. I've been reliving the memories from last May. I can hardly wait til next year to go back.

John III

[Jack Shanks]

Michael and I spent a hard six hours climbing the mountain above where we were camped. We had glassed some goat tracks in the snow and wanted to see if we could find some goats up there that were closer than the ones we were seeing that were two days away from camp. We didn't find anything but I took this picture of the goat mountain before we headed back down. We took a different route going down but it wasn't any better than the way up. We needed to spend the next day in camp just glassing and resting up while we picked devels club thorns out of our bodies. Did I mention what a tough hunt this was?

We were seeing two groups of goats on the green slope in the center of the picture. In one group was nine nannies and kids the other contained six billies.

Michaels friend from Germany, Patrick had come along on the hunt just for the fun of it. While Michael and I were climbing the mountain he hiked several hours back in the direction we came in to retreive some hip boots from a trappers cabin. We would need them for fording the glacier stream we had to follow to reach the goat mountain.

[varmint]

Originally posted by Whip:
I hear you Jack.  The ticking of the clock gets louder and louder in my ear every year and I realize more acutely that the things I am doing now and the places I get to go will not always be there for me.  I'm always telling young guys to find a way, do what ever it takes, but do it now!  Don't dream about someday - make it happen now.  Sure wish I had started doing some of these trips earlier - now I'm trying to make up for lost time.

I agree!!!!!

I'd rather die in debt up to my eyeballs than look back from my deathbed saying "I wish..."

I keep trying to talk my buds into going on hunts with me and they always come up with some kind of excuse.I tell them if they keep putting it off it's NEVER going to happen.I mean.....instead of spending $3500 on a darn new dining room table or some such nonsense.......go hunting to one of your dream places.

[Al Kidner]

Not a truer word said Mr Varmint! I'm trying to sort out what animal to hunt first, black bear or goats in BC. I like the outfit Don T wrote about in the last TBM. Has me in two minds it has!


A.K

[Jerry Wald]

Take the goats first. Black bears are all over the place. We ahve more bears in the yukon than people...take a goat

Jer Bear  

[J from Denmark]

Black bear hunting can be scenic too   :D  

[J from Denmark]

And wet !!


Jack, good luck buddy
Hows your back doing ?

[Jack Shanks]

The foliage along the route we needed to get to the goat mountain made travel difficult. There were few game trails to follow so this is where the waders came in. We followed the glacier stream crossing often to stay on gravel bars and wading where the water wasn't too deep.  


Michael had brought along the type of waders that were supposed to be worn with wading boots figuring we would only need them to make a few crossings. I'm not sure if this is where the German engineering came in or not? But we made him a set of boots out of duct tape.




Patrick and I had the more conventional type of hip boots.





We were able to make it from our first camp to the base of the goat mountain in only seven hours by doing this. It probably would have taken twice as long without the waders.

[Jack Shanks]

Oh, and thanks Jacob my back is much better. Almost back to normal.

[sealevel]

Yup BC is a great place to live and hunt.But the hunting for the most part is not easy . Pretty much all of BC except for the north east corner is steep and thick.