The walk out was tough. Cold, wet, heartbroken, but still determined. A coach once told me I didn't have a lick of talent, but I out worked everyone else. I just told myself I had to outwork 'em. I felt bad for my guide as he walked the miles with me and that arrow kept both of us from our families. To make it just a little more fun this is what was in our boot tracks going out
Sometime during our climb up a nice sized griz had walked our our trail. I told myself to just keep walking. I was glad to see the trailhead to the truck 3 miles later. To say it was rough sleep was an understatement.
Days 6,7,8: Beat up but not beat down
Rain, snow, low ceiling: all the things a goat hunter hates. The precip causes flatlanders to slip. A low ceiling causes guides and hunters to go nuts not being able to glass. We basically spent the three days walking into different valleys and glassing. Mainly we were walking getting wet and just dealing with the conditions. Tough on both of us as the time clicked away. Truthfully though I was in good spirits. How could you not just love the mountains? I kept smiling, kept my feet moving and soaking up the goat experience.
Day 9: still raining, still dreaming
We hiked into the area I had missed the goat, 3 miles in to glass. I wanted lightening to strike twice as he was not buggered up. He couldn't even see me in that soup. Unfortunately it was an empty slide. We covered a couple more miles and found a young billy in a good spot. Just like that it was on! We had to climb some crappy slick stuff. Once again I found that my rain gear wasn't all that hot. Everything was wet even though the rain was just a mist.
We climbed and climbed and I took a couple of spills. You'd figure my size 14s would give me a little stability. No, not really. We finally had a stalk plan. I love to look at the route and wind and try it. It is my favorite thing! As it was, it wasn't a long stalk. I came out below him as he had moved higher during the hour we had lost saw him. Busted...he did the vanishing goat thing, climbed 300 vertical and dared us. We slunk out with our tail between our legs. The walk out took a little longer, my shoulders were starting to slump, but Troy kept me laughing. He reminded me I was a sneaky bast***, and that I was going to get a chance. The problem was I was to get on a plane tomorrow. My time was up...until I called my wife. She assured me that she wasn't leaving me, and that my honey-do list could wait 24 hours. I slept good, pleased that we'd have good weather tomorrow for the first time all week.
Topic: Mountain Goats Wisdom (Read 2308 times)
