2016 CO Archery Mountain Goat

[Baby Huey]

This will be a long post with more photos to follow:



On the first 6 mile hike in, we set up camp before dark and glassed for goats. 3 years ago on my buddy’s hunt; we found some nice billies in this area. However, this year we weren’t seeing them where we normally did – actually, we didn’t see any at all that evening.

I woke up early and went to a saddle before dawn using a red headlamp hoping not to spook any goats that may be feeding or down at the water source. I sat there with a Kifaru Woobie, which was really nice to use as a blanket to deflect the wind and provide warmth. Again, no goats spotted.

I continued over to the backside of this mountain and found the goat trail from 3 years ago and set up and glassed that area – nada. I went back to camp around 10am and set up for a practice shot. My arrow came off the shelf as I was drawing back and as I went to let down, my thumb pressed the nock off of the string and the arrow clanked off the bow to the ground. In the discombobulation, I accidentally depressed the trigger and dry fired the bow. The force took the string off of the cams and I was sick. We had just hiked 6 miles the afternoon before, and now we had to do it again, and loose precious hunting days.

We packed up our 60lb packs to head back to the trailhead and drive into town to get the bow fixed. But, before heading out we glassed the valley below that we would walk back into, but we could see no goats. 3 years ago we could pick out 10 to 30 goats on the far side of the valley – this year was very much not the same as years past and very discouraging as we couldn’t glass up a single goat.

After arriving at the trailhead, packing up and heading toward town, I was thinking of how much time I had left (today was Saturday), coupled with the long hike we would have to go on to get into the area a different way. I started looking on my phone for local archery shops, but they were all closed on Sunday. We found a room in town and kept looking for shops and leaving messages to see if anyone would open up on Sunday for us. My buddy’s wife was helping look online back in Denver for us. One of my other friends suggested Red Rocks Archery in Grand Junction, CO and Cabela’s.

The next day we waited until 10 for the local sporting goods shop to open, but they didn’t work on bows and suggested the local shop, which wouldn’t open until Monday (today was Sunday). My buddy’s wife found a gun shop in Grand Junction and they had an archery department and an apparent good bow technician. So, we started heading there as they opened at noon. At noon on the way over, I called them and they did have an archery tech – but he doesn’t work until Tuesday – just my luck.

I called Cabela’s and their bow shop was open so we headed there. Upon arrival the archery tech got my sting on in under a minute after I told him I needed to get back ASAP for this mountain goat hunt. He was anxious to get my bow back to normal. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that my cable slide had come off during the dry fire, and he was looking in the shop for one but couldn’t find one. Great, we drove out here for nothing, I thought in my head. Then I asked if we could look in the showroom. Luckily we found a PSE slide that fit my 10 yr old PSE X-Force and I was in business. I shot a few rounds and everything looked great.

I asked how much for the repairs/parts, and the guy didn’t charge me a thing. Cabela’s really saved my bacon on this hunt, as I wanted to get back into the hunting area ASAP as we were to be socked in for 4 or more days with continues rain and snow mix starting Wednesday per the weather prediction. So, thanks again to Cabela’s for this unexpected exceptional service.

I wanted to give a shout out to the owner of Red Rocks archery as well. My buddy’s wife left a message with him and I was able to talk to him on Sunday driving up to Grand Junction. He said if Cabela’s doesn’t work out, that he would lend me one of his personal bows, as he knew the nature of obtaining a goat tag. I fortunately didn’t need to call him, but left him a message thanking him for his very gracious offer nonetheless.

 

[Baby Huey]

We got another hotel, repacked our packs and got to the new trailhead the next morning at 11am. We loaded up anticipating to stay until Sunday. Another grueling all uphill hike into goat country was upon us this Monday. Three hours into the hike, we saw two billies off to our right above timberline. I was surprised and excited, as everyone that we spoke to on the trail said we would have to hike in 8 miles and almost up 2000’ and over the back bowl of the basin to find goats that people have been seeing.

As we arrived at our campsite (about 6 miles in), a father/son hunting pair walked near us on the trail and we discussed the hunting opportunities. They also saw those same 2 goats but said they were inaccessible with the terrain they were in. I was certainly planning to go after them, as this valley was empty of goats, where we normally had found them in bunches. I believed that I could make a route up this mountain to those goats.

The next day I found the two goats feeding at tree line in that inaccessible spot. I took photos with the camera for future reference on my ascent. I devised a way up, where I would have manageable vertical terrain (hopefully) to deal with. I did have to put the bow in front of me at times and muscle my way up the hillside. It was bad enough that I thought of my kids and wife a lot and I didn’t want to leave them without a dad/husband, so I was careful with my route and steps.

I thought the goats would head over the saddle and hole up on the cliff faces beyond the saddle to be protected during the day. So my plan was to go up through the pine trees on the left and then glass intently before I went across the avalanche chute. I would end up going through the willows, plenty of rocks and steep terrain. Then, I navigated the open grass/willow area and slipped into the trees on the other side to make my way up towards the saddle. My plan was to get near the saddle in order to glass and see where the goats were at so that I could compile a plan.

As I worked my way into the trees below the saddle, I started to think that the goats could be anywhere now, rather than where I originally thought they would be. So I nocked an arrow and started still hunting up the edge. About 200 yds later I took a step up and I could see black horns and a white face looking down at the movement I just made in my ascent. I attached the release to the D loop and looked up. The goat was on his feet and staring at me strait on, with a rock between us. He moved to my left and two small pine trees were in the way. I had a very limited window to make a shot, so I needed to make it count, since these were the only goats we had seen in this expansive valley. I had about a 2’-3’ window opening to make the shot on a moving goat. As he moved to his right, I drew back. When he cleared the two pines, I had the pins on him and let the arrow fly the 25yds to him. I heard a distinct hit and the goat took off and out of sight in a couple of seconds. As I moved up to the top where the goat was standing, I heard rocks falling just beyond where I was standing.

I followed where I thought the goat went, and immediately found the other goat bed (that I assume the other billy was in – but I never saw this other goat) – and blood. As I followed the blood trail, the blood was prevalent and easy to follow. I trailed the hit goat to the escape route that went down the trail about 15 yards and then it went back up the steep incline, but in that small valley in the avalanche chute, the blood pools were big and then the blood trail went down the rock chute. As I turned the corner and looked down, I saw this great goat expired and on his back. He died in about 12 seconds, just before 11am.

I was thankful for being part of the natural cycle of life and having the opportunity many may not experience - to hunt this magnificent animal. All the hard work and perseverance through injuries and the dry fire mishap had all paid off. In July I had split my left Achilles tendon on a training hike up a 14’er and was afraid I would not make it on this mountain goat hunt, or the CO moose tag I also drew. I was in a walking boot for 5 weeks and only had 2 weeks to hopefully get my Achilles to a point that it would handle a couple of backpack trips. I was lucky in that after 3 days out of the walking boot the pain went away completely and I had no problems during either hunt – but I sure had that trepidation in the back of my head of it splitting or rupturing.

It took a great effort to turn him from his back to his stomach. The pitch was very steep and he kept wanting to slide down the hill. I had to tie paracord to his right horn and then to a rock and stack other rocks on top, in order to keep him from sliding down for some photos. My taxidermist prefers a single dorsal cut and to work around the legs and cut the bottom leg joint and leave it in the hide. That was the hardest dang processing work I have ever done. The steepness and the difficulty to keep from cutting the hide, made me ridden with frustration. Another paracord was tied to the other horn and more stacked rocks. I had to debone and cut bones away to work down to get room between the hide and legs. The weight of the stomach was pushing so hard against the rear quarters that I could barely get one out.

My buddy didn’t want to carry the extra weight of a radio and cell service was non-existent, so I did all I could by myself. I gave myself a time limit until 5 pm, in order to try and get down the treacherous slope before dark. So, I loaded up 80% of the meat and headed down the mountain at 5pm. At times I had to take off my pack and drop it, as it would be very unsafe for me to descend with 60lbs of goat meat and gear on my back.

When I got down 2 hours later, I didn’t see my buddy (who I had left at 8:30am and it was now 7pm). So I began to worry that he went up to find me. As I arrived at camp in the dark, he was not at camp, so now I am even more worried that he went up after me –and perhaps he got hurt. I unloaded the meat and headed down the trail with lots of clothes, umbrella and Woobie to stay on the trail all night if needed to wait and look for my buddy’s headlamp.

We found each other on the trail and were both relieved. He had borrowed a Sat phone to call the Calvary if I wasn’t back by midnight. After a few minutes of us sharing our concern (I never let on that I took a goat), we both calmed down. He asked if I saw any goats, and I said I only saw one and I got a picture of it. I handed the camera to him with me and the goat and after a bit of bewilderment, he was happy but miffed that I didn’t say anything earlier. I relived the hunt and apologized for not getting the entire goat down and that we would have to go up in the rain the next day on that steep slope.

That night it rained a lot. The next day it rained a lot. We packed up everything in the rain, put on our raingear and walked down the trail with our gear and goat meat to an area directly across from where we had to make the 2000’ ascent. I had purchased ¾” Kahtoola KTS crampons for this hunt, thinking I would be on slick vegetation and rock with all of the rain and possible snow we were to get. I anticipated that they would give me traction in the pine covered earth in the trees and in the grassy willow covered open slopes. I was extremely impressed with these KTS crampons, as they didn’t break with me and a 60lb wet goat hide and head on the way down (around 300lbs total on those spikes). It was rough and we had to tie paracord to the pack and lower it down on certain sections. Unfortunately it took us 5 hours to get down and we got cliffed out quite a bit.

When we got to our gear spot, I loaded up my pack with as much of our combined gear and equipment and my buddy took down the head/hide. The last 1.5 hours down was in the dark and the continuous rain. At the trailhead we set up the wet Hilleberg tent and slept. The next morning we woke to rain again and set out to get the goat meat and remainder of our gear. 3 hours up, load up and turn right back around for 3 hours back down.

My left hip near the socket hurt like heck since taking the goat hide and head down the previous day. So, on this last trip up and going back down, I was gritting my teeth and just getting through the pain to finish out these pack trips. Our feet and boots were saturated and I could feel my feet sliding in the boots. I ended up with 4 blisters despite taping up before heading out.

It was grueling as heck during the hunt and pack out, but man – that was a once-in-a-lifetime hunt. And, we went through a certain amount of difficulty that entailed, the mishaps, poor weather, physical pain and mental hurdles to get over. I am grateful for this hunt and very happy my buddy was there to share in the misery and exaltation. The goat was 67” from nose to start of the tail and horns measured 9 and 9 1/8”. Thanks for reading, here are some photos:

 

[Baby Huey]

 

[Baby Huey]

 

[Baby Huey]

Zoomed in on the two billies we saw on the 2nd hike in.


Willows are much taller than they look:


One billie near the saddle

 

[Baby Huey]

Where I shot from:


Where my arrow ended up:


Stick pointing to where the goat was bedded when I first saw him:


Stick pointing to where the goat was when I released my arrow:

 

[Baby Huey]

 

[Baby Huey]

 

[realunlucky]

Hell yea! Way to stay after it after all the adversity. Payed off big time. Great Billy and great hunt. Archery mountain goat success odds must be scary low but you my friend got it done. Congratulations

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[1jonmon]

I need friends like yours


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[norsepeak]

Awesome story and pics. An adventure of a lifetime.

 

[kodiakfly]

Wow, outstanding!

 

[colomark]

Great job. I believe I was standing next to you at the goat/sheep orientation when we were talking to the CPW biologists. If I remember correctly they were laughing because you had drawn a goat and moose tag and your wife was expecting a baby during season. You had a lot to juggle!


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[Baby Huey]

Thanks all.

colomark, yeah that was me. A lot of "poor planning" remarks were uttered from most everyone I told! It was stressful, but good problems to have. I didn't put in for my long sought after elk tag, as I figured I needed to be home for the baby, and then I drew those two tags! It all turned out well with a lot of family help.

 

[SLDMTN]

Nice work man, goat burgers are awesome!

 

[Trial153]

Fantastic!!!

 

[TreeWalking]

Great job. Thanks for posting the pictures. I used a rifle a few years back for a Colorado goat and felt I was at the wall several times as tried to get within 300 yards. You will have the memory of this hunt when your legs no longer can navigate the ridges. Very few hunters have taken a goat in CO with a bow. You are in an elite club.