Scouting update. Trip #3
Got another chance to get into the mountains again.
Changed my tactics a little. decide to try to cover more country by staying a bit further away. Packed onto a ridge between two remote basins.
No trails leading into this particular area. Only had to hike in 4.5 mi but it was bushwhacking the whole way. Took 4 hours to cover the 4.5 mi and 2500 vertical feet. PITA! need to find a better route.
So I got up on the ridge and found a great spot for a camp. Future Goat base camp.
Got in here Sat. mid day and set up camp and went to glassing. over the course of the afternoon and evening saw 9 goats.
This is pretty much the entire area that we could glass from our spot. (my brother in-law tagged along this trip)
Saturday night the wind picked up as the NOAA forecast had predicted and Sunday morning it was windy and cold. Started glassing
and started spotting the goats from the evening before plus a few more. We went from 9 the night before to 16 on Sunday morning...
Glassed for a few hours, had 6 bulls in the little pocket basin on the right. No bugleing and no cows.
Had pretty crappy weather all morning with the wind and some low clouds and lite rain. Finally broke up about 10.00.
We decided to hike up to the saddle on the far right of the above pic and take a look into another small side basin off the next main drainage over to the east.
Got up to the saddle and had gale force winds and sleet/snow and pour visibility. That blew over pretty quick. Started glassing and picked up 11 goats right away. One large group of nanny's with some 1 1/2 olds and a couple 2 1/2's one kid. Had 3 big mature nanny's in the group.
Looked to be a lone young billy in the basin off away from the big group.
Whatched them for awhile until they dropped off the edge of the lower part of the basin out of sight.
headed back to camp to finish off the day.
Spotted 27 goats total on Sunday. All the goats were in the main basin or along the upper part of the ridge on the left except the 11 in the other basin. A few probable billy's ( singles, and a pair) one for sure billy and a big one at that. We saw him all three days and he stayed with in a 100 yd area. In the most inaccessible spot too!
If you look at the above pic of the area that we could glass. The peak on the right in the foreground. There's a peak in the background that is the tallest peak in the area just shy of 14k. It has two small bumps going down the ridge line to the left. He stayed on the face between those two bumps about a 100 yds from the top the whole weekend.
Had the probable pair of billy's on the same peak a little lower and closer to us and at one point I could get all three in my scope if I zoomed out all the way out and he still appeared to way larger than the other two even being farther away. At one point I could make out his gonads when he was facing straight away. But he's un huntable anywhere on that peak imo. I want to kill a nice goat but I'm not risking my life to do it.
It was a great goat scouting trip. Saw lots of goats and figured out a few logistic things. Have a great jumping off camp spot for opening day.
I learned that I'm not going to be able to be as selective as I thought I would be. The specific location of the goats is going to determine which one I can go after. I think I can get close to some of the bigger nanny's but I'm not sure that big billy will come off that peak. I'll do my best but time will tell.
I'm amazed at how a white goat can appear and disappear. We went from 9 goats Saturday evening to 16 Sunday to 11 on Monday morning?
I also learned that they move around a lot. Not sure if it was the wind that made them move or if that is just normal?
The early season goat hunt started today. When we came out Monday mid day, not one vehicle parked at the end of a dead end road. It's a pretty rough road and I would expect if someone was hunting there, they would at least have a base camp at the end. That's a good sign that none of the first season guys are hunting the area. At least they're not starting there hunts there anyway. Pretty tough area to get into which should give me an advantage and more goats to choose from, I hope.
To cap off a great weekend. We saw a bunch of elk and two huge bull moose!
and this one. Theese bulls were in two seperate drainages 5mi apart.
also saw a cow and calf too.
16 days until I start my hunt. I cant wait! Looks like timing is going to work out and my brother in-law is going to be able to tag along for the first four days. Gonna try to take advantage of the extra help and get it done..
Take care,
BGG