NVBighorn
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 9,458
Here?s a few pictures I took this past weekend on my son?s goat hunt in Idaho?s Sawtooth Wilderness. I hope the pictures work as I am using photobucket and am not sure if the links will work. Just didn't feel like resizing them.
Beautiful country. We backpacked in almost five miles. I knew I hadn't done enough to get in shape but had no idea how far from ?in shape? I was.
About three miles in the trail sort of goes to pot and you have to either take a VERY steep section of trail or take a rather circuitous route. At my son and his two buddies urging we opted for the circuitous route. They had been in scouting a couple times so they felt it would be better since our packs were heavy. It is better, but I was not expecting it to be so far out of the way. Or so steep. They kept urging me on and telling me ?only a little further?. When we finally topped out they pointed to the area in the center of this next photo and told me the lake we were going to was right there. All we had to do was ?pick our way across a small boulder field?.
Here is the small ?boulder field?.
Here my son is pointing back down the canyon towards where we had come from. The trucks were parked back about at the heavily timbered low hill just to the right of dead center.
Here are a couple shots of the little lake we were camped at. I just couldn't get enough pictures of it.
Here?s the little meadow we camped in. We nicknamed it the ?ghetto meadow?.
Here?s a nanny and kid we watched on the way in. They are truly amazing the way they run around on rocks I couldn't or wouldn't even stand on.
Next morning we spotted a nice billy in the area in the picture.
We stalked to within about 600 yards but decided he wasn?t what we were looking for yet.
It was fascinating watching him. I have never been around or hunted goats before so it was very educational.
After passing that billy up, we headed on up towards the top of the canyon. Might as well have been top of the world. Here?s the view looking back.
And here is a tiny lake we got to at over 9000 feet. The top of the ridge above would have actually been in the next hunting unit to the west. This lake had a lot of nice trout in it.
We hunted the afternoon on up to the top of a ridge to the south but just weren't seeing goats. So we decided to head back over into the canyon we had come up and spend the last couple hours of light glassing the huge basin. We found the same billy we had passed that morning but were getting a bit disappointed that we weren't seeing more. About 5:45 in the afternoon a new billy appeared on the skyline coming over from the adjacent hunt unit. You could see he was fairly long but looked younger than the billy we had been watching. About 6:00 o?clock my son?s friend spotted a goat come over the ridge in the next photo. He came over right through the lower pass with the reddish rock in it. As soon as we saw him it was obvious this was a better goat and an old one. We watched him for a few minutes and it became evident he was heading down into our drainage at a fairly good clip. Maybe heading for water in the lake below. We weren't sure but we figured if we hurried we might intercept him and get a better look. If he was good enough we might have time to get a shot. So we bailed off that mountain as fast as we could go. It was 6:20 pm by the time we made that decision. We knew the sun would be down by 7:30.
We got to a low saddle about 600 yards from where we thought he'd be and sure enough he was standing in the rockslide in the lower portion of the above picture. We decided I would stay there to watch with one of the other guys while my son and his brother-in-law made the final stalk. He still hadn't fully decided to shoot the goat. I took this picture through the spotting scope. We could see my son was getting ready to shoot so I just sat back and watched. At the first shot I could see he hit him pretty solid but maybe a little far back. There was a second shot almost immediately that looked almost exactly the same. The goat was acting hit but was walking forward. Not wanting the goat to go far he shot again but missed. About then the goat stopped on a rock and the fourth shot hit him solidly in the shoulder. The goat went down on his knees and I could see blood coming out of his nose. I knew it was over. He rolled a couple of times in the rock slide and came to rest upside down. I ran down as fast as I could and gave my son a big hug. The time was 6:53. 33 minutes start to finish.
After a lot of back slapping, picture taking and cheers the work began. We got him part way off the slide but could see we were quickly running out of light. We decided to skin him out and take the hide and head and come back the next day for the meat. We made it to the ghetto meadow at about 10:30 pm in pitch black. I was completely spent but after a good hot meal and a little snort I felt damn good. We sat by the fire for several hours enjoying the time.
The goat ended up being aged at 12 years old by Idaho Fish & Game. He had no teeth at all left in the front of his mouth. He?s right at 9 inches long and rough scored about 46. The score really didn't matter. We had a great time. I'm sure someone will have something to say about the blood inthe pictures but I honestly didn't have enough water with me to wash him off without leaving me short.
Here?s one of proud son with prouder dad.
Beautiful country. We backpacked in almost five miles. I knew I hadn't done enough to get in shape but had no idea how far from ?in shape? I was.
About three miles in the trail sort of goes to pot and you have to either take a VERY steep section of trail or take a rather circuitous route. At my son and his two buddies urging we opted for the circuitous route. They had been in scouting a couple times so they felt it would be better since our packs were heavy. It is better, but I was not expecting it to be so far out of the way. Or so steep. They kept urging me on and telling me ?only a little further?. When we finally topped out they pointed to the area in the center of this next photo and told me the lake we were going to was right there. All we had to do was ?pick our way across a small boulder field?.
Here is the small ?boulder field?.
Here my son is pointing back down the canyon towards where we had come from. The trucks were parked back about at the heavily timbered low hill just to the right of dead center.
Here are a couple shots of the little lake we were camped at. I just couldn't get enough pictures of it.
Here?s the little meadow we camped in. We nicknamed it the ?ghetto meadow?.
Here?s a nanny and kid we watched on the way in. They are truly amazing the way they run around on rocks I couldn't or wouldn't even stand on.
Next morning we spotted a nice billy in the area in the picture.
We stalked to within about 600 yards but decided he wasn?t what we were looking for yet.
It was fascinating watching him. I have never been around or hunted goats before so it was very educational.
After passing that billy up, we headed on up towards the top of the canyon. Might as well have been top of the world. Here?s the view looking back.
And here is a tiny lake we got to at over 9000 feet. The top of the ridge above would have actually been in the next hunting unit to the west. This lake had a lot of nice trout in it.
We hunted the afternoon on up to the top of a ridge to the south but just weren't seeing goats. So we decided to head back over into the canyon we had come up and spend the last couple hours of light glassing the huge basin. We found the same billy we had passed that morning but were getting a bit disappointed that we weren't seeing more. About 5:45 in the afternoon a new billy appeared on the skyline coming over from the adjacent hunt unit. You could see he was fairly long but looked younger than the billy we had been watching. About 6:00 o?clock my son?s friend spotted a goat come over the ridge in the next photo. He came over right through the lower pass with the reddish rock in it. As soon as we saw him it was obvious this was a better goat and an old one. We watched him for a few minutes and it became evident he was heading down into our drainage at a fairly good clip. Maybe heading for water in the lake below. We weren't sure but we figured if we hurried we might intercept him and get a better look. If he was good enough we might have time to get a shot. So we bailed off that mountain as fast as we could go. It was 6:20 pm by the time we made that decision. We knew the sun would be down by 7:30.
We got to a low saddle about 600 yards from where we thought he'd be and sure enough he was standing in the rockslide in the lower portion of the above picture. We decided I would stay there to watch with one of the other guys while my son and his brother-in-law made the final stalk. He still hadn't fully decided to shoot the goat. I took this picture through the spotting scope. We could see my son was getting ready to shoot so I just sat back and watched. At the first shot I could see he hit him pretty solid but maybe a little far back. There was a second shot almost immediately that looked almost exactly the same. The goat was acting hit but was walking forward. Not wanting the goat to go far he shot again but missed. About then the goat stopped on a rock and the fourth shot hit him solidly in the shoulder. The goat went down on his knees and I could see blood coming out of his nose. I knew it was over. He rolled a couple of times in the rock slide and came to rest upside down. I ran down as fast as I could and gave my son a big hug. The time was 6:53. 33 minutes start to finish.
After a lot of back slapping, picture taking and cheers the work began. We got him part way off the slide but could see we were quickly running out of light. We decided to skin him out and take the hide and head and come back the next day for the meat. We made it to the ghetto meadow at about 10:30 pm in pitch black. I was completely spent but after a good hot meal and a little snort I felt damn good. We sat by the fire for several hours enjoying the time.
The goat ended up being aged at 12 years old by Idaho Fish & Game. He had no teeth at all left in the front of his mouth. He?s right at 9 inches long and rough scored about 46. The score really didn't matter. We had a great time. I'm sure someone will have something to say about the blood inthe pictures but I honestly didn't have enough water with me to wash him off without leaving me short.
Here?s one of proud son with prouder dad.
. If I were to ever consider something like this again I would take a hard look at my equipment. I'd spend a few dollars on better lighter weight stuff. I spent a lot of time on my food list trying to keep it nutritious and keeping my calorie/protein level up while still trying to keep it light. I really didn't need all the food I had. Also didn't need some of the gear I was thinking I would but we got lucky and the weather was great. Had it been cold or wet it would have been different. I could have shaved a few pounds off my pack but the main thing I would change is to get in better shape. 
