A Little Mountain Goat Fun

[maverick2]

It's my "slow" time of year here for me, so I'm taking some time to sort thru pics from last year. Found some I thought were pretty cool from my hunting season, so thought I'd throw them up here to share. (As a backstory, I drew a mountain goat tag in the northernmost unit of Idaho this past season so most of my pics are from that endeavor after figuring out how to take pictures thru the spotter.) The area I chose to focus on was about an hour from where we spend some time, so I managed to log A LOT of time out there between scouting and hunting (my wife would probably argue that I greatly under-stated that... LOL). I'll post some of the better pics here as I get to them, progressing from mid-summer scouting and then thru the hunting season.

These first 6 shots show the terrain and what the goats typically looked like in July and August. Looking back at the terrain, I can honestly say I don't miss climbing up into that stuff. Most of the nannies (probably 80+%) had kids by their side at this point and some were still shedding out in July, while the billies were a little more slicked up. (Kind of a cool story about the two goats in the first two "animal" pics -- I got to watch these two for quite a while one morning and saw first-hand how short-tempered these critters can be. The smaller of the two (a young billie) crossed the line a bit by harrassing the older one, and I thought he was going to get killed right then and there as I watched -- the older goat beat, battered, and gored him over and over, and then stopped just short of pushing him off a cliff which would have been fatal. Found myself holding my breath thru the whole deal from a couple hundred yds away.) The nannies with kids were fun to watch -- might be the most protective mothers I've seen. The last pic shows a nannie (with kid in tow just outside the picture frame) walking/running/sliding past the billie that's lying down in the same photo. She and her kid were flying down that face of slab granite to get some distance from the billie who was showing a little too much interest for her liking.

 

[maverick2]

September ended up being a bust where the goats were concerned, so most of my pics were scenery. For about 5 weeks beginning in late Aug, every goat I had been watching vanished (along with all other game in the whole area). The entire drainage felt spooky whenever I went in -- started wondering if wolves or a cat had moved in and stirred things up. (In retrospect, that was probably the case as I ran into a big cat in mid October in the heart of where all the goats HAD been.) Got some cool hikes out of the deal though, and maintained conditioning.

 

[5shot]

Great pics!

 

[maverick2]

By the time October hit, weather had changed significantly and the drainage seemed to come alive again, albeit with most of the goats on the other side of the valley now and in a little tougher terrain to get onto (I'm guessing thanks to the cat). By early October the coats were starting to look quite a bit heavier, and the billies were getting easier to recognize from afar by all the mud and dirt on their hips. I wasn't too excited by what I was seeing early in the month, but by mid-October every goat I saw had thick, heavy coats so I started carrying a rifle on my outings, figuring I'd take a good billie when the next good opportunity presented itself. Next bunch of pics are all mid-October -- you can see how much the coats have grown out. (In the first pic showing 4 goats, these goats are a little more than 2000 yds away from me when I took the pic. Top goat is a kid, next in line is his nannie, third is a dry nannie, and the bottom goat is a billie. Second pic is the same billie by himself. I was too far away to see much detail, but this billie was significantly larger than the nannie, so I figured he might be a shooter. They were below me in elevation and headed my way, so I planned my stalk, and after 2 hrs of blood, sweat and tears, found myself in the middle of a cliff complex looking at the goats camped out 250 yds away, sleeping on a ledge I can't get to. I waited as long as I could before I needed to start working my way out, and they still hadn't budged so left them for another day. I could see the creek I needed to get to directly below me, so elected to drop straight down thru the cliffs rather than retrace my steps back out. That ended up being a bad call -- found a lot of dead ends in the cliffs that forced me to climb back up a long ways before I could finally get outside the cliffs and head back down. Thought for a while I was going to be spending the night out there, but made it to the creek just before it got too dark to see and made my way back out. Relatively painless lesson learned that day -- had I shot that billie I'd have cussed myself for the next 3 days getting him out...

Second pair of pics show a lone billie I found late one day hanging out in the pouring rain. (He was just to the right and above the water fall in the following pic, fading in and out of the fog.) Saw him a couple different times, always in the same area, always by himself and always late in the day during lousy weather so I never felt real comfortable making a chase on him by myself.

Fifth pic shows a nannie and kid resting on a ledge. I first saw this pair in July as I was figuring out my glassing route, and then continued to see them throughout the summer and fall within the same 500 yard radius. When I took this pic, the weather was miserable -- wind was howling and it couldn't decide whether to rain or snow, but that pair spent 3 hrs laying on that exposed ledge just lounging and watching the world go by. Those two made me smile every time I walked by, regardless of what the weather was doing and how beat I felt.

Last 4 pics are Oscar and Felix. Found this pair of billies in mid-October and they stayed on the same patch of real estate and together the rest of the fall -- saw them every day I went in. They earned their names from the Odd Couple -- Oscar was a filthy mess every time I saw him (this was the "cleanest" I found him -- looked like he spent part of each day rolling around in a mud bog) and Felix was the cleanest billie I found, staying that white and clean all fall. First time I saw them was in heavy fog. I could tell they were both billies, but didn't know how big. They were in a spot I could get to and retrieve from relatively safely, so went after them. Caught up to them at 180 yds and once close, was able to see that they were both relatively young billies so elected not to shoot one. Last of the four pics shows their hangout -- the trees and slab granite in the background.

 

[DrMike]

That is a tremendous photo essay! Excellent shots of the goats. I do love watching these magnificent creatures. Haven't spent near enough time in their presence, however. You certainly had a great adventure.

 

[elkhunternm]

Great pics Maverick2!

 

[SJB358]

Great pictures Maverick!!

 

[Elkman]

Outstanding pictures, I felt like i was right there. Thanks!

 

[salmonchaser]

Hard to get photos that show how rough the ground is. You did good.
Getting rim checked sucks. Been there too often


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sask boy]

Those are beautiful photographs .
Thank you for the post!!

Blessings,
Dan

 

[Blkram]

I have some photos to share from my 3 mtn goat hunts I will share when I get home. Away for a couple of archery shoots and business for over a week.

The pics shared above are great! Can't wait to get back out there and harvest one with my recurve! Hopefully this fall (late Sept/early Oct).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[maverick2]

During the last 2 weeks of October and first 2 weeks of November, things got pretty interesting. I'd seen enough goats by this time that I had a pretty good idea how to judge them, knew which parts of the drainage I could find the different billies in, and had located 3 old, gnarly billies that I pretty much set my sights on. The rut was underway now (which made for some pretty entertaining watching in itself) and I had scheduled a full week off work to do nothing but hunt goats. This also managed to coincide with the wettest 4-week window of weather in Idaho history. Aside from making hunts a little tougher physically and a helluva lot less comfortable, it really screwed up goat movements and my ability to spot game. It also turned the scenic little mountain creek in the bottom of the drainage into a Class 4 river that I was able to cross only during brief windows in the weather. Because of the pouring rain and ever-present fog level at the elevation I was hunting, I was able to take fewer photos, but here are the decent ones.

A few more scenery pics.

This is the only picture I've got of one of the better billies I'd found. He wasn't one of "the three" but I'd have gladly taken him -- he was a gorgeous animal. Watching him was killing me -- he showed up and hung around with Oscar and Felix for 2 straight days in a spot I'd been to a couple times and knew how to make an approach to, but there was no way to cross the "river" between him and I on those 2 days. (Started and ended each of those 2 days geared up with waders and ropes wandering up and down the valley bottom to find a somewhat safe place to cross, but no go.)

The rut was pretty darn fun to observe. It's the only time I saw the nannies absolutely ignore their kids, and watched 3 different billies display their best "moves" while trying to impress the ladies. This picture is Felix (higher of the two) as he's courting a nannie (the lower one). For being a bit of a pretty-boy, it was obvious to even me that he lacked the necessary charm to get to second base. (Oscar on the other hand, appeared to be quite the ladies man -- after rejecting Felix and sending him packing, this little lady spent the next 2 days cuddled up with Oscar on a romantic wind-scoured rock ledge made for 2. She stuck to Oscar like glue whenever I saw them, and pretty much let her kid roam at will.)

Next couple pics are random goats I found near and far during breaks in the weather. One thing I found interesting -- by November, less than 40% of the nannies I saw still had their kids. I was surprised by that level of loss and don't know if that's typical or a result of having a big cat in their midst during their fall.

 

[DrMike]

You certainly outdid yourself with the photos. Excellent shots of the goats. They are gorgeous creatures; I love watching them.

 

[maverick2]

Thanks for the comments all. Taking the photos served first and foremost a practicality when I was hunting -- I found when looking at a goat at 1000+ yds in the rain and fog it was tough to accurately assess what I was looking at thru the spotter a lot of the time, and whether it was something I wanted to stalk or not. By using a cell phone attachment though, it took about 10 seconds extra to throw my cell phone onto the ocular, snap a couple pictures, and then blow up the picture on my phone screen to better judge. I figured out later that some of those pics were pretty cool (and was glad to have them for memory sake) so thought I'd share them.