MOUNTAIN GOAT UPDATE (pictures)

6mm Remington

Ammo Smith
Feb 27, 2006
5,271
693
So I've been up Kootenai Creek scouting a few times now and I've put on some miles. I've been keeping track with the GPS so I can tally up how far I've gone and so I know distances to certain points. I made it back to North Kootenai Lake on September 4 when it was hotter than blazes. I couldn't find anyone to go with me so I just went by myself. I think I saw one goat in about 3 miles from the trailhead, but that was it. The lake was 13 miles from the trailhead according to my GPS! In looking at the topo map, it looked like it might be about 9.5, but those are only rough guesses and you don't get all the twists and turns involved. Damn you topo-map!

I spent the night and when I woke up it had gotten down to about 30 degrees as the tent was covered with frost. I started at 3200 feet and the lake sits at 6500 with the last 1500 coming in about the last 4 miles with most of it in about 1 mile of horizontal distance I would guess. I was going to stay one more night, but after glassing and looking around in the area for about 4 hours, I decided to come back out as I wasn't feeling real super. I never saw a single goat at the lake or near the lake. I started not feeling so great and I think I caught a stomach bug or something as I was throwing up. I never made it to the middle or south lakes to check them out, but was able to glass a large area at the north lake and find a nice :mrgreen: campsite for later on. I was not planning on coming back in that far until about October 10 hopefully on horseback! I wanted the goats to hair up, and it also was so hot that it would have been vertually impossible to keep the meat from spoiling and I sure didn't want to waste an animal just so I could say I shot one. The huckleberries at the lake were just getting ripe, but only 6 miles down the trail they were at the end of their season on September 4th. There were still some thimbleberries too which were great to munh on as I hiked in. My pack weighed in the neiborhood of 50 pounds and I felt it coming out as I stated, was not feeling so great. I hit the truck at 9:30 PM the second day. It was beautiful country and I still enjoyed it.

Miles tally so far with previous scouting trips added to the September two day trip of 27 (1 hiking around at the lake) miles equals, 49 miles so far. October 10th trip and then going in today for a few miles puts my total miles now with most of it being on foot at 81 miles.

Some pictures of the summer and early fall scouting trips.
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Pretty creek I crossed.
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Camp at the lake on the south end.
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North Kootenai Lake
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Beautiful!
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Nice site for later in October.
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So now we fast forward to October 10. The weather was in the mid-60's or cooler which was perfect for our ride in. It was not without adventure though as at about mm-3 we had a wreck with the horses. Jeff got banged up a bit, but no-one was seriously hurt. We only broke 1 egg in the egg carton! The horses were really terrific, but one spooked which in turn spooked another and they fed off each other. Got back on the trail and made it to the north lake at about 5:00 PM. Got the tent set up and horses taken care of and a fire started to eat some dinner. I had nuked some potatoes at home and wrapped them in tin foil to be warmed on the fire. We had some nice steaks cooked on the open grill to go with the spuds. Pretty darn good stuff! The crew was a good buddy Jeff and his brother Jay who went with me. It was sure nice to have them along to share the experience with! We had checked the forecast and it was supposed to hold on Monday with rain on Tuesday and letting up on Wednesday, we hoped. We were scheduled to stay until Friday or Saturday. Things always change! :oops: :p

Camp at last!
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Jeff my tired wrangler friend!
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Never saw any goats the first evening, and the weather was a changing. :evil:
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The wind started blowing and it started raining buckets, and then snowing. We had to take shelter in the tents, but what the heck we were tired anyway. It blew and snowed all night, and then rained some more. It if would have stayed cold enough it's hard to say how much snow we would have accumulated, but it probably would have been quite a lot. Camp is looking a little colder and wetter now!
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Except for getting out to pee or take care of the horses, we never left the tent that night or the next day, or the next evening. We could only see maybe 100 yards at the maximum and it was blowing sideways. Just getting out for a bit made it hard to keep it dry inside the tent and it was quite a battle. Would have been nice to have a wall tent with a wood stove........
The weather did not look like it was going to change :twisted: and we started getting a little worried about coming out the first mile anyway if we ended up with 12 inches of snow or more, so we made the decision that it would probably be best to bugger out on Wednesday. The first mile or so was pretty tricky, rocky, and rough. We got a break in the weather for a couple hours and were able to get camp all loaded up and the horses taken care of and ready to go. More weather was coming in and it did not appear to be letting up so away we went. We could not glass as you could not see, except for the brief spell when we broke camp, and it was really treacherous getting around. A guy just doesn't want to go willy nilly up those slopes and cliffs without a course and a plan.

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Water water everywhere! :shock:
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Jeff leaving the lake.
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Mini-wreck on the way out, but nothing serious.
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Funny what just a few miles will do, but we also caught a break for a couple hours at the end so the ride was pleasant. Looking behind us to the Idaho border, it still looked nasty! I got home and took a couple days to dry everything and put stuff away. I went out yesterday morning and drove to the trailhead a couple hours before light, but it was blowing and raining and was miserable. The clouds were right down on the ground and you couldn't see anything. Right near the trailhead I saw about 30 head of elk with 3 spikes and a small six point bull in the bunch which was neat! I called it quits and came home. Was hoping for better this morning, but again it was really bad! I still perservered and went about 3 miles up the trail hoping it might lift and stop raining, but noooooooooooooo ! :shock:

It was a long couple days staying in a tent, but I was serious when I told Jeff and Jay that I was having the time of my life. I've enjoyed the heck out of this, all except being sick with pneumonia for the last 3 weeks. Barely got well enough to go on this planned trip, but sure glad I went. I might never get to do that again! Hope you enjoy the photo's.
David
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Almost home!
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Thimbleberries during a nicer timej!
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David,

The mountains are lovely, but treacherous. Too bad that the weather was so inclement. On the other hand, you've had experiences in these expeditions that others can never imagine. You've seen areas that others can see only in a postcard, and then they have no idea what they have missed. Great pictures and a great account. This is why we call it hunting, and not shooting.
 
Man, those are some awesome pictures! What country that is. I am pretty jealous buddy of that area of the states. What a place to be able to get into and hunt. Scotty
 
Photo's from this morning. Man it was wet!! Just have to love those fall colors though! I could not see up the slopes to see where to climb and it was impossible to glass but I thought I might bump into a bear! No luck there either. Did see some wild turkeys when I got back to the truck. Look carefully in the second picture and you can see them. They weren't very big. Pretty cool though.

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Turkeys
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Awesome pictures buddy! Man, what a great place to live and hunt! Just the variety of game in your AO makes me yearn to live in that country. Scotty
 
Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Sorry that you had such bad luck with the weather up high. Really beautiful country in that area. I have been up there fishing years ago.
 
Beautiful pics! I am glad you shared, hope you get feeling better, and can do this hunt again.
 
Oh I haven't give up yet!! :shock: :shock: I have 6 weeks left to do this and I'll hit it hard!
Thanks for the support!
David
 
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