Ed Hake of Big Sky, MT guided both Steve and I to the tops and backsides of "No Name Mountain" in Montana. I doubt there's a better Mountain Goat hunter in all of North America.The succes rate for getting drawn in this particular unit is about 3% and in four successive years my brother in-law, Ed's brother, myself and Ed all got drawn. I was Ed's 20th of 20 successful goat hunts.
I'm not sure there is any way a "flatlander" can ever get 100% prepared for a goat hunt. My brother in-law, Steve Tedford from ND was in his mid 30s when he got drawn first for a goat tag. He trained quite a bit, running and riding bikes in preparation for the altitudes we would be hunting. He had hunted this area many times before for elk when Ed Hake owned the outfitting business in this unit, so he had a pretty good idea what he was in for. He had opportunites for smaller billies the first few days, but after five days of hard hunting he finally decided to take a good average billy at a range of 450 yards. To make a long story short, the goat was wounded with the first shot, but managed to get up and move on far enough that the only option was to head down the mountain, across a valley and get closer.
We had allready hiked straight up, sometimes through hip deep snow to where Steve got his opportunity, which meant John Alexander and myself would head back down, gather all the horses and make a three mile ride down and around to get to where Steve and Ed would end up, hopefully with a filled tag. Things went as planned and when John and I got to the intended rendevous site, Steve had his goat, which was a good thing because both of us were pretty spent. I'm not sure Ed and John ever get too tired hunting Mountain Goats, they both love it and it does not matter that they are not packing a gun, they just love being up with the goats and I can't blame em. IF you want to go on a goat hunt....Get in SHAPE,! and carry a flat shooting caliber that you KNOW without a doubt that you can hit your target out to at least 500 yards.
I mentioned in my first blog about how quickly the weather can change. As an example: On Steve's hunt we took the horses as far as we could, tied em up and then headed out on a beautiful sunny day with little wind. We hiked a couple hours headed for the top of "No Name Mountain" and the weather slowly changed from blue skies to overcast. We kept heading up as the winds increased, the sky darkened and we took cover, when we could find it, to take a break. We were still headed up when Ed stated something like "It's time to get off this mountain or suffer the consequences of continueing up." But in reality it was more like "Lets get the %#**! out of here before we die." By the time we were headed down, the sleet was flying directly in our faces at about 50mph. Visibility was about 50 yards and just being able to see, with the sleet in our faces was almost impossible. We got off of course, but the moral of the story is "use your head and live to find your prey, another day,"
ALWAYS carry the required survival gear in your pack, don't assume your guide or buddies will have some for you. At a minimum, water, power bars, flashlight, small-light tarp and something to start a fire. Firesticks work great as do military surplus fire starter packs and for those who like to save a dime, it's true, petroleum jelly covered cotton balls work great. In addition, an emergency transponder like "Spot" is good insurance. I have one, it cost around $150 and I think I pay a bit over $100 a year to maintain the service. It has three modes, "I'm OK" that advises a couple people that you put into the system that you are fine, "Help," which advises those same people I'm OK, but maybe broke down, with your current GPS coordinates, and "911," which sends a signal to the national system that you need immediate help. It's well worth the piece of mind in the outback country.
Live well, hunt hard
Ron
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