My friend Mike Stitzel and I had climbed most of the morning, and our legs were feeling it. Now we were bumping along the top of the mountain, playing "sneak and peek" as we peered over the edge from time to time in search of the bedded billies we'd spotted earlier. When we found one of them, he was basking in a sunbeam without a care in the world.
I had dumped my backpack and begun the stalk when, for no apparent reason, the billy got out of his bed and moved slowly around the crest of the mountain.
Uh oh! I followed on hands and knees as fast as I could to the edge and carefully peeked over. There he was, downhill about 50 yards away. I quickly nocked an arrow, settled the sight pin low on his chest and released. As the billy rounded the corner, in something of a panic I signaled Mike to follow. He simply smiled and pointed down below his perch, aimed his .300 magnum at a spot I could not see and touched it off.
Oh, brother ... I got up and ran, hoping to spot what I was sure was the magnificent goat I'd just missed high-tailing it up and over the glacier. Instead I found him piled up, not far from where I last saw him. Mike's bullet had also found its mark. Just like that, we had two magnificent Alaska billies to admire.
As we caped them out and boned the meat, we took a few seconds to admire the view. Below us stretched a vast glacier; our camp was at the base of the mountain, at the glacier's edge.
Packing these two back to camp was no easy task. Both were big-bodied critters, each weighing more than 250 pounds, and our packs weighed somewhere close to 100 pounds each as we trudged first up, then down the ridge several hours to camp.
That's mountain-goat hunting for you. It's a tough game that involves a lot of physical exertion and the ability to negotiate some of the state's roughest terrain.
Generally, finding the goats isn't the hard part, as it is in moose hunting, for example. It is being able to make the climb, negotiating the cliffs and glaciers, being patient enough to let the billy get into a favorable spot on the mountain, making the shot, then packing meat, cape, horns -- and yourself -- safely back down the slope. Yet the animal itself, the country in which it lives and the many variables involved in hunting him make mountain goat hunting extra special.
MOUNTAIN GOATS: WHAT ARE THEY?
The mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus americanus) is an enigma. It's not a true goat at all but a member of the antelope family that includes the chamois of Europe and goral and serow of Asia Minor. It lives where no other animal would, or even could, fattening up where other animals would find the pickings slim. Its toughness is legendary, while its sagacity and beauty place high atop many a hunter's wish list.
Mountain goats have a unique, readily identifiable appearance with a blunt, rather squarish body and the humped, muscular shoulders of a weight lifter that are almost out of proportion to the rest of its body. A narrow head features pointy ears and a black nose. Goats are 60 to 70 inches in length and 35 to 45 inches high at the shoulder. Billies are generally larger than the nannies, the larger males weighing upward of 300 pounds.
The horns are relatively short, slender, and shiny black in color, rising up off the forehead and sweeping back in a graceful, parabolic curve. Mature goats will have horns measuring between 9 and 12 ½ inches in length, with nannies tending to have longer but more slender horns than billies. The longest set of horns ever recorded were a nanny's 12-inchers.
In terms of trophy quality, any mountain goat with relatively heavy horns (more than 5 inches around at the bases) measuring more than 9 inches in length is a good one, those over 9 inches are very good, with anything measuring over 10 inches exceptional. The all-white coat of a mountain goat is soft as fluff, composed of an almost downy underlayer of very fine fur and a longer outer layer of guard hairs.
Goats also have a distinctive "beard" under their chins -- in reality an extension of their neck hairs -- more prominent on billies than nannies. Goats shed their coats during the hot weather of summer. It reaches its maximum length in November and December.
WHEN TO HUNT
In most areas, mountain goat seasons are extremely long, allowing you great flexibility in your schedule. Early hunts in August and September generally favor the hunter with pleasant weather and long days that seem to never end, but you will have to deal with the occasional gully-washer and, at times, strong winds. Late September and October hunts feature turning leaves, cooler temperatures and the chance of some snow. When goat seasons stretch into November and early December, as they do in parts of Alaska, you can be assured of stretches of atrocious weather, lots of snow and cold temperatures.
WHERE TO HUNT
Coastal Alaska has a high mountain goat population. From the Southeast panhandle, including Baranof Island, north through Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula, then on to Kodiak Island, hunting can be excellent. In many areas goat hunting is conducted via registration permit, whereby hunters check in at an Alaska Department of Fish and Game office and obtain a free permit that must be returned when they are done hunting, regardless of whether or not they shoot a goat. Then once a specified number of goats have been harvested, hunting is closed in that area. In some areas goat hunting is conducted under special draw permits that must be applied for in May.
HOW TO HUNT
Generally speaking, goat hunters either take a small airplane into the alpine country, set up camp, then hike and glass for goats, or use a boat to cruise the inlet waterways as they glass for goats before climbing up to them. In some cases you can access good goat country off the road system.
Mountain goats are best approached from above, a direction from which danger rarely if ever comes after them. If you can climb above them, you have an excellent chance at getting close enough for a shot. You must always monitor the wind, though, because if they smell you they will leave the area. And, of course, you must stay out of sight of their excellent eyes.
Because goats often live in nasty, cliff-filled terrain, you must also take care to never shoot a goat that will fall into a place that makes recovery downright dangerous, if not impossible. If you are patient, they will generally move into an accessible area. Only a fool shoots a goat in a dangerous place.
WEATHER: PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1
When hunting goats, weather can either be your best friend or worst enemy. Climbing into goat country is really pretty enjoyable, even when you're battling alder thickets and devil's club patches, if the sun's shining and the winds are light. But when the rain, fog and snow come, your patience will be tested.
There's not much to do on these low-visibility days except stick close to camp, sip hot coffee or tea and wait.
One time I was goat hunting in Southeast during what began as a beautiful week of sunshine and warm temperatures. I climbed 3,500 feet up the mountain from the beach into good goat country and was happy as could be. But the next morning I awoke to ground fog and a heavy drizzle, which soon turned into some serious rain.
Three days later -- I only left the tent during this time to answer Mother Nature's call -- it stopped for a day, and I took advantage of it by going out and shooting a nice billy. Then the rain and fog returned, and I was stuck in my tent for two more days before visibility increased enough so that I felt safe about going down the mountain once again.
You have to always be cognizant of the weather and careful not to get caught out away from camp when it turns wicked.
(Bob Robb is a free-lance writer and hunter who lives in Chugiak.)
