CANADA: Northern British Columbia Goat & Moose Hunt

[Chago]

-Hey guys, I have been home for a few weeks now. But just didn't get a chance to do this write up. So here we go. As you all know, the stuffy nose heard around the world has really messed with any travel plans. I was scheduled to meet up with Bossie from Limpopo Big Game Safaris back in May, which obviously got pushed to July, then August, then 2021. So back in May when we realized August was not going to happen, I went searching for some local (Canadian) hunts. Fortunately for me there were some good deals to be had considering a large portion of the Canadian hunting industry is non residents. So with all the rescheduling of hunts it opened up a lot of room. I ended up booking with Last Frontier Outfitting and it was an adventure to say the least. This particular region is known amongst hardcore mountain hunters as a extremely rugged and difficult area (I didn't know that going into this I was ok with a more soft version lol) And man it was everything it was rumored to be... and then some.

It all started with a 2 hour float plane flight into the bush. Now I travel a lot for work so am used to being in the air. A typical year for me is 80-100 flights in a single year. I have been on my fair share of private planes as well, but typically bigger then a beaver etc which is like 8 people. Well we were greeted with a whopping 1953 Cesna C-180. For those of you who don't know what that is..... basically a wheel barrow with wings on it lol. Being me and the guide/pilot were both 6'3 - 6'4" and my hunting buddy in the back was 6'0. You can say we were.... cozy for 2 hours.

But as much as I was clinching for dear life the entire flight, it was actually one of the most extraordinary sites I have ever seen in my work and hunting travels. I think I practically recorded or took pictures the entire time, every time you turned your head you saw something else you wanted to show others. My head was on a swivel the entire time. You immediately realize how small you really are when you fly over these massive mountains.

But after the flight, we landed in an absolutely awesome camp on a stunning lake. I looked out onto the water and immediately realized how remote we were. We flew into a tiny rural airport, drove 2 hours to the middle of nowhere, then flew 2 hours to rural middle of no where. The water didn't even look real how still it was, almost like it was frozen. Not a single sound was being made in those mountains other then the noise of my own breath and heart beat was making. It was the most bizarre feeling I have ever had on a hunting trip. Nothing like any other place I have gone to in the past. Your depth perception is unbelievably inaccurate when out there. I was using my laser binos to check everything, as the sheer size of these mountains make everything else look so small. I was seeing game immediately after arriving thinking ohhh that's only a few hundred yards to only laser them and see they are over a km away it was just crazy.

Oh but wait.... we still were not far enough into the middle of nowhere yet. Our guide let us know that we need to leave the comforts of this big city of a camp we had and head 8 hours on horseback deeper into the mountains..... to be continued

 

[Chago]

So as promised.... Horses. Now I am a country boy myself. Was raised around farm animals etc and have had a fair share of riding in my life. But 8 hours on a mountain horse (ie massive animal not your usual quarter horse) riding up and down steep cliffs, through water, the sound of horse shoes hitting and sliding on rocks..... it gets old fast hahah. The way in was a little easier as you are again just enjoying the views. But your knees really start to hurt. Ohh and your butt basically needs surgery lol. But as the saying goes, no pain, no gain. It was well worth the pain and totally added to the adventure. And I am not gonna lie, seeing my rifle go in the horse scabbard really made me wish I brought my Winchester 1873 with hardened steel, just for visual effect. My long range rifle and scope just didn't seem to look as cool hahah.

Now this is where things start to get interesting. So as some of you know, Mountain Goats is considered one of NA most difficult hunts. And it is not difficult because they are hard to find, just the opposite actually. Our entire 8 hour ride we were spotting them in the mountains. The challenge is getting to them. You see those nice grassy fields on the lower portion of the mountain..... ya they don't live there. You see that peak that has certain death in 340 degrees around it.... ya that is his hang out. After this hunt was over, every time I see a picture of a hunter and his goat and I see vegetation. I am like the hell with you, as where I got my goat.... there wasn't even moss never mind grasses. But anyhow enough of my complaining I said this is where it starts to get interesting.

We are quite literally 7.5 hours into our ride. And our guide who is leading the herd keeps going to his glass. More so then he usually did along the ride. All of a sudden he forces the whole group to stop as he wants a closer look. He still hasn't said anything to us. We wait patiently, until he finally turns around and is like.... which one of you is shooting first. My buddy and I agreed before the trip since I am hunting goat and moose, and he was only goat. He got first goat. So he was up to the plate. The guide told us this goat is too big, and too low to just ride by. Man oh man later in this trip I realized how important that "too low" comment was. So any how its time to get off the horses and make our first hike up this mountain.

VID_20200901_162636.mp4 | Powered by Box

amico.box.com

We drop a lot of gear as we still have not reached camp. So our packs were still full of sleeping gear, extra clothes etc. So we lightened them up and started our way up. Ohh and after 7.5 hours of your legs not moving too much, and now you want to climb a vertical wall.... ya that's no bueno. My knees were killing me and my hamstring kept cramping the second I got off the horse. I kept stretching it out and getting some water in me and we started our hike up. My hearts already racing and I am not even the shooter, and we have like 2 km to go lol.

So I "trained" for this hunt, so I thought. Hiking 6-8km a few times a week carrying a heavy pack. Unfortunately on pretty flat ground, some light hills etc. I did tons of HIIT training on my lower body to build muscle needed for the mountains. I was actually really disciplined from May to September when I went on the hunt. So 4 months of being real strict on diet and exercise ..... ya that all went out the window the first steep slope. Between the altitude and those ridiculously steep slopes, you are burning way more energy then you can imagine. And its not just your legs, you are grabbing onto branches to try pulling yourself up, on boulders etc. So your whole body is working hard. If you want to ruin your goat hunt, don't come in shape. Or find a guide who has nice horse trails taking you right to them, because this was not that at all. But as we got near the end of the vegetation line and the big boulders began is where we spotted him again. Again this is considered "really low". I turned around and looked back and saw the horses who looked like ants.... I really started to think, what the F%$& is considered high??? oh boy more on that later.

We got within 160 yards and my friend pulled out his rifle...... oh wait... rewind the tape. When we got off the horses, my friend pulled his Tikka out of the scabbard and noticed his windage turret was literally just spinning with no clicks.... what a way to start the hunt....... So he had to take my fierce firearm. Fast forward, we get to 160 yards. The guide gives him the green light. He took the shot and hit him on the shoulder. 212 grain ELD X just dirt napped him and in typically goat hunting fashion. The goat rolled down a hundred yards or so. We approached this goat and the guide immediately said before we even taped the goat. This is a Booner. And sure enough, his green score left him room to spare. 10 1/4" horns, the guide said it was top 2 or 3 goats he has ever taken.

 

[5shot]

Great read so far...waiting for the rest of the story.

 

[Chago]

Ok so after 90 mins of climbing and we shoot a booner. Hell goat hunting is easy.... surely I will be done tomorrow morning right? In a nice grassy area like my buddy right??? hahah... NO!!!

So first let me show you our camp that we set up in the dark after getting my buddies goat.

We stayed in a nice bungalow with gorgeous views.

It was a spacious open concept, with 3 bedrooms.

Nice ensuite bathroom with Granite Counter tops

Really close to all of the local amenities

And a great yard for the pets and kids to play

 

[Chago]

The next 4 days made me wonder why I paid money for this.... It was cold, wet, windy all the time. Tent life isn't exactly awesome in that sort of climate. And to top it off you are doing 14-16km (8.5-10miles) per day and typically (garmin tracked) over 3500m (12000ft) of vertical climbing per day. On the roughest, most dangerous hell I have ever seen. My Crispi boots were brand new before the trip, did just some breaking in with them. They held together great for this trip and performed amazingly.... but they took a beating. My gaiters are ripped, gloves tore on almost every finger tip from scaling boulders, climbing rocks etc. It was brutal to say the least. Every step could literally have been your last and I am not adding any drama what so ever to that statement. Once you got above the vegetation line where it seems we spent almost all of our days. You went from boulders roughly the size of a watermelon, to then boulders the size of a small car, back to the watermelons, then all of a sudden you need to cross what I called the death sand. Which the locals seem to call it scree. Ie very fine loose stones and sand which typically like to inhabit areas of extreme steep slopes and have a max load bearing of about 2oz. So when 240lbs steps on it, it normally shifts about 12-16" to collect enough to actually support your weight. So literally the bigger you are the harder you fall in this stuff. So keeping your balance is key here as falling on your but will send you to a guaranteed slide that would easily surpass any human land speed records and certain death lol.

So people spend a lot of money to summit mountains, they climb just one mountain. I had to climb the one, then glass. Find goats, go all the way to that mountain, climb back up. Get there 90 mins later. Oh he decided he wanted to go to his buddies house so we can't find him now. So we glass there, oh wait there's his buddy. 2 hour hike, oh wait were on top and if you look down its a 88 degree slope, or what us normal people call a cliff. And he is somewhere hiding under a rock so unless you have a large mirror you can't see what is below you. And rinse repeat. To give you perspective I lost 14lbs on this trip and I assure you it wasn't from the later part of the trip, it was from these days. We were spending most of our days with our heads in the clouds... literally.

VID_20200901_162636.mp4 | Powered by Box

amico.box.com

VID_20200901_162636.mp4 | Powered by Box

amico.box.com

 

[Chago]

At no point did I mention thus far, that my guide is half goat. He runs up and down these mountains like its nothing. So he decided we should go to the very top of the top. A mountain they named Mongolia. They named it such as it is almost totally bare of any vegetation, very rocky and steep and the highest peak. He said the goats love it there. We got to top of this mountain and we saw a stack of rocks... apparently this is a thing for mountain climbers. So summit a mountain and add there rock to the pile. This was incredibly high and a treacherous mountain. In the panorama shot you'll see me keeled over wondering what I was thinking when I signed up for this.

Well we got our warm layers on and sat up here and started glassing. We spent about a hour which was well deserved rest for my legs. And we literally formulated a plan where we would send our horse wrangler back and bring them around the mountain. As we would continue down the other way to see what we see on that side. The wrangler didn't even get 100 yards from us. When all of a sudden a goat pops up who wanted to probably come put his rock on the stack , I don't what the hell else he would want to be up here lol. He was less than a 100 yards. My guide immediately noticed a weird size difference between his horns. Which is incredibly rare with goats unless one broke. But this guys clearly didn't break it was just one was noticeably smaller. He literally asked me if I wanted to shoot this goat or look for another that didn't have that difference. For me personally I didn't even think about it. I raised my rifle and took the shot. The amount of work I put into this and effort that was required. The pain in my body. And the "non typicalness" coming from a boy who grew up white tail hunting. I thought he was perfect. As much as I bitched and moaned. It was a epic experience that I will 100% want to do again.

 

[Mort Hill]

Great account, and great goat! I am a large man myself, and have always wanted to goat hunt but will need ample time to get back into younger shape and endurance. Your pics have confirmed this is not a hunt to be ventured into lightly. Being in the same position as you were on that mountain, the guide would have no more gotten the words “Do you...” and I would have been shooting! Awesome trip and congrats on both of your success.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

What a great experience! Congratulations on the well earned goat.

 

[Chago]

Well the story does not end here. We enjoyed a well deserved day of rest in camp. Guide did some work on re shoeing some horses etc. Prepared our trophies and our meat. And rested those feet. And snuck in a little contraband. And of course the contraband added some childish behavior lol

We awoke in the morning and made our way all the way back to the main camp. Which was nice to have a wood cabin with a stove to finally dry our bones and our gear. To begin our moose hunt.

 

[Chago]

So we had about 5 days left to hunt moose. The entire trip was cold, snowy mornings and rainy afternoons. We got down the mountain, we had one day of cold moose hunting weather. Which turned up a couple young bulls and a cow, so we got plenty of good action. But just not what we were looking for.

Then... the worst possible thing that could happen during the pre rut. CRAZY HOT WEATHER. I mean like 28-30 Celsius. Right through until the day we left. We called, scraped, did everything. All day hunts. And we could not find a moose. That far north, in September it is normally below freezing every night and just above during the day. So moose already have their winter coats on. So temps that high they normally don't even experience in the dead of summer. So the moose did not move at all.

But that is hunting and that is how it goes. Like they always say, that's why they call it hunting and not shooting. Here are some more beautiful pics of our trip.

So we had a neighbor who kept trespassing. We got a good look at him one day, like 80 yards standing straight up. You can saw I was glad we were in a boat and there was about 80 yards of water between us hahah

A lake we did a lot of fishing on, and some moose hunting

This was the one they called "Mongolia" We were literally sitting on the peak when we shot my goat.

Moose hunting was a little more relaxing then the goats, my buddy kept sleeping. So I made sure to make him pay for sleeping on the job.

This was my favorite moose spot. We were nice and high and had a great vantage point of the water. Moose tracks littered the area, but looks like only in the evening when it was slightly cooler. We figured water was our only hope hunting in that heat.

 

[Rick Cox]

What a great hunt and entertaining account! Thanks for the time putting this together.
BTW you can find my account of a hunt in BC a few weeks ago in this year in 'Hunt reports'.
As I wás writing this note your moose hunt report was added. Nice! Too bad it wasn't cooler.

 

[Rick Cox]

What a great hunt and entertaining account! Thanks for the time putting this together.
BTW you can find my account of a hunt in BC a few weeks ago in this year in 'Hunt reports'.
As I wás writing this note your moose hunt report was added. Nice! Too bad it wasn't cooler.

I have to learn how to intersperse my photos with the text. Couldn't manage it in my last hunt account.

 

[AnakKampuang]

Great read, Incredible photos too! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chago]

Great account, and great goat! I am a large man myself, and have always wanted to goat hunt but will need ample time to get back into younger shape and endurance. Your pics have confirmed this is not a hunt to be ventured into lightly. Being in the same position as you were on that mountain, the guide would have no more gotten the words “Do you...” and I would have been shooting! Awesome trip and congrats on both of your success.

I have heard of a lot of guys climbing the first mountain after seeing a goat from the valley and they got their goat. But I've also heard of guys shooting booner deer on opening day on public land with zero scouting. I mean sometimes it just goes your way. But being in shape will come in handy if it doesn't go that way. Now you don't need to be in some college athlete shape or anything. Truth is you will just be moving a little slower. It's more the psychological toughness that matters. Becasue the pace is normally very slow as it's very steep and dangerous. So you take your time. Take breaks to catch your breath etc. But getting your muscles in shape in more important as it helps your recovery day to day and helps you cope with some of the muscle pain etc. Don't wait, you won't get younger. Just book it and it will give you a solid excuse to really take your fitness seriously. Which will only do you good anyways. Good gear is a huge help too.

 

[gillettehunter]

Congrats on your goat. Lot of work to get him. You'll remember him a long time. Congrats.
Bruce