I booked this hunt at DSC in 2022 with Blair Miller of Stone and Folding Outfitters in Toad River, British Columbia. Initially it was planned as a moose and caribou combination hunt, but British Columbia shut down caribou hunting prior to the 2022 season. When this happened, Blair offered me several options to include a full refund of my deposit, but it was decided that a mountain goat would easily suffice for the caribou.
Travel was via personal vehicle; it took me 4 days to cover the 3,100 miles between my home in Tennessee to Blair's place in northern BC; but well worth it for the views especially for those on the 400 miles or so of the Alaska Highway that I drove. I arrived at the main lodge on September 10 with plans to start the hunt on the 12, however soon after arrival Blair informed me that they were expecting good flying weather the next morning and to be ready to go shortly after daybreak.
Morning dawned on the 11th to unusually clear skies with a light breeze. Shortly after breakfast, I met Dale, the pilot, and we made our way down to the strip where his Super Cub was waiting. The flight into the backcountry was about 35 minutes through beautiful but rugged mountains and culminated in landing on a remote off-airport strip. It was here where I met Guide, David, and Wrangler, Riley, along with their string of 8 horses. After a warm cup of coffee and some small talk around a fire, we packed up (David and Riley had been camping at the strip since the last hunter had left several days before) and started the trek to our base camp, a remote cabin that was about a 6-hour horseback ride from the strip.
There was no hunting that first day as BC law does not allow it within 6 hours of flying; but we did make the cabin late afternoon and settled in nicely. Morning dawned on day two overcast and cool, but not cold. David’s plan for the day was to make about a two-hour ride into a valley where a good moose had taken up residence, however this was about the time the moose rut was to be starting and David did not know if that moose had moved out of the area. Arriving in the valley early mid-morning, we tied up the horses, and then hiked up the side of a mountain several hundred feet to a relatively flat area where you could see and glass the entire area. There were no moose sightings that first day, however we did see multiple mountain goats. Most of these were younger billy’s or nanny’s, however late in the day we spotted a solo goat that appeared to be a “shooter” eating grass about midway up the facing mountain. Due to sunset approaching, it wasn’t feasible to go after this goat then, but David didn’t believe he would go far overnight and the best course of action was to come back early in the morning and attempt to find him.
Arriving back in the valley the next morning, David was quick to gain sight of the goat (they really do stand out with their white coats) and just like he thought, the goat had only gone several hundred yards from where we had last seen him. A distance which worked out to our advantage as this changed the stalk angle to something more manageable (relative term). The plan was to work our way from a down valley position up the initial side of the mountain through some willows into a shale washout. From there we could use the topography to work up the mountain to a cliff face about halfway up and then use that for concealment and sidestep to another drainage that would put us within range. Theoretically, this should take about an a hour and an half to two hours and we should pop out with a clear view of the goat and about a 350 yard shot. Things went mostly as planned, we reached the cliff face in good time and started to work our way across the mountain, however the way we worked up and across, allowing for our concealment, also meant we were unable to see the goat and keep track of his movements. Working along the side of the cliffs, we came to the second drainage. Careful now as to not make excessive noise or movements, we started to work up laterally from the side of that drainage knowing that we should be coming in view of the goat as we made our way up. David led the way, but as he was coming up the side hill he froze and slowly went down to a knee at the same time motioning for me and Riley to do the same. Looking over his shoulder at me, David pointed and whispered “he’s right there”. I was still in the bottom of the washout, but I could feel Riley gripping my pack from behind as I slid it off and made my way up next to David who was evaluating the goat in his binoculars. Steadying against a rock I could see the goat clearly in my scope as he grazed on grass. “He’s a good goat” David said, “120 yards”. The goat was quartering me, I aimed directly for his right shoulder and pulled the trigger.
Caping and quartering the goat and getting off the mountain and back to camp took the rest of the day with goat backstrap for dinner. The next day was a “camp day” tending to the cape again (ears, lips, etc), taking care of some chores, and general relaxing.
Day 5 of the hunt we were back at it after moose and since we had not seen any moose in the previous mentioned valley, David decided that we would move down valley from the cabin about an hours ride, to a series of three ponds that was home to several cows. With the rut now underway, the bulls would surely be moving in the same direction. It was basically the same scenario as before, move to an elevated observation area and glass the area now with the addition of calling. That day we saw 8-10 cows as well as several small bulls, but nothing old enough to go after. This was basically the same situation for the next five days, with the addition of some extra riding on several of the days to check other areas that may be holding animals. On day 9 of the hunt, we returned to the ponds but decided to set up in a different location. This location was a little further away and would mean we would not have to ride the horses so close to the ponds. We had not tried this initially as the prevailing winds may put our scent into the ponds, but we figured it may be worth a shot. After tying up the horses and climbing up to our observation area we settled in for a day of glassing.
This new position allowed us to see more of the valley than before and late morning a bull was spotted making rubs and moving through an avalanche cut about 4 kilometers. Putting the spotting scope on him, we could immediately tell he was a good bull. David and myself started moving down the mountain to the horses dropping our packs and taking only a candy bar, some water, and our rain gear so we could move quickly; Riley would come later with the rest of the gear.
When we had last seen the moose, he was moving toward us into a tree line about a quarter way up the side of a hill. Reaching the area we tied the horses up at the base of the mountain still in the trees and then started to work our way up the mountain. The wind at this point was coming down and across the mountain, and our plan was to come in from below, locate the bull, and then move to keep the wind in our face for the stalk. All seemed simple enough until we spotted cow feeding in a small clearing about 200 yards up. About the same time we saw the cow, she saw us; we froze and waited in a staring match with a moose. After several minutes she dismissed us and went back to eating. This turn of events changed our plan though as now we had to account for not being winded by 2 moose instead of 1. We decided the best course of action was to keep moving up flanking the cow and try to get above looking down for the bull. This really didn’t work at all. Unfortunately the wind shifted and the cow picked it up and started to move back out of the trees into the avalanche cut and up the mountain. About this time, we could hear the bull start to grunt due to the cow leaving the area. We picked up the pact through the woods and into the edge of the avalanche cut where we now saw the cow moving up and away at about 300 yards. Hearing the bull, we knew he was there and it took us a few seconds to find him amongst some dead fall as he was standing with his head obscured, but his body visible at about 175 yards. At this point, we knew he was a good bull, but neither David nor myself had ascertained whether he was legal per BC law. Even still I set up with using a fallen tree as a brace while David attempted to survey the bull. About that time the moose took several steps forward to come within full view. With the go ahead from David I fired. I saw the impact as the moose stood still for several seconds and then fell backwards and rolled partially down the mountain. When we reached him, he lay in some said over trees but still on a significant incline and was still not in a great location to deal with. Noticing a relatively flat area about 50 yards down mountain from where he fell David and myself were able to bring his rear legs over which allowed him to roll down the flat spot. About this time, Riley was arriving and we began the process of quartering the animal. Since it was already late in the day and we only had 2 pack horses a that time we formulated a plan to get all the meat off the carcass and move it about a hundred yards away in hopes that if a Grizzly came they would go after the carcass first and not the meat. We would come back early the next morning with extra horses to debone and move the meat and cape back to camp.
Travel was via personal vehicle; it took me 4 days to cover the 3,100 miles between my home in Tennessee to Blair's place in northern BC; but well worth it for the views especially for those on the 400 miles or so of the Alaska Highway that I drove. I arrived at the main lodge on September 10 with plans to start the hunt on the 12, however soon after arrival Blair informed me that they were expecting good flying weather the next morning and to be ready to go shortly after daybreak.
Morning dawned on the 11th to unusually clear skies with a light breeze. Shortly after breakfast, I met Dale, the pilot, and we made our way down to the strip where his Super Cub was waiting. The flight into the backcountry was about 35 minutes through beautiful but rugged mountains and culminated in landing on a remote off-airport strip. It was here where I met Guide, David, and Wrangler, Riley, along with their string of 8 horses. After a warm cup of coffee and some small talk around a fire, we packed up (David and Riley had been camping at the strip since the last hunter had left several days before) and started the trek to our base camp, a remote cabin that was about a 6-hour horseback ride from the strip.
There was no hunting that first day as BC law does not allow it within 6 hours of flying; but we did make the cabin late afternoon and settled in nicely. Morning dawned on day two overcast and cool, but not cold. David’s plan for the day was to make about a two-hour ride into a valley where a good moose had taken up residence, however this was about the time the moose rut was to be starting and David did not know if that moose had moved out of the area. Arriving in the valley early mid-morning, we tied up the horses, and then hiked up the side of a mountain several hundred feet to a relatively flat area where you could see and glass the entire area. There were no moose sightings that first day, however we did see multiple mountain goats. Most of these were younger billy’s or nanny’s, however late in the day we spotted a solo goat that appeared to be a “shooter” eating grass about midway up the facing mountain. Due to sunset approaching, it wasn’t feasible to go after this goat then, but David didn’t believe he would go far overnight and the best course of action was to come back early in the morning and attempt to find him.
Arriving back in the valley the next morning, David was quick to gain sight of the goat (they really do stand out with their white coats) and just like he thought, the goat had only gone several hundred yards from where we had last seen him. A distance which worked out to our advantage as this changed the stalk angle to something more manageable (relative term). The plan was to work our way from a down valley position up the initial side of the mountain through some willows into a shale washout. From there we could use the topography to work up the mountain to a cliff face about halfway up and then use that for concealment and sidestep to another drainage that would put us within range. Theoretically, this should take about an a hour and an half to two hours and we should pop out with a clear view of the goat and about a 350 yard shot. Things went mostly as planned, we reached the cliff face in good time and started to work our way across the mountain, however the way we worked up and across, allowing for our concealment, also meant we were unable to see the goat and keep track of his movements. Working along the side of the cliffs, we came to the second drainage. Careful now as to not make excessive noise or movements, we started to work up laterally from the side of that drainage knowing that we should be coming in view of the goat as we made our way up. David led the way, but as he was coming up the side hill he froze and slowly went down to a knee at the same time motioning for me and Riley to do the same. Looking over his shoulder at me, David pointed and whispered “he’s right there”. I was still in the bottom of the washout, but I could feel Riley gripping my pack from behind as I slid it off and made my way up next to David who was evaluating the goat in his binoculars. Steadying against a rock I could see the goat clearly in my scope as he grazed on grass. “He’s a good goat” David said, “120 yards”. The goat was quartering me, I aimed directly for his right shoulder and pulled the trigger.
Caping and quartering the goat and getting off the mountain and back to camp took the rest of the day with goat backstrap for dinner. The next day was a “camp day” tending to the cape again (ears, lips, etc), taking care of some chores, and general relaxing.
Day 5 of the hunt we were back at it after moose and since we had not seen any moose in the previous mentioned valley, David decided that we would move down valley from the cabin about an hours ride, to a series of three ponds that was home to several cows. With the rut now underway, the bulls would surely be moving in the same direction. It was basically the same scenario as before, move to an elevated observation area and glass the area now with the addition of calling. That day we saw 8-10 cows as well as several small bulls, but nothing old enough to go after. This was basically the same situation for the next five days, with the addition of some extra riding on several of the days to check other areas that may be holding animals. On day 9 of the hunt, we returned to the ponds but decided to set up in a different location. This location was a little further away and would mean we would not have to ride the horses so close to the ponds. We had not tried this initially as the prevailing winds may put our scent into the ponds, but we figured it may be worth a shot. After tying up the horses and climbing up to our observation area we settled in for a day of glassing.
This new position allowed us to see more of the valley than before and late morning a bull was spotted making rubs and moving through an avalanche cut about 4 kilometers. Putting the spotting scope on him, we could immediately tell he was a good bull. David and myself started moving down the mountain to the horses dropping our packs and taking only a candy bar, some water, and our rain gear so we could move quickly; Riley would come later with the rest of the gear.
When we had last seen the moose, he was moving toward us into a tree line about a quarter way up the side of a hill. Reaching the area we tied the horses up at the base of the mountain still in the trees and then started to work our way up the mountain. The wind at this point was coming down and across the mountain, and our plan was to come in from below, locate the bull, and then move to keep the wind in our face for the stalk. All seemed simple enough until we spotted cow feeding in a small clearing about 200 yards up. About the same time we saw the cow, she saw us; we froze and waited in a staring match with a moose. After several minutes she dismissed us and went back to eating. This turn of events changed our plan though as now we had to account for not being winded by 2 moose instead of 1. We decided the best course of action was to keep moving up flanking the cow and try to get above looking down for the bull. This really didn’t work at all. Unfortunately the wind shifted and the cow picked it up and started to move back out of the trees into the avalanche cut and up the mountain. About this time, we could hear the bull start to grunt due to the cow leaving the area. We picked up the pact through the woods and into the edge of the avalanche cut where we now saw the cow moving up and away at about 300 yards. Hearing the bull, we knew he was there and it took us a few seconds to find him amongst some dead fall as he was standing with his head obscured, but his body visible at about 175 yards. At this point, we knew he was a good bull, but neither David nor myself had ascertained whether he was legal per BC law. Even still I set up with using a fallen tree as a brace while David attempted to survey the bull. About that time the moose took several steps forward to come within full view. With the go ahead from David I fired. I saw the impact as the moose stood still for several seconds and then fell backwards and rolled partially down the mountain. When we reached him, he lay in some said over trees but still on a significant incline and was still not in a great location to deal with. Noticing a relatively flat area about 50 yards down mountain from where he fell David and myself were able to bring his rear legs over which allowed him to roll down the flat spot. About this time, Riley was arriving and we began the process of quartering the animal. Since it was already late in the day and we only had 2 pack horses a that time we formulated a plan to get all the meat off the carcass and move it about a hundred yards away in hopes that if a Grizzly came they would go after the carcass first and not the meat. We would come back early the next morning with extra horses to debone and move the meat and cape back to camp.
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