In January of 2001 I booked a Mountain Goat hunt with Bruce Parker of Parker Guide Service out of Juneau Alaska. The hunt was booked for the second week of November so the weather was going to very cold and wet. I wanted to go at this time as the goats had their longest hair of the year which would make for a beautiful life size mount.
After I arrived and spent the
night in Juneau we flew by Beaver Float Plane to the Neptune. This
was a 62 foot ocean cruiser that was to be my home for the next 10
days.
Each morning we would go by small
boats up the inland passage way in search of mountain goats. This
was an experience in it's self as the temperature was in the teens
each day and it never stopped snowing. The water had literally
thousands of icebergs which we had to navigate between. We also
surveyed a 10 foot wave that was caused by caving from the Selway
Glacier. A real experience.
We did this each day looking for
the goats on the high ridges that went straight up from the sea.
Each day we saw many goats but none that met the size we were looking
for. Then on the fifth day we located a Billy that looked to have
horns in excess of 9 inches with a very large body. The stock was
on. We had a 1500' vertical climb to get above the goat which took
us in excess of 90 minutes. Once in position with a steady rest the
final shot from my 300 Weatherby Magnum was made from 150 yards. I
had my Mountain Goat.
After a lot of pictures and
spending the night on the Neptune I flew back to Juneau where I
stayed at the Goldbelt Hotel. The next day I caught a plane to
Seattle, then on to Phoenix where it all began, This allowed me
plenty of time to gather my thoughts and think about how lucky I am
to have experienced such a great adventure.
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