IDAHO GOAT HUNTING ADVENTURE
After months of preparation the date of the planned hunting trip was here. All the work to get equipment together, food gathered and physical conditioning was done. It was now that everything would be put to the test. {As a
footnote please let me apologize for the scrimpy photo coverage. I was using my new camera and due to the harsh physical conditions I choose to leave it in the semi-waterproof bag. My hunting partner was taking
pictures so hopefully his coverage will fill in some of the empty spaces)My pack weighed in at 60 pounds when fully loaded. In addition to that I carry a Model 700 Remington BDL with a 3x9
Leupold Scope. I also used a Cabela's Alaskan Hiking Staff which turned out to be almost a
disaster. More on that later.
I loaded up everything and left Orofino on Friday morning, 27th August. I had a smooth trip to
Boise and I found our friends Jen and Travis's house with no problem. John met me at the door as I got out of the truck. We spent the next several hours assembling packs for the trip.
A trip to the local Cabela's store produced a new sleeping bag for Norm! It was a Kelty bag on sale that weighed only 3 pounds! It would save space and at least 3 pounds over Norm's old bag! Travis had some excellent camping gear and outfitted John with a lighter sleeping bag and very light air mattress. After a nice meal of salmon and spaghetti at a fancy brewery in town we had a
face to face meeting with Rob. He is the mastermind of this hunt. The meeting was to make the final preparations and to get as much information on the area as possible. The meeting was at the local drag strip where he was testing the newest computer program that he had developed for the GMC Diesel engine. The 4 WD unit that he was testing had just topped out over 130mph in the quarter mile. Rob checked over our maps and marked a few key spots that he said not to miss. Before we left the track we also got to visit with Luke Schumacher, my nephew, who lives nearby. We had a very nice visit and got to catch up on his activities.
We left Boise early Saturday morning after a quick check of the Banner Fire conditions on the computer we decided to take Route 21 to access our hunting area. Hunting Unit 27-2 is our hunt
area and for those interested they can see the detailed map on the Idaho F&G website. The drive was an adventure in itself. The scenery was spectacular. Along the way we found a cow elk lying along side of the road having been hit and killed by a vehicle. It took 4 hours to get to Stanley, Idaho which was the last town with any facilities before we entered the Frank Church River of No-Return Wilderness on the Salmon-Challis National Forest. We filled up with gas and had our last sit down meal. There was a local celebration with several craft vendors under tents
in the local field. Most of the vendors were local artists that had crafts for sale. John found several items that will find their way back to his house.
We took off and drove Highway 75 along the Salmon River until we turned on the gravel forest access road. It was a narrow canyon road that twisted and turned, giving us glimpses of the terrain and country to come on our adventure. The road soon traveled through country that had been heavily impacted by historical gold mining. We drove by rows of rocks left by gold dredging operations. We drove through the historical town of Bonanza. New signs reminded the traveler that this was still an active mining area. No mining allowed! We drove past a dredge that was open for tours to the public. It was an original model and not currently being operated. We made
the final turn off and headed past the Hecla Sunbeam Mining Operation. It is a currently
operating gold mine. The size of the operation was huge. A mountain of material had literally been moved.
After the mining operation access road was past the road turned to a primitive forest service
road. It was a single lane native surfaced road that literally climbed up the side of a mountain. Eight switchbacks later we stopped at the entrance panel in a saddle on the top of a mountain.
The drive had some very impressive views of the country that we had just come through. The sign announced that we were entering the wilderness and needed to follow all of the wilderness rules. This site is labeled Loon Saddle on the map.
The view of the wilderness revealed that the countryside was all up and down! Not vertical, but very close too it! The tops of the mountains were rock covered and the sides of the mountains
had some timber cover on them. there was a lot of dead standing timber. Some area were all dead trees while other areas had large amounts of standing dead timber with some green trees.
There was no
management of the timber or anything else occurring. This was a designated wilderness area and
only the access road (a historical road before the wilderness designation was made) was not under the wilderness designation. There is no motor vehicles use allowed in the wilderness. The road led us quickly down hill to the valley bottom following along adjacent to
Loon Creek. After several miles of travel along the creek we found a sign announcing that we had arrived at the takeoff point. Mystery Creek!
It was almost 2:00 pm local Central Mountain time when we shouldered the full packs and started up the trail. It wasn't much of a trail and soon became even less of one. The view up the trail was very restricted by the large trees in the small narrow canyon that we were heading up in. The trail very quickly got very steep and rocky. There was a number of trees that had blown down over the trail. We had to crawl over and under them as we slowly made it up the trail. John quickly recognized that the pace needed to be set by the slowest member of the group, yours
truly, and he patiently made sure that I was okay. The fact that I left my camera in the pack should tell volumes of what stress I was under just to keep going. We lost the trail a number of
times because there was none there! We crawled slowly up the mountainside. I was soon wet from sweat and was down to a simple t-shirt even though the temperature was only 70 degrees.
We kept looking for some sign that we would shortly find the first lake. No clue of what laid ahead could be seen. The map said that it was
2800 verticle feet in elevation and 3 miles distance to the lake. The stops grew more frequent and most times less then 100 feet was made before another rest stop was made. I was and drinking water in attempts to replace the lost moisture. John kept giving me encouragement and I kept going ....very slowly....but going upward. I kept thinking about my son Justin who runs marathons for fun. I must be missing something. This isn't fun! It is "BRUTAL"!
Finally after 6 + hours John announced a flat area ahead. Could this be the first lake? It was the lower Mystery Lake. It was a beautiful high country lake ringed by rock and timber. It was a mutual decision that we would set camp up here for the night before going on to the upper lake in the morning. We got a campfire going just as night set around us. The moon gave the trees and lake an eerie glow. I quickly crawled into my sleeping bag after eating. I covered my sleeping
area with a tarp to kept any night time moisture from getting the sleeping bag wet.
After a very fitful sleep in which I kept seeing a computer screen I heard John stirring. We stoked the fire back to life and boiled the water for our oatmeal. Two small packages of instant oatmeal along with a pack of carnation Breakfast drink mixed in became our morning staple. The meal was fast and hot meal which tasted great. John used his water purifier to refill our canteens. We decided to try the fishing in the lake before the next leg of the trip. John cast a
small spinner into the lake and it was soon attached to a Golden trout. It was only 7-8 inches long but was beautifully marked. I soon caught a very small (4 inches) trout on a fly behind a casting bubble. We fished for a short time, with us each landing and releasing several more trout. John's first fish was the biggest. It was my first Golden Trout.
We repacked all the fishing gear and made ready for the final assult of the mountain. We needed to make the final 1/2 mile up the mountain to the upper lake. I could spend another long paragraph trying to describe that climb but let me simply describe it with one word....BRUTAL! I thought that I was going to expire on yesterday's hike but it was a simple walk in the woods compared to this. Up rock faces, over downed logs, sliding back two steps for every three we
took up, John finally announced that it was flattening out! It had taken over two hours to make it that short distance. After a short hike we could catch glimpses of the lake. We finally came out on the lake shoreline exactly where Rob told us to set up camp.
The aching muscles was quickly forgotten as we went to the business of setting up camp. I found a site to set up my tarp so that it would provide me some protection from the wind and moisture. John set up his tent and gear closer to the lake and fire ring. The job of gathering firewood soon had a small pile next to the roaring fire. All the time that we worked an eye was kept on the mountains around around us hoping to catch a glimpse of a white goat. John finished erecting his tent first and assemble the fishing gear. It was almost time for lunch and a good trout dinner would serve the purpose nicely to help replenish the calories lost on the hike up the mountain.
John soon had his spinner attached to a very nice 12 inch West Slope Cutthroat trout.
This photo is of another fish that was taken on another day but will show you the nice fish that was in the lake. They tasted great after being wrapped in aluminum foil with salt and pepper added. About 15 minutes for the smaller fish in the red hot cools and they were
ready to eat. the larger fish took another 5 minutes longer. Lunch that first day was made up of 5 nice trout.
The weather on Saturday, the first day of the hike in, had not bad but at the end of the day it became unsettled with the wind picking up and the clouds blowing in and out. It would be the best weather we would have the rest of the time at the lake. Sunday, at the upper lake, we saw some sunshine with intermittent showers of rain/snow. Some times it would be ice pellets and other times it would be rain or flakes of snow.
Monday morning found us awakening to a blanket of snow. Everything had an inch of snow on it and the tops of the mountain was hidden by clouds. Opening day and nothing could be seen! The morning warmed and the snow on the ground disappeared. The clouds floating over the mountain tops with the ceiling changing all day long. The day was spent glassing the mountains
when ever the clouds retreated a bit, fishing, and hiking to vantage points above camp. We also
spent time doing camp chores and collecting firewood. By late afternoon the snow had melted off and we had high hopes for the morning to spot our first goat.The next group of photos show those activities.
Tuesday morning we got up with 5 inches of snow on the ground and more snow falling. Spirits were very low as it was after dinner before most of the snow had melted. Several scouting trips were made as the clouds would open up for a short time and then close in again around the mountain tops. It is very hard to spot a white goat on a snowy white mountain. Late in the day as we sat around the fire John announced, "BEAR"! A quick glance showed me the direction and there it was. A medium sized black bear moving across the rock slopes. It disappeared into a wooded draw and reappeared moving at a fast walk halfway up the mountainside. The rock slope was on the opposite side of the lake from us so the distance was long. It was in the area we had hoped to see the goats. The bear never stopped moving at a fast walk most of the time. It started up an avalanche chute and we questioned whether it might have a little goat in it. To our amazement it kept going straight up! It got to one point where it actually slid back down the hill. It adjusted the direction it was headed and soon topped over the mountian! I immediately thought of the old song. The Bear went over the mountian....to see what he could see!
Snow remained on the ground for most of the day with more mositure falling periodically. In the late afternoon the ground cleared and small patches of sky could be seen. We felt that tomorrow would be a make or break day. If it was clear an assult on the mountain top would be made to get to new vantage points. We had see enough of the surrounding mountains to positively know that no goats where here right now. As a contingent plan we would hike out if the weather was bad and try to find another area with goats in it. In the back of our minds we knew that if it snowed there was no way we could get down the trail! During the night the wind blew! It got very windy in gust estimated to be 40 mph. Laying in the sleeping bag you could hear the wind gathering strength as it came down the mountain side and finally roared past the campsite. I was very glad that i had choosen a site away from any dead trees.
The next morning came and we found that the clouds hid everything above the camp. It was snowing so after breakfest and no change evident in the weather due to come we decided to come out and find some new hunting area. We left the camp at 1100 am and started down the valley. Noticed I didn't say trail....there was no trail! I could go into detail about the agony and misery that I suffered in coming down that mountainside but just let me use the word "BRUTAL"! Thanks to John's encouragement and excellent scouting of the best route for this old man we finally found the truck. It had taken over 4 hours to get back down the mountain.
We spent the afternoon driving into the Loon Creek Wilderness Guard Station which was 10 miles further into the wilderness. We hoped to find the wilderness trail coordinator and see if he could give us some other ideas for a new hunt area. No one was at the cabins when we arrived. We learned later that they had been out on the trails. Next door to the station was athe Diamond D outfitter's Camp. It was an oasis out in the woods. Neat houses and barns were trimed with flowers and a man was busy mowing the lawn. Later on the way to town we stopped and talked to another vehicle on the narrow road. It turned out to be John Goodman a guide for the Diamond D. He said that there was a wedding planned for Saturday and 120 people was expected.
All the way to town was spent glassing the mountain tops and making new hunt plans and strategy. We got to the local FS station outside of Stanley right after 500pm. The office had closed at 430 pm. We spoke with members of the fire crew but no one had any knowledge of the hunt area. We finally got a room at the local motel right in Stanley. it was a nice clean room and the shower felt like a million dollars. We went to the local pizza place and had a good large pizza between us. We also stopped an old timer along the street and he called his brother who had hunted the area. We spoke with him and he said that he would contact his sone who had worked on the trail crew that summer. If he had any information he would call us back. We never got a call back so we figured that the trail crew had not seen any goats that summer.
The next morning we had breakfest at the local eatery. Blueberry scones were delicious. The classic breakfest of bacon and eggs was also pretty good, but some how I missed the oatmeal that we had on the trail. The first stop we made was back at the Forest Service Office. We had a great visit with the local ranger but no one there knew anything about the hunt area. It was administered by an office in Challis, Idaho about 50 miles away. The next stop was at the Idaho F&G Hatchery south of Stanley found us talking to the local Game Warden. following his suggestions, we made plans to set up camp on the west side of the General. This was the same mountain top that we had spent 5 days under at the upper Mystery lake.
We drove in on the same access road as before, up past the mine but then turned off on a primitive forest service road outside of the wilderness boundary. It was a 4 wheel drive road at best and in most places it was less! I was very happy when we made it to the end of the road at the Lightning creek trailhead. This was the very first time I had taken my truck off-roading and i was very pleased on how it had preformed. I was sure glad to have riden up the road and not have to walk up it. We set up camp and made a quick scouting trip to the top of the ridge before dark. The weather had turned off clear and sunny. We could see for miles in several directions. NO Goats was spotted.
We had a very pleasant camp and we sat around a roaring campfire as the moon came up and the stars filled the sky. I wish that I could say that the next morning our hunt produced a goat ...at least a sighting of a goat but it didn't. Both China Creek drainage and lightning Creek was explored from the top of the ridge. Everything above timber line could be glassed. If there had been a goat there we would have seen it. With no other alternatives we decided to pack up camp and come back to Boise. John's plane was scheduled to leave on Sunday morning early, We had a pleasant drive down the mountain. The early morning temperature was in the 40's and by the time we got to Boise it was 97 degrees.
So that it the story of the Great Goat Hunt of 2010! It was one of the greatest adventures that an old man could ever dream up. I am so glad that I did the hunt and even more proud that I made it to the top of the mountain! Thanks to my nephew for all his hard work in making this a hunt of a lifetime.
