Growing up in Eastern New Mexico, hunting was as much a part of my life as family and school. During the 2021 application season, my hunting buddy, Ben Van Berkum, and I were still riding high and full of hope since he had drawn a 2020 bighorn sheep tag in Idaho. After much effort, Ben took a great ram and we both hoped for another high-country adventure. After all the applications and draw periods were over, I was left with only one draw tag for a Wyoming mountain goat! I immediately started to research the area and gather as much info as I could.
The rifle season opened on September 1st, and we wanted to be up there scouting and glassing early. We were not sure what to expect as we loaded the truck and headed to Northern Wyoming. A good friend, Dave Brown, had lived with me in Canyon, Texas years ago and was now a Wyoming resident. He was already signed off and licensed to go with us, so we would be able to hunt in the wilderness.
Opening morning, we heard a few ATVs going down the main road hours before daylight, most of which were headed to the same drainage. We were in no hurry to get anywhere and picked a good glassing spot up a road that had a huge rockslide. We set up and started glassing in all directions. Within 30-45 minutes, we heard Dave say, “I’ve got goats!” Immediately, Ben and I moved from our glassing perches and set up next to Dave. We could see the white goats in stark contrast on the black rocks. They were across the main drainage from us. As we discussed and glassed their location and how we could approach them, Ben commented, “That terrain looks ridiculous where they are.” He was right! These goats were in a spot where if we did get a shot at them, most likely the downed goat would be irretrievable due to the steep terrain. We decided to hike up a trail that led around the mountain to try to get a look around the other side.
We drove back down the mountain and crossed to the other side. There was one UTV parked at the trailhead already, and we were worried these guys had seen those goats a day or two before us. About one mile into the hike, we could see something moving ahead of us. We all threw up our binos and were surprised that it was a solo sheep hunter coming out with a big ram on his back. The hunter, Nick, had completed a solo sheep hunt and documented all of it from the first scouting trip until he finished. He had also killed his sheep in the head of the same drainage we were wanting to go to and had videoed the goats we had glassed up. This was a big help as he had all the info we needed about where to go up to the top and how long it would take us to get there. We decided to walk back to the trailhead with him and then went back to base camp.
We wanted to get an early start the next morning in case any others had glassed up the same goats. We started down the trail before daylight. A few miles down the trail, Ben stopped us and said he needed to glass something. He couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like a white speck in front of us. Sure enough, it was a lone billy. Just out of luck, we happened to see him walk through a small opening for about 20 seconds. Plans quickly changed as he was in a spot where we thought we could get a shot at him.
We looked at our maps and quickly discussed the best way to go about it. We headed up the trail to try and come up the backside from where the billy was. About an hour later, we made it to the base of the backside from where we had last seen the billy. It looked steeper than we had hoped. Dave decided to stay at the base and glass in case the billy appeared at the top as Ben and I were making our way up there. We finally made it to the top, and we discussed where we were in relation to where we had last seen the billy. Ben spotted a lone tree in the rocks that he was sure the billy had walked by. We set up for a shot and started glassing below us. We found nothing. We never laid eyes on the billy. I strapped my rifle back on my pack, and we headed up the ridge.
After about 80 yards, Ben suddenly dropped down to the ground. I immediately knew he had seen the billy. I grabbed my rifle and crawled over to Ben. He told me he saw the billy backed into a cave about 80 yards away. The big goat was directly under where we had just set up. He had been tucked under us, and we could not see him less than 30 yards away.
I deployed my bipod and carefully crawled to the edge. As soon as I saw him, he saw me. I could only see half of his body due to the rocks, but it was the front half. That was all I needed to make a shot. I shot, and Ben called out, “Hit!” As I chambered another round for a follow- up shot, the billy ran about 10 yards. I hit him in the shoulder again, and he dropped in his tracks. We started yelling and celebrating. It was an awesome moment that I will never forget. The goat was down, but we were far from done. We could not get to him, so we determined that we needed to drop back off the side we had come from and get Dave. Then we would circle around and back up that side to retrieve the goat.
I got to my goat and finally put hands on him. Dave, Ben, and I all got great pictures and quickly got to work breaking him down. Upon checking in the goat the following day, he was measured at 9 4/8" on the longest horn with 5 2/8" bases and aged at 6 years old. A big, white goat in the rocks was definitely the stuff of dreams for a kid from Eastern New Mexico.
I would like to thank Ben Van Berkum and Dave Brown for their help as I needed them both on this hunt.
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