It was October 2018, and we had just completed our Shiras moose hunt with Ken Robbins of Watshan Outfitters. My brother and I were able to take two great bulls in three days in British Columbia. I knew that a big, long-haired mountain goat was on my list of animals I wanted to pursue. Ken takes about two goat hunters a year, and I knew I wanted to be one of them soon. As we were departing from our moose hunt, I shook Ken’s hand and said I was very interested in coming back to hunt goats. He said, “Make sure you don’t wait until you are 60!” I took that to heart and called my booking agent, David Kidder of Kidder Safaris out of Michigan. With his help, I booked my mountain goat hunt for November 2020.
As everyone knows by now, many plans were disrupted in 2020 by Covid-19. The U.S. and Canada closed their borders, and I was not able to go on my dream hunt that year. We put the hunt on hold for 2021, and with our fingers crossed, we waited. It wasn’t until August of 2021 that we found out Canada was easing restrictions and I could proceed to plan on making the journey in November.
Getting across the border to British Columbia didn’t come without a few headaches. There are a few things to think about before you decide to go. You need to have your Canadian gun forms filled out and unsigned. You need your U.S. customs form 4457 to return to the states with your firearms. I needed to be fully vaccinated and had to have a PCR negative Covid test within 72 hours of crossing the border. I would say this was the most stressful part of the hunt.
Finally, after 20 hours of driving, I reached my port of entry in Roosville, British Columbia. After showing my paperwork and having them inspect my guns, I was about ready to roll. Right as I was about to leave, the border agent gave me the great news that I was randomly selected to take another Covid test within the next 24 hours of arriving to Canada! As frustrated as I was by now, I took it and did the test the next morning. Well, enough about my struggles of making it to Canada. Let’s get on with the hunt!
I met Ken in Revelstoke, and with him was his main goat guide, Curtis Summerfelt. The moment I met Curtis I was at ease. He was in goat shape, and I knew it. He is also fun and personable and made my experience even better. Curtis has been guiding for Ken for about four years, and he’s got what it takes to make success happen.
It was November 7th, the day before the hunt was to start, and we headed into camp. Before we reached camp, we stopped a few places to glass some rocky bluffs to see if we could spot any billies. We ended up spotting a couple, which was exciting.
Pulling into camp, I saw where I would be staying for the next possible 10 days. I liked what I saw. It was nothing fancy, but placed between two large mountain ranges was a small cabin with all the essentials.
The next morning was finally here, and it was time to see what we could find. It was about an hour’s drive to get to where we needed to be, and from there, it was a couple miles’ drive on the quads to get back to the goat bluffs we were going to spend the day glassing. This time of year, there is a lot of moisture in the air and the horizon can get fogged
in quickly, so I was nervous about that, but this first day was perfect. We got set up on a good vantage point and settled in. We glassed up 22 goats, and a couple of them were good billies. I was antsy to get after them, but the experience of Ken and Curtis told us to be patient. The goats needed to be in a place that we were able to get to, and unfortunately, the big billies were too high to risk going after on the first day.
On day two, we headed out to the same area in hopes of finding the billies lower down on the mountainside. The morning started off well, but within a couple of hours, the clouds rolled in and it started snowing quite heavily. We decided to make a fire to warm up and wait out the snow. The area never cleared out to see again, so we decided to back out and check a couple areas on the way back to camp. We were able to glass up a few goats here and there, but by this this time of day, it was too late to go after them. We went back to camp and enjoyed the evening. Little did I know that day three was going to be the toughest day of hunting I have ever experienced on any hunt in my life.
We had planned on making it back to the bluffs we had glassed the previous two days, but we didn’t even make it there. Ken pulled the truck over to a spot that wasn’t too far from camp. It didn’t take long before I spotted a goat up high on the bluffs. Curtis got out the spotting scope, and we confirmed it was a good billy. Ken said it looked good and was in a spot where we could give this a go. By 8:00 a.m., we were starting up the mountain. Ken stayed on the road with the truck and kept an eye on the goats. Curtis and I had to make it through a tangled-up mess of a clear-cut before we reached the timber. We navigated through the timber and across rock bluffs to more timber. At one point, we had to get up a four-foot rock ledge with nothing below but a snow-covered, rockslide. Curtis had to throw me a paracord I could hang onto that assisted in getting up me up, but I am not going to say it wasn’t a bit scary.
We were cautious and made sure we didn’t do anything stupid. Once we made it up to where the goats were, we were not able to put eyes on them as it was way more timbered up here than we thought and we had few windows of visibility. We knew they were above us, and as we were looking through the bluff, we spotted the kid for a split second until it disappeared back into the trees. Now that we knew exactly where they were, we decided to circle up and see if we could sneak in and get a better view of them. We got to a small spot where we could look above us about 130 yards and could just see the hair of the nanny laying down. We knew the billy was behind her, and he was bedded down as well. The bad part was that we only had about a four or five-foot window that the billy would have to stand up in and give me a shot. We decided to settle in and wait them out.
It wasn’t 15 minutes before I saw a goat standing up in the opening I could shoot through. I quickly asked Curtis if this was the billy. He confirmed it was, and as I was already in shooting position, Curtis said to put it on his shoulder and shoot. The second I heard that, I was settled on the billy’s big shoulder and pulled the trigger of my .338 Win Mag. The billy hit the snow and started sliding down the mountain and out of our sight. Curtis and I had a quick celebration, put on our crampons, and started up to find a path to get to where my goat fell. At that point, it was 12:30 p.m. We found the snow path that my billy was sliding down and followed it. We saw very little blood on the path, and I was getting a bit worried. Just as a little doubt was setting in, Curtis turned to me and said, “There he is!” He had landed in a little dirt and tree patch that was in the middle of a big rockslide.
We had to tie him off to a tree so we could skin and quarter him out. We made quick work of it, but by the time we had everything in our packs, it was 4:00 and time to head down the mountain. It gets dark by about 4:45, so we had our headlamps on and started navigating down the mountain. We eventually made it back down to the clear-cut and out to the road by 8:00 p.m. After 12 hours on the mountain, we finally reached flat ground with my billy on my back. I was so relieved. What a hunt!
I can’t thank Ken and Curtis enough for an experience-of-a- lifetime. These guys are first class, and I’ll never forget the time we spent on the mountain together. This hunt was the culmination of not only the animal I was able to harvest, but the dreaming, planning, time and effort to get to this point, and great friends I made along the way. That’s what makes this hunt so special to me. That’s why it’s worth it!
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