The morning started off well enough.  A blanket of fog coated the city, and a light frost made the grass stand on end, crunching lightly under your feet as you walked across it.

It all kind of started with RG014.  An archery only registration Goat hunt that included all drainages that drained into Taku River and Gastineau Channel between little Sheep Creek and Taku Glacier.

RG0014 - Juneau Area Archery Goat Hunt

This was a hunt that we had been wanting to do for quite some time, but had never really gotten around to because of the intensity we had predicted it would require.

We set out at about 6:30A.M.  Not an early start by our standards, but as typically happens, we are not a morning people and we were draggin’ just a little ass.

We drove to a local trailhead and began our ascent.  Our good friend was packing his rifle in hopes of locating a nice buck, and we were packing our trusty PSE Dream Season EVO hoping to add another kill to it’s list.

The hike started off with a bang, heading up a steep 1/2 mile stretch of trail before leveling out into the valley floor for the next 3 miles.

We immediately saw Goats up on the valley walls, though they weren’t legal because they are “out of bounds” to put it simply.

After a nice stroll through the valley we reached the head of it where we would began our ascent to a saddle between a rather “tall” mountain, and another “tall” mountain.  Now we had heard that going after a Goat was considered one of the harder hunts in North America, and we had done little to prepare.  In fact I don’t think we can recall having hiked once this summer, but we thought we’d give her hell anyways.

A couple hours later, and a metric ass-load of sweat we broke alpine and were close to the boundary zone.  We immediately saw Goats all around us.  Groups of 5-8 spread out across the valley walls.  Their heavy white coats betrayed them quite nicely for us.

We made our way to the ridge-top where we could glass the legal zone.  The northerly wind was ripping across the ridge and made it hard to sit still long as your sweat soaked clothing cooled.

We jumped a single doe that looked quite healthy, and spotted a group of Goats on an adjacent ridge a mile and a glacier away.  Yeah right, no way we were going after those.

We sat for a little while, glassing the valley.  We were graced with the presence of a single Wolf who howled continually, probably looking for a friend.

We eventually decided to head down as our legs were so worked that we didn’t think we’d be able to go any further, let alone pack of 100+ lbs of meat if we did score a Goat.

On the way down we snuck up on 3 Billies bedded down about 80 yards away.  We’re not gonna lie, it was tempting, but we like our job.

All in all, RG0014 is looking like it would be a tough hunt, purely from an access standpoint, as there seems to be no “easy” way to get into the hunt area.  We do have one plan that we want to look into, but we’re thinking that one is gonna cost money, but we’ll see.

We’ll hopefully have some more pictures up soon if our friend ever sends them.

We’re thinking this will be our last post for a while as we’re getting ready to head off for some training for the next couple of months, but after that things should start hopping.

Hopefully we can get out there one more time before we leave…..Gotta have somthing to hold us over, right?

From the ridgetop!

We’re sorry for the lack of updates.  Things once again have been incredibly busy.  We’re quiting our current job, and taking on a new job that should bode well for the future!

We have however, finally managed to get out a few times.  We managed a nice stalk on one bear, but just didn’t give us the right shot for our archery gear.  We haven’t gotten completely empty handed though.  We managed to get one of our buddies his first bear ever.

It started with a stalk up a salmon infested creek.  There was lots of recent bear sign all along the creek in the ways of salmon missing their heads, and various mazes of trails leading in and out of the brush.

We stalked up the creek about 1/2 mile.  We rounded a bend in the creek to see a bear feeding way up stream, about 100 yards away.  We could immediately tell it was a decent chocolate.  We didn’t quite have the clear shot my buddy needed with his rifle, and before we knew it the bear moved into the woods next to the creek.

We decided gamble, and work our way up the creek.

About 3 minutes later my buddy was grabbing me to tell me that the bear was walking through the brush on the other side of the creek about 20 feet away.  As soon as it cleared the brush he made a great shot right in the boiler.  The bear started spinning and biting at the impact sight.  I could see blood starting to pour out so we knew it was a good hit.  Not wanting to have to track it at all I told my buddy to jack one more round in it, and it was game over.

All in all, he ended up with a solid 5 1/2 chocolate.  Not a huge bear, but not bad for a heavily hunted road system.

The Bear

We’ve been getting out a few times since, but we think the bear season is just about over with.

Hopefully we can get out for some deer before we are pre-occupied for about 7 weeks with training….