Part V: Return to the Meat Cache and Homeward Bound
Winds down low nowhere near as bad as they are up in the alpine.
All night long the wind rages - we can hear it whistling through the peaks above, and every 10 minutes or so we’ll hear big gusts that sound like jet engines crashing down through the alders downslope. When they hit camp all Hell breaks loose – tents shaking, brush thrashing, guy lines singing. But our tents are secured in a low area, somewhat protected from the wind by the surrounding brush; we are very happy to be camping by the lower rather than upper lake! It would have been a medieval experience that night camped at the upper lake.
When dealing with alder, salmonberry, and other types of tanglefoot, scout your route first!
The next morning everyone’s muscles are sore, and we’re all bone tired. But the meat, coolers, and hide are still at the meat cache halfway up the mountain. We are paranoid about a bear stealing our meat and hide, and after a quick breakfast head up the mountain, aching legs and weary shoulders notwithstanding, to bring it all back home. Before we leave camp we scout a route through the alders above camp to the alpine tundra on the ridge above. Too bad we had not known the route the day before. Getting up to the ridge is actually quite easy with virtually no bushwhacking. We wend our way through the ptarmigan filled valley, and make it back to the meat cache by midmorning. All is exactly as we left it; apparently bears are smart and don’t like to eat old goats.
The going is easier when you know the stable is close at hand.
The return to the lower lake is rather anticlimactic. We already know the route, and we look forward to an afternoon of rest on our return. Our main worry now is whether or not Rolan the floatplane pilot will find us at our new camp. Before he left us at the upper lake we had agreed that the lower lake would be the failsafe pick up. Even though we know that was the plan - we are still worried about it. Will he come by to pick us up this evening as planned? Once when a plane had flown over, we had fruitlessly tried to get in contact with our handheld VHF radio. So we had not talked to anybody from the outside in almost a week, and were a little edgy about what was going on.
Rolan always saves the day!
Back at camp we organized and packed up gear in preparation for leaving. We leave the tents set up in case Rolan does not come today. We figure we’ll take them down quick once he circles the lake. Then we wait. I go for a low-key exploratory hike around the head of the lake. I do not find any archaeological sites. And we wait some more. The weather is starting to get worse, and it looks like another storm is coming in. We despair that Rolan will ever arrive, and at dusk we start to cook dinner. We are resigned to another night without whiskey. Then low and behold Rolan’s De Havillland Beaver flies overhead with its distinctive throaty roar. We dump dinner in the lake and start to pack up – but Rolan does not circle – just flies on. We despair that it is surely too dark now, and we have already dumped dinner. We are just beginning to start dinner again when we hear the plane again. He circles the lake and lands. He had had to drop off another party before coming back to get us on the way home.
Home sweet home.
It is practically dark as we pack up. Rolan asks if we got our 9-inch Billy (the ‘trophy’ standard), and we reply that we are not sure about horn length but are sure he is pretty heavy. The flight home is quick and before we know it we are back at my house hanging the meat in the shed. My neighbor Len drops by and is impressed with our goat. He helps us go about prepping the hide to send the to the taxidermist. Then it is time to go inside and have a beer. Our goat hunt is over.
Major Lessons Learned:
• Always shoot a young goat – old Billies are not good eating (Zoya and I got most of the meat, and it almost turned Zoya into a vegetarian)(I’ve eaten 6 goats since then, none older than 4 years, and all have been excellent eating).
• An out of State Tag and a Goat permit are NOT the same thing (this one is an expensive story all of its own).
• Hunt or ski, one or the other, but not both – decide before you leave.
• Spike camps do not work – keep your gear to a minimum and bring just one camp.
• If you’re camping in the high alpine, hunt goats early in the fall.
Patrick
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