I lined up and sent a 200 grain accubond down range. The goat hobbled a bit, but was still standing. Lined up and fired again. This time there was a big thud. I seen blood down the side of the goat. The goat took two steps back behind the alders and fell over. I sat there for a few moments and watched it. I scooted back down to the camera. As I hit play, the footage wasn't what I was hoping for. It was a ****ty camera, yes... but went I hit the record button the camera shifted. There's a close up of the muzzle of my rifle and that's it. So I grabbed that and packed up the rest of my gear. By now it was 1 o'clock.
I had to head back down and over to the east side of the granite, then up to the top, across to the west side, down a bit and back up. This took me an hour. But during this time I started to replay what went down in my head. Then doubt of weather it was a billy or not started to creep in. Everything I read about judging goats and all the goats I've watched said it was a billy. Wide bases, gradual curved horns, dirty patch on his ass, big shoulder told me it was a billy. But the horns seemed a little long... maybe the bases weren't as heavy as I though, maybe it was a nanny... but it was alone, so if it is a nanny, I didn't break any laws. I just wanted to get to the goat and make sure.
When I got to the goat, I ended up a little lower than it. But when I looked up I seen blood everywhere in the snow. As I was walking up the blood trail went to my left. Looked over and there was a goat face looking at me. All I could think was "Sully... you son of a bitch". The goat was maybe only 10 yards away through alders. I climbed up a little higher, with my rifle in hand to get a better view. Just as I got a clear line of sight, the goat jumped up. At the same time I got my rifle up and put the last round into it.
As he lay
I finally got to put my hands on my first billy goat gruff. I grabbed his horns. At least twice the size of my penis... so he had to be at least 6". But he wasn't in an ideal spot to work on. I unhooked him from the alders and he went sliding down the hill and shooting through the frozen alders. I was almost behind him, but I was hanging on to the vegetation.
Got back to my feet and climbed down to him. He still wasn't in a great spot, and letting gravity pack him off the mountain seemed a lot better than hiking him down. So I carefully played goat plinko down the hill. Until he ended up out of the snow. Then I had my photo session. This was around 4:00pm.
Only had bit of daylight left and I wasn't set up for an overnighter what so ever. I deboned him as best/quick as I could. Loaded up some meat and started my way down via head lamp. I didn't really want to leave the cape and skull behind... or at least near the rest of the carcass. So I grabbed some string and ran it along the length of the horn and cut it to length. Then I wrapped a piece around the base and cut it to length. I put the two pieces of string in my pocket and left the skull and cape behind.
By now it was pitch black and the fog had moved in. I had to travel five feet at a time. I also knew below me somewhere(and not very far) was a big death gorge. So I slowly picked my way over to some alders. Climbed down those until I ran out. Every step was calculated and made sure It wasn't more than two feet down to my next step. When I ran out of alders, I'd go up the other side until I could cross over to more alders.
At the one point I ran out of alders, there was only another granite face about 10 feet wide. On the other side I could see cedar trees. I held onto the alders and reached out with my leg and found a footing. I got out there, but couldn't reach the cedar branch on the far side. I couldn't reach back to the alders either. I also didn't know what was below me. At this point I was getting pretty tempted to hitting the SOS on my Spot. I could almost reach the cedar branch. So I made a big leap of faith to try and grab the branch. I got a hold of it but couldn't hang on. I ended up slipping off and down I went. I slid maybe 10 feet into vegetation again. Vegetation that ended up being at the bottom of the hill I was trying to get off of. I didn't even try to find the trail out. I just made a straight bee line through the trees back to the road. I ended up coming out 20 yards from the vehicle.
By now it was 10pm. I seen the measuring tape in the cup holder and remembered about the string in my pocket. Put them against the tape... 10 inch length and 5.5 inch base. Obviously not official... but bigger than anything I hoped for.