Thunder Head
Gone but not forgotten
Moose Valley Outfitters
British Columbia, Canada
Hunt dates: 9-9-13 thru 9-18-13
Guide: Brome Steffy
The long awaited day finally arrived and it was time to begin a 2 day trip just to get to the hunting grounds. I swear as soon as I enter an airport a flashing sign appears over my head that says “screw this guy over”. I wont bore you with the play by play. But between airline employees acting like they have never seen a gun before, missed flights and Customs agents that don’t know which animals need a Cities permit. To say I didn’t enjoy the there and back is an understatement. Oh and throw in 3 flat tires just to make sure the road trip portion was exciting too boot.
After traveling on gravel roads for 244 km you arrive at Moose Valley ranch. It’s a collection of log cabins barns and the lodge. You know you live in the booneys when your mail box is a 150 km away.
The scenery is absolutely breath taking. The view from the lodge.
The first morning we truck the horses down the road a few miles and head in hunting along the way. We see 2 cows and a calf in a meadow along the way. We stop to glass a couple of goats across the lake and have lunch. We cant really tell much about them except they have big bodies. The goats are not in a good place for stalking anyway so we head on to spike camp.
Cow moose
Goats are in the cliffs on the right side of the photo.
Spike camps consist of hunter cabin, cook cabin and tack cabin.
I wanted to try for a moose and a Mtn. goat. The guys felt it was best to go for the goat first and look for moose along the way. The hunting season is short here, so the guides go out in august and scout out different locations of big billies. We took a 2 hr. ride down the lake and up into a high basin. The only goats we could see were a couple miles away. They usually don’t ask clients to climb unless they can see a goat in a killable spot. I discussed with Brome what work out I had been doing to prepare so he asked if I wanted to climb to the top of the ridge line. I said lets go. The altitude is not real high here but it still affected me. It took me 55 minutes to gain the 1500 feet to the top. Brome says it takes most clients 2-4 hours. Maybe all that sweat I left on Currahee Mtn. this summer was worth it.
The horses are tied up near the lake on the left.
Brome checking the other side of the ridge for goats. Camp is near the lake in the background.
There were no goats up the ridge so we headed down the ridge. We went around a peak, dropped down a couple of hundred feet into a saddle and back up. As we look into the next basin we find three billies together.
View down the ridge.
View into the basin were we found the goats. One is feeding in the bottom. The other two are in the green patches closest to the spotting scope.
Eventually they all end up feeding in the green grass along the creek that runs along the base of the far slope. Brome comes up with this crazy idea to go all the way down the ridge and stalk up the creek to get close. We head down that way. After about half a mile we come to a saddle that dips within 400’ of the basin floor. Brome crouches down and is watching thru his binos. He waves me over. Two of the goats have feed into a depression in the basin floor. As we watch the third one disappears from view. Brome says lets get down there with them. We take off down the scree slope. Were about a 100’ from the bottom when one comes into view. We drop down perched on a steep scree slope. It only takes minutes to figure out I am sitting on a very pointy rock. They keep us pinned there for 40 minutes. Every time I tried to ease my cramping legs I would start sliding down the slope. Eventually they went behind some boulders and we crawled up to some small rocks. Brome breaks out the spotting scope. He looks over the goats. One obviously has a bigger body but all of there horns are about the same length. After about an hour they turn and start walking dead away from us. Brome says, there headed up high on the slope to bed down. We have two choices. We can head out and maybe they wont see us, or we can get down in the bottom with them and try to work around them. We take off for the bottom. We make it undetected and watch them from behind a small hill. They go up on a ledge and disappear from view. We take off jogging across the basin floor. 800, 600, 400 yards I see one we drop to the ground. He disappears again, we jog. 300, 200 there a group of rocks ahead. We get too them. I pull out the range finder, 150 yds. to the lip. The wind is bad. I get my pack off and lay it over a rock. Brome says they will probably run up on the slope, stop and look back. I give him the range finder. I no sooner get down on the gun than I see a back at the lip. A goat walks too the edge and looks straight in our direction. I know its not the biggest one but who’s going to pass up a 150 yd. shot on a Mtn. goat. Hes quartering too me. I bury the cross hairs on the point of his shoulder and let him have it. I loose him in the recoil. When I look up hes gone. Brome ask me if I hit him. I say the shot felt good. We wait and wait and then wait some more. Brome says im going up there and don’t shoot unless you see all three. He gives me that look that says “ and don’t shoot me ! ” About that time I see a goat off to the right. I rotate around and get on them. Only two come out. Brome walks towards them and they amble off up thru the cliffs. When Brome steps up on the ledge he gives me a thumbs up and a big smile. The goat didn’t make it 10 yards. The bullet slide past the shoulder bone and blew the top off both lungs.
We take a few photos and start skinning. Brome says were pushing it with the daylight. By the time we finish the job we have three hours of daylight left. He says we need to be back to the horses in one hour. I take off jogging across the basin and up to the saddle. Brome is lagging behind. Im like that’s how you slow him down, just put 40 pounds of hide and horn on his back. (I find out later he forgot his water bottle and has only had a couple of sips all day). We make it back to the horses in about 75 minutes. Just when it got so dark I couldn’t see branches coming, I saw the lights from the camp.
Happy hunter riding off the mountain.
Alright, we have 8 days left to get a moose. We glassed in the morning and evening and recovered the meat and fleshed the hide during the middle of the day. Its hot, not Georgia hot, but hotter than any of them have ever seen in September. I expected to still see moose, just very early and very late. We didnt.What followed was miles and miles of leg twisting, butt busting, gut wrenching pain on the back of a horse. All I got for it was a nice sunburn. We ended up seeing 3 more moose on the 7th day when it rained. The bull was to small. We never returned to that area. Still scratching my head over that.
A lot of thoughts go thru your head during times like this. I really struggled with the fact that I only saw one bull moose in 10 days. I kept my mouth shut and left on good terms. After getting back im hearing that it was the same for a lot of folks. Too hot and little to no movement.
Would I do this hunt again, probably not. The only reason is quite simple. Me and horses just aren’t made for each other.
The only other thing I would caution someone about is your gear. Between all the brush busting and horse sweating my pristine rifle stock got trashed and my barrel has rust on it. They want you to hang your pack off the saddle horn to counter balance your rifle. I got a compression strap and waist buckle ripped off and several places of busted stiching.
Some other photos:
British Columbia, Canada
Hunt dates: 9-9-13 thru 9-18-13
Guide: Brome Steffy
The long awaited day finally arrived and it was time to begin a 2 day trip just to get to the hunting grounds. I swear as soon as I enter an airport a flashing sign appears over my head that says “screw this guy over”. I wont bore you with the play by play. But between airline employees acting like they have never seen a gun before, missed flights and Customs agents that don’t know which animals need a Cities permit. To say I didn’t enjoy the there and back is an understatement. Oh and throw in 3 flat tires just to make sure the road trip portion was exciting too boot.
After traveling on gravel roads for 244 km you arrive at Moose Valley ranch. It’s a collection of log cabins barns and the lodge. You know you live in the booneys when your mail box is a 150 km away.
The scenery is absolutely breath taking. The view from the lodge.
The first morning we truck the horses down the road a few miles and head in hunting along the way. We see 2 cows and a calf in a meadow along the way. We stop to glass a couple of goats across the lake and have lunch. We cant really tell much about them except they have big bodies. The goats are not in a good place for stalking anyway so we head on to spike camp.
Cow moose
Goats are in the cliffs on the right side of the photo.
Spike camps consist of hunter cabin, cook cabin and tack cabin.
I wanted to try for a moose and a Mtn. goat. The guys felt it was best to go for the goat first and look for moose along the way. The hunting season is short here, so the guides go out in august and scout out different locations of big billies. We took a 2 hr. ride down the lake and up into a high basin. The only goats we could see were a couple miles away. They usually don’t ask clients to climb unless they can see a goat in a killable spot. I discussed with Brome what work out I had been doing to prepare so he asked if I wanted to climb to the top of the ridge line. I said lets go. The altitude is not real high here but it still affected me. It took me 55 minutes to gain the 1500 feet to the top. Brome says it takes most clients 2-4 hours. Maybe all that sweat I left on Currahee Mtn. this summer was worth it.
The horses are tied up near the lake on the left.
Brome checking the other side of the ridge for goats. Camp is near the lake in the background.
There were no goats up the ridge so we headed down the ridge. We went around a peak, dropped down a couple of hundred feet into a saddle and back up. As we look into the next basin we find three billies together.
View down the ridge.
View into the basin were we found the goats. One is feeding in the bottom. The other two are in the green patches closest to the spotting scope.
Eventually they all end up feeding in the green grass along the creek that runs along the base of the far slope. Brome comes up with this crazy idea to go all the way down the ridge and stalk up the creek to get close. We head down that way. After about half a mile we come to a saddle that dips within 400’ of the basin floor. Brome crouches down and is watching thru his binos. He waves me over. Two of the goats have feed into a depression in the basin floor. As we watch the third one disappears from view. Brome says lets get down there with them. We take off down the scree slope. Were about a 100’ from the bottom when one comes into view. We drop down perched on a steep scree slope. It only takes minutes to figure out I am sitting on a very pointy rock. They keep us pinned there for 40 minutes. Every time I tried to ease my cramping legs I would start sliding down the slope. Eventually they went behind some boulders and we crawled up to some small rocks. Brome breaks out the spotting scope. He looks over the goats. One obviously has a bigger body but all of there horns are about the same length. After about an hour they turn and start walking dead away from us. Brome says, there headed up high on the slope to bed down. We have two choices. We can head out and maybe they wont see us, or we can get down in the bottom with them and try to work around them. We take off for the bottom. We make it undetected and watch them from behind a small hill. They go up on a ledge and disappear from view. We take off jogging across the basin floor. 800, 600, 400 yards I see one we drop to the ground. He disappears again, we jog. 300, 200 there a group of rocks ahead. We get too them. I pull out the range finder, 150 yds. to the lip. The wind is bad. I get my pack off and lay it over a rock. Brome says they will probably run up on the slope, stop and look back. I give him the range finder. I no sooner get down on the gun than I see a back at the lip. A goat walks too the edge and looks straight in our direction. I know its not the biggest one but who’s going to pass up a 150 yd. shot on a Mtn. goat. Hes quartering too me. I bury the cross hairs on the point of his shoulder and let him have it. I loose him in the recoil. When I look up hes gone. Brome ask me if I hit him. I say the shot felt good. We wait and wait and then wait some more. Brome says im going up there and don’t shoot unless you see all three. He gives me that look that says “ and don’t shoot me ! ” About that time I see a goat off to the right. I rotate around and get on them. Only two come out. Brome walks towards them and they amble off up thru the cliffs. When Brome steps up on the ledge he gives me a thumbs up and a big smile. The goat didn’t make it 10 yards. The bullet slide past the shoulder bone and blew the top off both lungs.
We take a few photos and start skinning. Brome says were pushing it with the daylight. By the time we finish the job we have three hours of daylight left. He says we need to be back to the horses in one hour. I take off jogging across the basin and up to the saddle. Brome is lagging behind. Im like that’s how you slow him down, just put 40 pounds of hide and horn on his back. (I find out later he forgot his water bottle and has only had a couple of sips all day). We make it back to the horses in about 75 minutes. Just when it got so dark I couldn’t see branches coming, I saw the lights from the camp.
Happy hunter riding off the mountain.
Alright, we have 8 days left to get a moose. We glassed in the morning and evening and recovered the meat and fleshed the hide during the middle of the day. Its hot, not Georgia hot, but hotter than any of them have ever seen in September. I expected to still see moose, just very early and very late. We didnt.What followed was miles and miles of leg twisting, butt busting, gut wrenching pain on the back of a horse. All I got for it was a nice sunburn. We ended up seeing 3 more moose on the 7th day when it rained. The bull was to small. We never returned to that area. Still scratching my head over that.
A lot of thoughts go thru your head during times like this. I really struggled with the fact that I only saw one bull moose in 10 days. I kept my mouth shut and left on good terms. After getting back im hearing that it was the same for a lot of folks. Too hot and little to no movement.
Would I do this hunt again, probably not. The only reason is quite simple. Me and horses just aren’t made for each other.
The only other thing I would caution someone about is your gear. Between all the brush busting and horse sweating my pristine rifle stock got trashed and my barrel has rust on it. They want you to hang your pack off the saddle horn to counter balance your rifle. I got a compression strap and waist buckle ripped off and several places of busted stiching.
Some other photos:
Dont know how Id do either. A mountain goat is definitely on my hitlist though! Thanks for sharing your adventure!
