Friday Morning:
Did not sleep well. Every time I moved a sharp pain ripped
through my leg. I had an awful time getting out of bed as the
leg felt like a stiff piece of wood. I lay in my sleeping bag
wondering just what the heck I did to it and then I felt it.
I confirmed by feeling my right knee cap that something was not
right. The right knee was a solid piece of bone, the left one
was not. I was pretty sure the cap was broken. It was bruised
and swollen twice the size of the right one. But the good news
is I could still hunt I would just have to be super careful and
take it very slow.
We got up a little later than normal being that we were only
an hour away from the action now. As Johnnie got his gear together
I spotted a magnificent sight of a Nanny taking her newborn across
a sheer face cliff across the valley. I snapped a couple pictures
of them then got ready for the hunt.
My knee was a mess but the pain would work itself out after
a tough climb. I was hobbling but it was sure better than being
a camp queen during this stretch of clear weather.
We moved up to the highest peak on the Mt. and had lunch.
During lunch I called Johnnie over to come check out our new
friend - coming up the mountain pass. A tiny black bear cub,
all alone, was heading right for us. But as soon as he winded
us he fled back down the Mt. Johnnie explained that the cub had
either been seperated from his mother or she was killed by a
boar black bear or brown bear trying to protect him. This is
why some bears never leave the alpine and fish like the other
bears. He sure was tiny.
Friday Afternoon
We moved on down the hillside until I caught movement. A lone
goat was feeding in a meadow below us. Time for another stalk.
I moved down closer with Johnnie and we both stalked close. After
a lot of glassing it was obvious that this was a dry nanny or
small billy. While legal, I passed on the goat and opted to take
pictures instead.
After I took this picture above, I crept along the backside
of the hill but this goat picked me off and headed for goat country....
We spotted goats all over the place including several back
on the ledges where I had shot my billy two days earlier. We
decided to wait out the afternoon at a major mountain pass. At
dusk we called it quits and wouldn't you know, ran into a goat
on our way out.
It was a great day with lots of goats seen and many close
encounters. My knee is still hanging in there. Johnnie used his
portable Marine radio to cancel our bush pickup for Sunday AM
and move it out to Wednesday AM. We were staying right here.