2008 November Archive at sagecattabriga-alosa.com

In a effort to get some fall training in my Housemate Jack Pilot and I decided we would hike up Mt. Superior. Instead of heading up the trail that leads to Cartiff we decided to go straight up the fall line between Little Superior and Hell Gate. Deciding that it would be a good challenge, good exercise, and we could do a loop and hike back down the trail was our justification. The climb proved difficult because of lots of loose rock scree, but gave us some unique vantage points to scope the terrain. Elevation was gained quickly, and we soon were upon the ridge.

As I crested the jagged rock spine, I heard a rustling. Thinking it was a hiker who smartly took the trail, I turned to see who was making the noise, and to my surprise a small herd of 6 mountain goats was looking back at me with cautious stares. I then notices that we had come over the ridge and split the group, with 6 or so on the left and 4 goats to my right. The 4 to the right slowly disappeared behind a bolder so I crept up with my camera ready, and peaked over the rock. 10 feet away the creatures stood, sniffing the air, scanning the terrain, and acting fairly confident. As I moved back out of sight from the animals I looked back to see one of them had closed the gap, seemingly keeping a eye on me, again as close as 10 feet away I snapped some more photos partially frozen. We stood like that for 10 min. or more before the goats slowly retreated down the north side of the slope, and we continued up the jagged knife edge. Farther up on the hike we looked down to see the heard reunited, and we realized that there were many more that we hadn’t seen. In total we counted 16 goats.

It was a cool feeling being so close to a fairly large herd of wild animals, and the first time I had ever seen mountain goats other that from afar. They were fairly chill, somewhat curious, and cautious to our actions, but for a few minutes we all were hanging out, enjoying the mountains, training for winter.