Three friends and I took our 6 goats up to the East side of White pass for 3 days and it was great!!! Do to work schedules we missed archery elk but archery deer and bear season where still open. We also brought fishing gear. The hike up to camp was only 4 miles with about 1000ft of gain. My 3 boys killed it. I had them all loaded at 20-22%. I think that is there sweet spot. They all kept up and seemed to enjoybthem selves. One of my friends had his two goats a Alpine/Ober and a Ober. They did not do so hot. We ended up taking gear of the Alpine/ ober cross and puting its gear on another goat. It was kind of a Gong Show. Once we all got to camp it was fine. Of course in true WA style it was raining and cold, but we got tarps up for the goats and us and it was fine.
Food was awesome. Pack goats allow us eat like kings. The first night we had dutch oven baked pork tenderloin, corn on the cob and fresh baked roles, the second night we had Chicken/beef sir fly with tons of veggies. Both meals turned out really good, but it is also pretty hard to mess up dutch oven cooking on a nice bed of fresh coals. Breakfasts where just as good. One morning we did sausage, pancakes with fresh picked huckleberries and eggs. The next morning we made a huge egg scramble with the left over stir fry meat and veggies as well as the rest of the roles. I think we went through a pound and a half of coffee in our perk coffe make. Camp cire coffee is the best.
The weather was wet the first day and night. The second day was clearish and very cold. The 3rd day was perfect in the 70's and sunny. All of us (goats included) spent the late morning laying in the sun relaxing! It was a great last morning.
We camped on a small lake. There are so many lakes in that white pass area. Everyday after breakfast we would pack up our fishing gear and head out to a new lake or two. The fishing was way better than the reports we read. Nice health trout in the 12"-16" range. As a group we probably caught 3 or so. We only ate 3 and man did they task great!!! One of the funnist parts of fishing was just watching the goats chilling out and roaming around in a big herd. They did so good just walking around between us all eating and fighting. So cool.
The hunting was not very good. I did get into a herd of elk with Steve one morning which was very cool. We did not see any deer, but did see some beer sign. I did 2 mornings and a evening of predator calling but did not bring anything in. It is all good with me, 95% of hunting is just being out there. It was my first time hunting we ith a trailing goat, it seemed to not really matter. The elk saw steam and just kinda ignored him.
Camp life was fine. We left the goats loose in camp, they did really well at that also. It only took a few warnings for them to stay out of our small seating/ cooking area. I still let Steve come in but he is more of a person that a goat anyway!
All in all it was a great trip!! The group of guys could not have been better. The menu was rediculas. My goats could not have done better. All the hours of just walking around and mini trips 100% paid of. They are truelly amazing and loyal animals. It was one of the guys first camping trip as well as first time he had been fishing and he cant wait to go back out again. Another great goat trip in the book!!!
Food was awesome. Pack goats allow us eat like kings. The first night we had dutch oven baked pork tenderloin, corn on the cob and fresh baked roles, the second night we had Chicken/beef sir fly with tons of veggies. Both meals turned out really good, but it is also pretty hard to mess up dutch oven cooking on a nice bed of fresh coals. Breakfasts where just as good. One morning we did sausage, pancakes with fresh picked huckleberries and eggs. The next morning we made a huge egg scramble with the left over stir fry meat and veggies as well as the rest of the roles. I think we went through a pound and a half of coffee in our perk coffe make. Camp cire coffee is the best.
The weather was wet the first day and night. The second day was clearish and very cold. The 3rd day was perfect in the 70's and sunny. All of us (goats included) spent the late morning laying in the sun relaxing! It was a great last morning.
We camped on a small lake. There are so many lakes in that white pass area. Everyday after breakfast we would pack up our fishing gear and head out to a new lake or two. The fishing was way better than the reports we read. Nice health trout in the 12"-16" range. As a group we probably caught 3 or so. We only ate 3 and man did they task great!!! One of the funnist parts of fishing was just watching the goats chilling out and roaming around in a big herd. They did so good just walking around between us all eating and fighting. So cool.
The hunting was not very good. I did get into a herd of elk with Steve one morning which was very cool. We did not see any deer, but did see some beer sign. I did 2 mornings and a evening of predator calling but did not bring anything in. It is all good with me, 95% of hunting is just being out there. It was my first time hunting we ith a trailing goat, it seemed to not really matter. The elk saw steam and just kinda ignored him.
Camp life was fine. We left the goats loose in camp, they did really well at that also. It only took a few warnings for them to stay out of our small seating/ cooking area. I still let Steve come in but he is more of a person that a goat anyway!
All in all it was a great trip!! The group of guys could not have been better. The menu was rediculas. My goats could not have done better. All the hours of just walking around and mini trips 100% paid of. They are truelly amazing and loyal animals. It was one of the guys first camping trip as well as first time he had been fishing and he cant wait to go back out again. Another great goat trip in the book!!!