Despite the fact that there
are 534 miles of trails in the
Eagle Caps, none of them take
you directly to the mountain
goats. That would be too easy.
And hunting mountain goats
is anything but easy. There are
a few trails that get you close
enough to your trophy of a life-
time. And 16-year-old Lonnie
Lay, one of the lucky hunters
who drew an Oregon goat tag
in 2017, not only learned first-
hand the trail system, but the
difficulty and satisfaction of
hunting the Eagle Caps.
Lay was one of 564 hunters
who applied for the “once in a
lifetime” tag and was the only
person drawn for the Cusick
Mountain Unit in Oregon. The
unit had been closed for nine
years, and it held some excep-
tional goats. The question was
would he find one the older,
more mature billies?
September 8, the day before
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WESTERN HUNTING JOURNAL
mountain goat season opened,
Lonnie’s hunting party all met
in the small town of Wallowa,
at the Eagle Cap Wilderness
Outfitters base. As a fortunate
member of his hunting party,
I was able to witness firsthand
a youth hunter and his father
realize a dream come true. We
quickly sorted gear leaving
items behind that would just be
added weight. We were pack-
ing in 12 miles on horses and
mules to set up our base camp
high in the mountains to hunt
from. Our camp was on a small
mountain bench at 8,500 feet in
elevation.
When Lay learned he drew
the tag, both he and his fa-
ther, Dan, started doing some
research. Dan spoke with the
local ODFW office, and eventu-
ally hired outfitter Wes Gorbett,
owner of Eagle Cap Wilderness
Outfitters. Wes was born and
raised in the area and has spent
Left, the trail into Cusick Mountain Unit.
Below, Lonnie’s goat is bedded up against the rock outcropping
center of picture.
literally thousands of hours
outfitting and packing hunters,
hikers, campers and riding the
trails in the Eagle Caps.
Our hunting party of six avid
outdoorsmen included Lonnie
and Dan, Lonnie’s cousin Joe,
Wes, Jim, who would watch
camp while we were gone
during the day, and me, the
camp “jack of all trades”. I had
spent time in the unit looking at
goats during the summer prior
to the hunt and I had also been
on a successful goat hunt in the
nearby West Hurricane unit
the year prior. I was honored to
have been a part of the hunt.
There are two trails leading
to the Cusick Mountain Unit
and we chose the West Fork
Wallowa trail. Five hours of rid-
ing in breathtaking beautiful
country alongside a pristine
river, through alpine meadows,
then up numerous switchbacks
and narrow trails we arrived
at our camp spot. We all were
in amazement of the beauty of
our camp location, but need-
ed to get camp set up and find
the water source before dark.
We had researched geographic
maps locating water just a few
hundred yards away, but was
not easily accessed. We had
to climb into a steep ravine to
get to it, but it was worth every
ounce of energy it took. The wa-
ter was pure and flowed out of
a crack in the solid granite just
a few yards away. We would lat-
er use Jim’s horse to pack the
five-gallon jug of water back to
camp a couple hundred yards
away. Six guys go through a lot
of water.
With all the tents pitched
on small level spots below Po-
laris Pass (9,395 feet) and water
collected, ready for cooking
and filling our water contain-
ers for the hunt the next day
we had a little time to take in
our surroundings before it got
dark. The view below was of
the Lakes Basin in which we
could see a few of the lakes and
to Cusick Mountain towering
above us to the south at (9,518
feet). The twilight colors went
from deep reds to flame orange
and yellow. Two-hundred miles
away, the Eagle Creek Fire