Living in the rugged splendor of the West provides many opportunities for an average guy like me to bowhunt some of the most beautiful game in the most stunning terrain in the lower 48. There are times when I can’t help but sit in awe and soak in the scenery of this wide open country, and it is in those quiet moments that I realize how truly blessed I am to be able to experience God’s brush strokes first hand.

It is with this thought that I want to invite you personally to join me on the most anticipated Mossy Oak adventure of my hunting career. In 2008, I was lucky enough to have drawn a Colorado mountain goat tag in the clouds of the majestic Colorado Rockies after many years of applying.

My journey began almost seven years ago when I had the privilege to accompany and videotape a mountain goat hunt for a buddy of mine named Glenn Vlass. It was on that successful hunt that a spark was ignited and has continued to burn deep within my soul to return again to this vast high altitude landscape, but as the hunter. That time has finally come!

When I first checked the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s (CDOW) website, really expecting to see the words UNSUCCESSFUL DRAW next to my name, I was floored when I read that I had actually drawn a coveted mountain goat tag.  I could not believe my eyes. I not only did a double take at my computer monitor but a triple and quadruple, believing that somehow it must be a mistake. After a quick excited phone call to the CDOW affirming the results I went right to work.

My first plan of attack was to get together a team of people who had previously hunted these majestic white monarchs… anybody and everybody who might know something about hunting them. (I also called in as many favors as I could.)

I soon had a fabulous team gathered together with a wealth of mountain goat experience, enough folks to host a “team” meeting. Everyone arrived and we started off by watching some older video I had taken on my buddy’s previous mountain goat hunt. We then spent the evening discussing the ins and outs of field judging mountain goats, comparing notes on their high-altitude habitat and looking over maps to identify the different entry points my goat unit featured.

Sleep was hard to come by that night, as I lay awake trying to formulate a game plan of how I would be able to get within bow range of a trophy Pope and Young mountain goat on or about September 15, 2008.

In the Photo: Mountain goat scouting expeditions may result in real treasures, like Trevon’s close-focus photograph of a mountain goat lamb.

Editor's Note: Mossy Oak Pro Staffer Trevon Stoltzfus is a former collegiate wrestler and professional bull rider who was born and raised to the hunting lifestyle in southern New Mexico. Today he lives in northern Colorado where he is involved in a variety of outdoors media concerns including his www.westernbiggamehunter.com.

After this first installment of “The Mountain Goat Diaries” enjoys its initial rollout under the more visible “Perspectives” heading much of the rest of Trevon’s goat-hunt follow-up will be accessed from this home page under one of Mossyoak.com’s Pro Blog headings.