Animals have always been a big part of my life. I have always felt a certain connection to them. I have never felt never the way I did when I got the chance to photograph Mountain Goats in the Olympic Mountains, it became an obsession.
The Mountain Goats aren't actually suppose to inhabit the Olympic Mountains. They got introduced to the area by a farmer who lived in the area wanted them as pets. In the early 1925's, he transferred a four mountain goats from the Cascade Mountains to his home. Well, these creatures didn't stay. They escaped into the mountains. Over decades the population of the goats went from the lonely four to about a thousand. Due to certain plants being disturbed, since 1990's the goats have been slowly been removed from the area. Today there are about 300 left in the area.
These animals actually are quite mean. You should always take precaution around wild animals. Just last year, a man was killed by a male mountain goat. This happened at Hurricane Ridge. A popular place people enjoy hiking, myself included.
In June of 2010 my roommate and I were hiking at the switchback trail up at a place called Hurricane Ridge. Once we got high enough there was still patches of snow. We had been hiking for a good hour and half when got to a snow bank, which looked unsettling to me. My roommate egged me on to walk across it. I got half way out in this patch of area of snow. Were I was standing does not exist in the late summer and fall. I was standing on piles of ice and snow. I turned around cause we had decided we had gone far enough for the trip. As I turn around from behind the tree that I had just walked by, were these two huge white beasts. Quiet and strong, they walked up and around us. I was taken back for moment, not sure how to act. In the end I acted how any photographer would. I started shooting! No, I wasn't killing them.
As the camera lifted to my eye and the I started analyzing the viewfinder, I found my heart fluttering. You could say; "Heather, you were probably just scared." I was scared but this was the flutter of a new love. Like when you go on a good date with someone and at the end of the night your heart has this nice flutter to it. Yeah, you what am talking about. Maybe this way I have yet to find a new love to my life cause it's been taken away by these creatures. Then my finger pressed down on the shutter button and one by one. I was inspired, time stood still as they started walking away. They walk around the ridge in front of us. My roommate wanted to know where they were going. She started heading towards the direction they had gone. All of sudden there were again, this time on top of the ridge. Their heads were down and coming strait towards us. The minute I saw them pop their head back up, that flutter in my heart came back.
In the end, we were escorted off the mountain. They followed us almost all the way down off the trail. Ever since that day I have gone back, hoping to see them again. So, what does this have to do with our trip? The Cascades have they own heard of Mountain Goats. I hope to come across these beautiful animals again.
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