Unit G11 (the Raggeds)

What CPW publishes for unit G11 is a boundary, not a mountain goat map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Gunnison and Pitkin counties.

The lines of the unit: CR 3 (Marble Rd.), USFS 314 (Crystal River Rd.) and USFS 317 (Schofield Pass Rd.)

CPW has unit G11 bounded on the north by CR 3 (Marble Rd.), USFS 314 (Crystal River Rd.) and USFS 317 (Schofield Pass Rd.); on the east by USFS 317 (Gothic Rd.) and Gunnison CR 317 (Crested Butte Rd.); on the south by Gunnison CR 12 (Kebler Pass Rd.); on the west by Colo. 133. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.

High ground inside the line: Treasure Mountain, Treasury Mountain and Ruby Range

Named high points inside the unit include Treasure Mountain at 13,516 feet, Treasury Mountain at 13,456 feet, Ruby Range at 13,040 feet, Mount Owen at 13,040 feet and Purple Mountain at 12,924 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Goats live above the trees on cliff and talus and come down only when weather makes them.

Holding ground: Little Silver Basin, Dippold Basin and Red Lady Basin

Below them sit Little Silver Basin at 11,619 feet, Dippold Basin at 11,615 feet, Red Lady Basin at 11,539 feet, Elk Basin at 11,460 feet and Bear Basin at 11,216 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Beaver Lake SWA

CPW lists Beaver Lake SWA inside this unit as ground open to public hunting. Each property sets its own restrictions, and the agency's page for it is where they are written down. Federal land covers about 62% of the unit on top of those.

The herd this unit belongs to: MG-11

CPW does not manage mountain goat unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit MG-11, and unit G11 is one piece of it. CPW puts no other unit in MG-11, so this unit carries the herd on its own. Read a neighbour in the same herd before you read the state average — the herd, not the unit line, is what the agency is steering.

CPW's own harvest estimates put mountain goat success in unit G11 at 77% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: glass from across the basin, judge the climb honestly, and decide whether a hit animal could be recovered.

Glassing from Ragged Peak, Crystal Peak and Ruby Peak

Take a position on one of Ragged Peak (12,636 ft), Crystal Peak (12,629 ft), Ruby Peak (12,610 ft) and Afley Peak (12,606 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, early hunts find goats higher and later hunts find them pushed down by snow.

Getting past the roads

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter. One mapped public entry point falls inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

The way in: CR 3, USFS 314 and USFS 317

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: CR 3, USFS 314, USFS 317, Gunnison CR 317 and Gunnison CR 12. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Park on the boundary and walk; a unit you can only enter from its rim rewards whoever is willing to leave the truck at the rim.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Treasure Mountain, Ruby Range, Purple Mountain and Mount Baldy as places to see from, and Gunsight Pass, Angel Pass, Yule Pass and Beaver Lake SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

248 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

What we can't tell you

Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.