My time in the hills....

[GF.]

And continuing with the 'gettin turned around' theme...

Last night, coming down in that rain, I took a real obvious, 'you could never get lost doin' that' kind of a shortcut - just trimming a corner off of a right-angle turn in the trail, but because of the terrain, I kept drifting to the right of where I had planned on getting to. You do that long enough in that spot, and you can get into a hellish side-hill route that will just about kill you with nothing but your daypack along, so I probably overcorrected for a while until I hit a familiar trail....

It's amazing to see this place after 10 years. The beetles have killed most of the pines, and without more sunlight reaching the ground and so much less water getting pumped out of the ground by the remaining pines, it's really grassy now, with a lot of browse. Thing was, though, walking through it all got my legs so wet that my feet were squishing in my socks just from water wicking its way down. Without some artificial assistance getting 'em dry last night, I'd be hosed this morning.

Especially since dawn looked pretty bright, but then a front rolled in and we've got snow accumulating. Had I started up the hill this morning to see if I could catch anything down low, I'd be in really deep guano by now. Running for cover as soon as the snow started to fly I might have gotten down with little more than really cold hands & feet, but had I killed an Elk, I think I'd really end up wishing that I hadn't...

Planning to take a look at this afternoon, though. Dressed right - and with a release on-hand - I might have a chance of getting into some animals before it gets too late.... But the thought of gutting out an Elk in the dark... in 10,000', snow-fall temperatures.... by myself.... with a bear up there which shows very little aversion to humans... I guess that might be more adventure than a guy my age really needs in order to feel Alive.

Skidding a whitetail out of a small, suburban woodlot is one thing. This is something else....

[postoak]

Your feet got wet from what? I don't understand that part.

I'd be tempted to not hunt after 1PM because of all the reasons you state.

[DaveHawk]

Its not hard to do GF. I just rented a piece of property I hunting from 80-86 this year, the place is totally different. Easy to get turned around, I had to take 2 days to figure the place out again. Basic deer pattens were the same just that the thickets were larger and the trees were higher.

[dave-t.]

Good luck out there GF.

[GF.]

Dave - it was the heavy, heavy drizzle/rain that did me in. Used to be that you could walk all day up there and stay pretty dry because there was no wet, sloppy vegetation. Now it's everywhere!

So this morning I ordered up a pair of gaiters, a pair of gloves and a wool hat from Sierra Trading Post, plus enough socks to get me up to the $100 minimum for free shipping and 20% off....

"But Sweetie.... I'm saving money!"

Lucky to find decent gloves for so cheap, though... my hands were really getting pretty cold in that wet - especially the finger that I had taped up after the broadhead incident. It wasn't tight enough to stop the bleeding, but it sure as hell got the circulation down.

You know, that Commander is a pretty damn heavy bow. :eek: Really makes me miss the old Hunter, but I'm gonna try and rig a sling of some sort....

And since my earlier post, we've gone from just above freezing and heavy, blowing snow to 40 degrees and sunny- to burn off the inch that had piled up - and now we're into another front with heavy snow squalls passing through every 10-15 minutes.

So I'm thinking to head up again in a bit, packing enough warm stuff to keep me out o' trouble. And plenty of trail-marking tape.

[GF.]

Will write it up and post as time permits....:D

[Twanger]

Hunting big mountainous terrain is so far and away different than whacking does in suburban back yards...

What you're doing is something I miss greatly. I used to go to the mountains to climb them, but going there to hunt is something that I know I'd have loved to do when I was younger and stronger.

It's one thing for a 50-something year old that's lived in the mountains all his life to pick up a weapon and heavy pack and head up to 10,000 ft. He's got a real good chance.

It's a completely different kettle of fish for a 50-something that's overweight and hasn't been above tree-line for several years to go walk those woods with a big pack on their back.

Do let your head write checks that your body can't cash!

[ncboman]

I climbed to the peak of a talll roof yesterday to measure it.

The woman asked my son, 'why is he sitting down?' :confused:

'He's resting.' :D

[GF.]

That was a good piece of it....:D

Don't know if I already discussed striking Little Bro's & his buddy's camp and hauling the tent, sleeping bags & pads (for two!), plus stove, fuel, food, spare clothing and an old wool blanket off of the hill for them. Along with my day-pack & bow, that was a 60-65 pound trip down.... Good thing I forgot that release or it really would've been a heavy load.... :rolleyes:

So that - along with the broadhead incident- pretty much killed my Sunday. Monday, I had told the boss I'd work, but I did get up the hill long enough after work hours (Eastern) to freeze my tail off in the snow. Bumped several mulies that way, and bumped a lone Elk out of its bed....

Tuesday I bumped the same Elk a second time - or at least an Elk in the same spot. But that morning got off to a late start and I had to come down early to head into Denver for a couple of my folks' doctor appointments on Wednesday. It was pretty easy to talk myself into quitting, I'll admit, because it was still cold & snowy, with just enough accumulation to squeak & groan underfoot. Not too stealthy....

Then the services for sis-in-law's grandma were on Thursday, which freed up LB's Friday evening and weekend for hunting, which meant we had to pack it all back up the hill again. Except for the tent. A neighbor who camps in the same clearing had a 3-man up there, so we only had to bring that one down at the end of the season on Sunday....

So I was all set to get up & at 'em on Friday morning, except that my dad offered me a piece of chewing gum while we were in the car.... which was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I pulled a filling. :mad: Got it patched up first thing Friday morning, though, and hit the camp in time to hear about all the Elk that the two guys already up there had seen that morning. :eek:

Anyway, I went with them in the evening and that was the most exciting that the trip got, really. Little Bro and his buddy bumped a cow as they hunted their way up, and she came trotting through a spot where I had set up. I spotted her way on out there as just a flicker in the trees, but she kept coming closer....closer.....full draw.... Dead stop. Behind a tree.:D

She stared me down for about 10-15 seconds while I knelt at full draw, trying not to look at her until she stepped out. But of course she wheeled right out o' there with no shot.

TWO IMPORTANT LESSONS FOR A CONTRAPTION CONVERT:

1) I hadn't even thought about what pin I was going to use. Turns out that she was just about right for either my #1 or #2 pin, and since I had gotten the bow up to where both would have been in the vitals, I think I would have been just fine had she taken another step or two and I had just squeezed off when she stepped into the clear, but bottom line is that a pin shooter has to pick one!

2) I got busted on the draw. Part of it was because I didn't think she'd actually come into range until she was already there, but I could have drawn earlier and hopefully have been shielded by some kind of cover and her own movement. Of course, she might have spotted my movement even while on the run and then she would have busted me while still out of range, but if you've got a let-off, then hell, man, plan ahead and find a good time to draw so that you can use it.

Anyway, about then a couple of guys from a nearby camp wandered through, so I figured I was SOL in that spot and started working into the wind to see if anything might be coming through the area they'd just left. He busted me, but I did manage to spot a huge-bodied spike (in a 4-points or 6" brow tine minimum area and with a cow-only tag, of course). He was probably right in range for my #3 pin, which is, practically speaking, as far as I could ever see myself taking a hunting shot, but like I say, he was just enormous... and perfectly broadside.... right in a perfect shooting lane...... of course.....:rolleyes:

Still mighty cool to see him. Be cooler still to catch up with him next year.... or maybe 3-4 years down the line....:D

Man, was he big!:eek:

And really, that was the emotional high point of the effort. The topographical high point came on Saturday when we worked up to about 11,000 feet, where we set up and my brother cow-talked enough to hear a response. But then the dot-com billionaire who owns the ranch down below opened up with a little automatic weapons practice....:rolleyes:


PaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPu p!

PaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPu p!

PaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPu p!

PaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPa PaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPup!

The guy must've blown $1000 in ammo while we were sitting there.....

Later on, we got back to camp and heard about how the guy who slept in 'til 11:00 had nearly had shots on at least one cow and a completely clueless calf, but we didn't see anything but mule deer ourselves 'til that evening when we busted a coupla cows... I saw them from far enough out that I might actually have been able to put a sneak on 'em, but they caught either LB or his buddy while they were moving and just blew on out o' there.....

Sunday morning was our last shot; LB hunted the longest & hardest.... and saw goose-egg for his efforts. His buddy spotted a bull with a coupla cows, but at scope&rifle range and never managed to catch up. And I had a little fun.... I was sneaking through a travel area, hoping for some late traffic, when I saw something that was just too darn white to belong where it was (seeing as the snow had almost all melted off and we were back to 60-degree weather by then). Turned out to be what was at least a 2.5 YO mulie buck; 4X5 or maybe 4X6, not counting the brow tines, and a real interesting 3-pointed 'crown' on his left side, kinda like a Red. I sneaked in another 20-25 yards or so, doing the leopard crawl and using a 12" pine for cover, and tried to get some decent pics, but at 65 yards, the digital just wasn't up to the task...:(

I knew I'd never get outta there without scaring him off, so I finally let him bust me, and he - of course - trotted ahead into the area I'd hoped to hunt next, so that pretty well killed the day. It was OK, though, I guess. He's definitely the biggest buck I've ever seen up there, and had I been packing a scoped rifle, he was absolutely cooked. With the ML, I think I could have taken him by using the binocs to figure out where to hold, but for a bowhunter, he might as well have been on the next ridge.....

So, from a get out there and kill somethin' standpoint, it was a really frustrating hunt. With the weather so changeable and high & low pressure systems moving through, we just never could get the wind right for more than a few minutes at a time. I grew up sailing on a reservoir not far from where we were hunting, so I know how fickle the winds can be up there, but this was like nothing any of us had ever seen....

But on the other hand.....

Damn, it was good to be up there, seeing animals every day - whether they were legal shooters or not - and finding out that I'm still plenty good enough in the woods to be a consistently successful rifle hunter - on antlerless tags, anyway ;) Sure, there was some huffin' & puffin, but none of the all-out suffering that you read about so often when a flatlander heads up a hill. And my blown-out knee, although it didn't really like going down-hill, at least it held me and a pack that weighed half again what I do for about a mile and a half or maybe 2 miles of trail which covers a solid 1,000 vertical feet.

And I did get to draw on a cow; I did get to see some Elk that had not seen me first, and I did see a really big bull, even if he was 'just a spike' and still in velvet:cool: I did get to hang out with my brother, and I did get to sped some time with my dad while he's still sharp enough to have a good conversation-- and those days are certainly numbered now....

So it was a pretty good trip. Bittersweet, to be sure, but honestly, I probably spent more time in the woods in that one week than I've had in the past 3 or 4 seasons that I've been out there after whitetails. Sure can't complain about that.

[Twanger]

I really enjoyed that GF, and were I in your shoes would have considered it a very successful hunt though no beast was harmed in the makng of the adventure.

[GF.]

Yep, although.... I really think that if I had gotten half-way serious about getting in shape......


There's enough pressure up there now that the Elk really have our numbers, it seems. Sure, there were a few cows with calves - probably those already bred or not yet feeling ready for it - and some minimally legal bulls, but I'm thinking that that real Hosses were back in there and up high - probably between 11 and 11.6. They'll take their sanctuary anywhere they need to, and they only need about a quarter mile buffer (maybe less, in country that steep) to feel pretty damn safe & comfy.

So the next time I do this, I'm thinking to get out there a bit earlier in the season - maybe not the first week, but certainly not the last again, and I'm just gonna have to be in shape to the point where I can get back up into that God-help-ya kind o' country. I didn't kill myself because i stayed within what I knew I could do; had I been following a highly-motivated guide up those hills, I suppose there could have been a great deal of suffering indeed. I don't care how scrawny you are - you can't sit at a desk and/or behind the wheel for 12 hours a day every day for 5 years, then spend an hour or two on an exercise bike and get 3 or 4 20-minute walks in during the two weeks before you leave and expect to be able to hack it up there.... Well, hack up a lung maybe....:rolleyes:

Getting out there earlier might also reduce the chance of getting snowed on, which would be good, because warmer and drier weather lets the thermals run more predictably; LB & his buddy both had basically full-coverage scentlock in hopes it'd help. But honestly, scent-proofing is all but impossible when you're camping, and if you get that wind wrong, there's just no way you can do much better than possibly spooking them only one drainage over instead of two. But when the thermals run right, you can really use 'em.... But only if you're in shape to get where the Elk are....

[dave-t.]

Sounds good to me. All you can ask is getting into the animals, which you did. If that isn't enough to make the hunt, then bowhunting is not your game.;):D

I hope I have that much fun here in a couple weeks. You've got me worried thinking about rain and snow.

[Bushman]

GF, a big bull doesn't realize that there is snow on the ground until it is about belly deep on them. I was hunting the third season out there one year when we had what the locals called the storm of the century. Big mature trees were blowing down all around us and they were lifting guys out of their high snowed in camps with a helicopter and telling them to come back in the spring to get their stuff. Eleven feet of snow up high and it flattened our tent, but did it ever move the elk in. I got my biggest bull the day after it let up at about 9,000 feet.

[GF.]

Don't worry about it - plan on it!

At least above 7 or 8 thousand feet, anyway.

That was the kicker for me - packing in the clothing for temps from 20 to almost 70 - and this time of year, the sun at high elevation will soak right into you like nobody's business. You'll stand there feeling like you're too close to the campfire, then step behind a tree, and if you've gotten sweaty, that first little breeze will chill you but good.

I did better by wearing a lightweight wool zip-neck mock turtleneck on top, and a light pair of capilene long-johns under my camo jeans, but that's not how I'd dress if I had my druthers.....

Ideally, I think my kit would consist of 2 base layers of smartwool (or the equivalent) - one real light and one layer of midweight, with my Woolrich wool plaid shirt and fleece vest for the top and a pair of wool (or maybe fleece) pants - preferably in camo - for the lower unit. Then if it gets nasty, I've got the pac-lite jacket, which I can layer over the down jacket if it gets wet and/or cold; and now that I have the gore-tex gaiters, I can use those to keep my feet dry when it's wet on the ground. My thighs rarely get wet, because i'm normally bent forward somewhat at the waist. That might be because I'm climbing, sneaking, or packing something heavy, but that's what usually happens, even when it's raining... I did wear the waterproof, insulated bibs one day in the snow (after making the initial climb in a pair of cold-weather cycling 'tights' - basically 100-weight fleece long-johns with gore-tex on the front side), but they were too hot for anything but really slow sneaking & setting up for calling, and kinda bulky and heavy to carry around. Something lighter, with a thicker pair of long-johns in the pack would do better.

I'm not real fond of cotton out in the bush, but I also had the camo jeans and a cotton plaid shirt for hotter weather; something like microtex would be preferable, because it packs lighter and dries quicker. But that way, I can tune for whatever weather I can reasonably expect on a given day without having to pack too much crap along in the day-pack. Hardest thing is (just the opposite of tree-sitting) dressing warm enough for pre-dawn, but without sweating yourself silly throughout the day and without having to spend a lot of time stripping and replacing your layers. If you're climbing hard early, you can usually be about right, though. I used to figure that if I wasn't just a bit chilly while I was sneaking around, I was probably in too warm an area for the Elk to be comfortable.....

And BTW..... Since you'll be toting that .300 of yours, you probably ought to pray for snow, because you can quietly dog them to within scoped rifle range, using the hell out of your binoculars, of course, and pretty well close the deal at the point where a bowhunt is just starting to get interesting.

[GF.]

.... a big bull doesn't realize that there is snow on the ground until it is about belly deep on them. ....

True enough, but the cows may want to stay lower, so for bow season, you can sometimes save a lot of hiking. Once all the cows have been bred, though, the big guys do tend to hole up - and about as far away from people as they can get....

[dave-t.]

I'm leaving two weeks from today, and planning the clothing has me flat out guessing. No reference to go on besides a stay near Yellowstone at 8k' in mid June. I will say though, that cold up there in the thin air, doesn't feel like cold down at 900' elevation. I was happy in shorts and a fairly thick fleece pullover even down to mid 40's. Was not trying to keep still at all like some hunting situations. Did wet wade while trout fishing in the snow run-off fed river though.:eek:

Camping between 8500-9000', hunting up to 10k, northern NM.

As far as I can tell down to 30 degrees or a little less every night, up to mid 50's-60 degree highs. Multiple thin layers is all I can come up with. Keep peeling them off, or stacking them back on.:o

[GF.]

More & lighter layers is generally a good plan. If all you've got is a heavy coat, you're either going to be too hot with it on or too cold with it off :rolleyes:

And just so long as none o' those layers are cotton. Cotton KILLS, and I don't mean Elk, and not in a good way.....

The trickiest thing - especially for bowhunting purposes - is that huge difference between your energy output when climbing vs. slipping through a bedding area or setting up to call.

But aside from that, it's all about staying dry, and that's why cotton is generally such a bad idea. Doesn't matter if it's rain, snow, sleet, or sweat; you get wet, you're gonna be cold. That's why I like wool - it actually throws a little heat when it gets wet, and you can dry it closer to the fire than fleece without melting it. Cotton, on the other hand, changes the structure of the fibers when wet, and they basically lose all ability to hold any air, so your insulation value is essentially zero:eek: And of course cotton stays wet for a long time....


Are you camping out of a vehicle or a backpack? I'm trying to pare down my list for the next time I get out there and have to carry all my crap up the hill... You sure have a lot more options when you don't have to worry about how fast the ounces are adding up....

[dave-t.]

Plan one is set up the tent right out of the truck. If we have problems finding elk, we will need to make a move to a camp spot farther back. My cousin lives 45 minutes away from the hunting grounds, so if we have an emergency for anything, it's not a 4 hour ordeal to drive off of the mountain.

I have quite a bit of wool for top layers. Most of it is pretty hardy stuff though, since I'm a stand sitter 95% of the time here in the midwest. Between the wool, the fleece I have, and new age long undies, I have enough to wear, I'm more afraid of having too much on at once, or not carrying enough if the weather snaps while I'm far and away.

I'll probably have it about right on day 6 of the 7 day trip.;) Maybe not even then if my string of "luck" continues as it has been. Woke up to my 4th flat tire of the year this morning...in the rain.:(

[GF.]

That's the killer....

How much do you need to wear, and how much can you stand to haul around all day?

Last time I was out there was a ML hunt, and I think I cut the weight of my day-pack in half during the week. Luckily, it was hot & dry, but at that kind of elevation, things can turn hard on you with no warning whatsoever, so it's a calculated risk when you leave the warmer stuff in camp. Sure, you can boogie off the hill if the weather turns nasty, but that doesn't work nearly so well when you've got an animal down that requires your attention, or - God forbid - if you were to hurt yourself and find that hurrying off the hill was no longer an option....

Sometimes I wonder how many of the Mountain Men died at the hands of the natives, and how many were done in by the mountains themselves....:confused: