Every year for a couple of decades I setup a big base camp using tents. When car camping in a bigger tent, I take a small propane space heater and I place it close to my sleeping bag so, in the morning, I can reach over and start it running without getting out of my sleeping bag. I also take an extra foam pad and lay it next to my sleeping bag so I can stand on it instead of the frozen floor.
These days I may setup a base camp at the trailhead but I do most of my hunting out of backpack camps. The cheaper your gear is, the tougher you have to be. Be sure to protect your tents from the wind. Try to �hunt uphill�. That means set your camp low and hike uphill to do your hunting. Therefore, when you kill an elk you can drag it downhill instead of hauling it uphill. Don�t try to learn to camp on your first wilderness hunt. That�s a recipe for disaster.
I like to organize my group into self-sufficient teams of two people. Two people to a tent. Two to a stove. Two to hunt together (the buddy system). Two people with similar abilities.
I usually carry four or five days of food and no more. I try to return to base camp occasionally to get more food, fuel, clean underwear and cleanup some. Then go back out for another four or five days. I hunt on the way back to base camp and on the return, so I don't lose any hunting time.
I'm not a proponent of using backpacks designed by hunters. When I'm backpacking, I use gear designed by backpackers for backpacking. The most important factor when choosing a pack is to get one that fits your body and is comfortable on the trail. There are lots of good backpacks offered on the commercial market. I use an Osprey Aether 85 because they are offered with taller torsos and I need that for proper fit.
Try to get everything inside the pack. Load the heaviest items close to your body and near the top. This improves balance. Anything hanging on the outside unbalances the pack, makes you lean forward, and stresses back muscles.
I never carry a hatchet when backpacking. Too heavy. A small lightweight folding saw does the same things and weighs less. You don't need a sidearm because you're carrying a big game rifle. You don't need a SPOT. Too heavy.
I go in about three or four miles and hunt the area between those people that day hike from the end of the road and those that horse pack in farther.
Don't camp in a creek bottom. The cold air and snow settle in the bottoms, so it�s colder there. Don't camp on a ridge top either. It may be warm and sunny when you setup your tent, but it will get windy and cold.
There�s an art to keeping warm when sleeping in the cold. Start by insulating yourself from the frozen ground and then use a really good sleeping bag. I suggest that you use both a closed cell foam sleeping pad and an insulated pad like a Thermarest �Camprest� or �NeoAir� or Big Agnes �Insulated Air Core�. You need a mummy style sleeping bag rated at 0� or colder.
A good 4-season backpack tent with a vestibule will make a big difference. It's important to keep the inside of the tent dry and free of snow. So leave your boots in the vestibule. One big advantage of sleeping directly on the snow is that there won't be any rocks, sticks or bumps under you and the snow will eventually conform to your body contours. If you setup your tent on the snow then first put a light waterproof tarp on the inside of the floor. Any moisture will run under the tarp and freeze between the tarp and the tent floor. Next build a nest inside the tent with extra clothes, stuff sacks, backpacks, etc. This keeps you from rolling off the sleeping pads onto the frozen floor of the tent. Wear only clean dry clothing to bed. Wet clothes, even those wet with only perspiration, will take several hours to dry. Wear your knitted hat to bed as a nightcap. Also sleep 2 to a tent and the extra body heat will make a difference. Bring a wide mouth pee bottle so that you can urinate in the middle of the night without leaving the tent.
If your feet get cold, zip up your coat and slip it over the bottom of your sleeping bag. Or you can put a couple of hand warmer packs in the bottom of your sleeping bag. If your chest is cold, put your coat or vest on inside the sleeping bag.
Bring a good thermos with an insulator. I couldn't find an insulator big enough to take a thermos, so I built my own using foam rubber and duct tape. At night first temper the thermos and then fill it with boiling water and put it inside the insulator and then inside your backpack. In the morning you have hot water for instant cocoa and oatmeal without getting out of your bag.
Store your boots with the laces pulled wide open so you can get your feet into them when they are frozen in the morning.
Leave your water bladder at home because the hose will freeze solid. Take a metal water bottle and store it upside down at night so the lid won�t freeze shut. You can thaw the main body of the bottle over your camp stove.
Don�t let your water filter freeze. If it freezes you can�t use it and it might crack the ceramic filter. First purge the filter the best that you can then put it in a ZipLok bag inside your sleeping bag.
Have a backup plan, contingency for emergencies. Expect some gear to break or fail and be ready to repair it or adapt to do without it.
Expect someone to get injured or sick and be prepared to care for them.
You need to be proficient at wilderness navigation so you can hike three or four miles from camp into unfamiliar country and get back to camp at night, in the fog or in a howling blizzard.
Cotton clothing can be deadly when the weather is cold and wet. You don't need to buy the most expensive clothing, but you do need to use synthetic, wool and/or wool/synthetic blends. Dress in layers. Take several layers and leave that heavy coat at base camp.
I've been backpacking for fifty-five years and only recently started using trekking poles. I wish I had started sooner.
A Jetboil stove may be the most efficient outfit for boiling water and if that's all you're going to do that's great. But they're not very good at simmering a casserole or frying fish. I use an Optimus Crux or an MSR Pocket Rocket during the summer, and an MSR Whisperlite or Dragonfly on cold weather trips. I use simple propane appliances for base camping.
KC
