Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Setting up / scouting mission

My hike in camp is located high and dry with the nearest drinkable water about an hour and a half hike down and back up. I use a tarp (the roof of my shelter) to collect water into a lightweight 5 gallon jug. It is a simple set up but provides me with 5 gallons of clean rain water to (purify and) drink and cook and wash with. The funnel has a mesh screen that keeps out the needles and bark that fall on the tarp. The jug is already almost 1/2 full after only one rain.


Saw some elk, though most are lower down in the cool dark timber near the wallows. When the rut begins, the bulls show up and run all over this mountain.





Always a good sign!!


Not my favorite sign...lots of bear scat and digging/ripped up logs.



September calls!

Good thinking there on the water deal, although I'd come up with a more durable setup for lashing in ones tarp. Good luck,

We won't get enough summer rain here to wash the dust off the tarp.

The tarp is just set up to collect water at this point. We have had a wet summer. The last week of august or so I will assemble the entire shelter in a much more windproof manner. It will look like this




I am going to add a tarp floor this year to keep the mice out at night.

Very cool!

The grass looks greener on your side of the fence.
I wish my hunt plans were progressing as well as yours are.
I'm trying to scout a GMU that I have never hunted, organize equestrian support and camps in places I've never been, and this year I have a first time elk hunter to try to somehow put in position for a shot.

I'd trade places with you.

Got the backcountry camp all set up and ready for the archery opener. This years design has a floor and I took out the rock wall and tarped the back that seals out the mice that were running over me at night. Mouse on face is not a fun way to wake up.









Pretty simple design and set up. Shes ready for September.