Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Where and when do you backpack and hunt?

Mostly North Georgia mountains: deer, bear, hogs, squirrel
Alaska, NWT, Yukon for Sheep, Goats, Moose, Caribou, Sitka, Bear
I'm constantly trying out new gear, but I believe this years hunt in the Yukon will find me in Sportivas boots, McHale pack, Blaser rifle in .300 Win, Swaro Z6 1.7-10X scope, Swaro 10X42 EL range, mostly wearing arcteryx and some kuiu stuff

I have a passion for rambling through high and lonesome places with fly-rod in hand, and hunting the bear, deer and elk that call them home during those glorious days in Autumn when we are legally allowed to do so.

I've tromped through some exquisite backcountry in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and northern Wyoming, but for convenience and lack of time recently, my favorite hunts are with good friends in Washington's North Cascades for mule deer and bear, the Olympic Peninsula for bear, the William O. for elk, and Idaho's Selway/Frank Church for deer and elk.

That said, as time, treasure and luck permit, I'm really looking forward to expanding my backpack hunts in pursuit of North American sheep and big bears...after the bill for Africa has been settled.

I posted earlier on where I do most of my backpack hunting, but for the life of me I dont have too many pics from the local spots I usually go...but I do have some from trips taken in the past...
2009 Elk/Mulie hunt in NW Montana



Packing out hind quarters


2007 Maine


[img]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/45-70justbecause/IMG_0578.jpg[/img]

Hope its not too pic heavy,
johnny

Not too picture heavy FJ. I'd love to see more!

After backpacking for years and also bowhunting for years ,plus the frustration of crowded areas. I tried to merge the two things I love together. After six years of back pack hunting i now am trying to merge every hunt I do and now only hunt wilderness areas for all my hunting, including spring turkey. Living in Oregon I mainly hunt eastern Oregon where there are several large wilderness areas, I can honestly say that as others have stated I am able to bivy closer to game which has extended my hunting time greatly. I am more rested and enjoy hunting now more an I ever have.

I couldn't agree more!

Great photos and even better photos of those kids in the backcountry!

I mainly hunt in VA, MT, ID as of lately

I'm still a newbie to backpacking. Grew up hunting everything in IL. Been successful in IL and always wanted to hunt elk. Finally decided to try to "DIY" backpack hunt and see what happened. Hunted the last two seasons without much success, but I have learned a ton, about camping, and elk hunting and I can feel myself getting closer to achieving my ultimate goal of a successful DIY archery elk bull kill. Hunted Colorado unit 18 the last two seasons. Thanks to all of you here who pass on your experiences, advice and knowledge...it makes it possible for a guy in IL to be able to do things a little more efficient and quicker than the ol trial and error methods of the past.

Backpacking started in 1973 at age 10, mostly in the central Cascades of WA. Backpack hunting started in 1977 in the Wenaha Wilderness in SE WA. Backpack hunted in central Idaho, central WA Cascades (west side), and Eagle Cap Wilderness in OR, which is my favorite place. Also backpacked in the same places as well as the Olympics and Hells Canyon. Trips are limited these days by the need to care for my disabled wife--hard to get the wheelchair on the trails.

Backpack hunting started as a 9 day trip almost 40 years ago. Lately, I have been getting in two 9 day back pack trips in September in the Eagle Caps for archery elk. Last two years have been solo. Mid-life has changed priorities for my buddies, so its harder to get them on 9 day trips.

This thread has really exceeded my hopes and is becoming a genuine pleasure and source of enjoyment for me, old geezer that I am! I enjoy the comments about the various places and the photos and I now intend to get busy with this camera I had stashed in one of my gunsafes and totally forgot I had.

It is a complex rig, a Panasonic DMC-FZ50,with a Leica lens, 12X zoom and it even takes video;this confuses the hell out of a near-fossil like me, but, my wife's last day of 44 years of work is tomorrow and I am now free to go out and learn photography. This, should be fun and keep me active and frisky!

Keep the comments coming, it's all about fun, eh.

great photos indeed fellas, makes me jealous even though I've hunted the Alaska Range and the Brooks Range, backpacked into Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon.


too much pretty country, not enough days in the life, and too much work to see it all, I really enjoy seeing your neck of the woods!

Let me get this straight.

All these years you have been getting your azz busted here on the 'fire and elsewhere for not having any pictoral evidence of your current forays.....and we are supposed to believe that you have had a camera tucked away, all this time, in a gunsafe...that you FORGOT about?...haha..really??...You post here HOW often? Gets your azz busted HOW often?...yet you forgot about this camera?...ROTFLMAO.

I'm impressed that you even have anyone bullschitted....rest assured...it aint me though.....

This was a really good thread until...




Honestly man. We have a lot of people showing off how awesome God's green earth is, and even more, like me, enjoying it. Do we really need to stink the place up?

...pardon me...carry on...

Ken, I usually would not dignify your infantile and foolish comments with a reply, but, to clarify something here, I shall post the actual details.

About, 2009, I purchased a couple of Hilleberg Soulo tents, a red and a green and my buddy, whom I hunted RM Goats with that season-sans success, as often happens in actual mountain hunting-wanted one. I did not have a camera, he is a professional photographer and he offered me the Panasonic in exchange for one of my Soulos and I accepted.

I used it a little, took photos of my champion Rotteiler bitch when she gained her championship and then the medical issues with my wife began. Late in the autumn, concerned with these, I put most of my guns into longterm storage and the camera onto the top shelf of my oldest of three gunsafes, in the back and left it there.

My wife was largely bedridden, in extreme pain,for most of 2010 and 2011, when I had to stay home and look after her needs as would a nurse. She has severe spinal stenosis, Diabetes and Hypertension as well as having survived Cervical Cancer some years before this all commenced.

As a result of this, I never so much as thought about the camera and simply forgot about it. With the guns, gear and optics I have, it is quite easy to forget one small item that one is not really that "into" and this is precisely what happened.

I managed to get Blacktail hunting to help a novice about my age in late 2010 and had to suddenly come home as a phone message from my wife informed me that her condition had suddenly deteriorated.

Last year, 2011, I drew an LEH RMG tag near my hometown and the same friend was to go with me' this is very demanding mountain hunting and it takes two to carry the hide, horns and the meat, which, by law, you MUST bring out of the bush. My wife was scheduled for neuro-surgery at the time and the hospital called with the standard 24 hr. notice and I had to cancel the trip as I believe a man's place is with his family in time of trouble and not off pursuing his own interests.....perhaps, in your vast mountain experience, you disagree, but, there it is.

As to having the problems you allude to here, well, I was not here and I have never been a regular on Kifaru, so, I think that you are exaggerating.However, I do not care what you think and my wife reminded me of the camera when she saw some comments here on the "Campfire".....believe it, don't, I don't care, this is exactly what happened.

I will be posting more photos of my trips here in BC, as and when I choose to, but, I do not carry a camera to go on the hikes in the "North Shore Mountains" here as I see the scenery every day,so,why take photos there? When, probably August or Sept. I next head home to the Kootenays, I will take and post photos here and.who knows, perhaps I will be lucky and shoot a bigger Elk than the one I posted already.

I initiated this thread to enjoy conversation, etc. with others and I invite you to post your photos here of the Elk, Moose and whatever other ...alpine... game you have shot. I am sure that you have many more than I do and probably "Booners" all, eh?

This is hysterical....just what would my vast mountain experience, if I had any, have to do with your heart wrenching tale about why you forgot about a camera which you were using/had used? By looking at your post history and noting that your last posts in 2008 were edited for racism by Rick Bin, followed by your intial posts upon your return in 2011 explaining that you had talked to Rick and he granted your permission to post again...it seems to me that your lack of pictures around here has as much to do with your battleship mouth overloading your row boat azz as it does anything. It's really amazing that you tried to turn the camera issue into a question of my family/marital morals though...lol...



Another knee slapper...You WERE a regular at Kifaru until you pizzed off a bunch of people and got ran outta there...which was not long before getting the axe here IIRC. Any idiot with a grasp of the search function can find all your posts still intact at Kifaru and here.



I can hardly wait.



Dont worry, I dont have any pics of Alpine game. Or Booners. Never been there, never shot any...never claimed to either. Thats the difference between you and I. I'm not talking about stuff that I'm not doing. What you did 30 years ago sorta counts, but your up-to-date analysis and gear reviews fall under a certain scrutiny when there is little evidence that you do anything that you say lately.

As an aside..I have to defer to your selling of your tipi here in the classifieds. I have to wonder how a guy can blab incessantly about a much awaited peice of gear that had been ordered, only to have recieved said gear, prep it in the yard then put it away otherwise unused, finally selling it 5-6 years later, STILL unused. Same thing with your LHR. Used on two trips...After all the talk about wearing it around and how good it was....how you were having a devil of a time getting it adjusted, yet it only was used on two trips??...As expensive as Kifaru gear is, your buying this stuff and not using it for years, only to sell it??... This type of self documented behavior, coupled with nearly 10 years of reading your never ending BS on these forums, is why I think your all talk these days. You buy the stuff only to justify talking about it seems.

Ken, with all due respect, your an ass!

Ken.
This WAS an enjoyable thread. Then you showed up.

For the life of me I cannot understand your(and other's) need to enter into a discussion and immediately degenerate it into an infantile show of needless hostility. Do you personally know these people? Or are you just some sad little "keyboard commando" who gets his jollys by attacking unseen faces on the Internet? You must be one more sad and insecure puppy.

Personally, I wish you would go away, you're stinking up this forum. May I suggest you go to the "campfire" to carry out your mindless drivel and attacks?

Otherwise, it would be productive for you to try and post something meaningful and relevant here and quit hijacking threads with your tantrums.

Like I said,

"keyboard commando", that's funny.

"insecure puppy", well, that's a given!

He does sound like a very sad and unhappy person.