Bearing in mind I've never done this before, my idea was to take backstraps and loins out on the first walk back. Maybe a shoulder if I can....I use an Eberlestock X2, and it's a tough little bugger with a stout frame, so I'll put on as much as I feel good taking for that first trip, although I'll have my gear and rifle yet at that point.
Then I'll get my frame pack for the return. I do my own butchering on whitetails, and when I take a deer apart, I separate the hind quarters on the natural seams. That job is easier than I thought it would be. That pretty neatly strips the meat from the pelvis and femurs, and boning the shanks to finish off the hind quarters, so I have zero intentions of taking any hindquarter bones, assuming an elk's back leg isn't constructed anatomically different than a deer....? Bigger, of course, but the parts should be similar in what's there and how they fit together?
I despise boning shoulders, albeit a necessary task. I may take them back with the bones, I don't know. I'd rather work on a table/work-surface to disassemble a shoulder, but I'm sure an elk scapula is not a trivial thing. I'm hoping my experience at having butchered only God knows how many whitetails at this point will help carry me through deboning as much as I can in the field. I don't want to carry back stuff I'm gonna throw in a trash can later, if I can avoid it.
