When I can no longer pack my own game then it is time for me to quit elk hunting. But then that is just me.
You may feel different when you get there. I speak from experience. Even though nobody has helped me yet. I'm thinking about it.
I doubt it. I am 58 years old right now and I still pack my own game. At some point we all have to hang it up and for me that will be when I have to depend on someone else.
I did a walk-in sheep hunt in Alaska when I was 58, and I felt the same way you do. It was a three-day pack out with a lot of vertical, the first leg was 3,000 vertical feet up a steep ridge, with a heavy pack. We had to stop and rest every 100 yards or so, to let the lactic acid in our muscles dissipate. Then down off that ridge and up another that was steeper. Rained the whole time, by night one everything we had was wet. Hardest pack out I've ever done, the thing that kept me going was the guide. His pack was a good bit heavier.
I felt like if I could handle that, I could handle most any pack out down here that I'd get myself into. But now I'm thinking like Mauser hunter. I can still pack one out, but I don't want to stop chasing elk when I can't. It's not just the physical ability to pack one out, it's also the fact that the older you get, the easier it is to seriously injure yourself hauling a heavy pack cross-country in the mountains. So if/when I need someone with livestock to haul my elk out, I'll happily walk behind and be thankful that I'm still doing it.
