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Glad I had my backpack along for this hunt I did in the Ragged Range in the NWT. The nearest road was 250 miles from where this picture was taken. The nearest horse trail...at least 100 miles.

I figure someday I'll a get a horse and a few mules to hunt with.....when I get too old to hunt the way I hunt now. Probably about 20 years from now. I'll be 54 this fall......grin! Nothing against horseback hunters, as I've done my fair share of it, but right now I still enjoy the personal challenge of pushing myself phisically when I hunt.



Spent many a night out in the bush chasing these around back in the day....NEVER left the outfit without my pack on my back.



NWT....looking towards the South Nahanni River...

I've seen a pic of you with fish, and a couple of logging ones, now how you show some of elk from days of old as well from days of today. And deer, bruins, lopes etc would be good as well..come on lets keep this thread going with a bunch of pics

Dober

Love that cat pic Pat!

Lets see now, from a couple of guys from Spudsville (Idaho), no need for day pack and scouting is pissing up a rope...u betcha...

Dober

Glad I had a pack this day to assist with elk hauling

Dober

Six miles in I walked for this one. I got back to the pickup at 2 AM....glad I had my pack along as I got everything out in one load. It would have sucked walking back in there the next day. In fact the next day I was one an airplane headed to Alaska for another black bear hunt. Thats right, a DIY backpack hunt.

Hunt without a pack on my back?....Not this boy.

Pat, you look mean in that pic!

I had walked over 1,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail by the time I was 16 years old... anyone that thinks the weight of materials you carry on your back doesn't mean anything just hasn't done that much.

Pretty sure I've walked about 4500 miles down on the riverbottom since I was born. Don't need no damn pack, house is never more than 2 miles away!


grin

Brad, you've probably been here.....ball breaker climb above Lightning Lake on the way to Challis Peak in the AB. I was in there sheep hunting with a bud. It was the year Yellowstone Park burned up(1988)....Equinox storm kicked our azz for three days. You couldnt see more that 100 feet. Walking out of there on loose tallus covered with 18" of snow was one of the most demanding decents I've ever done. We were lucky to get out of there unscathed..



Camp at the base of Challis Peak before the storm hit..

Dammit, I'm getting fired up for fall!!!!!

Bought my Filson Double Mackinaw there. I quit wearing it for hunting though cuz it's too heavy. Your pencil-barreled 700 that I put in an EDGE is nirvana. I'll collect my tall boy when we get 'round to doin' lunch.

Reading glasses in the vest pocket??......laffin! For punchin tags and such?

scenar- you have any deer left up there to take summer pics of this year?

I cant even describe how poor it is up here. I'm out almost everyday, early and in good game country and I havent seen 50 or 60 deer total all summer. Some days, I wont even see one deer or antelope.

How far to the east before numbers get "better?" Nelson told me there's still plenty up his way, but like I told him, one hay burner's plenty for him.

Sheridan County and Eastern Roosevelt is better that Valley County here, but still way down from last year. Most of these does(mule deer and whitetail) are barren. Antelope does are almost totally fawnless this summer. It's the worst I've seen since the winter of '77,'78.

Pat,

I PM'd you a few months ago about the year or two about another severe winter, back in the mid-'70's, that I experienced when living in Poplar. The snow wasn't as deep, but it was deep enough, and the cold might have been been even worse.

Same deal: Very few deer anywhere for a couple of years, even on the riverbottoms--though there were more there than out on the prairie. It took a LOT of hunting just to get a deer or two of any kind, and there were many days without seeing one.

Nature is always a far crueler "harvester" than most hunters can imagine.

John, you've got that right. Luckily, it was mostly more severe up here in the NE corner. There are good numbers of deer and antelope in most other parts of the state..I'm just hoping we dont see another winter like last years for quite a while.

I sure don't like to hear that with a tag for the up coming season. Are the numbers better around Billings?

Dink

Now that's funny.

Compared to the winter we had up here, Billings was tropical...