Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting About to give it up.........

I trained hard for this years elk hunt but it still kicked my butt. I'm 53. Lost 25 pounds before the season (now 6'1, 200#). We were hunting in the Colo St Forest near Walden and the blowdowns (due to the beetle kill) were terrible. We planned to bivy for 8 days and our packs were around 60#. First day we hiked up on a trail to 11,000 feet. Camped and hunted there for a couple days which were not too bad. Then we decided to go lower and thicker. Then we got a couple days of rain. Negotiating the slippery slopes and blowdowns was really tough. REALLY tough with 60 pounds on your back. Then I started thinking what it would be like if we shot one and had to pack it out >>> ouch!

So, maybe I'll stick to whitetail and hogs and such. Before I give up on elk though I thought I'd ask you guys about decent hunting areas that aren't as difficult to negotiate. Any suggestions?

BTW, I'll never try to bivy for 8 days again. Daggone food weighs too much!

Good luck to you guys who are still out there.

I think you just described most of the state. Sounds exactly like where I was in Southern CO. Try just taking a couple days worth and leave supplies at the truck (base camp) and come back periodically?

You can do what my dad did in his 50's and cut back on weight. He started reading websites about "lightweight backpacking" and started changing what he carried. His pack went from around 60 lb for a weeklong trip down to 25-30 lb, but that's with a revolver instead of a rifle. Like other Southeast Alaskans, he swears by Xtratuf boots with spiked bottoms for wet conditions, but you have to be careful not to shred your pantlegs or step on your toes with those. I don't know where he used to get them.

I hope that helps. Dad sure had a lot more wind with a lighter pack, but he still slowed down a bit when packing a load out. That's just inevitable.

Two good ideas already mentioned.

I setup a base camp at the trailhead and I plan my hunts in loops so that I can return to the base camp every three or four days and only carry that much food.

Also I carry a pack that weighs a lot less than yours. My total "outfit" weighs less than 40#. My pack weighs about 30# and my rifle weighs about 10#.

I will be hunting elk during Colorado's 3rd season so I will have to deal with cold weather. I've already built an "A" frame 6 miles from the trailhead that I can use as a fowl weather shelter. I still have to hang the tarps and collect a bunch of firewood. I have also made arrangements to rent a horse and board the horse at a ranch near the trailhead. I don't want to have to maintain the horse while hunting. But I want to have it within walking distance when I get an elk down.

My pack includes a tent, a down sleeping bag, ground pad, 3 1/2 days food, a liter of water, rain gear and extra clothes, binos, range finder, extra ammo, compass, map, cow call, knife, game bags, stove, fuel, titanium mug.

KC

When I started backpacking "way back when," an experienced backpacker gave me some real good advise. Said to get all my gear ready and then cull out half of it. Then go thru it again and get right down to the bare necessities. That method sure makes a big difference in "stuff" and what we really need.

Agreed.
It is very easy to take 'everything but the kitchen sink' if you don't keep a close eye on things.

To the OP: sounds to me like you need to cache some food/stuff in a place or two in your hunt area-8 days at one stretch with that much weight is too much, at least for me it would be.

Rent llamas to carry your gear.

You can get by with a lot less if you think of everything as systems.

The main ways to cut weight are
- Pack
- Tent
- Sleeping Bag
- Food

Choose, higher fat food for more calories per weight, accept eating when you are hungry rather than what you are used to.

This is exactly why we got into llamas. I'm 63 and I figure they'll add a good 5 years to my hunting time before I can't carry a rifle any more.

Set up a base camp back in were you want to hunt and have a wrangler pack your gear in, then you can you can return to base camp when you have to resupply. Bigbuk215 had some good addvice you can get by with alot less than you think. With hiring a wrangler you do not have to take care of live stock which is a pain in the but. Good luck and hang in there.

Just happen to be reading a book "Ultralight Backpackin' Tips: 153 Amazing & Inexpensive Tips for Extremely Lightweight Camping". Quick and easy read.

It's not about hunting, but a lot of the principles apply pretty well to hunting. If nothing else it gets you thinking about ways to lighten up. Combine it with the basecamp and you may have the start of a workable solution.

You don't have to backpack to hunt elk.

I've hunted elk for 25 years in six states and have never felt the need to 'pack in'.

It's simply not necessary. It sounds to me like you're making too much work of the whole endeavor.

Living well out of a pack for long stretches takes a lot of focus and mental toughness. Add hunting to the mix and as you found, bugs in the system become dominant factors in daily life. Once backpacking is second nature and requires little or no extra thought, the hunting part is more fun.

If you like backpacking and hunting, don't give it up. Sure you don't have to backpack hunt to get into critters, but that's not the only reason some of us do it.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Live and learn, I guess!

On my first backpack hunt for mule deer my pack weighed 56 lbs. Now some 6 years later my pack on the same trip weighs less than 40 lbs. The trips are much more enjoyable now. :-)

I think my backpacking days are getting closer to being just memories as two months from now, I will turn 77 and haven't taken the best care of my bod so I will just sit back and read about you younger and smarter guys having all the fun.

Carry on....

Only 77? Heck, Moses took off on a 40 year pack trip when he was 80. You're young yet.

J4ME,

You might want to consider coming to one of my backcountry skills camps. It will cut a lot of time off the learning curve and is designed for the backpack hunter.

Yeah, but that was before God made all these 10-12,000' mountains.

All the suggestions are good ones. If you just lost 25 lbs right before the season, I'd say keep at it until next year, you'll be much tougher by then. Not saying to lose more weight, just keep at the training and it'll be easier next time. Backpack hunting for elk isn't ever going to be painless though...