Do you have power where you hunt or do you have some type of solar charger for your phone?

Hunting Unit 24 out of Trapper Lake Lodge. Unguided drop camp during Elk 2 in the Flat Top Wilderness.
.270 WSM that my uncle loaned me. Haven't decide on a loaded yet, but the Weatherby is the smoothest shooting rifle I have ever shot.......prior to his offer on this rifle I was looking at what I could piece together for $500 (max).

GPS--I might get one, my old Magellan 315 crapped out on me last year. I usually carried it, but I could generally eyeball triangulate on a map faster. I'm going to have a map and compass either way.

HIIT isn't nearly as fun at nearly 40. After realizing that if there isn't much or any snow, we could easily be hunting at 11k+, I have upped my cardio work quite a bit.

October will be here before I know it.

Couple of things I do for power:

1) Follow all the steps to turn off every battery draining feature. The iPhone 5 and up have independent GPS chips, meaning if you pre download maps, you won't need cell service/4G to use the map apps like Gaia.

2) Buy a small back up batter. These are the size of a small candy bar and usually provide 2 full charges.

3) Keep the phone warm. At night I put it in my sleeping bag. During the day it rides in the chest pocket of my base layer.

That's all I've ever needed to keep a phone alive for 4 days in the back country. Beyond that and I'd want a solar charger or access to my truck to recharge the phone and back up battery.

You'd be surprised how little juice the phone drains when your SIM card is out and the phone isn't searching for 4G.

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Unit 43 Colorado, 3rd season rifle. Backpacking into the White River National Forest.

Using Model 70 .270 shooting 150 gr Nosler Partitions.

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What he said but I drew a cow tag.

Ruger M77 Mark II .270 shooting winchester 150gr PowerPoint.

Garmin Rino 655t is the GPS unit I'll be using

For the time being I'm planning on using a Blacks Creek pack I got off camofire a few years back.

This will be my first time hunting elk but Burr and another in our group have been before.

Pretty dang excited and have recently upped my training in preparation.

Solo with OTC Archery ES tag in the Weminuche wilderness. I will shoot the first legal elk I can. Going in on foot but I have a packer on speed dial and access to DIY horses.

I have 2 packs. An internal Blacks Creek that I also got from Camofire, and an Alaskan something-or-other external frame from Cabelas. They both have hauled an entire deer out of Meredith. They both get the job done, but I really want something better. The Blacks just is too small for my 6'4 frame and the padding is lacking and doesn't handle heavy loads the best. The Cabelas handles weight better but the pack itself is crap.

Been looking at an Outdoorsmans pack. Anyone tried that one? They seem tried and true with all the Western Hunter guys. And they seem to only use top of the line everything.

Unit 67 Archery. Have a friend that is a Colorado resident who owns a wall tent, etc. That will use for a main camp then we'll spike outweigh the ability to move around. Planning on hunting the last 15 days of archery season some of which overlaps with Muzzleloader. Pretty limited Muzzleloader tags so I'm hoping we won't have a lot of pumpkin competition.

Just got back from a fly fishing trip to Colorado, 3 of the days we spent fishing the Flat Tops and it was an incredible experience. You probably already know but if you'll have time for it but most of the water we fished was solid, the island lakes were absolutely sublime.

As far as wildlife, we only ran into one prong horn and more mosquitoes than I've ever seen in my life. (Bring plenty of bug spray)

For those traveling across states to hunt, do you fly or drive? If you fly, what's your strategy for taking back meat and antlers?

We are driving to AZ. I can't imagine trying to fly with my gear, bow, etc, although I know people do it all the time.

Colorado OTC archery for me this year.

To hit on a couple of other relevant topics floating around the OB:

Bags of Quikrete are working well for pack training. Though pack hiking the steepest terrain around me rarely gets my heart rate in the cardio zone, stairs do better. For now, I'm going to continue to rely on running and plyometrics for my lungs and pack hiking for my shoulders and hips.

The glorious combination of sleep deprivation, negative calorie balance, adrenaline spikes, low oxygen, and steep terrain is just hard to reproduce in Texas.

Last year I used onXmaps app on my Galaxy S5. It worked very well for the "checkers board" public/private Wyoming unit I was in. I'll probably use it again in Colorado.

Anyone want to talk food? I'd like to eat better this year as opposed to the Snickers/Jerky/Peanut Butter/Mountain House diet I've done in the past. Nothing is wrong with those foods, I just want more variety so I don't hate Snickers and jerky for the rest of my life. I was listening to a podcast recently with the Kuiu guys, and found their food discussion pretty interesting. They aim for >120 calories/ounce, 2 pounds/day.

Some new foods I'm considering this year is: almond butter, ramen noodles, crackers, and cheese.

October 1 private ranch hunt in New Mexico. Just put a Leupold VX3 4.5-14-50mm on my Browning .300 win mag and need to get it bore-sighted this weekend.

I have done cow hunts before but this is my first huntt for a bull.

Driving. I've never flown with meat or antlers but hope to someday. I'm sure the Alaska guys are experts with this.

Justin's Almond butter with honey is awesome. I usually do that on a pita for lunches. Dried fruit is great, just gotta be careful with how much you eat. Krusteeze pancake mix (just add water) is easy and great if you can find the chocolate chip or blueberry.

I carry a couple pounds of roasted whole almonds, because a) almonds are delicious, and (b) calorie dense. Doesn't matter if they get wet, they're easy to pack and they won't turn your pack into a sticky filthy mess. I've carried shelled pecans in the past too. Both are a good quality food.

After further review, it Looks like pecans have a significant advantage. I need to get a couple lbs of Choctaw.

Food is quite a bit easier with a walled tent and wood stove. I can get the Polaris within about 200 yards of the campsite via an old decommissioned road - which makes weight not a constraint. Without the Devon road, it'd be 3 miles from the road and I wouldn't carry 75% of this stuff. Camp is only about one mile from my first hunting spot, 3 from the farthest. Will only do one night maximum away from the base camp. We don't have to worry about bears as much either being in mid-November.

That being said, food for us:

MOBILE
Larabars and KIND bars
Peanut Butter
Pita Bread
Jerky
Granola Trail Mix
Nuts
MRE or two if we do an overnight away from camp
Lots of water

AT CAMP
Potatoes (boxes - mashed & au gratin)
Pasta Sides (Knorr's? I think)
Couple cans of canned veggies
Beef/Chicken
Bacon
Eggs
Pancakes
Salt/pepper/paprika
Coffee
Butter
Pre-made vacuum-sealed meals - easy to heat up with hot water when we're lazy at camp

After doing this. I don't think I'll ever go back to my days of ultralight, freeze-dried food camping. We also killed our biggest elk ever two years ago in about the same place using this method, so superstition says we gotta do it again!

No elk for me this year, but am getting to hunt Alaska including a goat tag.

If it is truly backpacking and low weight setting, then it is hard to beat mountain house and energy bars. You just aren't going to get much better for weight to calories. Ramen is a waste of time, imo. It is worse than mountain house by far for less calories. Anthing like crackers, bread, etc just falls apart after a couple days in a pack, imo. Nuts, granola, oatmeal, dried fruit, jerky, candy bars, packs (not cans) of tuna, peanut/almond butters, hard or packaged cheese to augment my mountain house and cliff bars is typically my menu.

I have carried in perishables like eggs, veggies, fruit or meat that have to be used quickly and it just isn't worth the hassle, imo. Especially since you have to use it early when you least need the calories or the variety/mental boost.

I always bring some foil, oil and seasonings to cook up some of the meat if successful and that is extra motivation.

Obviously if you are base camping with vehicle, plane, boat or horse access (or able to convince a friend to pack in gear/food/ice and not hunt), then options increase exponentially and you get spoiled quick.

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DIY archery for elk in SE Idaho 16 days in September. Rifle hunting Uinta mountains in Utah 1st week of October. Muley hunting late October in northern Utah. You guys better be careful: after my first elk hunt in Colorado years ago I wound up moving to the Rockies just to feed my addiction. My goal is to never again sit in a box blind and wait for the feeder to go off.

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Those are all great areas. I wont be hunting this year. Looking at the Jawbridge in NV for '17 as well as Wyoming.

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Do you mean the Jarbidge? If so that is one remote MFer. That should be awesome!

Unit 81 Colorado OTC Archery DIY. First week of September. Packing in on horses for 7 days. Placing a drop camp 8 miles from the nearest highway in the San Juan Wilderness with my brother and father in-law, gonna be great.

Good luck to all of y'all ! Nothing beats an elk hunt in the wilderness.

Mrs. Ledbetter drew both deer and elk tags here in Oregon. I drew nothing. Next year we'll apply for tags as a party. I should draw both tags as I have the points now. If I do, she'll draw also. We'll hunt deer in the evenings and weekends. Elk camp is about an hour from the house!

Colorado Unit 62 OTC archery first week, though we are camping next week around 79 & 80 and may change to one of them if we find some areas we like

Finally Ordered a pair of Lowa Tibet GTXs. Cutting it close but I should be able to break em in before my hunt.

Hunting in Colorado in October. Unit 66.

I also just discovered that my thermarest pad is toast so if anyone has a good lightweight and small packable pad I am all ears.

I've decided to go as ultralight as I can... Tarp, no tent, 6x6 square of tyvek for "floor", no sleeping bag... Just an escape bivy with therma liner.

I've considered big Agnes but they seem to have mixed reviews. I want something small and light but with some cushion.

I love my Klymit Static V insulated. Used about 30 days in the past 1.5 years with no issues. Very reasonable compared to lots of the lightweight ones on the market....even wn bought a second for the gf and guests to use

Anyone willing to share any packers info they use to haul elk out? I will be in the Silverton area close to Purgatory ski resort. North of durango...

Hunting by myself on foot and planning to haul out quarters on foot if lucky enough to kill an elk or mule deer.

I've got Unit 13 in New Mexico again this year and going Sept. 16th. Saw several nice bulls last year, but couldn't get close enough to one for a shot. We hit the tail end of the rut and the Bulls wouldn't come off their cows. Hopefully I'll get to stick one this year.

How is that in relation to when you hunted last year? Same, earlier?

It's a couple days earlier than last year. First day we were there last year was our best hunting day and came close in two different sets. Hopefully the timing will be right, though you never know till you show up.

Cool. We're going on the 10th but won't really hunt it hard until the 12th so I was trying to prepare myself mentally if we are too late.

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I love my Klymit Static V insulated. Used about 30 days in the past 1.5 years with no issues. Very reasonable compared to lots of the lightweight ones on the market....even wn bought a second for the gf and guests to use

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Thank you for the tip. There's a newer "lite" version of this model (22%lighter) that I'm about to pull the trigger on. 19.6 oz.... Great reviews.

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Couple of things I do for power:

1) Follow all the steps to turn off every battery draining feature. The iPhone 5 and up have independent GPS chips, meaning if you pre download maps, you won't need cell service/4G to use the map apps like Gaia.

2) Buy a small back up batter. These are the size of a small candy bar and usually provide 2 full charges.

3) Keep the phone warm. At night I put it in my sleeping bag. During the day it rides in the chest pocket of my base layer.

That's all I've ever needed to keep a phone alive for 4 days in the back country. Beyond that and I'd want a solar charger or access to my truck to recharge the phone and back up battery.

You'd be surprised how little juice the phone drains when your SIM card is out and the phone isn't searching for 4G.

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I use mine for work and use it for a couple days at a time. I don't even turn it off. Just put it in airplane mode when in not Using it.

Just received my OTC tag. Shizznit gettn real!