BurrOak said:

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Anyone ever used packing goats?

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Pack goats to haul a goat.

What happened to the positive attitude being an animal attractant spiel? Just let the sheep come to you!

agenjake said:

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What happened to the positive attitude being an animal attractant spiel? Just let the sheep come to you!

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BOOM! That's the idea. I'll sit down at about 8,000' by the lake with a pitcher of margaritas and a great attitude and watch the sheep come pouring down!

A full write up and pictures will be coming soon but these were a couple I grabbed off the camera to look at on the ride home. It was my first hunting trip in the mountains and it's safe to say I'm hooked. I'm already scheming for next year.

shaynew1 said:

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I tell everyone that's considering it they need to go. No ones getting any younger.

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This. I'm leaving in the morning for a solo elk hunt backpacking. With a muzzle loader. A lot of firsts.

I turned 50 not long ago. It feels like being on the roller coaster as it tops the big hill. You're in the front but just hanging there until the rest of the cars come over. Then you know it will pick up speed fast.

As someone told me, you'll run out of health before you run out money.

Finally getting around to a full recap of my trip. Ankle feels better but still sore and questionable. Still planning to head back for last week of season but it might have to be a different experience.

At any rate, I'm gonna try to post some pics and hit the high points. This may take a few days.

Part 1:



Got my 10 day pack to right at 50# for the 8 mile hike to base camp at 10,700 feet.

On my drive from town to my TH, I always try to pound as much water, and sometimes pickle juice, as I can. Water is free in the area where I like to hunt, so I never carry any in with me. Just stop and scoop at each opportunity and keep on sippin throughout the day. I have a sawyer bottle type container with internall filter to sip from and I always take several empty bag type containers plus a screw on sawyer filter and a good number of iodine tabs.

Right before I was ready to hit the trail, a guy from Lobo Outfitters came running up to me in the parking lot as I was on the back of my truck locking down coolers and fiddling with gear. "Can you plz help us? We gotta problem with a horse". I'm thinking, "buddy, unless that horse needs killin, I don't think I'm the help you're lookin for", but I jumped off my truck and ran over to the "scene".

When I make it over, first thing I see is a horse ass, then his head, and all 4 feet AND legs literally wrapped around the back right tire of a brand new shiny ford pickup. The side panel was scratched the hell up and beat to sht.

We tried pulling and tugging on all four legs without much luck. One leg came flying out and almost whacked all 3 of us in the face. Then somehow, the dumb ass horse got it stuck right back. Since I wasn't getting paid to get stomped, I changed my perspective a bit and suggested that we (we being not me but one of the hired hands) let the air out of that tire. Don't know if that helped or not but we finally got all 4 legs out. The horse had given up by this point, laying flat on ground with eyes rolled back in his head.

He was cut up on his hocks pretty good but soon popped up, walked a bit and seemed alright. They called for another hand to bring a sub horse, I quietly slid outta that sht show, and hit the trail.

Dang man if that would have happened at the front end of my hunt I would have had to just knife him there and sort it out when I got back.

You probably just looked like a dude that could get sh*t done.

Part 2:



Grouse hiking up. Season not open yet. Get to base camp after grueling 8 mile hike with 50#. Slept from 9pm-4am straight. I think that's a record for me at that kinda altitude.

Opening Day: Hike 1.5 hrs to my spike camp at 12k. It's a deer bed I discovered 2 years ago. Bumped a young buck out of it and set up "camp". No water here except for a dinky stream in the canyon a quarter mile away where the bucks like to hang... had to haul it up. 140 oz lasted me 3 days.



Got a feel for what the deer were up to and stalked a bachelor group of 9 (can't see all in pic) to 130 yards. Ran outta light. Don't push it. Live to fight another day.

Gotdang you get me all warmed up and then the post just ends

Part 3 Quickie

Damn you boys are restless.



A neck gaiter is a must have this time of year at 12k. Wind and intense sunrays are a bad combo for fair skinned folk. My ears looked like a frostbit panhandle Hereford steer last year.

Day 2: This is my target buck




One of the Utah boys was skylined on this ridge line about 200 yards towards the peak the day before, glassing. This buck would be impossible to see from that position and he's impossible to stalk from anywhere as long as he stays in that cave.



Over the course of the day, he moved from "way the hell out there" to "practically right underneath me"... ~ 109 yards. Just didn't trust the setup or daylight to try a stalk. I had felt a little like I had chickened out at first, but it prob turned out to be a good call.

Part 4: Day 3 of season. Things get much more interesting. 5 of the younger, smaller bucks I'd seen in the group of 9 walk 50 yards above my deer bed spike camp. It was actually about 7:30am and I was just rollin outta bed and gathering my stuff. Thermals were still doing the normal down the mtn thing so they never whiffed me.

I actually had an arrow nocked and ready to go but it just didn't feel right. It was a good decision.





I waited a while bc I needed to use that trail they're on to get over the ridge and on to my hunting grounds.

I'm doin laundry bro and I gotta go buy some new britches and stuff. I'm dealing with a lotta sht here!

Gimme a bit.