Lost pack

[Colby Jack]

Shriek, pretty much the same reply I get every time i relate that story!!! Let's just say that things are a little weird now between us. The whole big spoon little spoon argument always comes into play.

 

[weaver]

I probably average about 30 minutes of searching for every time i drop my pack. Now i keep it on ALL the time................until that bull bugles a 1000 feet above me with a half hour of light left

 

[Jon Boy]

Ive dropped my pack three times while hunting, each time I think Ill go right up over the ridge to kill that bull or buck. Each time I end up way farther away and told myself I'll never do it again.

 

[cwh]

every single time I have dropped my pack I have regretted it..

Me too. Well, not every time, but you certainly remember the ones where it was a problem. I don't drop my pack anymore.

 

[123 4/8 P&Y]

I only drop it if I have my whole camp on my back and I need to move fast.

 

[thru-hunter]

I've been bit by it before. Worse was the time I lost my quad going to take a dump. Worse than that was the time I lost my truck chasing rabbits. I am extra cautious walking away from anything in the woods now.

 

[focker34]

I've been bit by it before. Worse was the time I lost my quad going to take a dump. Worse than that was the time I lost my truck chasing rabbits. I am extra cautious walking away from anything in the woods now.

I can relate to this. I briefly lost my truck on a mountainside I was unfamiliar with while scouting for turkeys. The map said I was parked on the only road up there, but when I started back down the hill at dusk it only took about 10 "I swear I didn't park this far away's" before I figured it out. After a solid 2 hours of stomping in the dark I made my way back to start.

As far as stripping my pack; I never drop unless I can either see it the whole time or I know with 100% certainty I can get back blind. For me, it's just too big of a risk to get stranded without all my gear.

 

[CrzyTrekker]

I follow Roach's rules of mountaineering:

Surfer girl is not in the mountains,
The mountain doesn't care,
Don't get separated from your pack….

 

[AZ Vince]

I recall a story about a bow hunter who removed his pack to chase down a bull elk, then was unsuccessful finding it again at dusk. It had his kill kit, survival gear, everything. He spent a long cold night on that CO mountain after wearing himself out trying to find his pack in the dark. Any tips that you've devised to solve this problem? I was thinking about pinning a small keychain type LED light to the pack. I have a bunch of em and use em in my hammock but then I saw this:

LOL!

View attachment 13589.

Placed hanging from a tree limb above your pack, it would sure make finding it after dark easier.

Simple solution: Take pack with you.
Next solution: Take GPS and mark where you left the pack.

I know someone that wrote of his experience, not here,, of leaving his pack in pursuit of a game animal. He didn't find the pack and given the area he was hunting suffered from dehydration. To me there is no game animal alive that rates leaving the life sustaining water that is in my pack. It's too dangerous in the country I frequent.

 

[CrzyTrekker]

Marking your pack location with GPS is an option, and probably frequently done. However, my personal experience is that even dedicated, modern GPS units will not always get you close enough to find something as small as a pack.

Last year my teenage son and I went on a cross-country bushwhack to chase native trout. No trails. We marked the location of my 4-man tipi with my Garmin and then hiked to a lake. After catching some lunkers, we walked back to camp in the dark, during a thunderstorm; the GPS refused to provide accurate mapping. We were pretty wet by the time we found camp, no thanks to the GPS. I don't pretend to understand what makes a GPS work and what causes them to degrade in function, but they are not fail proof for sure. I would actually feel better doing a resection with map and compass and leaving my pack at that precise location.

Best solution: Take pack with you.

 

[KMT]

I have shot elk and deer while wearing my pack, so I haven't taken it off to chase one down. If I'm sitting in near a waterhole, I take my pack off, but I know where the pack is .

That being said, I have briefly misplaced my pack. I took my pack off to put on my rain gear about 1/2 mile away from my truck as I was heading heading back. I put my jacket on and hiked back to my truck before realizing that I had left my pack in the woods. What a chump! Luckily, I had a headlight and miraculously walked almost straight back to my pack.

 

[chevy_dog]

Last year I shot a deer right before sundown. I ended up quartering him out and packed all of the meat and antlers in my pack to make it back to spike camp. I was hiking back in the dark. When I was about 500 feet downslope from camp, I could not take one more step with that load, so I dropped the pack next to a very large old snag. I grabbed my rifle and antlers, and made it back to camp. The next morning, I get to the lookout to look for my old snag where I dropped my pack, and there was probably 50 old snags down the hill! I found the pack after a while.