What do you leave at a spike camp and what do you carry day to day?

[ezmorningrebel]

i'm trying to plan out my first western hunt next year and just thinking through some gear things. let's say you hike in and setup a spike camp and then radiate out from there day-to-day. What do you leave at camp and what do you carry in your pack every day? Assuming you plan to return to spike camp each night but knowing that if you don't make it back you need to be prepared to spend the night. Do you take your sleeping bag in case you got stuck out? Bivy? Do you carry all your game bags or just the first you'll need? Stuff like that.

 

[jorgensen.travis]

32 oz. Water bottle
Filter pump
Any survival and 1st aid I brought on the trip
Snack type food
Knife
All of the game bags (once you open an animal up, you want to get the meat in the bags as soon as possible)
Puffy suit
Rain suit
Toilet paper
Paracord
Phone
GPS
Jetboil and coffee sometimes

Obviously all the hunting stuff like weapon and glass

Your warm clothes and headlamp will go in your bag during the day and go back on in the evening.

I usually don't bring trekking poles, but you might under certain circumstances.

Before I leave camp, I hang up my food bag, and put my sleeping bag and any clothes I leave at camp into a dry bag inside of my tent. I never want to get back to camp after dark to find my tent blown down and my sleeping bag all wet.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Poser]

Kill Kit
First aid kit
Headlamp
Batteries
GPS
Water Filtration
Rain Gear (always a jacket, but not necessarily pants)
Puffy
An abundance of food
Often carry a stove to make coffee
Optics
Glassing pad
Tripod if I’m using one on that trip
Extra pair of socks + possibly additional layers depending on conditions

Trekking poles usually stay in camp unless I’m packing meat, however, that could be terrain dependent.
Food gets hung up
Sleeping bag stays in the shelter

I usually think in terms of potentially being out all night, whether that’s dealing with a kill or having something go wrong. Obviously, you don’t want to be “heavy”, but, by hunting standards, the difference between having, say, a 13 pound day pack and a 16 pound day pack is virtually unnoticeable (most of the weight is cut by hanging food), so I find it a little unnecessarily redundant to be counting ounces when you were already taking a minimalist approach (by hunting standards) at the trailhead. Sometimes it makes sense for you and your partner to split up, so counting on shared gear doesn’t always make sense. A cup of coffee while glassing can be a tremendous psychological boost. A little extra food, possibly even a full dinner ensures you have enough food if you don’t return to camp until 24 hours later, which has happened before. Going 8 hours on a single gel shot won’t happen again.

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

Going to be lazy and just post my gear list. Used it for elk this September and it was perfect IMO. I didn’t wear the fleece or carry the base layer bottoms on warmer days, I also left the ground cloth in camp rather than carrying it as a glassing tarp since the weather was milder. Everything on this list was used except the emergency stuff, and i didn’t miss anything else. Would have been fine with colder temps than we encountered, but I wasn’t way over prepared.

Clothing worn
- Salomon Quest 4D boots 3 lb 13.4 oz
- Injinji coolmax sock liners 1.3 oz
- Darn tough midweight merino socks 2.3 oz
- KUIU Yukon gaiters 11.9 oz
- KUIU Attack pants 1 lb 1.3 oz
- Smartwool merino boxers 3.8 oz
- Bison designs belt 2.0 oz
- Smartwool 150 merino long sleeve shirt 6.1 oz
- North Face Flash dry 1/4 zip fleece 14.7 oz
- Orvis baseball hat 2.8 oz
- Native sunglasses 1.2 oz
- Orange mesh vest 2.5 oz
- Cascade mountain tech carbon trekking poles 15.2 oz

Clothing packed
- KUIU 145 zip off merino bottoms 6.8 oz
- KUIU Kenai hooded jacket (in stuff sack) 1 lb 0.4 oz
- KUIU Ultra NX rain jacket 7.9 oz
- KUIU Teton rain pants 7.3 oz
- North Face fleece gloves 2.7 oz
- First Lite Tag cuff merino beanie 2.4 oz

Clothing in camp
- Injinji coolmax sock liners 1.3 oz
- Darn tough midweight merino socks 2.3 oz
- Smartwool merino boxers 3.8 oz
- Crocs 13.6 oz

Gear carried
- KUIU Icon Pro 1850 pack (with hip pockets and rifle carrier) 4 lbs 10.6 oz
- KUIU pack rain cover
- KUIU Glassing pad 1.9 oz
- KUIU binoculars harness (with rain cover) 7.6 oz
- Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42 binoculars 28.8 oz
- Carson lens pen 0.4 oz
- Hunters specialties wind checker 1.4 oz
- Chap stick 0.3 oz
- Monopod with tripod adapter, ball head, Outdoorsmans mount 1 lb 6.6 oz
- Platypus 3L hydration bladder with hose and quick fill fitting 4.0 oz
- Sig Kilo 2000 rangefinder (with case and lanyard) 9.3 oz
- ACR ResQLink+ PLB 5.7 oz
- Black Diamond Storm headlamp 4.2 oz
- Petzl ELite+ headlamp 1.0 oz
- Silva Explorer Pro compass 1.9 oz
- Map
- iPhone 5s (with Life Proof case) 5.1 oz
- CVA Wolf Stainless muzzleloader (with EABCO peep sight) 6 lbs 2.3 oz
- CVA speed loader tube 1.0 oz
- Ammo tubes
- TAG game bags (4 in storage bag) 15.7 oz
- Schrade Mini Pro Hunter knife (with sheath) 4.9 oz
- Paracord loops 1.3 oz
- Nitrile gloves (2 pairs) 1.1 oz
- Mountainsmith Morrison 2 ground cloth 9.6 oz
- SOL survival sleeping bag 3.8 oz
- Single reed call 0.9 oz
- Diaphragm call 0.1 oz
- BIC mini lighter 0.4 oz
- MSR hydration tablets
- MSR groundhog stakes (4)
- Tag
- Zip ties
- Driver’s license
- Hunter’s safety card
- $100 cash
- First aid kit
- Toilet paper
- Wet wipes
- Tenacious tape
- Leukotape
- Fire starters
- Sunscreen
- Barrel patches

Gear in camp
- KUIU XXL dry bag 2.8 oz
- Mountainsmith mountain shelter LT (with stakes & stuff sack) 2 lbs 2.9 oz
- REI Flash sleeping pad 15.7 oz
- Sea to Summit Trek TK II down sleeping bag (with stuff sack) 2 lbs 5.7 oz
- Platypus 4L Big Zip bladder & hose with Sawyer Squeeze filter 7.5 oz
- Smart water 1L bottle 1.3 oz
- Extra headlamp batteries
- BRS stove 0.9 oz
- MSR 4 oz fuel canister 8 oz
- BIC mini lighter 0.4 oz
- Toaks 550 mL titanium mug (with storage bag) 3.5 oz
- Sea to summit titanium spork 0.3 oz
- Anker 13,000 mAh battery pack (with cord and storage bag) 9.1 oz
- Dyneema bear bag line 2.0 oz
- Diaphragm call (spare) 0.1 oz
- Hunters specialties wind checker (spare) 1.4 oz
- KUIU small zip top dry bag toiletries kit
- Camp towel
- Body wash
- Toilet paper