Am I Tough Enough?

OP
trophyhill
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
2,591
Location
Tijeras NM
To read some of the comments, this sounds like a right of passage. An ordeal to be suffered through.

I hunt elk, and anything else, because I enjoy it. Will I get some bumps and bruises along the way? Sure. I might even feel like a complete failure at some point. A squirrel may chew the end off my water bladder tube rendering it mostly useless on day one of a 5 day backpack hunt (don't flavor your water). It just is what it is. I think about that trip and giggle about that damn squirrel. I whittled a plug for it and moved on.

One has to understand their experience level, their abilities, and their drive to succeed. Success being multiple things, not just a dead elk. If I take new guys out west, we sit down and write a list of things they want out of the hunt and a dead animal isn't allowed on the list.

Above all else. You must enjoy the journey, or this isn't for you.

This is supposed to be fun.

Jeremy

Who was it that said "embrace the suckage"? Anyway, there's only one way to find out if a guy (or gal) has what it takes. And that is to get out there and do it ;)
 
OP
trophyhill
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
2,591
Location
Tijeras NM
Most take a bit of prodding to think about what a hunt like this is really about. They tend to hone in on the hunt itself and killing an animal. If we don't get one, what do you think you will remember?

Eventually, they list things like knowledge of the unit, knowledge of elk, learning to call, experience with backpacking, see a place I've never been, get some good pictures, fishing for trout shows up, get away from people, spend time with friends or family, see the west so they can vacation out there with the family, hunt something other than whitetails.

A couple have gone a bit deeper and wrote things about learning more about themselves and what they can do.

One friend that used to go with me often used the trip to quit smoking. I wasn't keen on that, but it worked out.

Jeremy

A couple old wise elkhunters have told me on multiple occasions something that I've taken to. And I agree with them when talking about elk hunting vs hiking. I can go hiking anytime to find all those other things associated with hunting success. Anything less than an elk in the back of my truck when I'm looking at the elkwoods in my rear view mirror falls short of success. And when that does happen, it motivates me to be better
 
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Wapiti1

WKR
Joined
Sep 18, 2017
Messages
3,569
Location
Indiana
My point to those guys is that a dead elk is only a part of the hunt. If they don't get one, what is their end result? Most use each trip, successful or not, as a stepping stone to the next. A few have never asked me again. It's about learning and progressing because their chances of success aren't that great early on.

I've heard that saying before and I disagree that you can just go hike and be satisfied by the other aspects. I've never gone on a hike and had elk bugle back at my calling. Hunting adds many more facets to the experience than hiking entails. Even scouting is different than hiking. If hunting is like hiking, but you carry a bow or a rifle, you're missing a lot.

Jeremy
 

87TT

WKR
Joined
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
3,431
Location
Idaho
A couple old wise elkhunters have told me on multiple occasions something that I've taken to. And I agree with them when talking about elk hunting vs hiking. I can go hiking anytime to find all those other things associated with hunting success. Anything less than an elk in the back of my truck when I'm looking at the elkwoods in my rear view mirror falls short of success. And when that does happen, it motivated me to be better
I have done a lot of backpacking over the years. I don't think I ever went just for the "hike". There were some hikes in there just to look around but there was also something to hunt or somewhere to fish. I always said I would hike just about anywhere if the fishing was there.
 
OP
trophyhill
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
2,591
Location
Tijeras NM
My point to those guys is that a dead elk is only a part of the hunt. If they don't get one, what is their end result? Most use each trip, successful or not, as a stepping stone to the next. A few have never asked me again. It's about learning and progressing because their chances of success aren't that great early on.

I've heard that saying before and I disagree that you can just go hike and be satisfied by the other aspects. I've never gone on a hike and had elk bugle back at my calling. Hunting adds many more facets to the experience than hiking entails. Even scouting is different than hiking. If hunting is like hiking, but you carry a bow or a rifle, you're missing a lot.

Jeremy

Oh I hear you. Typically when I have my pack on, I'm looking for something. If I find it great. If I don't, that's fine too. I'll look somewhere else. But to me, and I'm speaking solely for myself, whether others agree or not, if I'm not putting meat in my freezer by the end of my hunt, it's a fail. Although I will say that failing leads to success if your heads in the game.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2017
Messages
957
Location
NEW JERSEY
Jeremy - Im curious what they put on the list ^^^

Being someone who went on his first elk hunt this past September I will be happy to tell you what was on my list.

Since this was the first time my son and I had gone on an elk hunt we had modest goals. They were to hear an elk bugle, call an elk and get a response either by it calling back or coming in, confirming that my research could give us an opportunity for success, and the ultimate goal of successfully killing an elk any elk.

We drove from NJ to NW Colorado and pulled into a area you could camp off a Major Highway after driving 36 hours with a two hour nap thrown in there. I drove 30 hours of that and my son drove 4 hours. We left the NJ shore the Wednesday before the archery opener at 6 am and arrived in our camp at 4:30 pm mtn time the next day. My son wanted to check out the woods near camp before we set up base camp. We hiked down a game trail about 100 yards and came upon a rock outcropping overlooking the drainage we planned on hunting. We weren't in Colorado 10 minutes and as we looked out over the valley we heard 3 bulls calling from the next ridge over. Goal number one accomplished! We were like little kids with excitement. My 100 plus hours of research in where to go and looking at google earth looked like we would be in the game! We went back to the truck and set up camp and started dinner. I pulled out my bugle just as the sun was setting and I blew it and had 4 different bulls respond! Two were where we first heard them when we got there and then 1 further downstream and 1 further upstream. Goal number two completed and we hadn't been in Colorado more than 3 hours!

The next morning we dropped down into the drainage to scout and we discovered that Topo Maps lie when it comes to perception of steepness! LOL. The creek crossing we found to get to the next ridge took an hour and 20 minutes to get too. It was only a .6 mile walk of sidehilling on game trails through 6 feet tall ferns and blowdowns and 950 feet vertical drop. We found tons of old elk poop up top and as we went down the hill into the timber we found more fresher and not dried out like we found near our camp. We found a trail on the other side of the creek that we followed upstream towards where we heard the majority of the elk the night before. We didn't want to push the elk out by going too far into the timber and made our way back to camp and to town get our licenses.

Opening morning we were up about 1 1/2 hours before light and left shortly after. Making our way down the drainage was much harder in the dark and it took us almost 2 hours to get to the bottom tripping over the blowdowns I broke one of my trekking poles but it kept me from falling down a 8-10 foot drop off along the game trail. We got to the bottom just after first lite. I pulled out my bugle and called. I got a response downstream so rather than going upstream like the plan originally was we followed the sound. This turned out to be a mistake because after we made it about 3/4 of a mile we cliffed out. The ridge opposite our camp was too steep to continue and there was a rock cliff on the camp side that was probably 50 feet vertical and the stream was too fast to cross safely. We turned around and made it back to the creek crossing and had just crossed back across to follow down on that side. Just as we got there we saw another hunter coming down the trail from where we originally had planned on hunting and he had a 1/4 sticking out of his pack.

He hung his 1/4 on a tree when he saw us and came across to greet us. When he got to us he said "oh shit you're not my friends". He was expecting friends to help him pack out his cow. We talked for a while and he told us where he shot the cow and it was exactly the area we planned on going but screwed up by going down stream. But this proved goal number 3 that my research had been right on picking a good spot to hunt! As we talked he told me that he had been hunting that drainage for 10 years on opening weekend and had never seen anyone there before us. He also told us he had been successful on 5 of those 10 years on the opening weekend. He asked about where else we had planned to go and I discussed my top 5 places I had picked on google and he said I had really done my homework because he had killed elk in 4 of my top 5 areas. He gave me some tips on easier access to two of them and said to us as his friends got there that if any out of towners deserved to get an elk it was us. At this point we parted ways and my son and I made our way back up the mountain to camp. That .6 mile hike with 40 pounds of bivy camp vs. the day before with my whitetail day pack, some water and snacks turned a little over an hour hike into an almost 3 hour sufferfest with the temperature that day peaking at 91 degrees and a peak heart rate on my fit bit of 196!

After he got the cow on the opener we planned on going back to that spot after giving it a couple days rest. Day two we checked out a spot he told us about near our camp which backed up into an area I had picked out just coming in from a different direction than I had originally planned. At the trailhead we met 3 hunters from Michigan. One had been coming for 5 years and had only seen one elk in that time and the other two had been coming for three years and had never seen or heard one. We found sign but no elk. Day three we went to an area that he showed me on my map that would get us to where he hunted the opener but it would be about a 4 mile hike in but much less steep. As I was putting on my pack I threw out my back and had to call off the morning hunt. We drove into town and had breakfast. After breakfast my back was feeling better but I was concerned going to my first spot was going to be too strenuous so we went to my third spot picked out and found a lot of sign along a park that had a couple heavily traveled water holes. We sat at the water from about 10 am and a few minutes before 12 we hear a cow call and we see a cow making her way down the hill towards us at about 80 yards. Just after that the wind shifted and went from a steady wind parallelling the base of the ridge to blowing hard uphill to her and she was gone instantly. We saw a few mulies over the rest of the day.

On day 4 we planned on trying to get back to spot number one. Unfortunately my son woke up with a puffy face, his eyes nearly swollen shut , pounding headache and nausea. He had altitude sickness! We were hunting between 7500 and 10,000 feet with our camp at 8450 feet. I drove him in to town to get him lower which was about 6500 feet. After 4 hours he wasn't feeling any better. At that time I felt if we didn't leave he would be in the hospital 2000 miles from home. We drove back to camp and packed up with him on the verge of crying because as he said " I screwed up your hunt". I told him he didn't and pointed out that we really didn't expect to get an elk on our first trip and then pointed out our little wins. The elk calling not ten minutes after getting there, The elk calling back to my bugles and the day before we almost had an opportunity!

Considering we had never done this before and almost got it done in what turned out to be a long weekend I am confident that with a little luck and enough time the two guys from the Jersey shore can get it done in the Rocky Mountains! We can't wait to apply our new found knowledge this fall!

This is the drainage.
4b1ff0abb3049493dd526a26897414cf.jpg
 
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Joined
Jul 4, 2019
Messages
37
Location
Wisconsin
I certainly plan to find out this year. I've been very fortunate early in my elk hunting career-- a little hard work, some help, and a lot of luck went in to having success. Plenty of mistakes were made with each tag; minor altitude sickness, blown opportunities on bigger bulls, misses, improper gear, the list could go on and there is still much, much more to learn.

All that being said, this year will be my first backpack hunt. The initial plan is to spend probably 5-6 days in the backcountry. Why do I want to do a backcountry hunt and make things more difficult if I don't have to? Same reason as everybody else I imagine; to push myself harder then I have before, to challenge what I think I know, to conquer new obstacles, and to experience new adventures. Do I have many different goals for this hunt outside of killing an elk? Certainly. But I won't sit here and pretend like my ultimate goal is to not kill an elk. If I don't kill an elk it will be a failure in my eyes but none the less it will be one heck of an adventure with many memories made and experiences gained which will have made it worth it.

I've taken every possible measure I can think of to prepare myself for this adventure. Will it be perfect? Of course not. But having some unknowns is part of the anticipation.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
2,254
To read some of the comments, this sounds like a right of passage. An ordeal to be suffered through.

I hunt elk, and anything else, because I enjoy it. Will I get some bumps and bruises along the way? Sure. I might even feel like a complete failure at some point. A squirrel may chew the end off my water bladder tube rendering it mostly useless on day one of a 5 day backpack hunt (don't flavor your water). It just is what it is. I think about that trip and giggle about that damn squirrel. I whittled a plug for it and moved on.

One has to understand their experience level, their abilities, and their drive to succeed. Success being multiple things, not just a dead elk. If I take new guys out west, we sit down and write a list of things they want out of the hunt and a dead animal isn't allowed on the list.

Above all else. You must enjoy the journey, or this isn't for you.

This is supposed to be fun.

Jeremy
Whittled a plug... you stayed calm, developed a solution and moved on like McGyver. No panicking. You are an elk hunter. Not everyone is like that.

Looking back at your post the one line that stands out is “you must enjoy the journey”. I agree with that 100%. I enjoy every minute of every day up there and like you I have learned to laugh off the tough times and the obstacles. But a journey has a destination and to me that destination is a dead elk. The fruit of my labor. Not just my dead elk either mind you. I have way more experience than my partners and my destination is also to see them looking at their bull on the ground with a smile thinking “I did it! I knew I could do it..... wow”. Then I smile myself thinking another elk hunter is born. I love that!
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,527
Location
Colorado Springs
But to me, and I'm speaking solely for myself, whether others agree or not, if I'm not putting meat in my freezer by the end of my hunt, it's a fail.

My goals are different depending on where I'm hunting......based on expectations of what I expect to find in those areas. For most of my draw areas my ultimate goal is having dozens of encounters throughout a season, and I know they will be encounters with good bulls. At that point I also have a goal of killing a big one, but there have been a few seasons where I've eaten my tag and come home very satisfied with a very successful season......based on my first goal. It just depends on what the goals are.
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
4,973
Location
oregon coast
Good post trophy hill.
A lot of guys want to be a bad@ass, until it comes time to do bad@ss things.
that is just true in general, not just in the woods..... I have met guys, think they are well suited for a position we're trying to fill, and they are breaking the first day of work, and it's not even a hard day.... I have been really surprised a few times on the ocean.... their appearance and character make you think they will do good, but they break way easier than the guy who doesn't look in shape and timid.

I do think it's kind of funny, the unassuming can surprise you, and the poster boy appearance wise for what you are doing breaks before anything really gets going.

you are spot on in that sentence
 

87TT

WKR
Joined
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
3,431
Location
Idaho
Two years ago I took a day off from elk hunting as I still needed another load of firewood before winter. I was working along and probably getting tired. I had a bunch of logs cut and rolled down to the road and was cutting them into biscuits. A moment of distraction and I hit my leg with the saw just above the knee. I immediately applied pressure and searched for a bandage. I found a rag and some electricians tape and bound it up over my shredded jeans. Then I called my wife to bring her car and help load the wood while I finished sawing the biscuits. We then drove home and I took a shower and cleaned the wound in the shower. Then I called the nearest hospital and told them I was headed in. I got 15 staples. The doctor told me to take it easy or I might pull out the staples. I told him that I would try but I was going to be elk hunting the next day and until I got my elk. He just looked at me and shook his head. I did and hunted hard for the next two weeks. Worst part was going over blow downs without bending my knee. You just have to make up your mind to do it.
20180908_192310.jpg
20180908_192352.jpg

P.S. I was 65 at the time
 
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OFFHNTN

WKR
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Messages
472
Being someone who went on his first elk hunt this past September I will be happy to tell you what was on my list.

Since this was the first time my son and I had gone on an elk hunt we had modest goals. They were to hear an elk bugle, call an elk and get a response either by it calling back or coming in, confirming that my research could give us an opportunity for success, and the ultimate goal of successfully killing an elk any elk.

We drove from NJ to NW Colorado and pulled into a area you could camp off a Major Highway after driving 36 hours with a two hour nap thrown in there. I drove 30 hours of that and my son drove 2 hours. We left the NJ shore the wednesday before the archery opener at 6 am and arrived in our camp at 4:30 pm mtn time the next day. My son wanted to check out the woods near camp before we set up base camp. We hiked down a game trail about 100 yards and came upon a rock outcropping overlooking a drainage. We weren't in Colorado 10 minutes and as we looked out over the valley we heard 3 bulls calling from the next ridge over. Goal number one accomplished. We were like little kids with excitement. My 100 plus hours of research in where to go and looking at google earth looked like we would be in the game! We went back to the truck and set up camp and started dinner. I pulled out my bugle just as the sun was setting and I blew it and had 4 different bulls respond! Two were where we first heard them when we got there and then 1 further downstream and 1 further upstream. Goal number two completed and we hadn't been in Colorado more than 3 hours!

The next morning we dropped down into the drainage to scout and we discovered that Topo Maps lie when it comes to perception of steepness! LOL. The drainage creek crossing we found to get to the next ridge took an hour and 20 minutes to get too. It was only a .6 mile walk of sidehilling on game trails through 6 feet tall ferns and blowdowns and 950 feet vertical drop. We found tons of old elk poop as went moved down the hill into the timber we found more fresher and not dried out like we found near our camp. We found a trail on the other side of the creek that we followed upstream towards where we heard the majority of the elk the night before. We didn't want to push the elk out by going to far into the timber and made our way back to camp and to town get our licenses.

Opening morning we were up about 2 hours before light and left shortly after. Making our way down the drainage was much harder in the dark and it took us almost 2 hours to get to the bottom tripping over the blowdowns I broke one of my trekking poles but it kept me from falling down a 8-10 foot drop off along the game trail. We got to the bottom just after first lite. I pulled out my bugle and called. I got a response downstream so rather than going upstream like the plan originally was I followed the sound. This turned out to be a mistake because after we made it about 3/4 of a mile we cliffed out. The ridge opposite our camp was too steep to continue and there was a rock cliff on the camp side that was probably 50 feet vertical and the stream was too fast to cross safely. We turned around and made it back to the creek crossing and had just crossed back across to follow down on that side. Just as we got there we saw another hunter coming down the trail from where we originally had planned on hunting and he had a 1/4 sticking out of his pack.

He hung his 1/4 on a tree when he saw us and came across to greet us. When he got to us he said "oh shit you're not my friends". He was expecting friends to help him pack out his cow. We talked for a while and he told us where he shot the cow and it was exactly the area we planned on going but screwed up by going down stream. But this proved goal number 3 that my research had been right on picking a good spot to hunt! As we talked he told me that he had been hunting that drainage for 10 years on opening weekend and had never seen anyone there before us. He asked about where else we had planned to go and I discussed my top 5 places I had picked on google and he said I had really done my homework because he had killed elk in 4 of my top 5 areas. He told me some tips on easier access to two of them and said to us as his friends got there that if any out of towners deserved to get an elk it was us. At this point we parted ways and my son and I made our way back up the mountain to camp. That .6 mile hike with 40 pounds of bivy camp vs. the day before with my whitetail day pack and a bunch of water turned a little over an hour hike into an almost 3 hour sufferfest with the temperature that day peaking at 91 degrees and a peak heart rate on my fit bit of 196!

After he got the cow on the opener we planned on going back to that spot after giving it a couple days rest. Day two we checked out a spot he told us about near our camp and an area I had picked out just coming in from a different direction than I had originally planned. At the trailhead we met 3 hunters from Michigan . One had been coming for 5 years and had only seen one elk in that time and the other two had been coming for three years and had never seen or heard one. We found sign but no elk. Day three we went to an area that he showed me on my map that would get us to where he hunted the opener but it would be about a 4 mile hike in but much less steep. As I was putting on my pack I threw out my back and had to call off the morning hunt. We drove into town and had breakfast and my back felt better. After breakfast my back was feeling better but I was concerned going to my first spot was going to be too strenuous so we went to my third spot picked out and found a lot of sign along a park that had a couple heavily traveled water holes. We sat at the water from about 10 am and a few minutes before 12 we hear a cow call and we see a cow making her way down the hill towards us at about 80 yards. Just after that the wind shifted and went from a steady wind parallelling the base of the ridge to blowing hard uphill to her and she was gone instantly. We saw a few mulies over the rest of the day.

On day 4 we planned on trying to get back to spot number one. Unfortunately my son woke up with a puffy face, his eyes nearly swollen shut , pounding headache and nausea. He had altitude sickness! We were hunting between 7500 and 10,000 feet with our camp at 8450 feet. I dove him in to town to get him lower which was about 6500 feet. After 4 hours he wasn't any better. At that time I felt if we didn't leav he would be in the hospital 2000 miles from home. We drove back to camp and packed up with him on the verge of crying because as he said " I screwed up your hunt". I told him he didn't and pointed out that we really didn't expect to get an elk on our first trip and then pointed out our little wins. The elk calling not ten minutes after getting there, The elk calling back to my bugles and the day before we almost had an opportunity!

Considering we had never done this before and almost got it done in what turned out to be a long weekend I am confident that with a little luck and enough time the two guys from the Jersey shore can get it done in the Rocky Mountains!

This is the drainage.
4b1ff0abb3049493dd526a26897414cf.jpg

This sums up a first time elk hunt very well! Thanks for sharing!
 

NC Hunter

FNG
Joined
May 22, 2019
Messages
21
Location
NC
It is absolutely more of a mind game than a fitness game. Fitness obviously helps but the mental aspect is really where it gets you. I did not realize this until I went the first time. Predators worry me less than sneaking up on a skunk in the dark 10 miles from the truck . . .
 
Joined
Mar 25, 2020
Messages
13
I have never done a backcountry hunt like you guys are talking about but I have packed in and camped and hunted I just don’t consider it backcountry. That being said my opinion is that toughness is 95% mental. Two sayings that I like and try to stick with are from the jobs I do. Stick and stay make it pay and mind over matter if you don’t mind it don’t matter
 
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
1,451
Location
Great Falls MT
My first few years of backpack hunting for elk I was 225 and like 25% body fat. Three miles in or more. It sucked but I stuck it out.

Pretty excited to see how I do this spring at 168 and 14% fat! It'll be way easy!

I think it's more of mental toughness. My partner is a stud. He's jacked. But he seems to get down easy and want to give up too soon.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
OP
trophyhill
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
2,591
Location
Tijeras NM
I agree that the toughness is in between your ears. Not who can get to the top the fastest while passing all the sign that is laid out right there in front of you
 

Wassid82

WKR
Joined
Dec 4, 2018
Messages
491
I once heard some one say you don’t have to be great at hunting. It’s that you have to work a little harder and be willing to suffer a little more. You don’t have to be Paul Bunyan. Just be willing to walk one more ridge over and glass one more hour. You will be rewarded. Embrace the suck. 🤣
 

brsnow

WKR
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
1,847
A couple old wise elkhunters have told me on multiple occasions something that I've taken to. And I agree with them when talking about elk hunting vs hiking. I can go hiking anytime to find all those other things associated with hunting success. Anything less than an elk in the back of my truck when I'm looking at the elkwoods in my rear view mirror falls short of success. And when that does happen, it motivates me to be better
Totally true, but the issue and fear of the backcountry soft leftist granola hikers survive in all year. The knowledge and grit to get an elk totally true.
 

Krustyroo

FNG
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Messages
17
Awesome forum. I did a fly in from Salmon ID, a season back into the Frank Church-River Of No Return Wilderness with my cousin. A week of backcountry at elevation in Idaho. We got everything we asked for. Being isolated, working with a map and lensatic compass using terrain association while adjusting to the climate and scenery? There is nothing like it. Hard to convey that experience to folks who will never get that deep. Thank you for bringing this up and allowing me to recall that time.
 
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