An ATV story (opening day edition)

[BiG_Sea]

I drove 20+ miles on dirt. Gave up an extra day of vacation to get there a day early to acclimate to 10k ft. Woke at 0345 this morning, hiked 90 min to where I was last year, covered up in deer, when a family matter came up and I had to leave (thanks, InReach). And just past dawn in comes an ATV on a closed, ancient road. And he parks, 400 feet away above me. And then the guide/non-hunting friend walks in on me. How the hell does this happen so far from asphalt, so high up?
So he goes back to the ATV and continues up the road, turns around at the top, comes back by, and then turns and come back by yet again under me, all on closed traces of old roads. Like he was crop dusting noise to keep the deer away.
And then three members of my family tell me in separate messages that I have to come home to help everyone prepare for the tropical storm (thanks, InReach).
I just got home and looked: it’s dumping rain where I was camped last night and won’t stop until Tuesday (thanks, InReach).

 

[snowymtnwolf]

First - that sux and is disheartening.

Second. This happened to me last year (kinda) because the old roads were really hardcore Jeep or atv trails and I didn’t want to take my old truck up it.

Third. This year I’m looking at some spots that have OHV trails going up high, which again, I’m not driving up, but others can


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[Geewhiz]

I want to punch lazy people right in their faces when things like that happen. Have had it happen to me too.

 

[WeiserBucks]

Happens in every state, every year. Nothing will change until enforcement becomes reality and the fines become a real deterent.

 

[bojangles808]

welcome to public land

 

[willfrye027]

Personally, if I can see a two track on google earth, I plan on people using it.

Similar situation happened in Wyoming on some nearly landlocked blm. While watching my wife go in on a stalk on a nice buck here comes a sxs on the two track. Turned out he got permission from a rancher to cross the private onto the public.

Roads suck but plan on them getting used..

 

[BiG_Sea]

Oh yeah, it not unexpected, just uncool. The non-hunter was there last year, too, but declined to talk to me then and seemed focused on an area a mile or two away.

I had a clue he was going to work closer to me this year - I saw them on Friday and he again declined to stop and chat as he passed by. That evening, I realized they must have taken a closed road to exit the area without passing by again, putting them in some prime terrain, and I elected to go to the spot higher up that’s only close to an old dead end spur. I saw their Friday tire tracks on both routes as I walked in, but I felt choosing the dead end was best since I’d only seen him drive through. I also put my boots in their tracks in very obvious places. The road they took to get to where I was posted up dead ends 300 yds further - if I was walking in and saw another hunter’s boot prints aiming for what is basically a dead end for humans with reason to believe they were in there right now, I’d glass from the junction and move on. But the non hunter guy, who might well be a guide, either must not observe much or think that way. He seems to think driving and bumping bucks is the way to find them. I wonder what his success rate is there - it’s big country and the bucks have lots of options. Just not big enough to have a spot to hunt alone!

Oh well…Hilary the Storm is here and if all goes well, I’m back in the field on Tuesday as the rain leaves. We’ll see what shenanigans round two brings…

 

[Justin Crossley]

Last year I took photos of a four-door Jeep when I saw the driver head right out into the brush in Colorado to retrieve a 1.5-year-old buck his buddy shot from the road. I confronted them, and they just brushed it off since they were locals. It didn't mess up my hunting, but that kind of behavior will surely help to close areas to hunting.

Idiots

 

[TradLife406]

So I hunt off an atv. We use them to set up a spike camp a few miles in. And maybe access some of the spots further from camp off the atv trail.
The area is heavily used by atvs and utvs and dirt bikes.
After a few years we've found out the wildlife don't give a fook about them!

Last year my buddy made a run back to the truck. We had bulls screaming 100 yards from camp and all down along the trail. They shut up when my buddy went by then we're back at it about two minutes after he rode by.

I don't understand how if a guy uses horses he's some epic badass. But if you responsibly and legally use an atv you're lazy. Just disregard all the times we used to backpack in there

You can't really come from Cali and hunt an area that allows motorized vehicles and complain when you see someone out for a rip.

 

[BiG_Sea]

So I hunt off an atv. We use them to set up a spike camp a few miles in. And maybe access some of the spots further from camp off the atv trail.
The area is heavily used by atvs and utvs and dirt bikes.
After a few years we've found out the wildlife don't give a fook about them!

Last year my buddy made a run back to the truck. We had bulls screaming 100 yards from camp and all down along the trail. They shut up when my buddy went by then we're back at it about two minutes after he rode by.

I don't understand how if a guy uses horses he's some epic badass. But if you responsibly and legally use an atv you're lazy. Just disregard all the times we used to backpack in there

You can't really come from Cali and hunt an area that allows motorized vehicles and complain when you see someone out for a rip.

You really think your observations mean you're not affecting elk with an ATV (or your boots/bike/truck)? Did you take all the pressure the elk experience (like where is preferred habitat vs. where is the worst disturbance) into account? Did you know where all the other hunters and predators were in the local area?

When my favorite campground by my favorite hunting spot reopened after the initial covid lockdowns (on opening weekend no less) there were none of the usually-rampant squirrels visible in camp or near my treestand, but I saw more coyotes and raptors (and more raptor species) than I'd ever seen before. What stories could I tell about that? Squirrel hunting is easier when there are more people around? Sure seemed like the coyotes and raptors put more pressure on the squirrels without people around. But maybe it was just an odd week in all the weeks I've spent up there. There were also no deer - has my careful patterning of the deer over the years been dependent on the normally heavy hiking use of the nearby trails? Is it because hikers push the coyotes out? Or is it just the hikers with dogs? I'd love to know, but I don't and I'm happy when I have it "right" even 5% of the time...a number so low that it could be just chance that a buck walked by when I was there....

We all have our stories of why our hunts work (or don't) but we rarely reach anything like certainty. I left wildlife biology halfway through college because the data being used for management decisions was disappointingly uncertain and political but it's still a big step up from observations we make as hunters. A quick search turned up this paper, which ranked ATV use as more disturbing than hiking or biking. Does that apply to deer? To elk in the rut? I have ideas, but I don't know.

What I know is that my 'big deer hunt' this year wasn't what I'd hoped and it was because of an oddball tropical storm and some dudes driving an ATV on long closed roads. I don't, can't, know if the ATV dudes blew out the one buck that I might have shot on the one morning I managed to hunt on that tag. The story I'm telling myself is that I need to be more aggressive about getting away from open AND closed roads in the future.

 

[dtrkyman]

Call the warden.

 

[tracker12]

I have found at times I see more game and less people when I hunt closer to the main road. Seems like everyone thinks you have to get 20 miles in. At least according to the the YouTube hunting experts.