As the title states I hike into my spot carrying a climber bow and the rest of my gear. Its warm still here when Bow Season starts (Virginia) got any tips on the wet stinky mess that I am by the time I get atop the stand?
Take off your hat. Take off your shirt and put it underneath the straps on your treestand shoulder straps. Slow down, stop, and drink cold water every 200-300 yards to just cool down. Climb the tree without your hat and shirt, plus roll up your pant legs. Once you get up the tree, stand up and cool down before you put on your shirt or hat. That is my system.
I wear different cloth and change in the stand, or near water to wash off with. Bring a trash bag to throw your nasties in. If your hunt evenings best to change and wash pits, and head in water. Don't change cloth near trails.
When you get to your stand put the clothes you wore in to the stand in a plastic bag. Wipe yourself off with a clean wash cloth sprayed with scent killer. Spray yourself down put on clean colthes and you are set.
This has never been a problem for me until this season... I got a Haul to my stand this year... and I'm going to have to utilize one of these systems.
I've been wondering the same thing since i've got about a mile to walk to my setup on public land and its walk in only. I think I'm going to take a wagon.. a little kids wagon and pile my climber, stand, pack and everything on it and walk it in real slow down the trail up until a couple hundred yards from my stand and hoof the rest with my stand on my back. What do you guys think? I don't think the wagon will be a problem just hiding it off the trail a couple feet.
This ^ ... I take my time and strip down as much as I am comfortable with. I start early and walk without determination. I do my best to control my heartrate and I put scent free (arm and hammer) deodorant everywhere.... and I do mean EVERYWHERE!
looks like yall got this one tagged pretty good. i'd restate just slowing down (not easy i know we are all excited about getting out to the stand) and climb up with as little as possible. plastic bags like stated above and pray for cooler weather!
Im going with the guys that say slow down. Give yourself plenty of time and dont just walk in, hunt in. Thats what I do when Im heading to any of my long walk stands. I pause and carefully check over ridges, around tree lines and the state planted clover plot on my farthest stand. Not only does it help you control your pace, Ive arrowed 2 does walking in like that.
Carry your jacket. If possible, just wear a plain jane t-shirt in, then bag it up at the stand and change into your base layer & jacket. Those scent-away wipes work awesome, too. They're cold and wet, too, so they kinda cool you down and make you feel showery fresh. Take two hats. One will be your "sweat hat," the other will be your "sitting hat." Store the sweatclothes in a bigass ziploc. I carry one of those 2.5 gallon ones. If you hunt the same stand site all the time, invest in a lock-on stand and just leave it in there. Travel light.
I have the same issues as Curtix and have always wondered if all that sweat was hurting me in the tree. I like the ziplock bag idea!
