Well, I am a single father. Been divorced a year and my boys are 13 and 15 and taking time away from them to do a hunt like that isn't going to happen until they are gone. I have to be happy hunting deer here in VA and hunting with them is the first priority. But, I will go. and in fact my oldest wants to do it with me..maybe for his graduation present.. so looks like 2024!
Depends. You can train the cardio, endurance, technique etc. There isn't a good shortcut for elevation... But there are (sometimes) alternatives that are lower elevation.
Start small, but challenge your assumptions e.g. Why not 3? Oldest could go along or probably tend to himself... A week, DIY elk (or muley), camping - 100% within reach.
If the time and money was there, I'd be gone in a second! I love the cold, seek out challenges, and honestly if something were to happen, what better way to go than in the outdoors surrounded by beauty rather than a bed and the orchestra of beeping from machines. I would take that or toe to toe with animal any day over a death of old age or ailment. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I'd rather die on the side of a mountain chasing game across the most beautiful vistas God created than in a car wreck on my way to work or in my sleep at 65 of a hypertensive stroke. Give me a death living life than a life living death. (holy ****, I just made that up. Effing poetic that one was. I love Templetons.)
Absolutely correct. My elk hunting isn't anything like what you mostly see on tv. I camp out of my travel trailer. Most of the spots I hunt average being a 2-4 mile ride on an atv, then you start walking. Elevation is between 4000'-5500'. I walk old logging roads until I get a bull talking, then you have to be willing to go to him. That might mean crawling down into a timbered hole or walking up a steep timbered ridge. It can be as hard as you want to make it, if it is in a nasty spot there are other bulls that will talk. If successful, 75% of the time there is a logging road downhill from wherever the elk tipped over. Used to be knowledge of the area really helped, but in these days of On-X all you have to do is take the time to check. I sleep in my travel trailer every night, use a generator as needed, cook up hot meals whenever I feel like it. Far from "roughing it".
Having grown up backpacking simply as camping I have climbed a couple of 14ers in Colorado as well as several mountains in the 5000-8000 foot elevation range. I have done what I call backcountry light hunts in Alberta in Canadian Rockies, I am completely confident that mentally and physically, I could handle a 10 to 14 day backcountry hunt. Having a young family, I can not justify that amount of time or money for an outfitted hunt taken away from them at this point in my life. I much prefer going the DIY route. A week long hunt is manageable right now. However, I plan on doing a backcountry elk hunt in Wyoming either in 2022 or 2023. I am buying points towards this tag. My wife knows, and is okay once she goes back to work full time, with my hunting elk every year for a week. But it will probably be 2022 or 23 before she does that and we can afford it every year. I can see how someone who has lived their whole life in the south, midwest, or east coast would find the idea of a western backcountry hunt intimidating. The only way to prepare for it and make it a reality is to fall in love with being uncomfortable. When you can mentally accept that the physical discomfort needs to be embraced and accepted as a part of the experience, it becomes much easier to visualize actually doing it. Most people are far physically and mentally tougher and more capable than they realize. But, few put themselves in that position to find out.
quite frankly, I get bored hunting whitetails.. it's all i know. And i certainly ain't sitting in breath taking scenery. I mean pine plantations and cutovers with an occasional swamp is isn't all that appealing.. but it's home. it's what I know. and i do find some beauty in every time I am hunting. but nothing like the west. now when I used to hunt the mountains of VA for 3-4 days each year, I felt like I was in the Rockies! lol
Something my oldest son (28) and I started a few years back, and now includes my middle son (23) too... We do long (usually memorial day, or July 4) weekend hikes on the AT...for my sons a nice escape, pushing themselves a bit from their comfort zone and time in the woods. For me, it's that, time with my kids AND a gear shakedown along with a readiness check for travel out west... Besides little to hunt here that time of year ('cept hogs or Yotes)...
That is a cool trip to do. My dad did something similar with me when I was a teenager. My boys need a few more years before they are ready for something like that, but, I plan on doing something similar.
Couple years back there was a guy bragging on AT he hunted the mountains up to 11,ooo feet for elk, I asked how many Elk he saw above the tree line.
We saw a few prints, no kidding. Also, sometimes you gotta get above the tree line to scope down below the tree line.
Hunting at 10-11 k is not easy no matter what. I was stationed at Colorado Springs for 4years-elevation 6600 feet. Could run a mile in 5 minutes. That became 6 minutes with a full field pack when I went TDY will the Army. Hiked up Pikes Pike via the Barr trail... All that is nothing when you have to go straight up to get where you want to be. Can't always zig zag your way. And when you normally sweat like a whore in church, climbing becomes much more fun!
