I went on my first backcountry/backpack/high country hunt in 2012. I hunted mule deer in Colorado for a week at 12,000' learned a lot about hunting the high country and about the equipment it takes to do it, and I even managed to bag a doe
I'm a gear junky so I'm always looking to improve my equipment or even just to try something else. I'll start by discussing the gear I used in 2012 and then what I'm planning to change. All in all everything worked well, but I slept for sh*t!!! Gonna mainly mix that up to try to get a more comfortable sleep. Here's what I had.
Pack -- Mystery Ranch 7500. This pack was bombproof and provided me more than enough room for my gear coming in and different options to carry it. I don't like how my bow rode when I attached it to the pack (I never felt I got it to load right). Also, the lid/daypack seems to ride funny if the pack isn't packed all the way. Lastly, at almost 10 lbs, it's heavy! But it is durable and I thought it was reasonably comfortable when packed to about 70 lbs.
Water Filter/Treatment System -- used a Katadyn Vario and a Katadyn Base Camp. Since I went with my friend we had the option to carry different gear and try out different stuff without too much of a weight penalty. Water filtration was one of those places we experimented. The Vario worked great when pumping out of a clear mountain stream. Pumping pretty much sucks, but as far as pumps go it had a smooth stroke and a good output so we were able to fill up containers pretty quick. We were searching for a closer water source and found what best could be described as a mudhole that we tried to filter some water from. The Vario did not like that. It quickly became difficult to pump and pressure would build inside the unit (it would release when the top was taken off of the pump). Had this been our only source of filtration we could have been screwed. It wasn't until we got back to civilization and were able to clean out the various filtration cartridges and discs that we were able to get decent throughput again (I bought backup cartridges after that). The Base Camp worked ok. It's great cause you don't have to pump the water. However, we had a very difficult time getting the cap to seal and this meant we had a steady drip coming out of the base of the filter where the cap and tube are. It didn't effect the performance of the filter, but losing that much water out of the bag when it was standing there sucked. It's great to not have to pump water, but the convenience of being able to supply lots of water easily on demand with the Vario was great and if I had to pick one I'd probably pick that.
Shelter -- Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 -- Can't say anything bad about this tent. It goes up quickly and easily (especially for someone who doesn't camp all that much). There's plenty of room for one person to sleep. The only negatives are there isn't an absolute ton of space for other stuff inside the tent and the vestible isn't really spacy, but it's not so bad that I would ding the tent for it. All in all a great tent at a lightweight.
Optics -- Swarovski EL 10x42 Swarovision binoculars and Swarovski STM 20-60x65 Swarovision spotting scope. These were awesome. I bought a Vanguard Mak 203 tripod and head. It was easily adjustable and weighed only about 2 lbs. The tripod itself was okay, my problem was with the head. The head did not hold the scope steady after you'd make an adjustment and tighten everything down. It was a pain to have the field of view move due to the weight of the scope right after you had everything adjusted.
Sleep System -- Western Mountaingeering Highlite sleeping bag, Exped Synmat UL7 pad, Exped pump and pillow, Therm-a-rest Camp Pillow. I could tell the WM sleeping bag was a great, technically awesome piece of equipment -- I just could not get a good sleep in it. It's light, the material is comfortable, it packs down incredibly small...in short it's almost everything you could ask for in a backcountry bag. I just like to sleep on my stomach and mummy bags and me aren't the best of friends. Maybe there's a time I'll go back to it, but I'm gonna try some different stuff this year (ie, a quilt). The Exped pad was great. The pump/pillow I did not care for. I really couldn't figure out how to get it to work as a pump efficiently (I'm sure this was operator error, but it was a lot quicker just to blow up with my breath) and using it as a pillow just wasn't comfortable. When we hiked back to the truck for a day, I grabbed the Therma-rest camp pillow (which is a little bigger and heavier) and had a much better sleep on it.
Stove -- Jetboil Sumo. This was a great stove for two people. I think Jetboil products are great and the only thing I'd say is I wish maybe they were a little lighter, but 1 lb is hard to beat and like I said the sumo worked great for two people.
Weapon and Accessories -- Mathews Heli-M. Lightweight, longer axle-to-axle bow. This is my fourth Mathews and it'll do the job as long as I do mine. Thinking about going to a Hoyt, but maybe next year maybe not.
Headlamp -- Petzl Tikka. This thing is a great little lightweight headlamp. I don't need the headlamp to do much more than shine light and not weigh a lot and it does this. I packed a Surefire Executive flashlight as well as a back-up. I left it in camp and don't think I used it much. May just leave it behind next year, although it's a great little light.
GPS -- Garmin Montana 650t. This GPS does it all. The big touch screen is fantastic and having it preloaded with satelite imagery was great, especially given I was walking into this unit for the first time. I think the more detail helps, and prescouting and marking campsites/waypoints on the unit via the Basecamp software from Garmin was extremely useful and valuable. The only downside is this thing is large and heavy for a GPS unit.
Clothing -- First Lite. I had a bunch of Sitka gear and brought some of it along out of familiarity to it. I started the hunt wearing First Lite base layers and outer layers (Labrador Sweater and Kanab Pants) and never even touched the Sitka. This stuff is unbelievably comfortable and didn't gain an ounce of odor that I ever noticed. I packed long johns as well but never wore them on my hunt. Next year I plan on going in with the same outfit.
Boots -- Kenetrek Mountain Safari. I can't say enough about my Kenetrek's. I've probably put 100 miles on them and have never had a blister and they still are in great shape. I paired them with Kenetrek liner socks and some Darn Tough socks. Just like the clothing, I don't plan on changing a thing on this front next year.
Tripod -- See optics above.
Kill Kit -- I packed an Outdoor Edge Swingblade, a Havalon Piranta, and some Alaskan Game Bags for the hunt last year. I used the OE Swingblade to quarter my deer and I think it's a great knife. Next year, I'm gonna pack solely the Piranta and save a little weight (I may pack two of them given how light they are as a backup/camp knife). The game bags worked great for me and I have no complainst with how they performed.
All that being said, here's what I'm changing up for next year.
Pack -- KU5200 for the weight savings. I may pick up a DT1 and decide between these two prior to hunting season rolling around.
Shelter -- Kifaru Megatarp and Parastove. I'm gonna give floorless a shot and save a little weight on the shelter piece. With some of the weight savings I think I'm gonna go ahead and pack the stove. Even though I wasn't necessarily cold, it's hard to beat the comfort of a fire while going to bed and in the morning. I'm thinking of giving the TiGoat Cylinder stove a shot even though I already purchased the Parastove, mainly for the size difference (bigger) and weight (lighter).
Sleeping system -- Quilt and bivy. Haven't picked out which ones I'm going with, but it's looking like either an Integral Designs Bugaboo or TiGoat Omni Raven. I think I may pick them both up and decide later which one I'll take. I'm looking at a few different quilts too (GoLite, ThermaRest, Enlightened Equipment, Nunatak), not sure which one I'm gonna go with but hoping this combination will give me a more comfortable sleep! No more mummies!
Hydration -- I'm gonna add an MSR Dromedary bag for storing water. I had a platypus 4L containter, but I like the Dromedary bag, either to store the unfiltered water for the Base Camp or to store filtered water from the Vario.
Tripod -- Picked up a Promaster tripod and a new Slik head. Tried it on my mule deer hunt in New Mexico this year alread and it worked a lot better. A little heavier, but much higher quality. Looking forward to taking it to the high country.
Kill Kit -- snagged a Rokslide Kill Kit of course
Too good of a deal to pass up, so we'll see how that works!
I think that pretty much covers it!
Jason
