Mule
FNG
We all hear about partners leaving a hunting plan days or weeks before a hunt. My reliable and seasoned partner couldn't hunt this year. I hunted with "buddy" on a guided trip once before and had some reservations based on that trip about taking him on a real-man's hunt (DIY back country), but I am NOT a solo hunter, so I conceded thinking I could mentor him if he had desire. Quite the contrary as it turned out. While he had my multi-hunt-proven gear list to draw from, he added to or replaced gear with heavier or less expensive alternatives that greatly increased his pack weight and bulk from manageable proportions. I think that alone was the beginning of his down-fall. I offered multiple opportunities to test gear and configurations throughout the year leading in and he'd opt-out of those opportunities--couldn't make the time. I purchased calls and strategy apps for him 6 months prior to the hunt so he could become proficient as a calling partner, but he only became serious about calling roughly a week prior to the hunt. At every turn, I would find myself making consolations or back-up plans in the places he was falling short.
The afternoon we were dropped off at our area, and after a steep downhill 1/4 mile hike from the canyon rim to our camp, buddy began to experience difficulty breathing. He also complained of not getting adequate sleep the night prior, since we truck-camped prior to meeting our horses. Things became tense the first night in camp when buddy blew up at me for offering him a cup to pull water from a small shallow puddle of our drinking water source--I notices he was dragging his rather large filtration bladder through the small puddle to fill it, which was stirring up the silt, which would have plugged his filter much sooner, and potentially caused my filter issues. He was clearly done with being mentored at that point when he said infatically, "...not everything I do or say is the way it should be. I'm a man and I can take care of myself...". I held my tongue, as hard as it was to do. His breathing wasn't labored nor did he exhibit any signs of sickness that evening before bedtime. We were able to talk through the outburst and get that behind us...and share some truths while glassing a large meadow.
After night fell, you could hear his labored breathing only when he was thinking about his situation--how far away we were (10miles from the truck), how high up we were (11,500'), how long we were supposed to be there (12 days), or how heavy his pack was (felt like 55lbs to me). All of these things, I believe manifested into panic attacks that came in waves throughout the night when he'd wake up, evidenced by his rocking, his repeated groaning/chanting "I wanna go home!", or when I'd wake up and look at him just laying there staring wide-eyed at the tent ceiling in the near full moon light that lit up the inside. I thought perhaps he might have altitude sickness, but he wasn't nauseous, had no headache, just occasional labored breathing, but only when he would get worked up about the situation. We weren't in a place where I could take him down in altitude since we were "cliffed out" below -- we could only go laterally, which didn't offer any beneficial altitude changes. I gave him an antacid at around 2am and then a sleep aid at 4am. He did sleep, even though he complained that he didn't; evidenced by his snoring. Finally at about 5am, he woke up and told me to call the outfitter on my delorme inreach and have them come pick him up. He's bailing. At first the outfitter responded it'd be two days before he could retrieve him, but then it turned out that the horses would be at the rim canyon by 2pm that day.
I had never pictured myself as a solo hunter before that point--always said I could never do that...I'd go stir crazy, and the fear of aloneness in such a wild place disturbed me. But now, I was faced with 1) TELLING MY WIFE that I'm coming home or 2) TELLING MY WIFE I'm staying here solo, where either proposition has a repercussion. I ended up leaving buddy to himself, after surmising that his condition was one of his own doing, and not medical. I believed he was having panic attacks and mustering problems that weren't really problems that couldn't be dealt with logically and rationally. I had to go off and think some things through away from the nonsense at the camp. I hunted up a ridge and called in some cow elk and actually drew on one as she came barreling toward me, stopping 15yds in front of me. she didn't stay long enough for me to settle a pin, unfortunately, otherwise we'd all have been going home that day. It was that moment after the cow left me, and I let down my draw, that I decided, I WILL NOT allow his disposition to ruin my year-long contributed effort, expense, and anticipation for this hunt.
I inreached my wife and told her the whole scenario and my decision, thinking I might get resistance. She was unbelievably supportive! She knew I was capable as well as prepared physically and mentally, and she cheered me through it all with prayer and positive affirmation. At 2pm that day, I hiked up the 400' rim canyon wall to send buddy off on his way. When the horses crested the rise and went out of view, It was an odd feeling of fear (healthy fear) and aloneness, and oddly enough destitution (though I had everything I needed). I had to just sit down at the rim and take it all in and confront those feelings. Being a Godly man, I had some (more) words with my Creator and came to grips with knowing that I was never alone. I used the inreach more than I ever have on this trip...not only sending location updates to my wife to reassure her I was doing well, but also to plot my position on the paper topo map. If you don't know how to use the UTM coordinate system, I would highly advise understanding it. It saved my bacon on several occasions. I learned that iphone doesn't work when it gets cold. I had Gaia GPS app loaded. one time the phone did work, but the Gaia wouldn't get a GPS fix on the satellites for whatever reason. I was familiar with UTM gridding, but not proficient. I reacquainted those skills a few days before I left and thank God I did. I am an expert now having had to rely on UTM to figure out where I am EXACTLY on this topo map so I can shoot an azimuth with my compass and get to a place where I can do terrain recognition and get back to camp as an example. I used it one dark night during a thunderstorm when I had gotten turned around. I thought I was in one place and it turned out I was not where I thought I was. using inreach SE, which was always reliable, I got under a large cluster of spruce to break the rainfall, plotted my UTM easting/northing coords to the topo using a UTM mapping tool (protractor), which showed me exactly where I was and allowed me to get a course bearing of where I needed to go to get to the trail that lead back to my camp!
I went on to have a phenomenal hunt with a handful of elk opportunities that almost worked out in favor of a bloody knife, but some little mishap would turn the table each time--never the wind oddly enough. I had more elk encounters this trip than in any of the previous 3. I called a 6pt bull to 20yds on a string until he changed course to try and get my wind. I had to reposition for the shot and he saw me move and bolted. Was face to face with 2 cows that ran right into me on a trail--I could have touched their noses. Ground was so wet, you couldn't hear them sneaking up behind. They barked and ran into the bedding area I was stalking, which had a bull and several cows in it. I ran into the herd scream bugling at that point hoping the bull will challenge me and present a shot. I likely sounded too aggressive. It was a ballsy move for whitetail hunter to make. could have panned out, but didn't. Perhaps if I made some whiney cow sounds, that bull may have come back. There were others, but man, were they fun.
I wasn't able to stay the full 12 days due to fact that it was so wet that week, my down quilt was absorbing the moisture and its insulating properties dwindled to the point I was sleeping in all my hunting clothes and still feeling on the chilly side of comfortable. I've always had a 0* down bag on these trips, but this season I took a lighter 30* down quilt that I tested comfortable to a dry low 20* rating. My boots were saturated also, but I know how to dry my socks out everyday without fire, and could live with wet boots. Those last couple of cold nights were intolerable. I ended up deciding to hike out the 10 miles completely satisfied with my accomplishments. I think I'll be ditching the down and adding a kifaru synthetic quilt to my kit (and new boots).
I will add my elk tag to my whitetail deer sausage this year and be quite fine with it, thank you very much
Hoping some of you may glean something beneficial from this
The afternoon we were dropped off at our area, and after a steep downhill 1/4 mile hike from the canyon rim to our camp, buddy began to experience difficulty breathing. He also complained of not getting adequate sleep the night prior, since we truck-camped prior to meeting our horses. Things became tense the first night in camp when buddy blew up at me for offering him a cup to pull water from a small shallow puddle of our drinking water source--I notices he was dragging his rather large filtration bladder through the small puddle to fill it, which was stirring up the silt, which would have plugged his filter much sooner, and potentially caused my filter issues. He was clearly done with being mentored at that point when he said infatically, "...not everything I do or say is the way it should be. I'm a man and I can take care of myself...". I held my tongue, as hard as it was to do. His breathing wasn't labored nor did he exhibit any signs of sickness that evening before bedtime. We were able to talk through the outburst and get that behind us...and share some truths while glassing a large meadow.
After night fell, you could hear his labored breathing only when he was thinking about his situation--how far away we were (10miles from the truck), how high up we were (11,500'), how long we were supposed to be there (12 days), or how heavy his pack was (felt like 55lbs to me). All of these things, I believe manifested into panic attacks that came in waves throughout the night when he'd wake up, evidenced by his rocking, his repeated groaning/chanting "I wanna go home!", or when I'd wake up and look at him just laying there staring wide-eyed at the tent ceiling in the near full moon light that lit up the inside. I thought perhaps he might have altitude sickness, but he wasn't nauseous, had no headache, just occasional labored breathing, but only when he would get worked up about the situation. We weren't in a place where I could take him down in altitude since we were "cliffed out" below -- we could only go laterally, which didn't offer any beneficial altitude changes. I gave him an antacid at around 2am and then a sleep aid at 4am. He did sleep, even though he complained that he didn't; evidenced by his snoring. Finally at about 5am, he woke up and told me to call the outfitter on my delorme inreach and have them come pick him up. He's bailing. At first the outfitter responded it'd be two days before he could retrieve him, but then it turned out that the horses would be at the rim canyon by 2pm that day.
I had never pictured myself as a solo hunter before that point--always said I could never do that...I'd go stir crazy, and the fear of aloneness in such a wild place disturbed me. But now, I was faced with 1) TELLING MY WIFE that I'm coming home or 2) TELLING MY WIFE I'm staying here solo, where either proposition has a repercussion. I ended up leaving buddy to himself, after surmising that his condition was one of his own doing, and not medical. I believed he was having panic attacks and mustering problems that weren't really problems that couldn't be dealt with logically and rationally. I had to go off and think some things through away from the nonsense at the camp. I hunted up a ridge and called in some cow elk and actually drew on one as she came barreling toward me, stopping 15yds in front of me. she didn't stay long enough for me to settle a pin, unfortunately, otherwise we'd all have been going home that day. It was that moment after the cow left me, and I let down my draw, that I decided, I WILL NOT allow his disposition to ruin my year-long contributed effort, expense, and anticipation for this hunt.
I inreached my wife and told her the whole scenario and my decision, thinking I might get resistance. She was unbelievably supportive! She knew I was capable as well as prepared physically and mentally, and she cheered me through it all with prayer and positive affirmation. At 2pm that day, I hiked up the 400' rim canyon wall to send buddy off on his way. When the horses crested the rise and went out of view, It was an odd feeling of fear (healthy fear) and aloneness, and oddly enough destitution (though I had everything I needed). I had to just sit down at the rim and take it all in and confront those feelings. Being a Godly man, I had some (more) words with my Creator and came to grips with knowing that I was never alone. I used the inreach more than I ever have on this trip...not only sending location updates to my wife to reassure her I was doing well, but also to plot my position on the paper topo map. If you don't know how to use the UTM coordinate system, I would highly advise understanding it. It saved my bacon on several occasions. I learned that iphone doesn't work when it gets cold. I had Gaia GPS app loaded. one time the phone did work, but the Gaia wouldn't get a GPS fix on the satellites for whatever reason. I was familiar with UTM gridding, but not proficient. I reacquainted those skills a few days before I left and thank God I did. I am an expert now having had to rely on UTM to figure out where I am EXACTLY on this topo map so I can shoot an azimuth with my compass and get to a place where I can do terrain recognition and get back to camp as an example. I used it one dark night during a thunderstorm when I had gotten turned around. I thought I was in one place and it turned out I was not where I thought I was. using inreach SE, which was always reliable, I got under a large cluster of spruce to break the rainfall, plotted my UTM easting/northing coords to the topo using a UTM mapping tool (protractor), which showed me exactly where I was and allowed me to get a course bearing of where I needed to go to get to the trail that lead back to my camp!
I went on to have a phenomenal hunt with a handful of elk opportunities that almost worked out in favor of a bloody knife, but some little mishap would turn the table each time--never the wind oddly enough. I had more elk encounters this trip than in any of the previous 3. I called a 6pt bull to 20yds on a string until he changed course to try and get my wind. I had to reposition for the shot and he saw me move and bolted. Was face to face with 2 cows that ran right into me on a trail--I could have touched their noses. Ground was so wet, you couldn't hear them sneaking up behind. They barked and ran into the bedding area I was stalking, which had a bull and several cows in it. I ran into the herd scream bugling at that point hoping the bull will challenge me and present a shot. I likely sounded too aggressive. It was a ballsy move for whitetail hunter to make. could have panned out, but didn't. Perhaps if I made some whiney cow sounds, that bull may have come back. There were others, but man, were they fun.
I wasn't able to stay the full 12 days due to fact that it was so wet that week, my down quilt was absorbing the moisture and its insulating properties dwindled to the point I was sleeping in all my hunting clothes and still feeling on the chilly side of comfortable. I've always had a 0* down bag on these trips, but this season I took a lighter 30* down quilt that I tested comfortable to a dry low 20* rating. My boots were saturated also, but I know how to dry my socks out everyday without fire, and could live with wet boots. Those last couple of cold nights were intolerable. I ended up deciding to hike out the 10 miles completely satisfied with my accomplishments. I think I'll be ditching the down and adding a kifaru synthetic quilt to my kit (and new boots).
I will add my elk tag to my whitetail deer sausage this year and be quite fine with it, thank you very much
Hoping some of you may glean something beneficial from this
