Consensus on campers at trailhead??

[CorbLand]

For sure it’s fair game but I’d skip it, just my way, Id rather hunt where I’ve got the place to myself and don’t need to worry about blowing a hunt for someone else.

Man, if you hunted around here you would never go if you turned around because someone is at a trailhead. Lots of ground with minimal access points.

 

[Mojave]

Last year i was driving through a big park with a creek/pond in it.

There was a group of people come down a hill into the back end of it near a road. They were from Texas and it was 2-3 men and an adult woman.

She had an elk tag, and it was the opening day. I had planned on sitting the pond waiting for deer, as I had seen a ton of mule deer in the area.

The guy told me that this was "their spot", and I needed to go find another one. Demanded it.

I have Disability permit to sit in my truck so I just sat there. They spent an hour shining a 120 lumens type flashlights at me trying to get rid of me. I got tired of it and got in my truck and started hitting the horn and revving my engine.

I would have sat there quietly until it was dark. I just wanted a damn deer.

Everyone thinks they own the forest.

 

[jayhawk]

Some folks pitch their tents a few days or even a week ahead of the season to "claim their spot". I've gotten to the point where, if I don't see a truck next to the tent, I hunt it.

So I'd hunt it if it were me. Who knows where they actually are.

 

[ToolMann]

Had this scenario during muzzleloader elk this year. Some crew set a huge camp at the end of the 2 track right where one would park to access the trail head. We went in a different spot that didn't have a trail but I walked right through their camp on the way out. Based on the ATVs and side by sides they weren't hiking much anyways. Never saw another hunter on foot.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Had this scenario during muzzleloader elk this year. Some crew set a huge camp at the end of the 2 track right where one would park to access the trail head. We went in a different spot that didn't have a trail but I walked right through their camp on the way out. Based on the ATVs and side by sides they weren't hiking much anyways. Never saw another hunter on foot.

People that park in these areas are dipsh@ts. Go camp 500 feet away and ride to the trailhead in your quad/sxs.

 

[MallardSX2]

We encountered a lot of that this year. People parking in camping right at the trail head to try and prevent people from hunting a few basins. We parked our truck right next to them and walked past their tent while they were putting on their clothes.

Oh Texans…. Lol

 

[ToolMann]

People that park in these areas are dipsh@ts. Go camp 500 feet away and ride to the trailhead in your quad/sxs.

Or better yet, walk.

 

[kf1128]

I would tend to agree with Super tag, mostly because i head out into the woods to avoid people

 

[grfox92]

I was pretty neutral on this topic until this year the 3rd week of archery elk.

Opening weekend was great very minimal pressure or other camps in the particular area we were hunting.

We skipped the second weekend and waited for the 3rd. Got to the spot we like to camp and it was taken. Who cares? It's public land. So we check the next closest and it was taken. We had to turn around and backtrack to find another spot to camp and we would drive to the area we wanted to go every morning. No big deal.

We drove for 8 miles on FS roads and every single camping spot had a wall tent or camper parked in them.....with no trucks....at 2 o'clock in the morning.

This was Thursday night. We had to drive by every one of those camps every day all weekend long and at no point in time were any of those dozen camps inhabited.

That really ground my gears.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[taskswap]

There's no such thing as "prime elk country" that a thousand other people don't also know about. Unless it's a 12-point zone, you're going to see pressure.

Personally I've come to appreciate this. The last two elk I took were pushed to me by other hunters - I saved miles of hiking getting to them. It took a bit to get used to, but if you learn to work with it, seeing a crowded trailhead isn't a bad thing IMO. It just means it's a place worth going to...