Did the Good Idea Fairy get you this season?

[Birddog]

She got me last year, and probably will again in the future. But not with gear (actually she did, but that's another story). Rather with a wild ass idea about finding them in the far corner of the universe. I've found elk in the same area for four yrs straight on the opening day of second rifle in CO. Normally they retreat into a wilderness area south of an ATV access area on the opener. I've been into them and killed a couple in a saddle on the retreat route. Opening day. And when I didn't kill them there, I was at least into them the other years. I guess I figured that if a little wilderness is good, a bunch is better, and I opened the season much deeper in the wilderness than I needed to be. Never saw the first elk this time. For five days, I saw no people, and no elk. The wilderness was grand, but I sure should have been on the edge of it watching those retreat routes rather than outsmarting myself. I finally looked at my saddle on the last day, and all the sign was old. Go figure. The little wench got me.

 

[AZCoues]

GIF told me it would be a good idea to camp in a meadow below the road to allow quick access to a Glassing spot that would enable me to see a HUGE canyon. 10 straight days of rain later, the road was a muddy, sloppy mess. Needed to chain all 4 tires just to get my truck back to the main road. My poor little 10' enclosed trailer, empty, was too much to pull up the hill, so it stayed in the Forest for almost 7 weeks until it dried/froze enough for me to get it back.

 

[a3dhunter]

Not packing a full repair kit including bow string in my truck, had to come home when an accidental dry fire on a bull at 4 yards broke my string, was trying to let down when the arrow came off the string and hit the release on let down.

Thought I would be better off dumping the 50mm spotter and going to a 65mm HD spotter, after packing that heavy thing for miles I'm ready to get the 50mm back. Not enough gain to justify unless trophy hunting for goats or rams in my opinion.

 

[AndyB]

No Gif attack, more a brain fart! was in a nice little meadow in a set up when two Cow Elk walked in, I drew up as the lead cows head went behind a tree at 17yds in anticipation of my first Elk kill.
Anyway, one of the group shot and missed one of the cows and they trotted in front of me and out of my life, too busy thinking about why the other guy shot when i should have been more focused and tried to stop her with a call for a close shot, I let her trot in and trot out of my life.
Lesson learned.

 

[trdhunter]

I sold my pack in order to put the money towards a kifaru pack. Had to replace some expensive items at the house and away went my money for new pack. Was stuck using day pack and or old kelty pack from years ago. On the plus side I am on good to go now and am shopping for new pack which will be nice to at least have for shed season and I'll get the gif back next year while using new pack.

The idea for a new spotter this year turned out great though, so I guess im 1-1 for the year.

 

[JP7]

Yep the GIF got me. Packed too much of some stuff (socks), and not any of other things I later found out that I should've (Immodium). Also ignored the weather forecast (thinking 'it won't be 85 in the mountains'). First backpack hunt, chalked up as a learning experience, and now breeding more desire to hunt this way.

 

[NoWiser]

The GIF and I are 1-1 after this year. On one hand, she told me to pack my rain gear at the last minute. Turns out it rained 7 days straight and I would have been absolutely miserable without it.

On the other hand, I'd never been to the mountains before. Looking at Google Earth and some GIS maps I decided to do some nifty math and figured the slopes in the area I wanted to hunt should be about the equivalent of a 4:12 - 6:12 pitch roof. I work construction, no big deal, that's not that steep, I figured. Multiple people warned me that if I get in that area without horses, I may never get back out. I figured they were all a bunch of Sallys. Turns out they were telling the truth and I suck at math. We packed in in the rain and fog and couldn't see how far down the valley floor was. Once we got down we realized our mistake and wasted 3 hellish days trying to hunt, and then trying to get out of an area we had no business being in.

In the end it was a great trip. Saw my first mountains, saw my first elk, and got into them almost every day after we got out of that hell hole. Couldn't quite pull it off but had lots of close calls. Next time they are in trouble!

 

[elkmtngear]

GIF wise, Everything was great, except the little bitch stuffed way too much food in my pack!

 

[robby denning]

I read your article Aron on the GIF, so I left half my TP home. Next time, I'll let the GIF get me. Better than what I went through after drinking some weird water.

 

[Carolina joe]

Well, I just got back from 4 days of what was to be a 5 day solo bear hunt,50mph winds ran me out a day early. I planned this trip for 10 months, spend a lot of money on gear and a new pack, studied maps , took 3 scouting trips to the area in the spring and summer, I had a plan. Once there, I set up camp and found really good sign and a lot of acorns they were feeding on. After one day in a good location and not seeing anything , I started to question my plan and to make a long story short, I wound up running all over the mountain like I'd never hunted before and blowing the whole deal. It was my first backpack hunt, I had a good plan but I didn't work the plan. I'm going back for 3 more days after next week, lesson learned, ( work the plan !)

 

[luke moffat]

Yup only brought my Zebra light headlamp to Kodiak this year.....not sufficent for sucessfully picking a route off the mountain with a goat on your back in the dark.

Never doing that again!!!

 

[jm1607]

The GIF got me this last weekend...

Went camping with my GF who isn't too into camping. Took my Platypus Gravityworks filter to try out for the first time. She didn't like the idea of drinking water out of a stream, so I added some tablets to the water as "double protection" to try to get her to feel more comfortable in drinking it. I decided to add the tablets into the dirty bag, then later filter it into the bottles since they were already full. Well, my dirty bag is now permanently stained yellow from the iodine in the tablets. No matter how much I wash it it still looks like it's full of piss when it's full of water now lol.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Space blankets aren't big enough. Should have brought an 8x8 tarp for butchering my elk. On the plus side, I got an elk with my longbow(which is a longstanding source of contention between myself and the GIF).

 

[crumy]

Ok.. My GIF actually must have been dressed in a skimpy dress with major assets because she got a twofer by also infected my hunting partner. We just shook our heads and hung on her every word. Our primary purpose was to archery hunt elk but he had a general deer tag too. Rifle deer came in 2 days after our hike in and Rifle elk 7 days later. And we planned on staying in field and walk out the 3rd morning of rifle elk to gear back up if we had to. Soooo we decided it would be an ok idea to pack in enough gear for 10 days, bow/arrows, rifle/bullets. Add in the fact that I drove 6 hours and met him at 11 pm at night and we proceeded to walk in for a short 3 hour walk after another hour drive to the trailhead. Needless to say, I had a VERY heavy pack. I learned a lot on that trip.

1: NEVER EVER EVER take in a bow and rifle again.
2: If it only takes 3 hours to hike in, no sense planning on anything greater than 5 days. A day hiking in and out would be a good break to gear up.
3: Hiking in at night, I like it.. great idea.... drinking a tall Monster drink and a 5 hour energy at 10 pm.... NOT a good idea.....