TaperPin
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2023
- Messages
- 1,975
We all like to think the best about people we meet in the high country - especially the guys who appreciate big deer like we do.
I grew up under a rock apparently and didn’t recognize all the knuckleheads, most of them, yes, all of them, no.
When you scout and hunt the exact same patch of country for over a decade you meet people, share photos, make friends, have unwritten agreements to keep a little distance and not spoil anything for the other guy. All of us own the forest service, but we don’t pitch our tent on the hillside above an outfitter camp and for the most part outfitters don’t want to be hunting directly around us.
Today’s satellite resolution is noticeably better than ever and I started looking at familar high country and recalling big deer, other backpack hunters, horse hunters and outfitters. The increased resolution shows major game trails, outfitter tents, horse corals, etc better than ever. Riding paths in rough country are somewhat predictable once you see it from the air and ground.
Everyone knows it isnt legal to ride ridges with the intent of pushing deer into the drainage you will be hunting before the season, but it’s not illegal to be stupid. About every third year the outfitter in the drainage next to us has a guide take someone on a ride through where a number of backpack hunters primarily hunt. I looked a lot more carefully where they rode from and where they headed to, and rather than go through the quite sizable valley they have all locked up to themselves, they were riding from their camp back to the trailhead, up past us, and coming back essentially riding and walking the ridges for 5 miles down wind, then departing to get upwind another set of ridges. Karma will catch up to them.
I used to recommend them when someone liked to hunt the same type of country I do and was looking for a fully guided hunt in amazing country, but I’ll never send another person their way.
I grew up under a rock apparently and didn’t recognize all the knuckleheads, most of them, yes, all of them, no.
When you scout and hunt the exact same patch of country for over a decade you meet people, share photos, make friends, have unwritten agreements to keep a little distance and not spoil anything for the other guy. All of us own the forest service, but we don’t pitch our tent on the hillside above an outfitter camp and for the most part outfitters don’t want to be hunting directly around us.
Today’s satellite resolution is noticeably better than ever and I started looking at familar high country and recalling big deer, other backpack hunters, horse hunters and outfitters. The increased resolution shows major game trails, outfitter tents, horse corals, etc better than ever. Riding paths in rough country are somewhat predictable once you see it from the air and ground.
Everyone knows it isnt legal to ride ridges with the intent of pushing deer into the drainage you will be hunting before the season, but it’s not illegal to be stupid. About every third year the outfitter in the drainage next to us has a guide take someone on a ride through where a number of backpack hunters primarily hunt. I looked a lot more carefully where they rode from and where they headed to, and rather than go through the quite sizable valley they have all locked up to themselves, they were riding from their camp back to the trailhead, up past us, and coming back essentially riding and walking the ridges for 5 miles down wind, then departing to get upwind another set of ridges. Karma will catch up to them.
I used to recommend them when someone liked to hunt the same type of country I do and was looking for a fully guided hunt in amazing country, but I’ll never send another person their way.
