East Coast Hunters?

[rayporter]

how young are you?

back in 85 two of us would drive to colorado with horses from eastern ohio in one pull. took about 32 hrs. once in 86 with a bad storm in the rearview mirror we got home in 29hr. now.......fat chance of me going more than 12 hr with some one else behind the wheel.

the kids thought nothing of leaving friday and rodeoing in oklahoma and colorado and being back to school by monday.

 

[tommymo]

how young are you?

back in 85 two of us would drive to colorado with horses from eastern ohio in one pull. took about 32 hrs. once in 86 with a bad storm in the rearview mirror we got home in 29hr. now.......fat chance of me going more than 12 hr with some one else behind the wheel.

the kids thought nothing of leaving friday and rodeoing in oklahoma and colorado and being back to school by monday.

37 years old, getting a late start to out west hunting, spent to much time in my late 20's and 30's chasing Bluefin Tuna lol.

 

[Rentuh01]

My buddy and I will be doing a drive out to CO from Richmond, VA in September and I researched the hell out of the two options before I decided. Ultimately it came down to the variables associated with flying that led us to drive.

-What if my bow doesn't make it?
-True cost of shipping meat if I'm lucky enough to tag out?
-What if my meat gets lost on the way back?
-Going from no altitude, to 5K feet above sea level, to 11K feet above sea level in less than 18 hours (you can't put me that close and tell me to acclimate).
-Screwing up a rental vehicle
-Yada Yada Yada.....

Unfortunately I worry enough for 5 people so I worked through a lot of scenarios before making the decision. At the end of the day I'd rather have my gear and my truck with me on this hunt since it's sort of like home. My buddy once did a Miami to Bangor run on 1 pit stop in an 18 wheeler so he's the right guy to travel with and I'm going to have plenty of podcasts and music ready to fill some time.

 

[muliehunter]

Pm sent

 

[tracker12]

I leave around 5am first day and drive around 12-15 hours. Same the second day. Arrive by noon on 3rd. Idaho will take longer than CO or WY. I hate the trip. Did it the last two times solo

 

[timekiller13]

Drive from NC to Co was 26 hours. I planned 10 days for my trip. 1 day drive there, 7 days hunting, 1 day drive back, 1 day to unpack/recover before going back to work. Dad and I drove straight through, stopping to pee and get coffee. Drive out wasn't bad, drive back was a little more difficult because we were tired, but still not awful.

 

[elkyinzer]

I've done flying and driving and will do each again. My dad won't do the drive, just refuses, so when he goes he subsidizes some of the flying costs. When I go with friends or by myself I'd prefer to drive.

Drove from Western PA to Central CO with my cousin. About 26 hours drive time. On the way out, we went straight through, slept in the truck in shifts (at least I did, my cousin works shifts and didn't sleep much but he's used to that crap). I would say that went pretty well, the excitement of the hunt definitely made the drive suck less. The drive home we got a hotel outside KC which is probably a little more than 1/3 of the way. That drive absolutely sucked, dragged on forever, but hey it's part of the experience. As far as sight seeing, I-70 does not have much. Kansas is a great state with a unique kind of beauty, but I would not in any way call it a scenic drive. I've heard I-80 through NE is a little better.

Next two hunts in Idaho, we flew and rented a truck. Aside from not being able to take quite as much gear, it's fine. Shipping meat home wasn't as big a pain as I had thought.

Another thing to consider pro-driving is the added flexibility at the end of a hunt. When we fly, we can't hunt the day before we leave. If we were to hit one and have to give it a few hours to die, we couldn't get it packed out in time before our flight. When driving, there is a little more flexibility there...one call to my boss who hunts and I can be a day late back to work under those circumstances. So as far as hunting time, that factor just about equals it out.

I've never had any problems with altitude but I've heard from those that do that acclimatization is easier when you drive out.

 

[timekiller13]

I didn't think we were ever going to get out of Kansas! That state drug on forever! I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder because I sure didn't see anything too interesting in Kansas. I remember hitting the Colorado state line and thinking, finally, a new state. Only to realize that the first couple hundred miles of Colorado look a lot like Kansas! Movie line from Dumb and Dumber came to mind "I though the Rocky Mtns would be a whole lot rockier than this. That John Denver is full of sh!t man!"

 

[Stwrt9]

This year my brother and i drove from central PA to central CO. We drove straight though taking turns sleeping and driving. i think we were somewhere around 26 hours out. The drive out is way easier than the drive back! Excitement and anticipation make the drive out easy. The drive back on the other hand is a whole different ball game. We drove back from the SW part of CO as we hunted a few different units. I think we were somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 hrs to get home as we drove straight through. The drive home was rough due to being tired but certainly doable.

My biggest take back from our trip out was i wish we drove through CO in the daytime. It seemed like we were always driving at night and we missed some amazing scenery. Not to mention some of the roads seemed to fall off of the cliffs at the white lines which was unnerving at times.

All in all can;t wait to do it again next year. I couldn't imagine flying as I just feel that i would be too restricted to time limits as you can never know whats around the next bend!

 

[ChrisS]

I didn't think we were ever going to get out of Kansas! That state drug on forever! I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder because I sure didn't see anything too interesting in Kansas. I remember hitting the Colorado state line and thinking, finally, a new state. Only to realize that the first couple hundred miles of Colorado look a lot like Kansas! Movie line from Dumb and Dumber came to mind "I though the Rocky Mtns would be a whole lot rockier than this. That John Denver is full of sh!t man!"

Exactly the same thought re: Dumb and Dumber

On the way out and back, I hit Kansas at night and could watch these massive thunderstorms on the horizon throwing off some serious lightening.

This was the first year for me, I drove to CO solo. I have zero issues driving for long stretches and I don't mind getting a hotel one night to recharge. Ultimately the difference for me between driving and flying was that I could bring as much gear as I wanted and I wouldn't be spending some serious coin on a rental 4X4 just to leave it at a trail head somewhere for a week.