First trip of the year!

[Graves14]

First trip of the year! LIVE HUNT

Leaving for my first hunt of the year right after work. 6 hours straight through the night and I should be hiking in about sunrise. This will be my first time keying in on black bears but I'm hopeful. Lots of blueberries in my hunting area and NO people.

Packed up last night


Food has been ready for weeks lol


Be back Saturday hopefully with pics and success to report!

 

[usmc99]

Good luck!

 

[Bar]

Lots of stuff. I'm lucky and live where I hunt, so all I take is a waist pack.

Good luck.

 

[Graves14]

Lots of stuff. I'm lucky and live where I hunt, so all I take is a waist pack.

Good luck.

Yea when I day hunt at home I just have a little camelback but 6 hours north of home and in the woods for 6 days requires a bit more kit lol.

 

[Graves14]

So I was hoping to make this a pseudo live hunt but I can't get enough service to upload photos. I'll come back and add them later I guess.

In hunting in New Hampshire at about 2800'. Not very high but my hike in started at about 10' so it wasn't much fun getting up here. I'm hunting a south facing ridge with a pond and swamp below it. This time of year the top of the ridge is covered in high bush blueberries, hackleberries, and blackberries. Once I made the climb the mountain didn't disappoint. I was SUROUNDED by berries and by bear sign. One particular mossy opening had 11 piles of it including one that looked only a few hours old.

I kept moving considering it was around 12 and I wanted to explore a bit more. Kept going till the ridge rolled over and started sloping down hoping to find a spot flat enough to pitch my Cimarron. Thought I found one but ended up sliding off my pad all night. After setting up camp, eating some tuna packets, and hanging my food. I hiked up above that poop filled mossy patch looking for a good vantage point to sit for the night. Because of the convex rolling slope I had to get inside 70 yards to see into the clearing (should have brought my bow!)

Tally for the night was one ruffed grouse and some chipmunks! Headed to camp just after dark and passed out.

 

[Graves14]

Day two started about an hour before sunup. Dressed, made coffee and had a bar for breakfast. I brought some of this heather's choice breakfasts but I haven't found water up here yet so I'm rationing my 4 liters till I do.

After breaking down camp I headed back to my mossy patch to see if my friend needed to use hit outhouse. No such luck. Around noon I packed up and headed up and over the ridge top to inspect some suspect clearings on the other side. I knew there had been some logging activity but wasn't sure when. Google earth showed wide open clearings and a stream, google maps showed dense forest so I wasn't sure what is find. When I got there I knew immediately I'd wasted my time. 7' tall bushes, alders, and all sorts of tangly crap I couldn't see or walk 10' into. Stream was also non existent.

Headed back over the ridge again but stopped at the top and took a nap in the sun on some moss. I woke up to realize, I have no freaking clue what I'm doing lol.

Right now I'm sitting on a big blackberry patch I found by following a wide animal path. It's either the bears or a moose but either way I'd love to see whomever's it is.

Going to head down a bit to camp as I'll need to find water tomorrow and I passed a stream halfway up my initial hike.

 

[aclawrence]

Good luck out there!

 

[Brendan]

Graves - any luck on the rest of the trip? Any more hunts planned up that way?