Ding ding! Words of wisdom. I’ve been there too. You get to “paradise” and you’re out of gas. No comforts to replenish your body. Not enough sleep. Lucky to give a half hearted effort to hunt. Instead dig in at the truck and venture out from there. If you find sign and it’s far enough from base camp to make it worth spiking out then you can consider it once you have a plan and some knowledge of your area.
fortunately i dont really have to worry too much about running him too hard. last fall he had 3 elk hunts. granted 2 of them were guided. so he was training very regularly. with running and with hill training with a pack. and hes kept up with his cardio. were also both long distance runners, so we both have an endurance and that does help. an area im looking at is a few miles from a trail head. so my thought is get out to where we dont have to hike in unfamiliar territory and try to find a glassing point in the dark.
just talked to the old man and he says hes got about a dozen in his pack yet so those are our back ups
how often do you need to clean the filter or change it? several years back we were on a hunt with another guy and using his msr miniworks. even in what looked like a crystal clear spring we were still having to clean the ceramic due to flow loss.
I have not tried the pillow, I always have used my first lite puffy since it’s a good shape one you stuff it in it’s pocket/stuff sack.
Yeah, but that ceramic filter doesn't become useless in freezing weather and doesn't require batteries like a steripen. No way would I force my dad to drink gritty water on a trip he's already wanting to haul water in for anyways. As long as you don't let them freeze those hollow tube filters like the Sawyer work pretty well. In freezing weather they're about useless without proper care.
