bmrfish
WKR
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2015
- Messages
- 334
When I'm packing for a 14-day remote moose hunt in the middle of nowhere, I often lose my focus on highly specific details of items, and I have to repeatedly remind myself of the big picture. So, zooming back out for a moment (i.e., big picture), specific details aside...
Taking a moment here to anchor what all of us already know...what we need/decide to bring on a remote moose hunt starts with clearly knowing AND remembering a few big picture factors, and then using those factors to determine some specific choices for gear:
Sorry I went long, and I know that you guys already know what I noted above. My purpose is to share my own process of truly knowing and repeatedly reminding myself of that big picture as I prepare and pack for a remote hunt...I don't want to get easily lost in the infinite details and miss the big picture.
- Truly accurate information about the landscape of the specific area where we are going. Alaska is huge, and the landscape of a specific moose hunt location can vary dramatically across our individual moose hunting experiences....it might be low-land, flat and 90% wet or higher elevation without marshes and wet country, etc. Moose can be found and hunted in many different topographies up here. There are places where you will truly live in your waders every day and places that you will never need them. The helpful responses in this thread illustrate that there can be vast differences in the landscape of each of our moose hunts, which dictated various gear choices that we made...but what worked for you might not work for me. A personal example, I moose hunt in a predominantly flat and wet GMU the size of a small state...my only gear choices for footwear are chest waders with comfortable wading boots & knee-high insulated rubber boots...and yet I still bring rain-pants to wear with my boots in the event I'm luckily dropped on a lake that has some significant dry area so that I don't have to live in my waders first thing every morning and all day!
- Know and understand your specific means of transportation to get to your hunting location. Back-packing there is one thing, boat access another, and air transport another. If you're flying-in, then also know the type of aircraft for transport, Super-Cub, C-180, Maule, Beaver, etc. How I pack for a tundra landing on wheels in a PA-18 is different from a Beaver on floats...not only in weight limit but also size of bags and what I bring. We saw the transportation variable factor in this thread with the helpful initial responses of others when the very well-intended OP (and a good guy) worded the thread title "pack weight" when he meant "packED weight".
- If you are being transported, then very clearly know from your transporter your maximum weight limit and their preferences for how to pack within that limit, e.g., a variety of bag sizes, max size of dry bags, etc. Once you clearly know that, then work backwards from there. I liked KD's example of your transporter looking at the scale for your total weight and then back at you with "that look"...and now you're frantically deciding in the hangar how you can cut twenty-pounds in the next fifteen minutes.
- Last and most important, I've got to be adequately packed for Alaska's extreme wx. I never know what that is going to be, and it often can vary from year to year at the same location. If Alaska wx is just hammering us (and it has MANY times...for days), then I have to be truly ready for that because help is not on the way. Our clothing choices can vary between us to address the Alaskan wx factor, but our choices must absolutely do the job...failure is not an option. It's one of those specific packing decisions where it is better for me to have and not need, as opposed to need and not have...and yet all my packing decisions can't be made with that mind-set or I'd end-up requiring a military aircraft to transport my gear! I also have to pack for the possibility of being delayed in the field due to wx.
Really great comment
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