Roughly estimate your walk in time.

[luke moffat]

Dead reckoning over terrain on foot is a tricky scenario. My comfortable pace over pavement averages 3 miles per hour. Off trail and semi undulating terrain with tussocks and tundra (alpine) is about 1.5 miles per hour. Mountainous terrain with mild angles about 1 mile per hour.

Anytime i'm in unfamiliar terrain with elevation and trees, I allow myself double the usual required time and really pay attention to distance and time for the first couple of hours...then take an average and try to keep pace.

Add hunting to the scenario and I expect to cover about 1/2-mile an hour.

It really depends on my pack weight and the terrain type. It's an individual task, so no real accurate judge for someone else's consideration and abilities.

But when I hunt sheep, a good day average once the hammer falls is 5-7 miles per day with 100-120-lb packs. But goat hunting is more vertical terrain, takes a full day to travel a few miles with wicked steep slopes and alder busting down lower.

Best thing to try is to assess how long it takes you to get where you're going to hunt, and double that time if you're strong and motivated coming out heavy, or triple the time for a return if you'r busted up or tired. Make sense?

larry

Great breakdown Larry!

 

[Schleppy]

Yep, great stuff thanks. Jdog, that's exactly the situation in trying to avoid. I remember pulling up to the grim reaper when I was in boot camp at camp Pendleton and thinking, "well that's what all the fuss was about , that isn't that big of a hill." Then I noticed something tiny moving up the side and they were platoons. That's when the suck factor needle moved up a few notches.

 

[5MilesBack]

I would agree that meat recovery is very important, but in over 30 years I've never lost any bagged meat. If you're smart about it, you can just about always find a decent place to put it in the high country where it will keep for at least a couple days. The furthest was probably 6-7 miles and for reference purposes we left the Jeep at 0400 the next morning to go in to get it, and made it back to the Jeep at 9pm that night. There are few trails and lots of deadfall in the places I hunt, and I'm pretty much a straight line approach kind of guy.

 

[Jdog]

Yep, great stuff thanks. Jdog, that's exactly the situation in trying to avoid. I remember pulling up to the grim reaper when I was in boot camp at camp Pendleton and thinking, "well that's what all the fuss was about , that isn't that big of a hill." Then I noticed something tiny moving up the side and they were platoons. That's when the suck factor needle moved up a few notches.

funny!

Another big consideration guys forget about is elevation in CO and LACK of O2--it can play a huge part in slowing you down and just flat out making your body work harder.

Lack of O2 flat out sucks and is not easily simulated in lower training environments!

 

[Jon Boy]

Are you going to be hunting by yourself? 5-7 miles is a long way to be pack out an elk solo in unfamiliar country.

 

[Schleppy]

Hunting with one guy for sure and maybe two.

 

[desertcj]

I'll throw in my .02 here, but it's basically been covered. I have one mountain that I've hunted a few times and 5-7 miles takes me all day. It's just really steep(4000ft elevation gain) country and it's almost all up on the way in. Coming out is almost half the time, but it's hard on my legs and knees. I have another spot that is 5-7 miles and it's only a 4hr hike in(2000ft elevation gain). I'm not in "iron man" shape, but pretty decent when doing this. It's just hard work and you will find your limit after a trip or two.