When does it start to suck?!??

[fishforsmallies]

It starts to suck when you are over fifty with a bad knee, hip, lower back, neck, and shoulder. My training consists of simply going for walks, some of them uphill. Enjoy your youth and the strength/health that goes with it while it lasts, because it can end sooner than you think in the blink of an eye.

 

[luckydraw2014]

Great thread. I was wondering myself about all these hunters that I hear doing 5 miles treks with 100 plus and if i could keep up with them. I usually train 3-4 miles with 80 on hilly terrain with a old Cabelas Outfitter Extreme Frame pack and it sucks. Now I am rethinking that maybe I should lighten up the load and train for distance.

When I get one of the newer packs for my hunt , the weight shouldnt fee so bad.

 

[wind gypsy]

To me the suck isn't so much about the strength to support and move the weight but when the pack starts to hurt.

1. Have to crank your belt tight to keep the load off your shoulders and you
   1. Cause pressure points on the front of your hips
   2. rub your lumbar raw
   3. over compress muscles in your hips and cause pain
2. Too much weight on your shoulders and they hurt or go numb

Some packs do it better for me than others, I typically expect some discomfort around 80 lbs and approach the problems above at close to 100 lbs.

 

[Danny Hoey]

It starts to suck at about a 30 degree incline.

 

[luckydraw2014]

I think it suck way before that

 

[gdog]

Avg. elevation in TX per the google says 1,700ft. Bring that that +65lbs here to the West where trail-heads easily start @ +7k ft. and above. It all sucks...

 

[ChrisS]

I think Rinella said one of his brothers packed out a whole moose quarter once and still isn't right.

 

[Mason326]

It starts to suck after you had a 3 mile hike in followed by setting up camp and gathering wood and making plans for the next day, wake up at 4AM and hike 800-1000ft straight up a wall with your 40lb daypack, spot a deer a half mile away, lose all your elevation, gain it back again (all stealthily/slowly/painfully), tag your buck, and spend tons of energy skinning and boning it out solo on a crazy incline tied to oakbrush. The precise moment it starts to suck is when you put on that 100lb pack, realize it's too hot not to hike it back to the truck/cooler/ice, and still have 3 miles of creek bed filled with wet boulders, rough terrain, and a mountain between you and the cooler, and the looming prospect of going back for your campsite/gear afterward. Hardest hunt of my life (yet), but I haven't drawn a goat tag

I'd bet it'd start to suck when you've been gaining/losing 1kft in elevation a day chasing elk around for three days with a 45-50lb pack, then you realize you have to strap that elk on and hike it out 3 miles.... 3-4 times for all the meat.... that's 12 miles loaded to 50+lbs and 12 miles with a light pack. Woof. Glad I hunt elk with help.

 

[eamyrick]

Avg. elevation in TX per the google says 1,700ft. Bring that that +65lbs here to the West where trail-heads easily start @ +7k ft. and above. It all sucks...

But is it 100 degrees, 90 percent humidity in the shade?!?

 

[gdog]

But is it 100 degrees, 90 percent humidity in the shade?!?

Its reading 102 F at 4250 ft right now @ my office.....

 

[5MilesBack]

To me the suck isn't so much about the strength to support and move the weight but when the pack starts to hurt.

1. Have to crank your belt tight to keep the load off your shoulders and you
   1. Cause pressure points on the front of your hips
   2. rub your lumbar raw
   3. over compress muscles in your hips and cause pain
2. Too much weight on your shoulders and they hurt or go numb

Some packs do it better for me than others, I typically expect some discomfort around 80 lbs and approach the problems above at close to 100 lbs.

I tried using a Kifaru and a Stone Glacier the way they design them to be used, wrapping around your hips and using the lumbar pad as a fulcrum. I absolutely hated that. 50lbs was pretty miserable. So I just keep doing it the way I've always done it. I cinch my one-piece "waist belt" (without lumbar pad) down around my "waist"........ABOVE my hip bones. That thing isn't going anywhere and only compresses around my waist, so none of what you described above. And then tighten the shoulder straps accordingly to keep the load stable. That's what works for me. I've had 150lbs of weight plates strapped to my Bull Pac before, and while it does suck........it's doable. I'd never load that much with meat, but with the belt around my waist above my hips.......I can carry a heck of a lot more weight that way.

The next time anyone is doing squats, put two plates on each side (225lbs) and then walk around with that on your back. You probably won't be climbing through any deadfall on a 45 degree slope with that, but it's not that bad for flat ground. And none of us are hauling anywhere near that much weight.

 

[luckydraw2014]

a good friend of mine tells a story that he was solo hunting in the Unitas and got to the trailhead and a guy on horseback said....." i wouldn't put that pack on my horse son" he said it was the most miserable hike he's ever been on and he used to climb mountain. after that my buddy bought horses

 

[RockinU]

Its reading 102 F at 4250 ft right now @ my office.....

Yeah, I just played this game with a buddy from AZ, he looked at his little weather app, and proclaimed it was hotter there than it is here...then he got off the plane. You don't understand what this humidity does until you've been in it. He now says it's hotter here than Satan's testicles...his words.

 

[sotallytober]

this thread makes me realize how unprepared i am for this season

 

[Ucsdryder]

View attachment 111117

So here is a whole mule deer bone in with cape and head loaded on pack. I heard stories about how much guys carry in the mountains and thought hell i am just in the prairie i have been training all year with 60 lbs and just got back from idaho. It had to be well north of 100 because i tried that once to see what it felt like. So i laid down got that thing strapped up and went to stand. I about shit my pants then almost fell down the creek and broke a treking pole. went full abort laid down and took it off as i was just about to be as dead as the deer. I sat there and thought either i am a big pussy or some of these guys were doing a little exaggerating . I split the load in half made the couple mile trek back and forth and lived to tell the story. I am glad i learned here and not up on a steep ass mountain with elk quarters. I am firmly in the group make more manageable trips than one death defying haul. I would put the pack at 65 ish each trip and it wasnt bad going up and down the hills. Hit that 80 mark and the suck goes up really fast.

I’ve pulled a couple big loads. A cow in 2 trips with bone in quarters and all the trimmings and a bull the same way in 3 trips. My experience is similar to yours. I could barely get the loads on my back and stand up. I ended up carrying it to a downfall and squatting into it and standing up. The cow was all down hill and it was one foot in front of the other, just trying to muster another step. I ended up dumping part of the cow 150 yards from the truck because I met my limit.

 

[luckydraw2014]

i have a dumb question, what is approx weight of an elk quarter and skull? My full kit and backpack is approx 45 lbs so i want to know what kind of weight I am looking at.

can anyone share what kind of workouts, hikes etc that they are using to prep? I live in IL so mountains are hard to come by. I spend most of my time in Wisconsin in the summer and hike Devils Lake.

my weekly workout- not sure if this is enough.

3 miles hike with a vertical of approx 400 with a 70 lb pack
3.5 hike on various terrain with same pack
2 mile run with a 20lb vest
1 mile stair climber with 80 lbs pack
2.5 on treadmill with 80 lbs pack with 24 degrees incline max
compound lifts throughout the week ie squats bench back arms etc

 

[Bradolf pittler]

It's all pretty shitty man. It sounds like you're fit and motivated so that alone usually translates to success but I'll leave you with this. Those types of hikes at that frequency under load are unnecessary and counter productive. If you are running 3 days a week at 3 to 5 miles each time that is right in the sweet spot of saving your knees and getting enough cardio for what you will be doing out here in the mountains. Couple that with doing the stairmaster for 20 to 30 minutes as high of a level as you can handle without using the handles, do that on your non run days. That's going to be the closest thing to mountain ascents out west without being able to do it. A pt hike once a week or once every 2 weeks is enough and you definitely dont need that much weight, especially if you already have a weightlifting or workout routine which it sounds like you do. Load your pack with exactly what you'll be backpacking with and extra water for a little more weight and that will be enough. 30 to 45 pounds is ample for that kind of training

 

[luckydraw2014]

that is great advice and will change up my routine, at my "advanced" age of 46 i want to save my knees and joints as best i can. Thanks again.

 

[Ratbeetle]

that is great advice and will change up my routine, at my "advanced" age of 46 i want to save my knees and joints as best i can. Thanks again.

Your volume might be a bit heavy, but the best way to get better at hauling heavy loads...is to haul heavy loads. For some solid background on heavy hiking, check out the Hunt the Backcountry podcast #132. They interview a SME who has done heavy rucking studies for the mil. It's a good listen.

I try to get in one "heavy" 60-90lb hike a week in addition to my other training.

 

[Panhandler80]

Interesting reads. I'm close to getting a pack on order and will soon begin some light training.

I fully understand folks tendency to exaggerate their max packing capacity and distance. Seems like most of the numbers here are pretty reasonable. Which begs the question...

How in the world do folks haul out bone in moose quarter? The prospect is really bothering me. Is the answer simply to keep the distance incredibly short, I get it. But I'll also read where folks will harvest moose two miles from camp / take out / air strip, etc. Let's say that two mile claim was "only" a mile (something I'm gong to desperately try and hunt WITHIN), i still an not sure how they are getting it done. These guys super human, or what?