Alpine opener success

[tayleoscar]

Great story, thanks for sharing

[twoSevenO]

I sleep in for a long time on Sept 2^nd and don’t get out of my sleeping bag until probably 8am or so. The meat that I had hung way too close to camp is untouched and I glass down into the creek bottom. While I can’t see the entire carcass from here anymore I only see a few ravens working the area. No grizz was a good sign and a big relief!

I pack up my spike camp, load up the meat again, and begin the sidehill torture back to base camp. Slow and steady I pick my footing carefully and chip away at it for the next couple of hours.

Worried about where i'd spent the night, Chris is on the spotter looking for me. This was taken with a phone through a Vortex Diamondback, from over a mile away .... To anyone doubting their quality, what more do you want? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[twoSevenO]

Back at basecamp I relax and listen to tales of Chris’s Sept 1^st evening and take time to check out his smaller, but infinitely more interesting non typical! We relax, have a bit of lunch, and decide to bail off the mountain that afternoon. This is where I learn my second important lesson!

Loaded up with a packs in excess of 115lb we begin our descent down the “trail” of deadfall from hell. I started off well. But it soon became apparent that the two hour break at basecamp didn’t recharge me as well as I thought. My heart felt good. My knees were strong. But my feet began to fatigue.

The secret to a successful back country hunt is ...... growing a handlebar moustache for good luck!! Mandatory!

[twoSevenO]

The last couple of years I have been plagued with my feet fatiguing first, and I have not been able to figure it out. No blisters. No hotspots. Just an unquenchable desire to sit and take the weight off my feet to make the burning sensation in my heels go away.

My breaks became more and more frequent. Every deadfall log I crossed became an opportunity to straddle it for a while and take the pressure off my feet. Break after break after break ….. We kept losing elevation, but it was slow. The last portion in the rain, slipping all over the place and we finally reached the truck, just as our water supply had run out. Chris beat me by some 15 minutes as I think he was finally sick and tired of hearing me say “I can’t do this anymore” every 45 seconds and powered on ahead.

The whole thing in one day, with an entire deboned buck on my back was a bit too much for me …. Almost. If Chris hadn’t pushed me to keep at it and get out of there I would have, without a doubt, made camp and just dealt with whatever dehydration issues there may have been during the night and next day. I was so done. My feet were so fatigued by this point that I could barely string 10 steps together before having to sit down! But it WAS raining .... probably could've gone around licking leaves and rehydrated enough by morning

We hopped in the truck and arrived home in the early morning hours of Sept 3^rd. It was the longest packout I’ve ever done and by far the hardest.

Sorry .... was too busy trying to get out of there in one piece to be taking any photos. Not that anyone wants to look at a bunch of deadfall and the back of Chris's pack. lol.

[Weatherby Fan]

Great story and pictures, just awesome and thanks for sharing
WF

[Wild one]

Congrats on the buck and adventure

[twoSevenO]

I couldn’t be bothered to do the euro mount myself, so I paid to have it done this time. It came out wonderful with a quick turn around time from Chris L. out of Chilliwack.

His brow tines are top notch and a keen eye will notice a pair of forward facing brow tines at the very base of the antlers.
His rear forks leave a bit to be desired, but as Willie from Bad Santa says "They can't all be winners, kid"

All in all Mr.BrowTine scores a respectable 165 5/8”

[RackStar]

Great! Excellent.
Thats a good picture holding that euro mount. Looks like a fantastic job.

[kootenaihunter]

Great story and great memorial to a successful hunt!

[scttlp86]

Thanks for the great story and congrats on the successful hunt