Getting away from your truck

[MRP]

Oh how I envy the the young man with energy to burn. My boots are still good but the feet I put in them are not the ones I remember. Truck and quad have become my friends more than I’d like them to be. There will be lots of good advice on here, get out and use them because experience is the best thing to take with you.

[Harvest the Land]

Here's a good one from the master

[Squamch]

I use the Gaia app on my phone. Mark the truck, then walk the road until I find either good tracks, or a game trail, then follow it...then I get back to the truck, notice deer or bear on the side of the road and shoot it.

[MichelD]

I hardly ever use a map, and though I recently got a Garmin Explorer Inreach for emergencies and has GPS functions, I rely on a compass remembering something my father told me 60 years ago. Look at your compass when you enter the bush so you can go the opposite way to get out.

One of the spots I hunt for example is in the timber uphill of a road. For simplicity's sake, let's say the road runs East-West. Using my compass I can see that walking uphill away from the road leads me to the North. Besides the topography, which tells me that going downhill will return me to the road, my compass will tell me where South is if I wander so far away that I've got to a plateau or into several dips and ridges.

Using this method I can walk east or west, north, round in circles, zig-zag back and forth sit and watch a game trail if I one and be confident that when I want to go back to the road I go south.

That's the simple version. If a road goes around in a circular fashion or is not very long and and you could possibly walk right past the end walking out, or the area is criss-crossed with roads with timbered patches in between you have to take that into consideration, but the same basic principle works.

The last three deer I got were within 200 yards of sometimes busy roads and except for helping my friends drag a deer from their off-road tree stand, I have hardly ever ever seen anyone else walking among the trees there or anywhere else.

[Ourea]

Interesting how everything evolves and gadgets seem to be more of a focus in general culture vs earned knowledge.

My thoughts......

Think about FN and their ability to survive and hunt with great success before technology.

What I find interesting is that newer to hunting folks are intimidated by being in the back country alone.....gotta Google Earth this and that.
My rule of thumb (other than whitetail and not a moose hunter) if it's not 3 to 5 hrs away from the closest rd, I don't hunt it.
Learn to be comfortable in the bush.
Learn to be comfortable spending an unexpected night or two.

I feel more safe sitting in my pack in camp by a fire than I ever did in down town Chicago or LA.

[DirtFarmer]

What are you hunting? And where do you live?

Most mountains are easier to navigate than flats. You should be able to look at topi maps/Google earth and get an idea of the lay of the land and where you want to go. Take a look at the drainages. The natural thing is small creeks run downhill, join bigger creeks and then onto rivers. As long as you don’t cross a peak and go uphill you should be able to find your way back. Most main logging roads tend to follow valley bottoms(rivers) as well and the Spurs go up into more remote spots. So park your truck at a small creek that leads into a bowl you want to explore, follow the creek up and pretty much any creek you follow up will bring you back.

On the island near the ocean, pretty much every logging road leads to a dump. Follow the natural lay of the roads and you’ll come to somewhere where they’re dumping loads of logs.

If you’re in the alpine you’ll notice other things like the south facing slopes are green and the north facing slopes are more rocky. Pick out landmarks like peaks for reference of where you are.

Be prepared to spend the night. My day bag has a tarp, food and the means of making a fire.

Hang ribbon trails.


There’s more, but I don’t tend to walk around looking for animals. I tend to target where I think they will be and go there. Sometimes I wander around, but not really something I do to find animals.

im on Vancouver island hunting Deer. It sounds like taking in my surroundings and trusting what I’m seeing is going to be a big part of being comfortable.

[DirtFarmer]

There's some good tips in this video for navigating without a map

Can you try to post the links again? Thanks!

[wideopenthrottle]

it helps if you work through an area with defined borders where you can find your way back easily by just going in a certain direction...powerlines rivers and highways are good even if they are 5 or 6 km or more....we often will plan ahead a direction we will go if we have to find our way out..it is easy to get far back and turned around following game trails...GPS makes it good but having a compass as a backup and some skills on how to use it gives confidence...also hunting in fresh snow is another way to stray if you are sure it won't snow enough to cover them so bad you cant follow them back...I take several rolls of flagging tape and a couple of sharpies and will occasionally mark them with a time direction so I can use them if I was to get turned around... I always like to try and use the traditional methods like the sun and moss o trees to make a guess at the heading I am on before I pull out my compass to confirm...when you can do that regularly it builds confidence as well

[DirtFarmer]

All this advice is great! Working with a compass is something I’m going to do more this year. Being comfortable in the woods alone is something I am striving for this year. Being a new dad and a weekend hunter it might take awhile. I would love to be competent enough out there for the time when I can take my daughter out hunting. All the advice from new hunters and veterans is so appreciated.

[DirtFarmer]

it helps if you work through an area with defined borders where you can find your way back easily by just going in a certain direction...powerlines rivers and highways are good even if they are 5 or 6 km or more....we often will plan ahead a direction we will go if we have to find our way out..it is easy to get far back and turned around following game trails...GPS makes it good but having a compass as a backup and some skills on how to use it gives confidence...also hunting in fresh snow is another way to stray if you are sure it won't snow enough to cover them so bad you cant follow them back...I take several rolls of flagging tape and will occasionally make them with a time direction so I can use them if I was to get turned around

I like the idea of borders. Even if they are way out and won’t be reached. Makes it seem more manageable in my head instead of walking out into nothing