Bisonfirst
02-21-2013, 11:09 PM
Hey all. Been around a while and haven't posted much.... ok anything. I'll start by saying thanks to all the people that contribute and share the positive info on here. This forum is great.
Back in Feb 2012 my good friend harbinger committed to taking me sheep hunting for my first trip. I have had lots of experience in the mountains skitouring and mountaineering etc so I had some idea on what to expect as far as the suffering goes but not much of a clue as far as hunting in the mountains goes.
First order of business for my preperations was to assess my gear. Down in the crawl space way at the back I dragged out my backpacking gear and blew off the dust. O sh&$t. This stuff was looking way more tired than I remember. My thermarest looked like I used it to change the oil in my truck and my tent was looking like the 4 season 3 man behemoth that she is! This just would not do.
After hours and hours of research of the latest gear I was really blown away at how good stuff is now. I mean who has one of those new sleeping pads that are 4 inches thick! Pack, sleeping pad, stove, boots, tent, siltarp, trekking poles, water filter, spotter.... Needless to say I dropped some dough.
Now I wasn't about to hop out of the truck at the trailhead with all my crispy new gear and shiny boots and start out unprepared so I decided to get into sheep shape while trying out all my stuff. Numerous hours were spent hiking up my local ski hill with loaded pack and in a while I was feeling pretty good about breaking in my boots etc and my fitness.
The big day arrives and we load up for our trip into the alpine in our chosen area. The first day was spent walking on an old trail that was pretty good traveling for the first bit. After 3 hours or so it started raining. We ended up getting soaked bush wacking though the vegetation trying to reach treeline. After a while we reached our campsite and by this time the pack was feeling heavy for sure. Once we made camp we started a fire and dried out our stuff.
http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh530/Bisonfirst/IMG_6769.jpg
http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh530/Bisonfirst/IMG_6773.jpg
Back in Feb 2012 my good friend harbinger committed to taking me sheep hunting for my first trip. I have had lots of experience in the mountains skitouring and mountaineering etc so I had some idea on what to expect as far as the suffering goes but not much of a clue as far as hunting in the mountains goes.
First order of business for my preperations was to assess my gear. Down in the crawl space way at the back I dragged out my backpacking gear and blew off the dust. O sh&$t. This stuff was looking way more tired than I remember. My thermarest looked like I used it to change the oil in my truck and my tent was looking like the 4 season 3 man behemoth that she is! This just would not do.
After hours and hours of research of the latest gear I was really blown away at how good stuff is now. I mean who has one of those new sleeping pads that are 4 inches thick! Pack, sleeping pad, stove, boots, tent, siltarp, trekking poles, water filter, spotter.... Needless to say I dropped some dough.
Now I wasn't about to hop out of the truck at the trailhead with all my crispy new gear and shiny boots and start out unprepared so I decided to get into sheep shape while trying out all my stuff. Numerous hours were spent hiking up my local ski hill with loaded pack and in a while I was feeling pretty good about breaking in my boots etc and my fitness.
The big day arrives and we load up for our trip into the alpine in our chosen area. The first day was spent walking on an old trail that was pretty good traveling for the first bit. After 3 hours or so it started raining. We ended up getting soaked bush wacking though the vegetation trying to reach treeline. After a while we reached our campsite and by this time the pack was feeling heavy for sure. Once we made camp we started a fire and dried out our stuff.
http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh530/Bisonfirst/IMG_6769.jpg
http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh530/Bisonfirst/IMG_6773.jpg