Day 1 - September 1
I decided to take 8 days worth of food in with me. I brought 12 days total of hunting food. If I ran out of food I would hike back to the truck for more. I make my own meals for my hunts. The food for each day consisted of a breakfast meal of rolled oats, coconut, chopped pecans, sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, raisins, powdered milk and stevia in a ziplock bag. Just add hot water. Lunch was 2 bars made of rolled oats, mixed nuts, honey and dates that my wife makes for me (crazy good). Dinner is seasoned minute rice (different flavors each night), mixed with freeze dried veggies (from amazon) and chopped up deer snack sticks in a mylar bag. Just add boiling water. It's good. I also take a pack of bone broth and in the evenings I will boil a cup of water and drink the broth. By the time I've drank the broth the rice/meal is ready. I've been slowly perfecting this food over the years and it works well for me. Its healthy and tastes good. I don't carry snacks or any other food/drink that's extra weight and it's good to be a little hungry while hunting.
I loaded up my pack and headed in. The season started on September 6th so I was going to have 5.5 days to scout before the season opened. My pack with all my gear including rifle, spotter, tripod, food, 2 liters of water, 2 power banks, solar charger etc was just under 63lbs. I've been working on upgrading/lightening my gear and I didn't feel like that was too bad with all my food. I didn't know exactly where I was going to camp, but there was an area about 5 miles in close to a stream that I had my eye on. This area would allow me to access lots of bowls and basins that would all be within 3ish miles (most within 2.5). I loaded up and headed in working my way up the valley. I'm not a super fast hiker. I set a pace that I can keep and go. I definitely took my time on the way in. I live at 460' above sea level. I was hiking in on a trail that was 10k and I'd be camping at over 11k and hunting/glassing up over 12k. I've never had a problem with altitude sickness, but I never push it too hard on the first day and drink plenty of water. Thats what I did. When I got about 3 miles in I stopped to take a break. I wasn't tired, but like I said I never push it too hard when acclimating. When I sat down I decided to glass and it took me about a minute to spot my first animal. There up on the hill 500 yards above me was a nice 5x5 bull in the sun feeding at 11am. I hung out for 15 minutes and took some pics and videos before heading farther in.
About an hour later I'd found a camping area and was unpacking my gear to put my camp together when I realized I'd made a mistake. Like I said above I'd been working on lightening up my gear and I'd been packing for a couple weeks getting everything right. I was literally weighing tent stakes to see save grams. As I opened my tent I realized I'd screwed up. About 6 weeks ago I'd ordered a brand new dyneema shelter from z-packs. I'd been eyeing this shelter for a while and this hunt was the perfect excuse to get it. The shelter only weighed 8.2oz. add in a 6oz carbon fiber pole and stakes I was at 17.2oz for my entire shelter! ....... I brought the wrong tent. That wouldn't be a huge deal except, I brought the single carbon fiber pole for my z-packs shelter and the Big Agnes tent. I sat down and let myself be in disbelief for a couple minutes then I went about trying to figure out how to "pitch" my tent. Its not like I could hike back to the truck and get it. The correct tent or correct poles were both 1800 miles away. I literlly said to myself "adapt and overcome". This was a tag I'd wanted for years and I wasn't going to let this slow me down. I figured out if I broke off a sapling at the right height, I could use that as a rear pole and put my carbon pole in the front. Stake it down tight and I had a shelter. It wasn't perfect, but it really wasn't too bad, I just had to sleep around the middle pole. I put it up under a thick evergreen and I was good to go.
That evening I climbed up to a glassing point I had marked that allowed me to see a big portion of the side of a ridge. It was one of the closest to camp glassing point and a good spot for the evening. I was able to locate a 8-10 elk and even saw a couple elk sparing, but that was it. I headed back down to camp to cook up some food and make a game plan for the next day.
The bull I glassed on the way in.
My rigged up tent.
The couple small bulls I saw sparing that evening.
