Boy was it fun watching him cover those last couple miles! With the high vantage point I just relaxed, ate, and drank coffee. When we headed in to glass/hunt that night I loaded up my loadshelf with the deboned calf and took that back to camp when it got dark. I put it in Bryce’s court of hunt in the am or hike out early. I preferred to hike out early but he still had a tag so I let him make the final decision on that.
We got back to camp. Hung the meat in the tree and ate a a bunch of food. @MtnElk was laughing at me for packing a whole sleeve of everything bagels and a jar of some really good butter. I know he was really just jealous though.
I went to get something out of the tent and found a friend. Told him that it looks a whole lot like a black widow but had some cool markings on its back. It was right next to my pillow and I was t feeing it so I smashed it.
I fell asleep pretty quick after a long day and woke up bright and early to the alarms. Asked “we hunting or hiking”? The answer was hiking, the fog was so thick you couldn’t see 25 yards. So we decided to take advantage of the cool weather and hike the meat out.
2 elk, 2 idiots, 1 cart, 1 trip
Luckily it was a medium sized cow and a smaller calf.
Hanging weight deboned came in at 44lb for the calf and 122lb for the cow.
Let’s just say that my cart and I had something to prove…
We got back to camp. Hung the meat in the tree and ate a a bunch of food. @MtnElk was laughing at me for packing a whole sleeve of everything bagels and a jar of some really good butter. I know he was really just jealous though.
I went to get something out of the tent and found a friend. Told him that it looks a whole lot like a black widow but had some cool markings on its back. It was right next to my pillow and I was t feeing it so I smashed it.
I fell asleep pretty quick after a long day and woke up bright and early to the alarms. Asked “we hunting or hiking”? The answer was hiking, the fog was so thick you couldn’t see 25 yards. So we decided to take advantage of the cool weather and hike the meat out.
2 elk, 2 idiots, 1 cart, 1 trip
Luckily it was a medium sized cow and a smaller calf.
Hanging weight deboned came in at 44lb for the calf and 122lb for the cow.
Let’s just say that my cart and I had something to prove…
perma
Well-known member
It’s only stupid if you come out empty handed. I have 10 years of stupid to attest to.
2rocky
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
- Messages
- 4,994
The fog was pretty wild and the carting was going well. I had about a 62lb pack and 85lb on the cart. I had the whole cow and @MtnElk was carting the calf. Going downhill on steep sections I went with the wheel barrow technique and it worked well. Mellow downhill, flat, and uphill I utilized the pull straps I am talked on my cart to the modified mounts on my pack.
Those straps were life savers. They aloud me to pull the weight with me legs and stabilize with my arms.
Here are the negatives to my cart and my potential solutions.
Handles not long enough: To get the right spacing between the heavy wheel and my heels I needed about six more inches to hold comfortably at a resting position instead of out behind my back. Let’s just say that my heals took a couple goods ones.
I think the longer handles would also help with fatigue.
Along those lines the weight would occasionally shift and cause real issues. I am going to add another cross bar and 4 permanent straps to be able to lock a load down tight in the load cell bags.
Lastly instead of two straps individually mounted I am going to have an eye on both ends of the cart where I can connect a single line with two hooks. This will allow the shifting of hips and a little more shock absorption with the twisting motion. The rope will run through a central point.
I also made mention of mounting on both sides of the cart. 50lb on the cart was pretty sweet but 85lb started to really work me near the end of the ten miles. The idea for the future would be to modify the other pack and then have one guy pull and the other stabilize like a wheel barrow and miss the holes . This team effort should allow for atleast a hundred pounds.
As the hike continued, @MtnElk was telling me about how lost he got and I couldn’t stop laughing. The first time I went out there I went through a lot of the same public gulleys that he did to get back to the route. There is a reason I learned the route I did.
He kept telling me about this massive shed he found that he saw from along distance away. I figured it was nice but maybe a bit blown out of proportion.
He wasn’t exaggerating and figured he would take it with despite the added weight. Shortly after this time he also offered to carry my rifle because it was causing added strain with the heavy cart and awkward position because of the short handles. I tested the handles multiple times but just not real world testing enough.
Near the end of the ten miles my arms were about smoked and it was getting challenging to balance so I would bring my arms to the neutral position and it felt great. Cart would be more balanced, the bumps didn’t feel as bad, and then… very many four letter words as the 120ish pound loaded cart slammed into my heals.
On one of those hits I looked up and saw something stuffed in the rocks. Looked like a stashed game cart with flat tires so I marked it to check out later.
The last fence crossing we basically threw the cart over the fence and when it hit a small corner of the load cell bag ripped. We had about three miles left and it held up all the way to the truck until the last minute.
The only time I couldn’t use the cart was a steep, washed out trail. I dropped the load cell off the cart and took my 60ish pound pack up with the empty cart and came back down for the bag. This is where I really appreciated the cart and determined with a few modifications it was a solid plan. I threw the 85lb load cell in the load shelf and tried to get the pack on my back. The over 110 lb pack hit the dirt as my arms have out from exhaustion.
I took a break, had a little motivational pep talk, and a courtesy wipe before trying again. I got the pack to my thigh and was then able to skirt my right arm in.
That hundred yards or so was miserable. I was making all kinds of noise to force my legs forward with each steep step up. Like a tennis player slamming a tennis ball back at their opponent.
From there on out it went pretty well. I was ecstatic to get to the bridge but to tired to stabilize the cart and keep my pack on like I did on the way out.
D
Deleted member 52098
Guest
They get bigger as the trip goes on. $*)Q!#@$ spiders
GrantK
Well-known member
Loving the story! you guys are making me feel pretty lazy with the effort you are willing to go to to get some cows in the freezer.
I can't say I've played with game carts at all but I have wrestled a wheeled litter through some rough stuff with some pretty big humans in it, we have had a bunch of setups and figured out that going to a fatbike wheel with the disk brake attached makes things exponentially easier than a smaller tire like you are using, we roll 200LB patients with 2 people if the terrain isn't bad...the smaller tire took 4 minimum.
I can't say I've played with game carts at all but I have wrestled a wheeled litter through some rough stuff with some pretty big humans in it, we have had a bunch of setups and figured out that going to a fatbike wheel with the disk brake attached makes things exponentially easier than a smaller tire like you are using, we roll 200LB patients with 2 people if the terrain isn't bad...the smaller tire took 4 minimum.
Only issue with those bigger carts and bigger wheels is you need to people. I like the ability to run it solo. The tire I am currently running is 6.5” wide and 12” or so tall, keeping the center of gravity pretty low. It is also running a 1” axle which I am very happy with that.
Of the few issues I experienced the tire wasn’t one of them.
After getting to the truck and loading the coolers up we ran to a gas station real quick while walls of water came crashing down. There were rivers running down the roads and truck was having some fun going sideways on some real grease. We basically turned right around and went back, loaded up water for the hike back, and a little extra in case we stayed through the end of the day Wednesday. After the trip out we were both feeling like we got our butts kicked and I decided that the cart wasn’t going back in. It would just be too much at that point. We decided we would try to find a nice calf or yearling and pack that out with camp.
We had a great sunset and got to camp well after dark.
Without the cart I was feeling pretty good on the way back in but @MtnElk was visibly in some serious pain.
Got back and had some food before game planning the next day. I was leaving it in his hands for next steps since he still had tags in pocket.
We had a great sunset and got to camp well after dark.
Without the cart I was feeling pretty good on the way back in but @MtnElk was visibly in some serious pain.
Got back and had some food before game planning the next day. I was leaving it in his hands for next steps since he still had tags in pocket.
BackofBeyond
Well-known member
That's the look of a man second guessing some life choices right there.
D
Deleted member 52098
Guest
MONDAY
I slept like crap. Maybe 4 hours of sleep, and it wasn't good sleep. Not abnormal for me in tents, but not ideal given the hike in yesterday. Alarm goes off and I open the tent... can't see the trees 25 feet away. Even if I hadn't already committed to hiking the meat out, our fate was sealed that we weren't hunting this morning. We got up and by 630 were on the "road" with loaded carts and bags
Despite having hiked in yesterday and sleeping like shit, I was feeling pretty good and felt we were moving at a pretty decent clip. I could sense though that the cart was a bipolar experience for Deacon at times - sometimes it felt great, other times it felt like a chore, albeit a more efficient chore than not having it. The only problem is that the cart design depends on the tethers going to deacons backpack, so it's not something I can take over as it would lose a lot of stability. This would be a change we both agreed needs to happen for next year - make it so that either of us can take the cart and maybe we just do mile on, mile off to lighten the eventual load that would shred his arms by the end of the day. An hour in the fog was starting to lift and we had a breakfast / sunrise stop.
I eat the worlds worst peak menu item - the breakfast scramble - and we continue on our way. As we are walking, I notice that Deacon is articulating his body so that the right side of his body has more space while walking and the cart is titled slightly left. It took me about a mile to figure out that his rifle was causing him to subtly adjust for its presence and it looked painfully uncomfortable. I offered to take the rifle because I was well aware he was already doing harder work than me at this point, and again, I can't take the cart. (you can see it below, its slight, but noticeable)
So now we have our final pack weights for the day. We are each loaded up, and I have the gun and later added a nice shed that I knew my daughter would love (only a parent would add 7 lbs to their already heavy pack to put a smile on their kids face).
For the most part it was a slow going exercise in "left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot". Neither of us was particularly fast and neither of us was particularly in pain for the first half of the hike. But then the weather shifted and it was flipping hot... and to make matters worse, the only time WY wasn't windy. The heat sapped us and tipped the scales from tough to miserable. and it happened as we got to the hottest part of the hike and hardest as well, crossing this little saddle. He dropped the load off the cart and went up the saddle with just the cart, I came up after him with my load. and then he went down to get the dropped load back. MY ONLY REGRET of this entire trip is that I didn't volunteer to go get the load bag down at the bottom. I should have and I regret it, but I didn't. Sorry @Dsnow9, I owe you one for that.
Needless to say, we made it to the truck, got all the meat in the coolers and were relieved to have done so before the skies opened up. We left the cart there, went to the gas station where we loaded up like fat kids and drove back down to the TH. There we stuffed our faces, hyped ourselves up and got ready to go back up.
Hiking total so far.... 22.5 miles in 24 hours, 21 of those loaded to the gills.
We hike back in and my body is feeling it. Not all over and not like drop dead exhaustion, in fact my legs and I feel pretty good, but my feet were really feeling it. Since I arrived the day before, I've essentially hiked except for when I slept. My feet are just strained, over worked. It's something I have dealt with in a few ultras I have run... the bottoms of my feet are just overworked from the repetitive motion and no quality sleep didn't help either. Which explains the absolute miserable face I have in that photo @Dsnow9 posted.
I genuinely think he was worried about me finishing, as I got really quiet and I was grimacing... but I assured him that I was just in the pain cave and talking myself through each step. Making micro goals to make the time go by. I told him before we ever hunted together "no one has ever called me fast, but no one doubts that I will get it done and finish". I've always been a bigger athlete, I'm just not fast, but I always get it done. And this was no different. The one awesome thing about this hike was the sunset
We made it back to camp and we were shredded. I could even see it on Deacon's face... he wasn't feeling the way I was, but you could tell it was a long day for both of us. We sat down, scarfed a shit ton of food down and went to go to bed. But the day wasn't done messing with us. Right above where my head would be, this big ass female black widow decided to take up residence.
I REALLLLLLLLY don't like spiders, so this was the last thing I wanted to see. @Dsnow9 didn't believe me that it was a black widow, so he had to come see for himself. I had been trying to figure out how I was going to kill it and make sure it died, when he grabbed the bag and smashed it just hard enough to kill it, but not enough that we couldn't flip it over and confirm its identity.
Didn't love falling asleep like that, but was too tired to care.
Hiking total so far.... 32.5 miles in 32 hours. The great Wyoming heavy pack adventure continues! lol
Alarm set for 5 am when a go or no go decision would be made. All I wanted was a good nights sleep to let my body recover and a sign in the morning that would inform our decision.
I got one of those...
I slept like crap. Maybe 4 hours of sleep, and it wasn't good sleep. Not abnormal for me in tents, but not ideal given the hike in yesterday. Alarm goes off and I open the tent... can't see the trees 25 feet away. Even if I hadn't already committed to hiking the meat out, our fate was sealed that we weren't hunting this morning. We got up and by 630 were on the "road" with loaded carts and bags
Despite having hiked in yesterday and sleeping like shit, I was feeling pretty good and felt we were moving at a pretty decent clip. I could sense though that the cart was a bipolar experience for Deacon at times - sometimes it felt great, other times it felt like a chore, albeit a more efficient chore than not having it. The only problem is that the cart design depends on the tethers going to deacons backpack, so it's not something I can take over as it would lose a lot of stability. This would be a change we both agreed needs to happen for next year - make it so that either of us can take the cart and maybe we just do mile on, mile off to lighten the eventual load that would shred his arms by the end of the day. An hour in the fog was starting to lift and we had a breakfast / sunrise stop.
I eat the worlds worst peak menu item - the breakfast scramble - and we continue on our way. As we are walking, I notice that Deacon is articulating his body so that the right side of his body has more space while walking and the cart is titled slightly left. It took me about a mile to figure out that his rifle was causing him to subtly adjust for its presence and it looked painfully uncomfortable. I offered to take the rifle because I was well aware he was already doing harder work than me at this point, and again, I can't take the cart. (you can see it below, its slight, but noticeable)
So now we have our final pack weights for the day. We are each loaded up, and I have the gun and later added a nice shed that I knew my daughter would love (only a parent would add 7 lbs to their already heavy pack to put a smile on their kids face).
For the most part it was a slow going exercise in "left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot". Neither of us was particularly fast and neither of us was particularly in pain for the first half of the hike. But then the weather shifted and it was flipping hot... and to make matters worse, the only time WY wasn't windy. The heat sapped us and tipped the scales from tough to miserable. and it happened as we got to the hottest part of the hike and hardest as well, crossing this little saddle. He dropped the load off the cart and went up the saddle with just the cart, I came up after him with my load. and then he went down to get the dropped load back. MY ONLY REGRET of this entire trip is that I didn't volunteer to go get the load bag down at the bottom. I should have and I regret it, but I didn't. Sorry @Dsnow9, I owe you one for that.
Needless to say, we made it to the truck, got all the meat in the coolers and were relieved to have done so before the skies opened up. We left the cart there, went to the gas station where we loaded up like fat kids and drove back down to the TH. There we stuffed our faces, hyped ourselves up and got ready to go back up.
Hiking total so far.... 22.5 miles in 24 hours, 21 of those loaded to the gills.
We hike back in and my body is feeling it. Not all over and not like drop dead exhaustion, in fact my legs and I feel pretty good, but my feet were really feeling it. Since I arrived the day before, I've essentially hiked except for when I slept. My feet are just strained, over worked. It's something I have dealt with in a few ultras I have run... the bottoms of my feet are just overworked from the repetitive motion and no quality sleep didn't help either. Which explains the absolute miserable face I have in that photo @Dsnow9 posted.
I genuinely think he was worried about me finishing, as I got really quiet and I was grimacing... but I assured him that I was just in the pain cave and talking myself through each step. Making micro goals to make the time go by. I told him before we ever hunted together "no one has ever called me fast, but no one doubts that I will get it done and finish". I've always been a bigger athlete, I'm just not fast, but I always get it done. And this was no different. The one awesome thing about this hike was the sunset
We made it back to camp and we were shredded. I could even see it on Deacon's face... he wasn't feeling the way I was, but you could tell it was a long day for both of us. We sat down, scarfed a shit ton of food down and went to go to bed. But the day wasn't done messing with us. Right above where my head would be, this big ass female black widow decided to take up residence.
I REALLLLLLLLY don't like spiders, so this was the last thing I wanted to see. @Dsnow9 didn't believe me that it was a black widow, so he had to come see for himself. I had been trying to figure out how I was going to kill it and make sure it died, when he grabbed the bag and smashed it just hard enough to kill it, but not enough that we couldn't flip it over and confirm its identity.
Didn't love falling asleep like that, but was too tired to care.
Hiking total so far.... 32.5 miles in 32 hours. The great Wyoming heavy pack adventure continues! lol
Alarm set for 5 am when a go or no go decision would be made. All I wanted was a good nights sleep to let my body recover and a sign in the morning that would inform our decision.
I got one of those...
Last edited by a moderator:
D
Deleted member 52098
Guest
TUESDAY
I slept not so great again. I fell asleep fast, but woke up to a spider in my bag that was dancing on my legs and driving me crazy. Got rid of him and tried to go back to bed. To make matters worse, the wind was howling. Deacon really secured that tent nicely, because WY wind was really giving it to us. I eventually did fall back asleep and woke up at 5 when our alarm went off. He woke up too and while it was ultimately my call, we decided to call it a trip as there would be no way to take an ethical shot in this wind. He agreed it was the right call and he was right back to sleep. I think I dozed off for a little longer, but not much.
When we both eventually got out of the tent and started packing up it was agreed we made the right call to call the hunt, as we were both really stiff. We were ok enough that if we already had meat to haul we could have made it happen, but not feeling good enough to go through the whole cycle of chasing, processing, and packing. We ate a great breakfast - I even got one of his extra bagels and butter and hit the road again.
Now I won't lie and say that I wasn't really conflicted about leaving, I was. I had enjoyed the process - and told deacon as much that I had a lot of fun and learned a lot - but I was also bummed to not being filling a tag of my own. It wasn't eating away at me, but it was in my head. BUT that self doubt talk was alleviated when about 2 miles into the hike, even @Dsnow9 said "we made the right call, I don't think I could have taken more meat out". Having not filled my tags and having been the one in pain the day before, it felt good to hear that this wasn't just a case of "the rookie can't keep up".
The hike out was pretty uneventful for the first 5 miles or so... except for the rain. WY wanted to give us one last storm for the pack out of camp. Hard enough that jackets and pack covers were on. I only took one photo that day, a photo to my wife that said "WY giving it to us one more time for fun"
The hike got truly sucky around mile 5 when @Dsnow9 picked up that abandoned cart. We both got soaked as the rain picked up the one time we stopped, and he voluntarily added 42 lbs (according to the Bakcou site). You could tell it was bothering him and was cumbersome AF, but he was on a mission to get that out of there.
We mostly slogged along in sticky, muddy conditions when he almost tore his knee, stepping through some brush and his leg started to go down a gopher hole. He left himself fall forward so that his leg wasn't hyperextended and it's probably the only thing that kept him from tearing his knee and ending his fall season.
We cursed. We laughed. We kept talking about how good the chinese food would be.
We made it to the trucks.
In 48 hours, I hiked all my gear and water in, an elk out, myself in and all my gear out. 42.5 miles in 48 hours that tried to break me, but couldn't wipe the smile off my face (except when I was grimacing).
All in all, it was an incredible experience and one I won't ever forget. It's one that I learned a LOT from and that will help me make next year's trip an even more enjoyable one. Plus I won't be coming in late this time.
Thanks @Dsnow9 for a wicked fun experience. Let's do it all again next week for 1st rifle CO (but where camp is a cozy wall tent and we can drive to camp, and hike from there)
That's a wrap on MtnElk's WY ELK 2023
I slept not so great again. I fell asleep fast, but woke up to a spider in my bag that was dancing on my legs and driving me crazy. Got rid of him and tried to go back to bed. To make matters worse, the wind was howling. Deacon really secured that tent nicely, because WY wind was really giving it to us. I eventually did fall back asleep and woke up at 5 when our alarm went off. He woke up too and while it was ultimately my call, we decided to call it a trip as there would be no way to take an ethical shot in this wind. He agreed it was the right call and he was right back to sleep. I think I dozed off for a little longer, but not much.
When we both eventually got out of the tent and started packing up it was agreed we made the right call to call the hunt, as we were both really stiff. We were ok enough that if we already had meat to haul we could have made it happen, but not feeling good enough to go through the whole cycle of chasing, processing, and packing. We ate a great breakfast - I even got one of his extra bagels and butter and hit the road again.
Now I won't lie and say that I wasn't really conflicted about leaving, I was. I had enjoyed the process - and told deacon as much that I had a lot of fun and learned a lot - but I was also bummed to not being filling a tag of my own. It wasn't eating away at me, but it was in my head. BUT that self doubt talk was alleviated when about 2 miles into the hike, even @Dsnow9 said "we made the right call, I don't think I could have taken more meat out". Having not filled my tags and having been the one in pain the day before, it felt good to hear that this wasn't just a case of "the rookie can't keep up".
The hike out was pretty uneventful for the first 5 miles or so... except for the rain. WY wanted to give us one last storm for the pack out of camp. Hard enough that jackets and pack covers were on. I only took one photo that day, a photo to my wife that said "WY giving it to us one more time for fun"
The hike got truly sucky around mile 5 when @Dsnow9 picked up that abandoned cart. We both got soaked as the rain picked up the one time we stopped, and he voluntarily added 42 lbs (according to the Bakcou site). You could tell it was bothering him and was cumbersome AF, but he was on a mission to get that out of there.
We mostly slogged along in sticky, muddy conditions when he almost tore his knee, stepping through some brush and his leg started to go down a gopher hole. He left himself fall forward so that his leg wasn't hyperextended and it's probably the only thing that kept him from tearing his knee and ending his fall season.
We cursed. We laughed. We kept talking about how good the chinese food would be.
We made it to the trucks.
In 48 hours, I hiked all my gear and water in, an elk out, myself in and all my gear out. 42.5 miles in 48 hours that tried to break me, but couldn't wipe the smile off my face (except when I was grimacing).
All in all, it was an incredible experience and one I won't ever forget. It's one that I learned a LOT from and that will help me make next year's trip an even more enjoyable one. Plus I won't be coming in late this time.
Thanks @Dsnow9 for a wicked fun experience. Let's do it all again next week for 1st rifle CO (but where camp is a cozy wall tent and we can drive to camp, and hike from there)
That's a wrap on MtnElk's WY ELK 2023
Cozy, wall tent, drive to camp… what kind of crap is that. That’s not what I taught you!
D
Deleted member 52098
Guest
Cozy, wall tent, drive to camp… what kind of crap is that. That’s not what I taught you!
2rocky
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
- Messages
- 4,994
Deacon, if you are feeling creative....
MtnElk.
Is your Tag a General tag that is good in the Late cow season?
MtnElk.
I really hope you don't feel like you have to prove anything. You done good! Because any time you get into double digit mileage days you are really getting into your next day's energy bank. You've trained for ultras and you know you gotta have rest days.
Is your Tag a General tag that is good in the Late cow season?
BackofBeyond
Well-known member
Mad respect for all the type 2 fun.
westbranch
Well-known member
Great stuff! I am shooting for a sub 200 yard packout when I make it out next weekend.
