Hunting Alone for 12 Days | Backpack Archery Elk Hunt (Part 1/2)

12 days worth of gear on my back right there bow in hand it is September 8th it is the day before my season opener for archery elk here in Washington so it opens tomorrow so I'm on my way hiking into the back country I'm on a solo hunt I'm out here all by myself and for the next 12 days the goal is to kill a bowl elk I know of a bu elk through my trail cams that's been living over here for a couple years now he's a big boy so I do know that he's still alive last time I got a photo of him was July 11th of this summer so just two months ago I've got like 75 lbs on my back add another 10 in my hand plus this camera so I'm pushing right around 90 lbs of gear uh on me total and I'm h hiking in so the Quest for Boomer 6 is underway first things first skers are terrible this mosquitoes everywhere it's humid and this humidity is like perfect foros skiters to be out and it's hot so I stop on a frequent basis to calm myself cool myself and take a breath but when I do that these skers just eat me they're thirsty these mosquitoes are bloodthirsty it's pretty overgrown just one nice little flat spot right here for me to set up my tent made it sun is just starting to go behind well actually it's already been behind for a while now hasn't fully dipped on me so I made pretty good time B made it safely now I got to start unloading my pack just got so much stuff got my Phelps tube on the front here take that off one of my GoPros and then I have one of my or actually my DSLR for pictures so got one there got the tripod with this down here I have my foam mat for me to sit down when I go sit at the wallow and also for me to put under my actual sleeping pad when I come back and sleep I got my Zolo satellite I've got a 48 o ning bottle I packed in water with me I packed in 80 o of water the other one is in my lid right here I had no more room this this is 12 days worth of gear in a 5,000 cubic inch pack I don't know how I made it work but I made it work so we got 2 48 now jeans I have another GoPro right here this is my headcam so I have a headcam I have a third person camera and then I have my picture camera right here and then I have my main camera so I have four cameras with me go here it's mainly just food that's taking out a bunch of space so I got my sleeping bag hike and bike eess two days worth of food day worth worth of food two days worth of food another two days worth of food here another two days worth of food here another two days worth of food here so there's another pack of food in my lid this is the argali ringcon two person tent got my sleeping pad got my jet boil canister jet boil and I brought six summer sausages so that's all my food I got my argali um middle Pole to make the tent steg up and then I have a bunch of steaks and then in my other pocket right here I just have all my extra clothes so I have extra sock I have a puffy I have have my gloves right here Marino and then I have my 250 weight Marino hoodie and then I'm wearing my 150 weight long sleeve Marino right here in this water bladder sleeve is my first aid kit and then my kill kit right here in the zip looc is my knife my sharpener and my licenses in the front right here is my water filter my rain jacket and then my 32 o now jeene is full of like electrolyte drinks and this other pocket over here I just have my TP and W wipes portable charger this is my hygiene kit I've got lip balm toothpaste toothbrush cortisone because mosquitoes I'm getting eating alive right now I have the inner piece for my ARG tent because I'm going to need the inner piece because these mqu are horrible and so that's pretty much it not much else oh I also brought a legitimate notebook because I know I'm going to be so bored at the wallow so I'm going to just write stuff if I'm that bored and then in here I just have headlamp allen wrench small items like that my lid I've got my pen for my journal I've got extra boxers all the batteries for my cameras electrolyte powder gummies Spork and another day worth of food right here so that's pretty much all the gear I have for the next 12 days there's a creek down this way if I need to go get water but I'm honestly thinking about just filtering the wallow water that I'm going to go sit at and I know it sounds gross but this wallow actually has like running water in it so it's not just stagnant so that's where I'm going to bank on getting my water for now I got to get set up into the dark stuff we go got down to my wall though I just got all set up it's dead quiet wind isn't the best but that's expected with the morning thermals wind's blowing down yeah it's blowing straight down to the left over here thermals are eventually going to switch and the wind's going to start blowing up so we're going to settle down just be quiet transferring the files from my trail cam to my phone we see if anything came through I just started looking at my troen photos today is September 9th September 6th my target ball was here he's alive I can't believe it all right calm ourself down [Music] out I am back to Camp a lot earlier than I was expecting and I want to I want to be out there still 7:00 on the dot my two TR cams that I left at the bedding area went dud on me one over the course of two months took one random photo and I know it cannot just be one random photo because the camera was moved into a different position than when I left it and the other one died on me so my two trail cams at the bedding area gave me no Intel meaning I will strictly focus on the wallow maybe it's a sign so I should be sitting on my wallow still but like I said I was planning to leave my wallow early today so that I could go check my two bedding area trail cams and they just went dud on me so from here on out first light to last light at the wallow day two tomorrow right e [Music] e I'm pretty sure a deer just got attacked by a cougar maybe like 300 yards below me I snuck my way over there but I don't think I went far enough in the sound stop so I had no idea where to go so I came back up that was crazy it's been dead quiet and I don't knowwhere I just heard a spontaneous twig snap and like a hop like something hopping off the ground and then I just start hearing the nastiest noises out of a mammal you could think of sounded like a demon possessed man making all these Garling noises which I'm pretty sure it's just that deer trying to escape that mountain lion I have a mountain lion that's frequenting this wallow I last have him on tra cam on September 2nd which is a little over a week ago and I know there's a big cat around this area and I'm pretty sure that's him right there just killing a deer right now I just don't know where they are this is why when you're in dark Timber always have eyes on the back of your [Music] head [Music] for [Music] [Music] well that is a wrap for day four I have seen nothing for the past 4 days as expected right now I am dealing with so many mosquito bites all over my arms my shoulders my hands my neck my head it's just what you expect in that dark Timber it's kind of good in a way that I'm in dark timber because in the dark Timber it gets dark a lot faster than out here so when I can't see my pins anymore I hike out of the dark Timber and once I get to like the ridgetops like this it's still plenty of daylight for me to run around and do stuff without my headlamp so I've been kind of digging that you know not getting back to camp in the dark um however earlier around 4:00 I was messing around with some trail Camp photos of my wallow that I checked back in July and I do not know how I missed those photos in July probably cuz I just saw a bunch of moose so I just thought I only got moose but Boomer my target Bowl was at the wallow on July 15th on July 17th I hiked in here to go cut down an aspen tree that fell over the wallow so he was there 2 days before I showed up to cut that tree and he's not a 6x7 he's a 7x7 Beast so July 15th and July 17th I missed him by 2 days he was here September 6th I went in September 9th I missed him by 3 days hopefully third times a charm and the next time he shows up at the wall I'm there to wait for him so day four is done I'm cooking dinner going to talk with people through Zolo and whatnot and eat day five tomorrow every day I come back to my tent and I just wonder what kind of bugs are on my tent and tonight we got ourselves Mr grasshopper I thought about just carrying my outer shelter for this trip and just forgetting about the mesh the inner piece to save weight and I'm glad I did not leave this behind because there are bugs everywhere in here for for for for to for for [Music] for for for for for for I sat down and this morning was dead quiet it was super calm super crisp just cool morning clear skies and I sat down around 7:00 maybe like half an hour later 7:30 or something like that I kept hearing like thuds on the ground and throughout the past four days I would hear random thuds on the ground like that and it would just turn out to be nothing it' just be like a squirrel dropping an acorn or something sticks breaking hitting the ground making a thud but this one the thuds were just so constant and I'm like man I'm almost convinced that that's a a big animal and the thuds turn into Twigs cracking and breaking and I'm like oh my goodness like that's that's not a joke like there's something coming in and I had one cow and two Cales walking from the direction I predicted they were going to come in which is toward or which is from the bedding area they're walking their way over to the wallow I was hoping I was just going to see rack coming through but just popped over the rise and I just saw the black neck the black head no antlers and immediately I'm just like darn it it's a cow and she walked right up to the wallow I could have easily killed that cow like three different times I could have killed her when she first got to the wallo I could have killed her when she stood like 13 yards above me and I could have killed her 25 yards when she went back across the wall I wasn't going to shoot her but I wanted to just practice drawing my bow on an elk for the actual time that I get a kill an elk so I drew on her could have shot are there perfect broadside shot but like I said I wasn't going to shoot that cow where I'm hunting I can shoot any elk I could shoot cow calf or bull I could shoot anything so that cow was a legal elk I could have legally shot her it's just the fact that she had two young calvs with her like this year's calvs and I know if I killed that cow those two calvs won't make it when that cow came over I knew there was multiple because I heard cracking behind her and I was hoping it was a cow followed by a big bull or what I thought was a cow and a calf and I was right it was actually a count in two CS so the moment I saw those two little Cals behind her I was like I'm not shooting her day5 baby we've been sitting here for 40 plus hours that is a wrap for day five I've been hiking the same Trail for the past 5 days and when you do it so frequently so often you just learn every Bush and every plant by name almost I'm hiking out and like I said in the dark Timber it gets dark a lot faster just because it's not as as much light penetrates through the trees and so once I get out to the open like this I still got plenty of time so I can go back to camp and just settle down and get ready for day six tomorrow day five we took a step up

Channel: Samong Outdoors

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Id: GRmPpPA9w5c

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2023