Choosing a camp location

[TWC]

Hey everyone,

Im interested to hear your views on what you look for in picking your camp location when in the back country. This would be for out west in the mountains. Im looking at a 14 day trip 2022 for Elk for 2 of us, so things like being close to a water source will be a must. Chosen unit is likely to be in grizz country.

How close to the area you want to hunt do you camp, not wanting to risk pushing game out the area? Things like this.

Asking from the UK, so be nice!

Cheers.

 

[EYJONAS!]

I'll camp quite a ways from elk, couple miles or more. With sheep and goats i have never really had issues with camping right in the basins they're in. Water is more of a deciding factor than anything.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Maybe a little bit of an aside, but if you're going in for 14 days I'd have plan A, B, C, D, etc. for potential camping spots. That's a long time to limit yourself to one camp for a backpack hunt.

 

[2rocky]

Look at your hunting area. Identify the water drainage and the creeks that flow into the main creek or river. Place your camp 200 ft from the waters edge along the Main Creek where you can access each of the sub drainages most easily. Establish that as Base Camp and spike out at the top of the sub drainages the night before so you can hunt your way back to main camp and meat packing will be mostly downhill.

Establish a kitchen area where food will be and a sleeping area away from it. Hang your packs and any thing with food in it. No Food in your tent.

Consider an electric Bear fence

 

[MThuntr]

Maybe a little bit of an aside, but if you're going in for 14 days I'd have plan A, B, C, D, etc. for potential camping spots. That's a long time to limit yourself to one camp for a backpack hunt.

Agreed! I'd be prepared to move a couple times.

Also if you've never done a backcountry trip 14 days will be tough both physically and mentally. It may be important to pull camp and spend a night in a hotel to recuperate.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Maybe a little bit of an aside, but if you're going in for 14 days I'd have plan A, B, C, D, etc. for potential camping spots. That's a long time to limit yourself to one camp for a backpack hunt.

This ^ plus use the topo lines to find flat spots. I like my camp to be concealed a bit so I try to find a bench with a bit of cover. Close-ish to water is a plus, distance from hunt area depends on terrain. Rough terrain with cover, I’ve camped .5 miles and been fine. Flat or without cover you will want to be further.

This year I watched a herd of elk walk 200 yards past a wall tent with a string of horses

 

[elkantlers]

14 days in the back country is very ambitious. I'm betting after 4 days your thinking "what have I got myself into".

 

[TWC]

Thanks for the replies everyone, its much appreciated.

I agree with what everyone has said and perhaps I should have given more details of my plan rather than focussing on a specific aspect of it in my post; I have A, B and C areas, as well as some do them in a morning or afternoon spots too if needed. The plan would be to do about 7 days straight and take in enough food for that (1 day pack in / afternoon scout and another full day scouting before season opener). Then take a rest day to come back down, re-supply, overnight somewhere and depending on sign etc, decide on moving to another area. So, judging by the responses I seem to be on the right tracks of approach which is good.

I'm trying to consider some of the finer details of where I should look to base myself in those areas without potentially blowing out game or other considerations I hadn't thought of. Thanks for all the input - it helps a lot.

 

[JLS]

I've hunted elk within a 1/4 mile of camp. I've glassed bucks 200 yards out of my tent door. I'm not in any way convinced a backpacking camp is going to blow out game.

Choose several water sources. Not everything you scout in July will still be flowing in September. Going more than 1/2 mile to a mile for water gets to be a real pain in the ass.

I've camped in an open meadow, lodge pole benches, burned out saddle. Think about weather exposure, dead trees that can fall on you in the night, etc. These all play into the enjoyability factor of where you're at. Non stop wind can get old, but sometimes it's the only place to camp. My camp in the Rubies was awesome until the midnight thunderstorms rolled through, then the pucker factor increased a fair bit.

 

[Huntnut60]

Lots of great information. Water, water, water. Gotta be at the top of the list. Glad to see you are not planning to go in and stay for 14 days. Camping in a beetle infested stand of dead timber, combined with high winds, is as spooky as it gets. Good luck!!

 

[BearFoot]

Water is a thing, then Drainage at the campsite. I like to stay dry.

 

[Trial153]

Flat is good. Water near by, really good too...

 

[JFish]

This year was my first backpack hunt and I picked a camp in a small open spot on a bench and was glad I did. A rain/snow/ice storm came in one night and I listened to trees crashing down all night. Made me pucker.

 

[OntarioHunter]

One of the most memorable nights of my long hunting career was spent just off the trail along the upper Middle Fork of the Flathead back in the eighties. I'd got off to a late start and a snowstorm slipped in without a breeze of warning. Snowed so hard my riding horse couldn't see the trail. So I stopped, unloaded them, dragged the saddles and blankets under a big Engleman spruce, built a fire, spread the blankets out, laid down on them with my unrolled Army fartsack pulled on top, and enjoyed a peaceful evening in a flat soft dry spot with snowflakes big as saucers swirling about. Those big spruce trees are great umbrellas but not the best option in high winds. They have very shallow root systems and tend to blow over relatively easily. Doug fir stand up better but don't provide the same kind of shelter. Be careful about fires under those big spruce trees. The duff accumulation can sometimes be a foot or more deep. It can be very difficult getting a fire thoroughly out.