Pink camo, #dadbodhunter, and a whole lotta stupid!
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Derek44
Well-known member
These things just show up everywhere. Following along and loving it!!! Keep it coming.
D’s Friday
At sunrise I pulled out of camp with my full camp needs minus food and my tent which we’re going to the new camp. Weight wise that’s all the llamas could carry so I had all of my stuff for the pack out with the two llamas. 6.5 miles to the truck. Considering coming back in depending on the time to the trailhead and rest for the llamas.
About two miles into the hike I ran into a herd of elk with a 5x5 bigger than mine and got to take a few photos.
At about the three mile mark I noticed Otto lay down. Beau’s llamas are amazing and extremely well trained. This was not normal. I had separated their leads at every water crossing to give them plenty of water and breaks. If they are tied together the llamas in the back just get dragged across the water.
We made it a bit further and had a good place for a long break. I pulled Otto’s bags off him to check and make sure everything was ok. I tightened up the bags and put the bags back on his saddle. We were a little over 3 miles from the truck at this time. He was doing well for about a mile and I thought we were home free but then the last two or so miles took on a turn for the worse.
Otto laid down a couple more times. Each time I would pull the bags off with half the meat from my bull, check them, adjust as necessary and reload them. This happened three times in a half mile and I was getting smoked.
I decided that I could use a break and I would give the llamas an hour or two break and sent an inreach message to the guys that I wouldn’t be coming back in that night.
It was painful to sit that long but I knew it was good for the llamas. My toe (the one I smashed last fall) was throbbing. Every time I stepped it sent shooting pain through my foot. I’ll save the close up pics but that nail is still not grown back all the way so as it would hit the front of the boot on downhills it would dig into the nerves. It was already changing color at that point.
After an hour and a half I loaded both llamas back up, with roughly 2 miles to go. We started out well and covered about a half a mile before Otto tapped out.
I was about 1.5 miles from camp and had enough at that point. I checked the meat bags off the side of the path and Otto stood right up with some help. He cooperated and we hiked the meat on rebel to the truck. Gave them pellets and water and took the saddles off for a while.
At this point I was messaging back and fourth and we figured out that somehow we ended up with Otto on a hunting trip but he is only 2 and can’t handle anything over 80lbs. We were aware we needed to keep his packs close to 80 but it wasn’t originally made clear that it was a hard and fast number.
Beau had just gotten back into town and was amazingly helpful working through everything and figuring out what was going on via text. We ended up setting a time to drive out and go swap llamas with Beau for the heavy duty meat haulers we should have had. Minor mistake and Beau went above and beyond to make it right.
After the long break Rebel and Otto (unsaddled) went back up to retrieve the two meat bags. That trip went well and we turned around and got ready to go meet Beau.
Then I realized that I did not have J’s key and over inreach found out he didn’t have a spare, and the llama trailer was hooked to his truck. Luckily my truck is fully loaded with gear and I’ve had to do similar things before but needless to say I got the trailer switched to my truck.
I took the trailer to meet Beau and we swapped out these two llamas for 3 new heavy hitters. With two bull tags left to go and rougher country than we expected this came in handy.
Got the llamas all ready for bed and then slept in the bed of my truck for the night.
At sunrise I pulled out of camp with my full camp needs minus food and my tent which we’re going to the new camp. Weight wise that’s all the llamas could carry so I had all of my stuff for the pack out with the two llamas. 6.5 miles to the truck. Considering coming back in depending on the time to the trailhead and rest for the llamas.
About two miles into the hike I ran into a herd of elk with a 5x5 bigger than mine and got to take a few photos.
At about the three mile mark I noticed Otto lay down. Beau’s llamas are amazing and extremely well trained. This was not normal. I had separated their leads at every water crossing to give them plenty of water and breaks. If they are tied together the llamas in the back just get dragged across the water.
We made it a bit further and had a good place for a long break. I pulled Otto’s bags off him to check and make sure everything was ok. I tightened up the bags and put the bags back on his saddle. We were a little over 3 miles from the truck at this time. He was doing well for about a mile and I thought we were home free but then the last two or so miles took on a turn for the worse.
Otto laid down a couple more times. Each time I would pull the bags off with half the meat from my bull, check them, adjust as necessary and reload them. This happened three times in a half mile and I was getting smoked.
I decided that I could use a break and I would give the llamas an hour or two break and sent an inreach message to the guys that I wouldn’t be coming back in that night.
It was painful to sit that long but I knew it was good for the llamas. My toe (the one I smashed last fall) was throbbing. Every time I stepped it sent shooting pain through my foot. I’ll save the close up pics but that nail is still not grown back all the way so as it would hit the front of the boot on downhills it would dig into the nerves. It was already changing color at that point.
After an hour and a half I loaded both llamas back up, with roughly 2 miles to go. We started out well and covered about a half a mile before Otto tapped out.
I was about 1.5 miles from camp and had enough at that point. I checked the meat bags off the side of the path and Otto stood right up with some help. He cooperated and we hiked the meat on rebel to the truck. Gave them pellets and water and took the saddles off for a while.
At this point I was messaging back and fourth and we figured out that somehow we ended up with Otto on a hunting trip but he is only 2 and can’t handle anything over 80lbs. We were aware we needed to keep his packs close to 80 but it wasn’t originally made clear that it was a hard and fast number.
Beau had just gotten back into town and was amazingly helpful working through everything and figuring out what was going on via text. We ended up setting a time to drive out and go swap llamas with Beau for the heavy duty meat haulers we should have had. Minor mistake and Beau went above and beyond to make it right.
After the long break Rebel and Otto (unsaddled) went back up to retrieve the two meat bags. That trip went well and we turned around and got ready to go meet Beau.
Then I realized that I did not have J’s key and over inreach found out he didn’t have a spare, and the llama trailer was hooked to his truck. Luckily my truck is fully loaded with gear and I’ve had to do similar things before but needless to say I got the trailer switched to my truck.
I took the trailer to meet Beau and we swapped out these two llamas for 3 new heavy hitters. With two bull tags left to go and rougher country than we expected this came in handy.
Got the llamas all ready for bed and then slept in the bed of my truck for the night.
jeremy.b
Well-known member
W&J Friday:
They left camp at sunrise as well and worked over the ridge above camp. They slow rolled through some great elk country about 2 miles. They didn’t see anything on their way down but saw some smoke and heard chainsaws.
There was a fire that popped up opening day but we thought it was put out. They had flown in a fire crew and continued to dump water throughout the day.
They set up camp and got ready to go check out another area on the opposite side of the valley.
They hiked about a mile from the new camp and set up on a hillside and started calling. A bull came out shortly and came into the sweet sweet song of the little primos bugle tube. This one responded a bit and came right into around 80 yards again before catching their wind. He made the fatal mistake of stalling to look back and J commenced the fire fight. There were more than 2 shots fired and less than ten but the bull did expire and was a very unique one at that. The ol 3*6!
They left camp at sunrise as well and worked over the ridge above camp. They slow rolled through some great elk country about 2 miles. They didn’t see anything on their way down but saw some smoke and heard chainsaws.
There was a fire that popped up opening day but we thought it was put out. They had flown in a fire crew and continued to dump water throughout the day.
They set up camp and got ready to go check out another area on the opposite side of the valley.
They hiked about a mile from the new camp and set up on a hillside and started calling. A bull came out shortly and came into the sweet sweet song of the little primos bugle tube. This one responded a bit and came right into around 80 yards again before catching their wind. He made the fatal mistake of stalling to look back and J commenced the fire fight. There were more than 2 shots fired and less than ten but the bull did expire and was a very unique one at that. The ol 3*6!
They saw this guy as well.
They finished up cutting the bull and took the first load back to camp and picked up Frankie to bring a second load. They were able to get everything on that second trip and had another late night getting all finished up near midnight.
On Saturday morning I came back in with the llamas. I started off leading sarge who is in the middle in these pictures and quickly realized different llamas have different preferred paces. Sarge was so slow that I felt like I was dragging him up the hill. I switched Charlie to the front and his speed seemed to fit my beat up body pretty well.
I had to switch out of my schnees and into my altras because of the fact at the schnees were smashing my not fully healed toe nail from when I dropped the grate on it last fall. I had removed some of the nail that was real long digging into my toe and it was already black and blue. I’ll save you all the photo.
On the way in I quickly learned that Charlie was a leaper. And little drainage or running water Charlie would load up and spring over the water. I lead him with a pretty long lead for the first three and was fairing pretty well with a light pack. Sarge was carrying my camp in. On the fourth crossing it was very narrow and I did not see him spring loading behind me till the last second.
I didn’t want to end up like W the other night who, to share a skiing term, had a good ol fashioned yard sale. One of the other llamas flattened him when going back to stake them in at night after hauling my bull. Headlight one way, hat another, face first in the dirt.
I leaped over the gap at the last second and tweaked my high calf/knee. Felt very similar to the hyper extension with 80 lb pack hauling out that game cart last year.
I kept going and made it to camp mid morning and got my gear unpacked and llamas staked and watered. Charlie, sarge and Milo joined Franky for the rest of the hunt. It was about 4.5 miles or so from the truck.
I got to check out J’s funky bull and then filtered some water while I waited for them to get back from their morning hunt. I was able to pick them up a box of Oreos each while in town and stashed it in the food tree for them to find. Then I heard the helicopter coming back, the fire must have flared up again because they made another 10 trips or so.
They got back, we all ate some food and Oreos and then started on a 36 hour mission that pushed us all to our limits multiple times and luckily someone was able to pull through with a laugh, inspiration, or just a 6th or 7th wind to push through and keep us going.
The elk had stopped bugling and none of us had seen or heard an elk since the night before. Saturday night we went up about 1000 feet in elevation and bounced from basin to basin calling and glassing looking for any sign of the elk. We came up empty. No bugle, fresh sign, or sighting besides a single cow a long ways away. We hiked a few miles from camp and found some amazing spots. We did another 1000 vertical going over the different basins and then dropped down out of the high country after dark and hiked the few miles back to camp. It was almost ten before we were in bed and back up at 5am.
Sunday morning was a bit of bumping through the lower end of the upper meadows. Still no sights or sounds so we dropped a few hundred feet in elevation and bounced from drainage to drainage in the dark timber. We got a few miles from camp and dropped into the lake at the bottom of the valley and took a nice break and talked to a very nice gentleman and his son on horseback.
Since I know certain deleted members will be readying this I had will take a picture of how challenging steeps are to navigate in altras. I almost rolled down the hill…
We found more beds and 2 day old sign in that morning of hiking than I have seen in many years of hunting combined. There wasn’t any sign less than two days old though. We made it back to camp and had to have a laugh about the storm we just put ourselves through.
We were pushing 2k vertical and 6 miles by the time we got back to camp around 5:40. So much for a morning hunt. We had not given up but were very demoralized with the lack of elk compared to the work we were putting in. I needed to head out for my cow elk hunt and antelope hunt so packed up my camp and all my gear and made the 4 miles or so right as the sun went down. But got to see a nice moose on the way down.
I got in the truck and started to drive to my next hunt but the day was brutal and I made it about two hours before stopping in a little place outside Jackson and iced my knee that was now on fire and not able to fully move because of how tight it was.
The boys went up to a great glassing point above camp and spotted a few cows on a bench about 3 miles away. Monday was their last day to hunt so they were out of options and planned to go after the cows in the morning.
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And to make W’s day since I’m sure he is reading along I will include this pic he took. Feel free to leave him notes!
But it was hot in the middle of the day Saturday and needed to go filter water while they were napping mid day so threw my bino pack on for bear spray and took the bugle tube because I was seriously contemplating waking them up with a bugle in their face but was laughing to hard to pull it off. W said this was a good example of the #dadbodhunter
Monday morning. I woke up early to drive the five hours or so till my next hunt. I needed to find some dry ice to try and refreeze the ice blocks that I swapped out of my elk. W/J were going to bring it back to Denver on Tuesday.
I messaged them to see how they were doing around 8 am and new when I didn’t hear anything that they were doing some serious miles and nasty stuff trying to scrounge up any elk on the last day of their hunt. They made it to the bench where the cows were and didn’t find anything and were within a mile of the avalanche shoot we hunted the first day. W figured the cows fed across the chute till about 10 before the season started and figured it was worth a shot. He made it to the top of the avi chute around 10:00am and peaked over. He was in shock, the grey bull, was in the chute just outside the tree line. J asked if he should call but before he could get anything out W took the first shot. Very steep shot from up above. The bull did not drop on the first shot and started to work back into the trees so he put a few more in the bull until he stopped moving.
They deboned the meat and went back to get the llamas. They were 4.5 miles from camp with the first mule being through some pretty nasty timber. The last 3.5 were all on trail but uphill.
They got back to the kill site around 6pm and loaded the 244 pounds of deboned meat onto the 4 llamas. It was after 10pm by the time they got back to the truck.
I messaged them to see how they were doing around 8 am and new when I didn’t hear anything that they were doing some serious miles and nasty stuff trying to scrounge up any elk on the last day of their hunt. They made it to the bench where the cows were and didn’t find anything and were within a mile of the avalanche shoot we hunted the first day. W figured the cows fed across the chute till about 10 before the season started and figured it was worth a shot. He made it to the top of the avi chute around 10:00am and peaked over. He was in shock, the grey bull, was in the chute just outside the tree line. J asked if he should call but before he could get anything out W took the first shot. Very steep shot from up above. The bull did not drop on the first shot and started to work back into the trees so he put a few more in the bull until he stopped moving.
They deboned the meat and went back to get the llamas. They were 4.5 miles from camp with the first mule being through some pretty nasty timber. The last 3.5 were all on trail but uphill.
They got back to the kill site around 6pm and loaded the 244 pounds of deboned meat onto the 4 llamas. It was after 10pm by the time they got back to the truck.
Tuesday morning they hiked out the 4ish miles with all of their camp and both bulls. They made it to the truck around 1pm, got everything prepped and loaded, and then dropped off the llamas before driving through the night back to Denver, arriving at 3am. I got a place to stay Tuesday night as I was not going to safely make the drive home from my antelope hunt solo. We would meet up Wednesday mid day and get the meat taken care of.
SwaggyD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2022
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- 1,699
Make sure those coolers are ready for Montana. And bring a hat.
I think I’ll finally be ready for your style of hunting by then!
ignorethefringes
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2016
- Messages
- 3,059
Thanks for sharing all of this. Glad to see W is doing well. What a great trip.
CRJR45
Well-known member
You guys make me sick ! All this "Look at me , I'm climbing mountains and seeing game " Actually shooting game and being all successful , turns my stomach . I'm offended !
Khunter
Well-known member
looks like you had no trouble getting llama to pack after dark. my experience was different for some reason.
The wilderness ridge llamas and Beau are great and I would highly recommend them to anyone interested. Other than Otto getting worn out we had no issues. They hated the headlights though. When loading packs or working with them at night we tried to keep the lights away from them. When hiking we had them bring up the rear. They did not like someone hiking behind them with a light on.
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