Weight

[ignorethefringes]

The closest thing we have to mountain down here is a park built on a former garbage dump. It has a grand total of something like 210' of elevation. I have my pack ready for hunting plus 35lbs which comes out to +/- 60-65lbs. I spend an hour or so there twice per week and cover 2+ miles going up and down and across, etc. I'll add weight once or twice more and keep the distance the same. I'm sure the mountains are still going to kick my butt, but it's something.

 

[BrokeTrapDad]

I feel that 40-45# is a reasonable training pack weight in general. Ideally it'd be mixed in with some "heavy" gym and general strength training I suppose. There is a level of fitness that provides safety and a positive experience on a solo backpack hunt. That's what I shoot for and am not willing to give up the time it takes to get real far beyond that at my current life stage. I'll let the IG hunting divas handle the photo shoots, their glassing biceps and deadfall hurdling abs are better than mine by a long shot.
I would say if you're planning to one-trip a deer or pack an elk by yourself, you really wouldn't want the first time you've ever felt 100-120 lbs on your back to be on a remote hillside with a job to do. That's a feeling you should be familiar with beforehand, just so you know what you're signing up for when you squeeze the trigger.

spot on !

 

[timber_hunter]

You've got a lot of time until your hunt. I would recommend forgoing heavy pack work outs for the time being. Instead, focus on general cardio fitness by putting in long days of hiking and scouting in the mountains. When you're 2-3 months away from your hunt, start slowly adding heavy pack workouts and your body will quickly adapt to the load if you're mountain fit. IMO, there's no need to stress the joints by always working out with a heavy pack. After all, hunting is 95% hiking with a light load and 5% packing out heavy.

 

[dgc1963]

I wear a 150 lb pac mowing the yard and my yard is on a big hill its easy for me, but hell on the john deer lol

 

[Oregon_Ryan]

This is my training regime, which I started back in March and the results have been pretty good. I'm at my fighting weight, I can hike all day and honestly, I feel great.
M- Weight Training
T- Running
W- Rest
Th- Running
F- Weight Training
Sat (or Sun)- pack workout via Hiking / scouting / rucking
Sun (or Sat)- Rest

For pack weight training, I started with a fairly light day pack and gradually ramped it up to where I'm carrying my full load hunting gear. I'm lucky in that I'm fairly close to OSU's research forest, which has a pretty good trail network through hilly terrain. I don't recommend carrying more than 1/3 your body weight for training purposes. Once you've worked up to it, 1/3 your body weight is a sustainable load to carry. If you start going past that, in a training context, you will be more susceptible to injury, and over time, it will wear you down. In my case, my "day hunt" gear weighs in at 20 pounds, with water and food. If I simulate hauling a quarter, I have a 40lb sack of cat litter on the meat shelf. That's about 60 pounds total, and I weigh 185, so I'm at that 1/3 marker.

Also, I don't train with 60lbs all the time. I do it enough to know the feel and know that I can haul that for distance, but at my age, I want to keep what I have left of my joints.

 

[Werty]

The more experience you get with your equipment, the less you generally carry. Go on a couple of overnight trips to get familiar with your gear. Look at sheep hunting articles and treads. Tons of info in there.