navigating in the dark

[oldrubline]

Going to be in Colorado for elk early season this year.  I hunt whitetail in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and some blinds are 2 or so miles out from the road.  To navigate in the dark, I am using a headlamp and mostly following old grown over logging roads and trails. There isn't that much for large tracts without these trails or roads. For hunting areas in the west where you have never been even able to scout, how do you get to a point you want to get in the dark.  Is it mostly following GPS/phone app map?  Michigan is largely dense trees and would be hard to navigate in dark for any distance without some guidance.

Just wondering how this before light and after dark navigation goes and what I should be prepared for.  Don't want to fall off a cliff, bust elk in the dark, end up in a different county, walk circles, or otherwise mess up my hunt.

Dan

[ChuckC]

Dan, at least where I hunt out there, there are already horse trails ( one tracks) game trails and the like, especially if you start at a trail head of some sort.  

You likely won't be "busting brush" to get anywhere.  It might be a good idea to go in the first time in the light, so you can get to know a bit about the area, but you will find trails for sure.  They are usually laid in the easiest to travel areas as well since, like us, the game are not especially fond of going out of their way on really tough terrain for no good reason.

Good luck and have fun out there.
ChuckC

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

If you get lost just shoot 3 arrows in the air and I will come find you....

,,,Sam,,,

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The Funny Part about Sam's Comment, is you think he's kidding    

Seriously though, in the west, you will have to spend some time scouting.  I used trails, landmarks and terrain to get around once I knew what I was looking for.

[oldrubline]

Maybe I can tie one of those string trackers to the top of the mountain and then follow it up in the morning before light..LOL!!   I will definitely fire off 3 arrow shots of I get lost !  But, seriously, was just wondering how people have navigated distances in the dark (not worried about daylight travel).  When I was in Montana in the spring I was able to follow hiking foot trails for most of the way in the dark and then branch off along a ridge spine or whatever.  I also stayed in a spike tarp camp near a potential meadow when I was worried about getting all the way up to it from base camp in the predawn.  I have never navigated using the electronics in the dark and was wondering if that was needed out there or what worked.  Thanks for responses thus far...

Dan

[monterey]

It will vary a lot from one area to another.  Usually if it's dark, I've been there before and know that the way.

The thing that has changed things In some areas is the Beatle killed lodgepole pines.  More and more are falling as the tree bases rot from ground moisture.  They can be impossible to travel through in some places.  

I guess it seems like I'm harping on this, but one of the service free phone apps is an excellent tool for your need.

What unit(s) are you looking at?

[oldrubline]

Thanks for heads-up on beatle killed zones...

Got the app and plan to use it for sure; but like to have the hard copy paper topo with me always too....

Don't want to mention unit as it may illicit 'pro and con discussion' from other folk and get us off topic; not to mention that my hunting partner is the one holding that card...

But I do very much appreciate all your help sir!

Dan

[monterey]

Your welcome and the best of luck on your Hunt.

[8upbowhunter]

On my first elk hunt we went in blind as neither of us had been there before. We scouted a path to where we wanted to hunt using google earth then studied a topo map to look at terrain features to see how rugged it looked. I then plotted a trail on my computer using Base Camp (Garmin) and then uploaded it to my gps. We went in the first morning at daybreak and navigated by gps while we hunted our way in to the area we wanted to get to which worked well in our case. It was 2 miles from where we entered the woods to where we started our hunt. We made a couple of changes to our original trail over the coarse of our hunt but for the most part it worked out well for us. Try to find a path with mostly aspens and not too much dark timber if you can because that stuff is tuff to navigate through. Hope this helps and gives you some ideas, good luck on your hunt.

[Orion]

Colorado isn't  different from Montana.  I usually don't try to go to a new location in the dark.  Without electronics, that's a crap shoot no matter where you are.  That being said, I don't use electronics.    Once I've been somewhere during the daylight, getting there in the dark is no problem.

[Roadkill]

Here in NV, cell phones fail in many areas.

I use forest service maps and trails.  Map out your route. That gives you an idea of where you are when using GPS.  We are not forested so when sun is up, terrain tells us where we are.
I see kids at the university doing geocaching.  Try that for practice

[Don Stokes]

I only tried to navigate a serious mountain in the dark one time, after killing an elk at sundown and losing the Forest Service trail that was my way out. Avalanche slide paths choked with doghair aspens forced me to go downhill until I found the road that eventually led back to camp, still about two miles away. I would not like to do that again. Reached camp after midnight.

[Michael Pfander]

In my hunting in CO I have found existing trails I could follow with my headlamp in the dark.  They get me pretty close to where I want to go, then its a short run to where I want to be.
MAP