Lost

[MnFn]

After reading Stringwackers account of elk hunting, I thought I’d share my first experience of elk hunting in Colorado.

This is not so much about the actual taking of elk as the mistakes we made along the way.

The year was 1999 or so. A guy I worked with had planned a hunt with his son and a couple of other guys. 0ne man had cancelled out so I was asked to go in his place.

The son had hunted an area in Northern Colorado, so we had some familiarity of the land and where to camp.

We drove out in two pickups. We had two tents for five guys.  After setting up camp, eating supper we made plans for the morning.

We decided to walk in to an area called a “park”, and then hunt around that area.  We had a compass and a good map. It took us about an hour to get there, but it was not an easy hike. Lots of blown down trees had to be climbed over.  We hunted until about 11:00am and regrouped for some snacks.

We had seen three moose, but no elk. Along the way we found a  small mountain stream that had hundreds of little trout in it, with an occasional bigger fish.  It would have been great to fly fish but of course we had no gear for that.

As we talked about what we had seen we decided to split up. Two guys were going to go back to camp and try to find better elk habitat.  The remaining three of us would around the park and work our way back to the camp.

As we did not see anything, after awhile we decided to leave. The two younger men I was with were Colorado residents. At the time,  I was 47 and in pretty fair shape. One of the guys stated “ I do not want to go back the way we came, it was just too tough walking”.  Gary do you think you would be able to go over the top of the ridge? It would be strenuous but so would climbing over all those blow-downs, if we went back the way we came”.  I thought I could do it so off we went.

We left at about 1:00.  I won’t bother to tell you every detail but it was a challenge for me and I had to routinely take a break and get my wind back. But all in all, not that bad.

Unfortunately, our sense of direction was not that great.  At 6:00 PM, (5 hours later) we had no idea where we were. To make matters worse, the only compass and map we had went with the other two guys.

At 9:00 PM, it was dark, as only the night can get deep in the Rocky Mountains.  We stopped and talked for a bit deciding which direction to travel.  I thought to myself, as I am getting more tired by the minute, I do not want to spend the night lost in the mountains.  I actually prayed silently as the  lead guy took off in the direction he thought best.   As I brought up the rear, I noticed the ground was exceptionally flat. I yelled out “wait a minute, there is something we should check out here.”  Although there were a lot of small pine seedlings growing, the ground had a nice flat slope to it heading off at a right angle to where we were headed.

We decided to follow a trail down it, and soon it turned into a trail that had vehicles on it at one time.  After another hour or so, we stumbled out onto a gravel road.

Not knowing which way to go, we started walking up the hill as we thought our camp was much higher.  Soon a guy in a Toyota pickup came by and asked if we needed help. He asked where we had come from and we told him the name of the park.  I remember to this day he replied “ you guys were in “____” Park this morning and now you are here?  Damn, I am impressed”!

Anyway, he had an idea where we were camped as he had been logging in the area and drove us to our camp.  As I walked that last few feet into the camp, my legs pretty much gave out and I spent about half an hour just laying by the dying campfire. I was exhausted!

 But I learned a very important lesson that day.  Never rely on someone else to have a compass and map!

By the way, we did manage to kill two elk a couple days later. Fresh elk back-strap, pan fried after a hard day of hunting is a wonderful thing.

[Stringwacker]

A good story for sure! Never under estimate the staying power of a great adventure. My best memories are not of the animals I harvested; but the adventure that went with it...both good and bad!

[ny state land]

Man,  that was great!

[tecum-tha]

That's about as unprepared as it can be. Everyone has a map and a compass, and everyone must be prepared to spend the night out.
It is plain .....id and dangerous to walk through this stuff at night. Especially black timber.  One slip and you get impaled on a sticking out limb of a fallen tree.
Especially if you don't know where you are, make a fire , have a sip of water and a granola bar and wait until the next morning light....

[GCook]

It's easy to do. I usually carry a compass even when hunting around here.  I've followed blood trails in the dark and  started dragging dead animals only to realize I had a long drag in what direction?  The stars and a compass can save your life.

[Wudstix]

Yikes!!!  Always have a compass, check direction before you start out from camp.
 

[MnFn]

Hence the paragraph at the beginning of the story, Tecum-tha:
“This is not so much about the actual taking of elk as the mistakes we made along the way.”

I have made four more actual backpacking trips into Colorado Rockies, over the past years, without incident.

[Stringwacker]

Hence the paragraph at the beginning of the story, Tecum-tha:
“This is not so much about the actual taking of elk as the mistakes we made along the way.”

I have made four more actual backpacking trips into Colorado Rockies, over the past years, without incident.

That's kind of what I was thinking. It was just a humorous story from the past. I mean regardless of what we 'should' have done; I would think we have all gotten turned around a time or two. I had a hunting partner that I looked for over two hours before I found him far away from where he started. He eventually won a major league baseball World Series title as a head coach. Just shows it can happen to anybody.

[elkken]

Also if your smart enough to carry a compass be smart enough to believe it, a few times I was sure my compass was wrong and ended up going the wrong way.

[kennym]

Also if your smart enough to carry a compass be smart enough to believe it, a few times I was sure my compass was wrong and ended up going the wrong way.

This, I got to where I carried two of em!!

[Wudstix]

I don't think I've ever been lost, I have been pretty directionally confused for a couple times for several hours.
 

[Sam McMichael]

Good story. I have several tales of taking a wrong turn in the woods, but none of my stories end with taking an animal in the end. I didn't really learn to use a map and compass until I started working with a Boy Scout troop.

[Kirkll]

It is indeed a sinking feeling as the sun goes down and you do not know which direction is which. I've had it happen to me twice, and i was quite certain which way to travel both times... But both times i was wrong.

The first time was in the wide open country of eastern oregon. The mountains are as steep as the rockies in spots and we were in a steep rocky area.  We were camped right on a creek about half way up the mountain side, but had hunted the top that afternoon into the evening mostly scouting.
On the way back down we came upon a ridge that had mule deer out on the very end we spotted from the truck. It was still over 80 degrees and i was dressed in only a T-shirt. The ridge ran out for a mile or so right above our camp. The guys told me if i wanted to hunt it back to camp it would be an easy hunt to run the ridge, drop down to the creek, and follow it down to our camp. It was about a 2 mile trek, and two hours before dark, and all down hill. It  sounded doable to me, So off i went putting the sneak on these mule deer.....

I lost track of the deer in the sage brush and juniper trees shortly, but it was a very cool hunt following the ridge out. it went much further than we could see from the road. That was my first mistake.... After following the ridge ll the way out i dropped down to the creek and picked up my pace. The temp was dropping like a rock after the sun went down, so i started hot footing it a bit. then i ran into a fork in the stream going two different directions. i chose the one on the right and continued down another mile before coming out into the flats. Yup.... i walked clear down the mountain and somehow missed camp completely. At this point i was a bit concerned as the temp hit about 30-40 degrees. it was October, and the low temp for this area was around 10 degrees at night, and i'm in a t-shirt with no pack. I had no idea where i was except i knew i had to go back up to camp, and it was almost dark. So i scrambled straight up the steep hill side to get a better view of my surroundings why i could still see. When i reached the top, i turned to see a beautiful 4x4 buck standing 15 yards broadside and looking the other direction too. It was a perect shot opportunity that every archer dreams of ...... But..... I passed it up as i realized how far from camp i was.   I was two complete ridges over from our camp location and had hit a different creek completely that i followed out of the mountains. it was a 2-3 mile hike easily. All up hill....

Of course their was no moon, and i was navigating by star light alone. It was a brutal trek just getting over two ridges to what i thought was the right creek. But this turned out to be wrong too.... I finally spotted head lights following a gravel road about a half mile above me, and headed straight up the mountain to reach it. But of course.... the truck was long gone by the time i reached the road, and it was getting bitter cold. Not knowing which way to go i went in the opposite direction the truck had come from. my hands were numb, and i was getting seriously tired, but i kept a stead march to keep myself warm. I walked until about midnight before coming to a camp site with a fire still going. That right there saved my bacon. I was about done in.

As i was hiking down that road i could swear i was being stocked by a mountain lion above me on the rocky cliffs. i kept hearing a few rocks sliding from time to time, and i picked up my pace. At times the noises got very close to me too.

My hunting companions found me at 2am sitting by that fire with my new found friends. turns out i was 12 miles from camp.....   

After that little adventure i never left the roadside again without my hunting pack and survival gear.......   Kirk

[Bow Bender]

When anyone ask me if I've ever been lost, I just tell them "not permanently".

[Wudstix]

 

[A Lex]

Thankfully I've never been "Lost", or "had" to spend the night out. However I carry a few essentials with me all the time to help make an unplanned night out more comfortable should that occasion arise.

I do have a couple of quick stories though, of being "Temporarily Geographically Embarrassed"
One of a friend's, and one of mine.....

About 30 years ago, a friend and I were hunting deer in the mountains. It was a cool overcast rainy day and the hunting was quiet, very few deer sightings. It was getting towards late morning and then this fog just came down. One moment no fog, next moment a really thick blanket of fog had enveloped us.

OK we said, time to head back to camp anyway.

When my mate started to head off, I said "Where are you going?"

"Back to camp" he says

"Not that way your not" I replied, "that way is towards Inches gully".

"No way" he says, " camp's this way!"

I said "Well you go that way if you want to, I'm going this way. When you get to Inches Gully, turn around and come back to camp, I'll have the fire going and the billy on.

"Silly bugger" he said, then headed off, the wrong way.

I just shrugged my shoulders and turned back the way I knew camp was.

I had only gone a hundred yards or so when my mate trotted up behind me and said with a sheepish grin "I think I might come with you, think you might be right".

And I was.......we walked straight into camp about a mile and a half away.

There was no danger of him getting seriously lost or in trouble here, because as soon as the fog lifted, he knew exactley where he was. This guy really knew the area very well, and was a good hand in the bush, but the fog had him badly slewed.



My other story happened to me up North in Buffalo country, hot Buffalo country.

My good mate was driving, and we were heading out some 10 odd miles from the station homestead, to an area we wanted to have a bit of a look over for Buffalo.

Well somewhere around half way out on this pretty rough track, he had to answer a rather urgent of nature. He pulled the old Toyota 4x4 up in a cloud of dust, grabbed the spade and the toilet paper, and headed into the scrub.

"I'll sneak over to the creek and see if I can find any pigs" I called to him as he disappeared into the bush.

"Okay" he hollered back

So I grabbed my hunting belt but left my daypack, I was only going to be 10 minutes, and off I start to sneak, over to the creek.

Now remember this rather large piece of real estate (136,000 acres) was pretty darn flat around here, no real noticeable uphill or downhill, but plenty of spindly scrub. In the wet season it's under 6 odd feet of water. And the morning was quickly heating up and it was overcast too, no sun to be seen.

After about 15 to 20 minutes of "sneaking over to the creek"...............I hadn't found it.

"Bugger this" I thought, "better head back anyway".

I turned around and thought "Now, which bloody way IS back? It all looked exactly the same, no matter what direction I looked.

Hmmmmm, this is not a particularly ideal situation, better sit and think this out.

I had my hunting belt on, with a bit over a litre of water and a few other survival bibs and bobs, but I wasn't terribly well prepared for an extended period of being lost out in the heat and the wilds of the Territory. And my compass was in my daypack in the Toyota. Like I said, Not particularly ideal.......

After I sat there for a few minutes, something clicked in my mind. Hang on, I thought, this area is under water in the wet, and I remembered noticing grass etc 6 feet or so up in the scrub as I was walking away from the vehicle. These bits of grass had wrapped around the sticks and branches as the waters flowed away after the rains, and I had noticed these bit of grass were pointing roughly in the direction I was headed when I started off.

SO.............if I walk in the opposite direction the grass wrapped around the tree branches is pointing, I should be headed more or less in the right direction".

I started walking as I thought I should, and lo and behold, 15 minutes later I walked out onto the track, in sight of the vehicle, with my mate sitting there waiting for me.

Pheeeeeew

No harm done, but some good lessons learnt. My compass has been my permanent companion whenever I go bush ever since.

Best
Lex