Any of you ever been lost (temporarily confused) that you are willing to admit??
I' ll go first....

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I Can' t Believe It -- Lost!

This year we utilized a “spike” camp in addition to our main camp. My wife and I went back in about four miles and set it up three days before the season started -- bulls were bugling all around us. The trail in follows the contour line of a ridge for two miles and for the most part the trail is easy to follow, but the rule is don’t “drift” high or you might drop up and over into another drainage and don’t drift too low or you may give up a ton of elevation that you will have to gain back in a bushwack. Fine, been there before and we went in and out without a problem.

As the camp ramrod, I now had an additional responsibility: taking some of my group into the spike camp the afternoon before the season and then taking the others in early, early the opening morning of the season and then getting everyone “placed” according to what the scouting and past experience has shown to be effective.

On that afternoon before the season, I headed out with three of us on horseback, myself, my brother in law, and his friend. The friend had once been a horseman but it had been years and years since he had ridden and arthritis or something was lighting every bulb in his tree, he felt he could “take” the four mile ride but was going to want off of that horse when we got there. A small cold front was forecast to move in “a skiff of snow or rain at the 10,000 foot level” – no problem – spike camp has a small heater and they should be fine. Good thing we are on horseback and it shouldn’t take too long to get them in and then ride back out. The aspens which were so beautiful when we first arrived were massively shedding their leaves – by opening morning they should be pretty much naked – good, you can see into the forest better that way.

Part way in one could see the first wave of precipitation moving towards us in a grey but thin wall, it would pass but would likely be followed by another in “fall showers” style. I calculated the “closure rate” and could tell it would hit before we got to spike camp. I had recalled what BJ had said about wide brim hats and rain so I had taken my Stetson that hadn’t seen use in 20 years. Fortunately it fit good and tight and I pulled it down tighter over my eye brow line as the wind picked up. I stopped and had them get off their horses to put on their rain gear – may as well get it done while we are still dry and its not raining. Now the first problem hit, the one fellow couldn’t get off of his horse! I had him do a slow motion “fall” to the left and I caught him – once on the ground he was okay, but he was hating life on that horse. Everyone got “geared up” and I helped lift him back into the saddle and we were off.

Rain dripping off of the brim of my hat (thanks BJ), wind picking up, visibility dropping, afternoon light fading just a wee bit – still plenty of time for a quick in and out. Tricky part of the trail coming up and I reached into my pocket for my GPS – now the pocket was clear full of good stuff but my GPS wasn’t one of the items in it, I did have my compass though in case needed. I know the trail, I was just here 3 days ago, so we pressed on. The trail in is little more than a heavy duty cow path. Hmm, interesting how the aspen leaves are blanketing everything…. [Do you see a “chain of events” occurring here?]

Twenty minutes later we found ourselves in a bushwack (I’m sure we will intersect the trail right up here a little ways....). We also found ourselves in the midst of a massive herd of elk in full rut, multiple bugles, roars, screams, and mews. We stopped and watched and listened to them for a bit and let them melt back into the trees as they slowly caught on to our presence as we didn’t want to “blow them out of there”. It was all very exciting and my brother in law wanted to spend the night " right there" and attack at first light. Just to be prudent, before we started up I pulled out my compass for a quick cross check….

Hot flash! Disbelief! All mixed with a tingle of fear and a sinking feeling in my stomach! Rain was now starting to turn into snow. The compass read 100 degrees off of what I thought was for sure due south! And just for dramatic effect, mother nature unleashed a thunderbolt about a mile away (fortunately the only one). This can’t be – I’m on my home turf; I know this area! Could the compass be wrong? I then remembered one line from my hunter education course (which was very entertaining but only provided a few tidbits of wisdom – this was one of them), and that is.... “If you are lost then the first step to remedying it is admitting you are lost.” “Boys, I hate to say it but this compass just gave me some real bad news, at best we are off course and at worst we’re flat out lost.” “You stay right here and I’m going to ride up to the top of this knob and see if I can get re-oriented.” I was surprised how casual they were --- I took a compass bearing toward the hilltop and rode through the timber up the hill. Landmarks were limited and nothing looked right, I took my best guess noted it and headed back. They were right were I left them. As I approached them, I saw two riders moving through the trees at 200 yards or so, apparently they had been “scouting” the same herd of elk. Salvation! Needless to say they quickly had company.

These boys were from Missouri, had been coming here for 27 years and found my predicament highly amusing. They offered the damnedest directions on how to get to where we wanted to go but could never " anchor" me as to where I was right now so I switched strategies. “So you boys heading back to camp?” Yep. “Where is it?” “At the ' so and so' trailhead!” (the SAME place we started out from). " How about we just follow you back to camp? They had a good laugh with that one --sure lets go! One hour later we were back at the road thanked them and headed back to our main camp.

My one fellow had held on with gritted teeth for the whole trip out. " Let’s get you off of that horse." He agreed. He slid off and I caught him. He could hardly stand. I guarded my jaw because after putting him through hell and pain I anticipated he just might take a swing at me to even things up. I apologized for the mess. “Aw, hell that is just part of the game!!" I was floored – this was one tough (and forgiving) man! It was a mile and a half to camp. He wasn’t going to ride and even if we rode ahead and brought a car back to him he was going to walk it. The one fellow rode ahead. Myself, I got off my horse and walked the mile and a half with him – if you’re that tough I’ll share it with you, we can discuss how we are going to make this elk hunting thing work for you. By the end of the trip I was pushing to keep abreast of him.

My camp was now full of people. The 1:00am “get up” time for the opening day was now just five hours away. I didn' t try to hide anything from anyone and explained to them all what just happened and how I was going to turn right around and lead them right back in there (in the dark) early the next morning. Now I had to recover from what had just been an emotional roller coaster and a physical drain. I also had to re-plan the logistics of the coming day (and grab the #@@$% GPS). Hmm, seems like I’m going to be starting the opening day with a bit of sleep deprivation -- got people counting on me – not going to let them down –- this no time to whimp out -- time to cowboy up!

I learned about hunting from that! Now that I know it CAN happen to me I’m thinking the “chain of events” that led to it won’t sneak up on me” quite so easily next time. Next day went fine, led everyone right in, got them " on stand" , and we had three elk down, quartered (Alaskan method) and bagged and hanging in the trees by sundown. We took another elk the following day after five of us spent the night in a spike camp designed for a bit less than five hunters. But that is a whole ' nother story......

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BJ makes a good point in a nearby thread that the " gadgets" weaken your senses. He is right. In the following days when packing out meat trip after trip we took turns at " tackling" that trail with the leader using no GPS and the follower cross checking his choices!

SOOOOOO.....

Any of you ever been lost (temporarily confused) that you are willing to admit and share??

Never Go Undergunned (and that includes GPS too!),
EKM