Part of the context for my query is that my wife was curious about the costs of an elk hunt. I decided I would take a swag at estimating the cost of a seven day elk hunt according to a variety of methods -- totally do-it-yourself backpacking (with paying for a packer to pack out meat), a drop camp, a guided pack-in hunt, and any other flavor of hunt that I can get information on.

RandyL: personally I am attracted to the idea of a do-it-yourself hunt related to your suggestion, though without renting horses as I am not horse-savy. By my way of thinking, if I make a backpack hunt for a cow elk and fail to bag a cow elk, I will be out for my cow license but still have an outstanding backpacking trip and learn something, hopefully, about elk hunting into the bargin. As I understand it, not every dude who lays down his $3,500 with a guide/outfitter comes away from the hunt with any more success than that anyway.

Am I right in thinking that a horse novice shouldn't be thinking about renting horses for a hunt up country? Sure, I rode some very gentle quarter horses that belonged to my older cousin when I was a kid, but I'm guessing this doesn't qualify me for feeding, watering, currying, sadling, unsadling, hobbling, packing, unpacking horses in the back country and keeping the horses from freaking out and running away due to some surprising event such as a thunderstorm or encounter with hikers.