Back Pack Weight
09-08-2011, 05:51 PM
#22
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Huntin' In Colorado
Posts: 2,910
Having a good GPS and knowing how to use can save your life. It is so easy to get turned around when you get on a herd or a big bull.
I followed a small herd last year thinking I was going to get a shot. I thought I knew exactly where I was. By the time I gave up on them, I was almost to the bottom of the mountain. I thought no big deal, I'll just catch the trail at the bottom and head back to camp. When I got to the bottom, there was no trail, I had came down the other side. I wasn't lost but if it would have been in the evening, I would have slept on the mountain. It took me hours to get back to where I knew the way back to camp where my GPS was in the tent.
09-09-2011, 04:38 AM
#23
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: On an Island in Vermont
Posts: 22,605
I agree with all that. A couple of years ago I was hunting in Colorado with a couple of other guys. I got dropped off at a spot and climbed a very steep draw going out of a drainage onto a ridge and over the other side. At about 9 in the morning I could see the sky turning very dark but since we had bare ground I didn't worry much. At 10 it started to snow and by 10:30 I could't see anything. I started to work my way back to the ridge and had to drop down that steep drainage to get back to the road which was at the bottom of the canyon. It was late in the day and the snow was up to my knees and I couldn't get good enough footing to risk climbing down out of there. I had to use a radio and tell the other guys I would meet them at another road which was a ways away at the end of the ridge I was on. Thank goodness I had a GPS with topo maps showing the roads since I couldn't see anything more than 50 feet away. Needless to say it was a good decision to not try and climb down out of there. The downed logs were slippery and undetectable under all that wet snow.
