Backpack Hunt

[PushinLimits311]

Me and a buddy are gonna go up in the high uintahs on a backcountry backpack hunt. We've been planning, but i was just wondering if you guys would share some tips and anything that you guys have learned, or advice and pictures. Thanks guys!

 

[bucksmut]

What are you hunting? I have hunted the high uintahs my whole life. Every season I look forward to spending more time there. My advise would be pretty obvious but important. The Uintah Mountain range is the only east to west running range in the u.s. and as such it creates some interesting weather patterns. The weather will change there in the blink of an eye. I have literally seen it go from sunny nice and calm to a snowing blizzard in a matter of hours. So most importantly use the boy scout motto and 'Be Prepared'. I think this is why every few years you read about people getting lost and never found in this wilderness due to not being ready for the eliments. I would plan for snow and then if it is warmer you can always strip down. Another thing I would highely suggest is to drink plenty of water. I have only gotten altitude sickness once and that was due to dehydration in the uintahs. Drink lots of water and take it slow and you should be fine. One thing that has helped us out a ton is to study the topo maps that are available of the drainage you plan to hunt and understand where you will be in proximity to trails and roads. In the drainage I like to hunt I know for a fact that if I get lost I can always head a certain direction and hit a road. Understand where you will be and be aware of your surrondings. A great tool in the Uintahs is a gps. Last year myself and a hunting partner walked around in the dark for three hours trying to find a road because I "thought" I knew where I was. It was a good learning experience as I felt the early stages of panic set in. Keep in mind I hunt this area religiously and I was so turned around that we had no clue and lucked into an old logging road I remembered. In that situation I would have killed for a GPS. The point is that even the most seasoned hunters can get turned around there in the dark so physically and mentally prepare yourself in case this happens. If you do get turned around dont panic just think it through and if you need to set it out till morning I would suggest to start a small fire and try not to burn the whole forest down and wait till morning!

If you are hunting elk I would suggest listening to the audio tape of Jim Horne explaining the silent calling method to call bull elk. The heards in the uintahs have been fairly quite for the past five years and the only way we have been successful is to be patient and persistant and extremely quiet and still calling in 30 minute intervals with a cow call and then sitting there like moss on a tree to wait and see what comes in. The bulls are very leary to calls and I rarely bugle. For deer I would either glass which is tough to do some places as it is very thick or in the daytime I would still hunt and very very slowly spread out 100 yards and try to walk silently from meadow to meadow and you may get a shot. Good luck!

P.S. Also always have a flashlight. I have found this out the hard way while out hunting I usually come back in the dark and it sucks feeling your way back to camp through the thick timber.