Idaho bucks and the EXO 3500 pack

[ntg]

Good report and congrats! Nice bucks!

 

[mtnwrunner]

Randy,

How many days did you spend, reason I ask is whether there is a need for the larger bag or if the 3500 bag is large enough?


Gary

Gary, that is a great question. What we have been doing the last several years and it works for us is that we try and have a base camp somewhere close by and then spike out for a couple of days. That way, you can go back, regroup, rest, take a shower, catch up with the real world (damnit) and then go back to the high country. We usually pack in 2 to 5 miles as that is all the farther I would want to pack an animal out. It works really well for a couple of old farts. That all being said, I think that the 3500 is more than enough for 2 to 4 days away depending on how much food you eat and how many clothes you take. We pack for 2 to 3 days and I have enough room in the 3500 with a little to spare. We each have a one person tent and we each have our own stoves. So, you would obviously have more room and less weight if you shared equipment.
We were in the same area a couple of nights ago and we spotted a couple of elk on our way back to spike camp. There were a couple of bulls in the small herd and we could have doubled up but we made the decision to only take one being it was right at dark and we were about half mile from our spike camp and about 3 miles from where our vehicle was parked. Jeff made a great shot at 275 yards so we started a fire, boned it out and carried the front shoulders, backstraps, neck and tenderloins back to our camp at 2300 hours. In the morning, we carried the above meat along with our camp back to the trailhead----most likely around 80-90 pounds and the packs work great as I've stated earlier. Next day, we went back in and packed the rest we hung in a tree.

Randy

 

[frostop]

Randy,

Thank you for the report. Like I said earlier I have gotten on the list, they are saying spring time, In the mean time I will be collection all the other stuff that goes along with backpack hunting, I have never done it before but plan to do some backpacking this summer than I just need to talk a couple of my hunting buddies into giving it a try, hopefully my daughter will want to give it a try?

 

[frostop]

By the way Congrats on the Deer and the elk, very cool!!

 

[ukenout]

Great write up. Can you share what your camp load is? I am trying to get my pack weight to a more manageable weight.