AB\'s 2014 hunting journal

[americanbwana]

Opening day minus 101 days, 13 hours, and 5 minutes.

Called the CPW wildlife manager yesterday only to find out he was on vacation. I sent him an email asking about a specific drainage, and road access. Hopefully he\'ll be able to respond Thursday when he gets back.

Researched hydration drinks. Did you know WA costs 4 times more than Nuun, and only provides a fraction of the sodium? No sugar in Nuun either. Still researching.

Working on a back country meal plan that matches up the common long distance runner carb / fat / protein ratio. This looks like it averages out 50% of calories from Carbs, 30% from fat, and 20% from protein. I still need to work on this. BUT did you know that a peanut, bacon and tortilla roll up is 21% carbs, 63% fat, and 15% protein. Dang and I was going to make one this morning :downthumb: Still researching.

Ordered new Stealth Cam G42NG today. This has to be better than the POS Moultrie 333 I bought (it went back).

Also ordered a bug screen for my hammock. My scouting trips during the summer would be a bit trying if I had to fight the skeeters at night too.

:rtfm:

 

[iccyman001]

If I would have known you needed a bug screen I would have sent you one. I just brought back a few extra from this last deployment.


I use the moltrie 880sand they work fantastic. What was wrong with the 333?

 

[americanbwana]

Cruddy night time picture quality. I had a fox about 20 feet away that was so pixelated that I couldn\'t make out it\'s tail.

As for the bug screen, it was payday and momma said ok

 

[iccyman001]

Cruddy night time picture quality. I had a fox about 20 feet away that was so pixelated that I couldn\'t make out it\'s tail.

As for the bug screen, it was payday and momma said ok

Well next time you need random stuff like that, you guys make sure you PM me.

Half the time I get issued this stuff and I just hold on to it for camping, hunting, etc

 

[americanbwana]

Ah the weekend.

Playing with the new trail camera. It survived the biblical downpour last night, so that was a good thing. I noticed that changing the batteries (actually upgrading the firmware, last step was to remove the batteries) deleted all of the settings. Not a biggy, just something to be aware of. The initial photos were much better than the last camera. I still don\'t have a night time photo yet.

Repacked the pack, replacing most of the dead weight (sandbag) with the stuff I\'ll actually carry. It was about 5 lbs heavier, which I noticed at the end of the 4.8 mile training circuit.

Still researching what the right balance of carbs / fat / protein is supposed to be. Most of the hunters say you need a high calorie diet. But when you look at the ratios, the fat is close to 50%. Most only talk of fat and protein.

On the other hand, marathon runners say the wall they hit is from exhausting their carbs. And that fat can only be turned into energy at a much slower rate.

Ok, so a test today. Carb up heavy with a large bowl of rolled oat meal (not instant), and some craisons for breakfast (Dinner last night was carb rich spaghetti). On the bike I go, shooting to add three miles to my route. The trails are muddy (soft) and the same steep hill awaits. An hour later I\'m back at the house, no cramps, not wiped out. 1/2 of the distance with the pack on after eating a fat heavy meal left my legs tired, and I felt generally weak. So maybe carbs are good. :dance2:

All of this tinkering and talking about food is making me hungry.

 

[iccyman001]

I am a very active person AB and have always been into fitness, dieting, and health.

One of the biggest struggles for people is diet and even more into that is carbs. It\'s like the voodoo word for people.
Everyone knows they need them, but they scare themselves away from taking the proper amount.

Even I was rocky at first, but once I figured out the proper amount that I needed, my life has been fantastic.
Carbs fuel us.

So it\'s great that you are reading up on it and great that you are experimenting.


I am not going to try and tell you what to do because no one is the same, but all I can say is keep experimenting until you find what suits your life style and activities the best and it will work wonders. This year will be 100% different from last years hunts when you found yourself exhausted.



Good luck!

 

[americanbwana]

On the road again.

I had a little time so I worked on a menu for one day. The goal was to have about 4000 calories,, 70% Carbs, 20% fat, and 10% protein. This comes out to 700g of carbs, 89g fat, and 100g protein.

This combo came up at 2100 calories, 60% carbs, 28% fat, and 12% protein. This is way more than I would normally eat. Heck I don\'t know how to get to 4K a day.

Anyway here goes (Just listing the basic food, no drinks or condiments).

Breakfast - 1Cup rollled oatmeal (310 cal, 35g carb, 5.2g fat, 11g protein)
Snack 1 & 2 - Clif bar, Apricot (EA - 230 cal, 45g carb, 3.5g fat, 9g protein)
Lunch - Peanut butter on wheat Tortilla (340 cal, 31g carb, 20g fat, 9g protein)
Dinner - Mountain house pro pack spaghetti, the entire bag (460 cal, 66g carb, 10g fat, 24g protein)
Night snack - Large Snickers bar (Holy diet busters. 530 calories, 73g carb, 22g fat, 10g protein)

Still a work in progress.

On another note. I found a local sporting goods store with H4350 in stock. Running down tonight to grab a few lbs tonight.

 

[iccyman001]

AB,

That ratio is very far off.

700 grams of carbs is VERY high.
And your protien intake is too low.
How much do you weigh?

I\'d love to help you in the right direction.

 

[americanbwana]

Here is the break out.

4000 calories * .7 = 70% of calories from Carb. This equals 2,800. Carbs have 4 calories per gram, so dividing 2,800 / 4 = 700 grams.

Here is one of the sites I researched. Carbs, fat, other stuff

The example I posted \'only\' had 2100 calories. That is a lot of food.

I have lots of work to do yet, that was just a brain exercise during a commercial.

 

[Zpd307]

all this talk of calories reminds me how shocked I was when mapmyrun told me I burned 5100 calories running my marathon and yes, those snickers are so not good for you...

 

[mtnmutt]

I am bad about getting enough protein, especially when training for a race or while I am increasing my DW and doing weights.

This article helped me calculate what I needed. It is still a challenge for me to get enough protein and also keep my fat percentage down.

http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/protein_2.htm

Good luck with your meal planning. You are doing a better prep work than most people do.

 

[americanbwana]

Did an almost 6 mile hike with the spike camp weight in the pack. The elevation gain was a touch under 1100 feet. I kept up a good pace, motivated by the growing thunderstorm to the west.

I didn\'t outrun the storm, and ended up pulling the rain jacket out for the last mile and a half. My body stayed dry, but I did notice that pack started soaking up rain in about 30 minutes. Not to happy about that. Eberlestock is supposed to be water proof. Not. Looks like I\'ll need to get a rain cover.

Overall a beneficial trip. 6 miles with the loaded back is a new personal best.

 

[americanbwana]

Ramped the training weight up to 60# today. It definitely caused me to slow down, and I had a little burn on the first long hill. Otherwise not to bad (for now). It took about an hour and 10 minutes to cover my 3 mile route.

The merino wool shirt (From Sierra Trading Post) has been worn for three hard workouts, and still smells like wet wool. Well at least I don\'t smell like a wet dog :crazy:

About three and a half weeks until my first back country scouting trip. Progress is being made.

All I need to do now is loose as much weight as BobFer`

 

[americanbwana]

Just loaded up the pack for the scouting trip next weekend.

It came in at 33 lbs, minus the food and fishing gear. I doubt that plus the little things I add during the week will exceed 40#.

Not to bad considering I\'m not really trying to cut weight that much. But I am only loading up stuff I know I\'ll use, or may need (rain gear) next weekend.

I\'ll take it out for a shake down walk Monday. I\'m sure some stuff will get moved around to balance it better.

Oh yea.

 

[americanbwana]

Left a day early (couldn\'t wait) to check out the new hunting area. I am sure am glad I went up to check it out.

First off, the \'rough\' forest service road was probably the worst I\'d ever driven. 4 miles in an hour, and I still damaged both running boards. Huge rocks, then massive ruts (Wider than deep), and a stream crossing with what seemed like a small rock cliff to climb on the other side. Oh my! More of an ATV trail than a road.

While the trailhead was marked (where you park your truck), the cut off to the trail I wanted to take didn\'t have a sign on it until 200 in after making the turn. And it isn\'t even the same name as what the FS has on their map. Go figure.

There are three stream crossings. Each is deeper than my boots are high, requiring you to stop to either change your footwear, or to take them off and drain them. The first and deepest was right where you cutoff to get on the mail trail. Only 3.3 miles to go with wet feet. Oh joy!

Next, the trail doesn\'t even follow the path they have on their map. Oh my.

Anyway I finally made it to the camp spot. 3.4 miles in, at around 10K. The feet are soaked, the 3 liter water bladder is empty, and I\'m beat.

Then the mosquitoes found me. Oh my. While I don\'t think I got bit once, they were incredible. Huge swarms around my head. It reminded me of the pig-pen. Only the cloud wasn\'t by my feet, they were by my head.

An outfitter came by yesterday morning (I\'m camped on the trail). When asked, she said they charge $200 per mule to pack an elk out. Two mules needed.

My brief off trail scouting trip was promising at first. I immediately found some beat up spruce tree\'s, and a trail with fresh elk tracks since the last rain. Then it went down hill. A solid mass of dead fall. I worked along that ridge for about a mile trying to find a human navigable trail. Notta.

Back to camp. I\'m sitting there trying to figure out what to do next. Here come the mosquitoes again, this time accompanied by flies. Man I just can\'t get a break.

Anyway, I decide this trip is not going to get any better and decide to head on down the hill.

While the area did hold great promise for elk, accessing the trail head would eventually damage the truck (It would be easy to slip off one of the huge rocks, damaging a critical undercarriage part or drive train), multiple stream crossings, and difficulty getting to and getting an elk out make this an area left for serious die hard hunters (if going in on foot), or those assisted by pack animals.

Good thing I have already identified a plan B area.

 

[cohunter14]

Sorry to hear that Dana. I guess the positives are that the water depth should go down in time and the roughness of the road should keep other hunters out of there. Could turn it into your \'Plan B\' option...

 

[americanbwana]

Nothing to apologize for. That is why we want to check our area before hunting season. You can only learn so much from map scouting (Lesson here for those that want to learn :rtfm: )

I\'d probably drive the old Dakota down that road any day. I really don\'t care if it gets dinged up, but the Ram is whole different story. My wife would have my A**^%^@#@^& if I tore it up.

Heck I don\'t feel that bad. The outfitter I was talking to was on her way in to pick up a couple of fisherman. Apparently they only got in two miles before dropping the packs, and hiring them to complete the journey.

 

[Zpd307]

what, no pics......

 

[americanbwana]

Pictures?

Yea I took a couple. These are from about a mile in. Still pretty low. I took a picture of the poo because I didn\'t know what it was from. Figured some seasoned poo analyzer would know what it\'s from just by scratching the screen :haha: .

 

[americanbwana]

Here is a screen shot of the real trail (in red), vs what the FS said the trail is supposed to be (Yellow).

I didn\'t cross the stream again (just north of the trail). At this point it was pretty wide, and still deeper than my boots where high. I thought about just wearing the sneakers to cross then putting the boots on. This would have been stream crossing number 4.