elky McElkerson
New member
- Mar 13, 2014
- 2,038
my friends hunt the WORST unit in california. pretty successfully. they hike higher than any Southern Californian dares. (so we thought..more on that later). i decided i wanted to go. my summer has been insane and i demanded the distraction.
they warned me to pare my gear down to the bear minimum. the climb is brutal!! i took a sleeping bag, a inflatable pad and i sheet of plastic, and that was it. three day worth of food. my friends are great hikers and they proved it by hiking gallons and gallons of water beforehand.
we hiked in at night. started at 10:00 pm. (i did it after driving 10 hours to get there) it took two hours and we gained 2500 feet in elevation fast. we had to. daytime temps are in the 90\'s. i set up my sleep system and fell asleep fast. i woke up at 5:00 am when the mosquitoes started to stab my forehead in the exact same pattern as the \"big dipper\". its a good look right now; sunburned and the constellation highlighted in red bumps on my forehead.
you know what? ZERO DEER! we saw 5 doe in 3.5 days. and we found out why. a family has been hunting there. half the guys had no scopes on their rifles..and not a single pair of binoculars in the group. they would walk out to and edge and throw rocks off into the bushes and shoot at the running deer. they were stunned to see us up there. we had the best valley under out binoculars. they talked to us to try to gather intel and proceeded to walk down the fingers on either side of our valley. they were rolling boulders down then ravines. we were clearly there first. best thing about that family? they told us rain was coming. rutroh! we went back to orange county, took showers and slept in beds. the water that sheeted off of me was amazingly brown. no tent is much more filth. we woke up the next day to try another spot. it was two hours up a 45 degree hill side pushing thorn bushes out of the way. my shins are perforated. it was and awesome time, right until the lighting and rain came. we had walked past this HUGE mudslide warning on the way in so we slipped slide down the hill to safety.
it was an awesome time. i got to see my good buds, had great face aching laughs. best thing happened!!! my friend owns a huge ranch in NM and we got permission to hunt!! i turned to the guy that carried water up the hill for weeks for me and asked him to come. he almost cried!! we told the ranch owner we perfer to bowhunt and he is gonna knock some corn down for us.and make sure his water tanks are filled. GAME ON!! november 11. (rifles as back up since it is the rifle season) i got the call while hiding under a tarp from rain on that last mountain top.
i love hunting. i emailed my boss from there and asked for the time off.
they warned me to pare my gear down to the bear minimum. the climb is brutal!! i took a sleeping bag, a inflatable pad and i sheet of plastic, and that was it. three day worth of food. my friends are great hikers and they proved it by hiking gallons and gallons of water beforehand.
we hiked in at night. started at 10:00 pm. (i did it after driving 10 hours to get there) it took two hours and we gained 2500 feet in elevation fast. we had to. daytime temps are in the 90\'s. i set up my sleep system and fell asleep fast. i woke up at 5:00 am when the mosquitoes started to stab my forehead in the exact same pattern as the \"big dipper\". its a good look right now; sunburned and the constellation highlighted in red bumps on my forehead.
you know what? ZERO DEER! we saw 5 doe in 3.5 days. and we found out why. a family has been hunting there. half the guys had no scopes on their rifles..and not a single pair of binoculars in the group. they would walk out to and edge and throw rocks off into the bushes and shoot at the running deer. they were stunned to see us up there. we had the best valley under out binoculars. they talked to us to try to gather intel and proceeded to walk down the fingers on either side of our valley. they were rolling boulders down then ravines. we were clearly there first. best thing about that family? they told us rain was coming. rutroh! we went back to orange county, took showers and slept in beds. the water that sheeted off of me was amazingly brown. no tent is much more filth. we woke up the next day to try another spot. it was two hours up a 45 degree hill side pushing thorn bushes out of the way. my shins are perforated. it was and awesome time, right until the lighting and rain came. we had walked past this HUGE mudslide warning on the way in so we slipped slide down the hill to safety.
it was an awesome time. i got to see my good buds, had great face aching laughs. best thing happened!!! my friend owns a huge ranch in NM and we got permission to hunt!! i turned to the guy that carried water up the hill for weeks for me and asked him to come. he almost cried!! we told the ranch owner we perfer to bowhunt and he is gonna knock some corn down for us.and make sure his water tanks are filled. GAME ON!! november 11. (rifles as back up since it is the rifle season) i got the call while hiding under a tarp from rain on that last mountain top.
i love hunting. i emailed my boss from there and asked for the time off.
