How far do you walk in?

[timberland]

So for those of you that hunt out of a base camp, how far do you walk in every morning? How far would you walk in before you spike camp? I know a guy that comes in for noon lunch, then heads out for the evening hunt, spends the night in a tent with a sandwich, gets up right where the elk are, hunts, and then comes back to base camp.

Swede, when you leave the camper, how far to your stand?

 

[cnelk]

Barry
It depends for me. I never camp where I hunt.
Sometimes we drive 15 miles from camp to hunt and hike in 3-4 miles and come out mid-afternoon.
Other times we drive a mile down the road and hike in 3/4 mile.

 

[bnsafe]

im like cnelk, i drive from my basecamp to places to hunt. but my spots are only a mile or so from where i park. when i spike camp i hunt within half a mile but hike in 5 or so. we all say go over a mile an you will get away from crowds. im sure thats true. i have never seen another bowhunter after i left the parking lot.

 

[cohunter14]

This varies a lot for me based on where I am hunting, but I have had ground blinds as close as a 1/2 mile from a road (or less). There are other times when I make a loop that is 5+ miles. Different from cnelk and bnsafe, I typically hunt right out of camp although not always. So really, I am \'hunting\' from the second I leave the tent. I know there are different people with different thoughts on how far to get to escape pressure, but I think a lot depends on an area. For me, I have never once ran into a hunter more than a 1/2 mile from a road.

 

[elkmtngear]

So for those of you that hunt out of a base camp, how far do you walk in every morning? How far would you walk in before you spike camp? I know a guy that comes in for noon lunch, then heads out for the evening hunt, spends the night in a tent with a sandwich, gets up right where the elk are, hunts, and then comes back to base camp.

Swede, when you leave the camper, how far to your stand?

Out of base camp, I typically walk in anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 miles.

Last Season, my spike camp was around 2 miles in, and I would range another couple miles in from there. But, I was hunting as soon as I stepped out of the tent.

Either way, I\'m doing anywhere from 5 to 10 miles a day. I typically stay out all day, and do not return to camp until after dark.

 

[Swede]

I drive out from camp to a place where I park to hike in. The area I hunt is heavily roaded. I used to be the road manager for the District. I wanted to close roads so that the density would spread them out to average a mile apart. I never got close to meeting that objective. Since leaving the Forest Service the open roads have stayed about the same in my area. There are a few more closures, but there are some roads where the barricades are now gone.
Anyway I park and walk in anywhere from 1/4 mile to 1 1/3 miles to a tree stand. Fortunately there are a few unroaded spots where I hunt. Unfortunately where there is no road, there is a well maintained trail. Most of my tree stands are from 1/2 to 3/4 GPS miles from a road.
I normally drive out each morning and come in for lunch. Sometimes I drive far enough that I will stay out all day, but this is fairly rare.

 

[elkmtngear]

I used to be the road manager for the District. I wanted to close roads so that the density would spread them out to average a mile apart.

Man, I wish every road manager in Oregon would do this!

 

[Swede]

Jeff: Many people supported that goal, but needless to say there were a lot of obstacles too. Many people have the opinion that the public paid for those roads and the big bad government has no business closing them. The nay-sayers will remind us that ODF&W is meeting its management goals for numbers of elk. There are several other reasons people don\'t want to see a road closed.
There are many people that support timber cutting. There are a lot that don\'t. Some liken timber harvest to rape. The biggest problem is that the Forest Service seems adrift and caught between the two factions. For now they pretend to manage timber, to appease both sides, but it is a bad joke based on what I see. There is so much dead and dying timber on the land classified general forest, that it is becoming a huge wildfire hazard. Every year it seems to get worse. In ancient times Rome burned while Nero was reportedly fiddling. Now days the forests burn while the F.S. fiddles. (My 2 cents)

 

[elkmtngear]

Jeff: Many people supported that goal, but needless to say there were a lot of obstacles too. Many people have the opinion that the public paid for those roads and the big bad government has no business closing them. The nay-sayers will remind us that ODF&W is meeting its management goals for numbers of elk. There are several other reasons people don\'t want to see a road closed.
There are many people that support timber cutting. There are a lot that don\'t. Some liken timber harvest to rape. The biggest problem is that the Forest Service seems adrift and caught between the two factions. For now they pretend to manage timber, to appease both sides, but it is a bad joke based on what I see. There is so much dead and dying timber on the land classified general forest, that it is becoming a huge wildfire hazard. Every year it seems to get worse. In ancient times Rome burned while Nero was reportedly fiddling. Now days the forests burn while the F.S. fiddles. (My 2 cents)

Haha, yeah the only reason the elk numbers are meeting quota is they are all down on big private ranches eating alfalfa.
(makes counting them easier at least) :lol:

I agree that the dead timber is out of control (beetle kill)?

Nice big fire up on the border right now near Ashland...(among others)!

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

We walk in as far as the elk are. If they are 3 miles or more then we bivy camp.

Funny, I just set a bunch of trail cams and bait last weekend. One is less than 1/2 mile from a paved road.

Hunt where the elk are!

jf

 

[F M]

The farthest we can go in is a mile before we hit private land. The area I have done best I can see our camp