MULEPACKHUNTER

After working hard from Thursday night til Tuesday morning my son had to get back to work so that left me and pops for the last few days. Here is pops ready to go Tuesday night. And here is a pic from a few hours later. Dad didn't want any photos after the shot and I didn't ask why, we just went to work and loaded the packs. We were less than a mile from the truck but downhill and in the dark. Pops did amazing at age 72 carrying his pack, his gear, my chair, his gun, and tossed a front quarter over his shoulder. I had more than I should have in my first load and we both were wrecked when we hit the truck. I left pops with the heater on and went back for a front and rear quarter. From the perfect double lung shot to meat in the coolers it was 2.5 hours. Not bad for new guys. It was a tuff hunt all around but we stuck with it and didn't stop. My son didn't get to see a cow elk but did see turkey, mountain lion, several bull elk, one big 6x7 350 plus bull, about 100 deer, and he laughed himself to sleep 2 nights at my dads antics. We started in the dark and finished in the dark every day and talked in the tent until midnight every night. Before he returned to work he was asking when the next hunt was.

Dinner night 1, chicken Parmesan with home made sauce and pasta Next night was home made chili with home made cornbread Easy cooking night for number 3, home made sour Krout with Hebrew national 1/4 pounders and some chips

Going to toss some pics up then I'll tell the story. First the crew from right to left, myself , pops, and my son. Next up is the gun I rebuilt for my son, Mauser 98 in 30-06 bedded, floated, stock refinished, custom self machined 20 Moa base rail, leupold classic scope new. A lion turd And then a lion in my sons scope Now what my boy does for fun in the blind, (zoom in)

Congrats great first one

Man so sorry she's going through that. Keep us posted were with you guys.

Ground out an 8 miler Monday, had a lot of funny pains in the legs I had to push through but everything smoothed out by the end. Hard to tell sometimes between injury pain and fatigue pain. Back to the tanks in the am before heading north

Some really great stuff in unit 29 chirachaua mtns. Turkey creek camp has trails right out of it that can lead to creeks for overnighter. Sycamore wilderness can have the same deal if we get some rain. Lots of trails coming out of Sedona area going in there but it's dry right now. Beaver creek area is a little short on hiking miles but might work , I don't know if there's water but I plan on getting to the Sierra ancha wilderness area some day, I hear it's amazing

Sent

Great ram man saw the pics in Jay's Instagram, very cool deal.

Cool man been on that hunt several times, usually great cow hunt but last year was tuff on my hunter. We had snow and could only find deer. Haha

Oh ya buddy 3 Dutch ovens and 2 page grocery list. Haha We will be in unit 6b, I will possibly have the mules in camp if anyone needs help try and hit me on here, if I have service I might be able to do some packing.

Alamo lake

That's a good year there congrats.

Ya very good idea I did not have those, I have a box of bungies ready but left them home.

So first trip with the new tent and I learned a few things that might help someone else out. First pic is the original build with my own tarp and porch. This was great until the wind picked up and then it was a sail. So revision b is the second pic. So I did away with the one piece porch and ran the tarp over the front to keep the wind from getting under it. I also pitched the side tent tie downs much steeper than original so the tarp would run down keeping the wind out from under it better. Worked great no more issues. I plan to center it up better and have it tuck over the front and rear for next week. The second big deal learned was the stove, we had a really bad night on night 3 with smoke really bad in the tent. What happened was I made a really nice spark arrestor but it clogged up and messed with the flow of the stove pipe causing the smoke to come out any other crack in the stove when it was burning new wood tossed in. I ditched the arrestor and it ran perfect after that. The stove I built has the baffle design so there's no real need for the arrestor any way, I was just trying to be sure nothing hurt the tent or tarp. Glad we had these items on this trip and are now ready for dads first elk tag at age 72, tent is super comfy and warm and dialed in for him to have a good time.

Ya true but the sides still breathe. Another note is with the stove it sucks the moisture right out of you so I kept water simmering all the time for humidity.

Ya the tarp is optional but it helps the tent last longer from az sun damage, another thing is it really helps hold heat in. I noticed a big difference the one night I had it off , it was still warm but not like it is with it on. Another nice thing is I pulled the tarp and laid the tent on it to fold in rathe than in the dirt. Keeps things neater.

For now I'm just going to use my 12x12 pop up for a porch until I can build a separate porch that matches the tent. Or maybe buy one from Davis.

Well it's all over, my good friends first elk tag and man did we have a good time. He really worked his bum off and did his opportunity justice. No elk down but we did earn a few chances and that's all one can ask for. Believe me I've had some really tuff hunts without seeing one legal animal. Good food friends and family and thanksgiving all within the hunt. Very blessed. Learned a ton and watched Bulls at 15 yards. ive always heard and perceived that the late archery hunt was the worst elk tag one could get or tuffest which ever way you want to look at it. I will say I was surprised what a good tag it was, a pretty dang good hunt overal. If your thinking no way on late archery bull you might want to tag along on one and see if your sitting out on a good hunt. Hope everyone enjoyed some pics and fun posts and had a great thanksgiving. From my family and friends to yours God bless.

Snowing now, light but snowing

3 cows came in tonight no Bulls, Hail Mary tomorrow with an all day sit, I'll be packing camp and looking for texts to come thru play by play.

Finished off with some biscuit dough on top

Dutch oven on the wood stove !!! Running low on wine now.

Went to one of our water spots and someone built a new blind next to my tree stand !! Most likely rifle guys getting ready I guess but sucks since they drove right to it in a razor and walked all over heck. We have been walking a mile minimum from the end of the road every time to not wreck the area. We even carried the stand the mile as well. I rode out to our back up spot today and there are 2 new tree stands opposite each other , that worked out ok since we are using one now, haha. I miss the wilderness, dang roads make hunting good for some but bad for others. Good news is I saw 9 bulls while riding and one whopper!! Just got in a hot shower and poured some wine, going to be a good night I think, my buddy hit the stand about 1:15, going to have Dutch oven chicken and dumplings ready when he walks back in the dark.