Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is Cutting the Distance. Welcome back to the podcast. Everyone.
Speaker 1: On this week's podcast, I left last week's Q and
Speaker 1: a kind of a cliffhanger. The question was asking and
Speaker 1: talking about how and where do you set up a
Speaker 1: camp when you're out cutting. It's a question that I
Speaker 1: got asked, probably more than most things like where do
Speaker 1: I camp? You know, or you say you spot some
Speaker 1: milk in the night before in the basin? Where should
Speaker 1: I set up my tent, or where's the most strategic
Speaker 1: place to stay? How will I know that I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be blowing elk out when I'm camping. I
Speaker 1: constantly received these kind of questions. So on this week's podcast,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna break down everything you'll need to know about
Speaker 1: hunting camp locations, the types of camps, location options, and
Speaker 1: how to assess a camp spot based on some key factors.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, I want to share the
Speaker 1: story of a deer hunt and what I called a
Speaker 1: punishment hike back to camp. On this particular hunt, it
Speaker 1: was an early season archery mule deer hunt. My buddy
Speaker 1: Mike and I had applied as a party. I think
Speaker 1: my brother Jason also is in a party with us now.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the mule dear, I get fairly
Speaker 1: picky on the type of deer I want to shoot.
Speaker 1: I like to go out. I like, if I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of time, I like to hunt for a
Speaker 1: really big buck. And this particular year, I had quite
Speaker 1: a bit of time before guiding to go out and
Speaker 1: hunt for myself. So Mike's work schedule didn't really allow
Speaker 1: him to go out at the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: So I went out to the area and just started
Speaker 1: hunting solo, and then he was going to join me
Speaker 1: um when he got some time off work. So I
Speaker 1: was about the first I don't know, maybe seven or
Speaker 1: ten days. I was hunting by myself and hunting really hard,
Speaker 1: but I just did not see a buck that I
Speaker 1: wanted to stock. I had hunted like the entire week
Speaker 1: and not really put on a stock on anything because
Speaker 1: I was seeing a lot of deer, but just nothing
Speaker 1: of the caliber that I had seen in that area before. Now,
Speaker 1: this area was kind of like had varying train but
Speaker 1: fairly high altitude. You could go up to over twelve
Speaker 1: thousand feet in the valley floor is probably around five
Speaker 1: to seven thousand feet, and kind of hunting in this
Speaker 1: mid range of that seven to eight thousand feet. But
Speaker 1: there was a backcountry area that I wanted to explore,
Speaker 1: but I figured i'd wait till I wasn't sure exactly
Speaker 1: what day Mike was going to come in, because if
Speaker 1: he could get off work early, he would come in early.
Speaker 1: So I figured I'd hunt stuff that I liked to hunt,
Speaker 1: and then when he came in, we could then both
Speaker 1: pack into the wilderness and check out some other spots.
Speaker 1: So Mike gets into camp and uh, we hunt around.
Speaker 1: I show him a few of the deer that I
Speaker 1: had seen, and and just you know, it was like,
Speaker 1: I have we found anything that I want to stalk?
Speaker 1: So he's like, well, let's go into the world. And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, sweet, sounds good. So we packed
Speaker 1: up our bags and started hiking in early the next morning.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty good it's a pretty good climb
Speaker 1: in there. I think we started probably around seven thousand
Speaker 1: feet elevation that is where we parked, and we hiked
Speaker 1: up to over twelve thousand feet. So we hike up
Speaker 1: over and go through this saddle, get on this pass,
Speaker 1: and we start glassing for the evening and I'm glassing
Speaker 1: kind of back down. We've got our plan is just
Speaker 1: kind of like bivvy sacks, so we've got all of
Speaker 1: our food, our camp everything with us, and we're just
Speaker 1: gonna camp as we go. The first night, we were
Speaker 1: planning on camping in the saddle because it's a pretty
Speaker 1: good haul up there, and then we could start hunting
Speaker 1: our way into some of the back basins that are
Speaker 1: really far back there and you can't really access. So
Speaker 1: as we get up, we're hiking up and before we
Speaker 1: set up camp, we're like, I'm like, okay, let's go
Speaker 1: glass off into the these couple areas. We go back
Speaker 1: and I'm glassing kind of back down where we came from,
Speaker 1: and halfway up the mountain there's a group of five
Speaker 1: deer and I'm like, there's a pretty good bucket there.
Speaker 1: There's definitely one that I would stock. I've hunted over
Speaker 1: a week and not seeing a deer, I would sneak on.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty solid big four by four in
Speaker 1: there like one plus. I was like, that's the best
Speaker 1: deer I've seen so far. I'll definitely stock that deer.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, let's go get him. So I'm like, okay, sweet.
Speaker 1: So we dropped down off the ridge and we had
Speaker 1: to lose a lot of elevation. We hiked up over
Speaker 1: five thousand feet gain, and now we're dropping back down
Speaker 1: like another i don't know, two thousand feet maybe a
Speaker 1: little more. So we dropped down in. What I noticed
Speaker 1: is the deer kind of on this ridge, and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the way they're gonna feed him, like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're definitely gonna feed into the wind. And there's this
Speaker 1: kind of like cliffy not really a cliff, but like
Speaker 1: this little um. You could see a pretty good trail
Speaker 1: that they were near, and like a finger ridge going
Speaker 1: down and a pretty good like rock pile brush kind
Speaker 1: of thing in between that trail and the deer. So
Speaker 1: we're moving down. We're moving now and kind of keep
Speaker 1: we can keep them in sight and drop back over
Speaker 1: the other side of the ridge move in. We stopped
Speaker 1: it about a hundred and fifty yards and I'm like
Speaker 1: all right, drop my pack here and sneak in. It's
Speaker 1: like sweet. I was like, okay, Mike, stay right here,
Speaker 1: don't move. I'm gonna go down. I'm just gonna set
Speaker 1: up because like they're feeding up perfect. I bet you
Speaker 1: they just feed right along that trail and I'll have
Speaker 1: a sweet shot. He's like okay. I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: just stay here, stay with the gear. I'll come back.
Speaker 1: He's like okay. So I start sneaking down, take off
Speaker 1: my shoes, like creeping in on the back side of
Speaker 1: the ridge. They're completely obscured from where I'm at. The
Speaker 1: wind's really good, and I'm a little bit worried that
Speaker 1: the wind might shift as the evening goes on, but
Speaker 1: I think I'll be fine. So the winds actually really strong,
Speaker 1: so I don't think thermals are gonna mess with me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, sweet, this is perfect. I creep down and
Speaker 1: as I'm creeping on, like ranging this part where I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna cross, I get like fifty yards creep
Speaker 1: a little bit closer. I kind of peek over the
Speaker 1: out ridge and see the deer on the other side,
Speaker 1: maybe like ninety yards down, and they're still feeding my
Speaker 1: way and I noticed there's like I think there's like
Speaker 1: six of them, and and mo like I can only
Speaker 1: I can see the big buck and like to the
Speaker 1: other bucks. And the big buck was in the back,
Speaker 1: and then the other deer disappeared behind this little ledge.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, this is perfect. So I sneak
Speaker 1: in a little bit more like being super quiet, super careful.
Speaker 1: It's steep, it's rocky, it's alloud, and I'm just placing
Speaker 1: every foot so carefully, and I get down and range
Speaker 1: where they're going to cross, like thirty four yards. Sweet
Speaker 1: set up knocking arrow and I'm just waiting, and sure
Speaker 1: enough I start to see velvet tips coming through. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: buck walks out, one of the small bucks range him, boom, perfect,
Speaker 1: he walks out and just keeps feeding. Next buck walks out,
Speaker 1: and now those deer feeding at like forty fifty yards
Speaker 1: as they moved through, and each one of these bucks
Speaker 1: stopped at this little grass patch thirty four yards. Munch
Speaker 1: is a little bit a little bit of mountain mahat,
Speaker 1: like a little bit of brush there, munches on it
Speaker 1: and then cruises out a little bit and starts feeding it,
Speaker 1: like forty something fifty whatever, next set of antler tips. Alright,
Speaker 1: range it sweet, Okay. Now I'm just like I know
Speaker 1: the range of everything, and all these deer taking the
Speaker 1: exact same path, and I'm just sitting frozen waiting for
Speaker 1: the big buck to come out. Another deer comes out,
Speaker 1: another deer comes out, and I'm like, every single one
Speaker 1: of these deer has taken the same path. This is
Speaker 1: game time. As soon as I see his antler tips,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna draw back and wait. So all those
Speaker 1: deer come out and I'm like, all right, this is it.
Speaker 1: I see the handler tips of the big Buck. I'm
Speaker 1: just about getting ready to draw back. I'm like, there's
Speaker 1: like one spot where I can see the only tips
Speaker 1: and then they disappear, and I'm like then I could
Speaker 1: see him again. So I'm like I've got it all
Speaker 1: planned out. All the deer did the same thing. I'm
Speaker 1: getting ready to draw and I hear something behind me,
Speaker 1: just rock rolling, and I'm like it was loud, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what all those other deer spooked out? The
Speaker 1: big bucks spooks out. I draw back and they all
Speaker 1: stop it an unknown range probably year, I just don't
Speaker 1: even know, and that's it. My stocks blown. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the heck happened? I turned around, and about fifty
Speaker 1: yards behind me is Mike just like ghost white with
Speaker 1: this look on his face, like, oh man, I really
Speaker 1: screwed that. And having like hunted really hard for about
Speaker 1: ten or twelve days, I was just like, you've got
Speaker 1: to be kidding me. This is the one year that
Speaker 1: I saw that I would have shot. And he was
Speaker 1: seconds away from getting an arrow run right through him,
Speaker 1: and Mike just blew him out because he didn't stay put.
Speaker 1: So I walk out. I'm like fairly ticked off, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, what the hell are you doing? Man?
Speaker 1: And in his defense, he's the nicest guy. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's why we're really he's just the nicest guy on
Speaker 1: the planet. But he's like, oh, I didn't know what
Speaker 1: was going on, so I thought I would come down
Speaker 1: and help your range, just in case they were coming
Speaker 1: out and you needed somebody to range in which case
Speaker 1: that's a very nice offer. But I mean his life
Speaker 1: was just like, dude, I told you to stay there,
Speaker 1: and he's like I know, He's like I know, I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry, and I was just like fairly piste off.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, So we walk up to the packs
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, you know what, screw it. The
Speaker 1: deer blown out here, and they were they blew out hard.
Speaker 1: It's like the deer blown out of here. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not as a crappy spot to camp. It's like
Speaker 1: super steep. I'm just like, screw it, we're camping at
Speaker 1: the top. I grabbed my pack and I just start
Speaker 1: trudging up to the top of the mountain. So we're
Speaker 1: hiking another like two thousand vertical feet up one of
Speaker 1: the steepest parts of the mountain just to can't find
Speaker 1: a flat spot to camp. Not that we couldn't have
Speaker 1: found a spot down there, but I was like, no,
Speaker 1: you know what, you blow the stock, you make the walk.
Speaker 1: So like we just like I just like start hammering
Speaker 1: up the mountain as fast as I can go. And
Speaker 1: Mike's got his pack on it, and i can see
Speaker 1: he's just falling behind, falling behind, and I'm sure that
Speaker 1: it's just eating him up, and I'm like, no, he's
Speaker 1: gonna wallow in it when he walks. So I get
Speaker 1: up to the top and I sit down and have
Speaker 1: a break, and I think about it. I'm like no,
Speaker 1: you know what, Mike's like your best friend, and that's
Speaker 1: just a terrible punish man. But he probably feels bad
Speaker 1: enough blowing it. So I looked down and he's still
Speaker 1: a long way. He's down the mountain, and so I
Speaker 1: think to myself, well, I gotta make it right. So
Speaker 1: I hike back down the mountain, maybe another thousand feet
Speaker 1: I don't know, and he's dying. He's like he's struggling.
Speaker 1: He's on the struggle bus, like he just came in
Speaker 1: from lower elevation and this is like charging up the mountain.
Speaker 1: And I've been living there for like a while, and
Speaker 1: so the elevation didn't really bother me at all. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right. I was like, Mike, give me
Speaker 1: your pack. He's like, no, can't I let you do that.
Speaker 1: I was like, Mike, give me your pack. I chose
Speaker 1: the camp spot, I dropped the pack. I made his
Speaker 1: trudge up here. I'll carry your pack the rest of
Speaker 1: the way, and begrudgingly he did it, but the hike
Speaker 1: was still pretty bad. We got up and we just
Speaker 1: rolled out her baby sacks and made a nice dinner
Speaker 1: and just laughed. He was just laughing. He's like oh man,
Speaker 1: that was punishment. He's like, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1: I won't do that again. And to this day we
Speaker 1: still laugh about that story when Mike decided to sneak
Speaker 1: in on the bucks, blew him out and went on
Speaker 1: a punishment hike back to camp. I honestly think if
Speaker 1: I had a dollar for every time someone asked me
Speaker 1: where to camp, I would have a very sizable collection
Speaker 1: of dollars. I'm not saying I have a million dollars,
Speaker 1: but I would have a lot of dollars. Uh. I
Speaker 1: think for the most part, I really didn't think too
Speaker 1: hard about that question, because for myself, it just seemed
Speaker 1: like you just it was so situational and and really
Speaker 1: I didn't I don't really think about it too much.
Speaker 1: And then when I really did start to think about it,
Speaker 1: the answer kind of became extremely complicated because there's no
Speaker 1: set answer and it depends on a ton of factors.
Speaker 1: So I figured I cover most of the things that
Speaker 1: involve camp selection, and then that way you can be
Speaker 1: your own expert, and when you encounter a scenario or something,
Speaker 1: then you kind of know, okay, this is the right
Speaker 1: move to make. And I really think that this is
Speaker 1: primarily a question from people who this is their first
Speaker 1: time this type of trip, and it makes sense you go, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I get out there, like I see some elk, Where
Speaker 1: do I do? I do I hike back three miles
Speaker 1: and set up a camp? Do I? How close is
Speaker 1: too close? How far is too far? So I just
Speaker 1: want to cover kind of uh an intro to to
Speaker 1: setting up camp, but also kind of some of my
Speaker 1: thoughts and things that I do when I am setting
Speaker 1: up a camp or a base camp. But before we
Speaker 1: do that, I say that there, I mean, there's so
Speaker 1: many hunts myself that I've gone on and I've had
Speaker 1: a pretty subpar camp, and then there's others where I
Speaker 1: just go back to that spot to hang out camp
Speaker 1: for the weekend. But before I really get too deep
Speaker 1: into the types of camps, I think we kind of
Speaker 1: need to go over camp definitions. So let's first talk
Speaker 1: about the places that you might camp. I broke I
Speaker 1: would break that out into two sections. So either front country,
Speaker 1: so I like to call that like this is anything
Speaker 1: you can access by a road or vehicle, So it
Speaker 1: could be a four wheeler, could be a truck whatever.
Speaker 1: That's the front country. And then The second would be
Speaker 1: the back country, so anything that you'd have to non
Speaker 1: motorized to walk, ride bike. It could be off of
Speaker 1: a gated logging road, it could be whatever, but it's
Speaker 1: just a type of camp where you can't bring your vehicle.
Speaker 1: Aside from that, a few other camping terms you should
Speaker 1: know are like the types of camps. So the first
Speaker 1: one would be a base camp, and this kind of
Speaker 1: the definition of that would be your main camp. This
Speaker 1: could be a large camp, but um, it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a base camp. Is really the way I
Speaker 1: define it is just a camp that really doesn't rove
Speaker 1: very often. It's kind of in one place. You set
Speaker 1: it up at the beginning of the hunt and you
Speaker 1: take it down at the end. It's kind of where
Speaker 1: you base your hunt's out of or from now. This
Speaker 1: might mean that you hunt out of it every day,
Speaker 1: or it might mean that you leave and kind of
Speaker 1: keep it set up and camp somewhere else. With the
Speaker 1: next type of camp, which I would call a spike camp.
Speaker 1: This is often a smaller type camp and can be
Speaker 1: out of a base camp, but it's it's lighter. You're
Speaker 1: often going deeper and probably more into that back country.
Speaker 1: You can definitely have a base camp in the back country.
Speaker 1: You can definitely make a lighter set up a base camp,
Speaker 1: but that spike camp would be kind of any kind
Speaker 1: of camping out from that base camp where you may
Speaker 1: stay a few days in one spot and then pack
Speaker 1: up and move somewhere else. Um, so it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more mobile. And then the third type of camp
Speaker 1: would be like a bivvy camp. This is what I
Speaker 1: would consider like a lightweight camp. It's carried around every
Speaker 1: day and then re pitched every night where you stop.
Speaker 1: So if you're baby hunting, you're kind of like camps
Speaker 1: always on your back and wherever you are at the
Speaker 1: end of the day or wherever you find or wherever
Speaker 1: you end up, that's kind of where you're setting up camp.
Speaker 1: I would say I do a mixture of all these
Speaker 1: types of camps. I think the size also varies depending
Speaker 1: on the type of camp. So like a large base
Speaker 1: camp could be extremely sizeable. You might have a trailer,
Speaker 1: a wall tent, a truck bed, or even like a
Speaker 1: small pop up tent. I mean, it doesn't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to be a large camp, but it's somewhere it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a good spot. Maybe you found like a
Speaker 1: sweet camping area, a campsite um, maybe something near river
Speaker 1: or whatever. Maybe it's just got like, hey, there's some
Speaker 1: fishing here near a lake. So you set up a
Speaker 1: good base camp and it's generally gonna be for good
Speaker 1: duration but also gives you access to a lot of
Speaker 1: areas to hunt. And then that spike camp is often smaller, lighter,
Speaker 1: and used to get into an area that I would
Speaker 1: say like um set up and hunts maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper. So it's like I would do that, and
Speaker 1: this is probably the common type of of back country camp.
Speaker 1: It's fairly light. You might hike in one to five
Speaker 1: miles whatever, set up a camp, and then hunt out
Speaker 1: of that camp. So it's like a spike campaign a
Speaker 1: base camp all in one, and then that baby camp
Speaker 1: that real light one. I mean there's been times where
Speaker 1: I've essentially started out in a base camp, camping out
Speaker 1: of my truck, spiked in with a lightweight set up,
Speaker 1: and then from that lightweight set up, busied out with
Speaker 1: just like my sleeping bag and a tarp and gone
Speaker 1: out and explored some new areas. And this is gonna
Speaker 1: be your lightest set up. It's super mobile and always
Speaker 1: back country. I would say that every hunt, where you
Speaker 1: camp and how you camp depends on the type of
Speaker 1: hunt in the area. So we need to kind of
Speaker 1: break down what makes a good camping spot in general.
Speaker 1: And here's what I look for when I'm camping where
Speaker 1: things that I think are kind of at the top
Speaker 1: of the list. Water, shelter, access to the hunt area
Speaker 1: is super important, and then flat spot if possible. That's
Speaker 1: always like the cherry on the top. If you can,
Speaker 1: if you can camp somewhere flat sweet because it just
Speaker 1: makes for an easier night of sleep. In back country,
Speaker 1: I like to camp where I can easily get water,
Speaker 1: but there's always this balance of that and then access
Speaker 1: to the hunt area. So one nice thing about camping
Speaker 1: near water is these are things that you need in
Speaker 1: I mean not only just survive, but to be successful.
Speaker 1: To hunt hard, you you're gonna have to have water,
Speaker 1: and water is super heavy to carry. If you can
Speaker 1: have it ner camp, it makes it easier for cooking,
Speaker 1: it makes it easier for filling your water bottles for
Speaker 1: the day, It makes it easier to drink at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. Now, I say that that's a
Speaker 1: balance between access to the hunt area because many times,
Speaker 1: like let's say that early season deer hunt that I
Speaker 1: was talking about before, most of the deer we're living
Speaker 1: up at the high elevation, but the water was two
Speaker 1: thousand feet below the top and the basins where the
Speaker 1: deer were living. So in that case, okay, do I
Speaker 1: hike down every day to get water or just fill
Speaker 1: up a lot of water, hike up to the top,
Speaker 1: camp for a couple of days, and then when I
Speaker 1: need water or maybe find a new water source up
Speaker 1: at the top somewhere that I didn't know about, and
Speaker 1: if not, hike down and then hike back up with
Speaker 1: the water. And that's kind of one of those things
Speaker 1: where you can balance that where you aren't carrying so
Speaker 1: much water if you camp near water, so you're saving
Speaker 1: a lot of energy. Um. But then there's other times
Speaker 1: where it's like, hey, I need to get to this,
Speaker 1: Like it's better for me to be up glassing in
Speaker 1: the morning. I get to this glassing knob every day.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can camp there and then have better access
Speaker 1: to the ridge behind and maybe find some water somewhere else.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, camping near water helps in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. For weight carrying, weight savings, and
Speaker 1: just it's something that you need. You need it for cooking,
Speaker 1: you need it for drinking. So I like to plan
Speaker 1: my camp spots based on that where I can get water,
Speaker 1: and if I'm doing that ahead of time, I try
Speaker 1: to find, Okay, here's a stream, here's a creek, maybe
Speaker 1: here's a spring. I don't I won't camp like on
Speaker 1: a spring, especially if it's something the animals are using.
Speaker 1: I definitely stay away from that. But camping where there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of water water nearby is definitely a
Speaker 1: plus or of bonus. Another option to in the back
Speaker 1: country is a lot of times, like if it's um
Speaker 1: earlier in the season, why you're camping towards snow line
Speaker 1: or snow melt, like, you can use that snow to
Speaker 1: make water. So that's that's another option. Now. Shelter One
Speaker 1: thing I think of shelter in a couple of ways.
Speaker 1: One is kind of trying to get out of the wind.
Speaker 1: It does a lot of good to be able to
Speaker 1: get your camp out of the wind. It makes it
Speaker 1: easier to sleep when that tense flapping and just ripping
Speaker 1: and kind of terrible. It makes for a hard night's sleep,
Speaker 1: and if you don't get a lot of sleep, then
Speaker 1: you kind of lose that energy. You get tired in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day, and some of those midday glassing,
Speaker 1: the times that you could be hunting, um you you
Speaker 1: end up dozing off. There's like I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how many times I've been on a hunt. It's
Speaker 1: like you wake up, you get ready. By the best
Speaker 1: glassing times, you're like nodding off in your binoculars and
Speaker 1: you're in a sharp So having good night's sleep is awesome,
Speaker 1: but getting out of the wind makes that a lot
Speaker 1: more possible. Now, another factor of shelter is not just
Speaker 1: getting out of the wind, if possible, that kind of
Speaker 1: concealing yourself, concealing yourself from the animals that might be around,
Speaker 1: and sheltering yourself from the elements, but also from an
Speaker 1: area where the deer elk, whatever it might be. So
Speaker 1: tucking in and and getting a good spot one thing
Speaker 1: that I think about too, when I'm picking a camp spot,
Speaker 1: I like to think of it like, okay, shelter, but
Speaker 1: I also want to watch out for danger. So I
Speaker 1: don't like to camp where there might be things like
Speaker 1: trees that could fall from sheltering and protecting myself from
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So many times, if it's like a
Speaker 1: burn area, I will camp as far away from trees
Speaker 1: as possible, or an area where trees can't fall over. Actually,
Speaker 1: last year I was setting up a camp and as
Speaker 1: I'm setting it up, I'm like, Okay, i gotta find
Speaker 1: a spot where there are no dead trees, which was
Speaker 1: nearly impossible. And as I'm setting up camp, trees are
Speaker 1: just falling all over the place because the wind was blowing.
Speaker 1: So I ended up cutting down a couple of the
Speaker 1: trees that could have potentially fallen in my direction and
Speaker 1: slept a lot a lot better. But it's always good
Speaker 1: to find um, you know, figure out where the prevailing
Speaker 1: wind is, pick a spot it's out of the wind,
Speaker 1: in a little sheltered spot, and it's going to be
Speaker 1: a lot better camp spot. And then of course the
Speaker 1: bonus of all bonuses flat. It's very hard to set
Speaker 1: a tent in camp for a prolonged period of time
Speaker 1: on a steep hillside. I've done it, I don't like
Speaker 1: to do it. There's been times like Mountain Goat Hunt
Speaker 1: last two years ago, we were just babysack hunting but
Speaker 1: we were like at the dark by, We're gonna stop
Speaker 1: and find a camp and then we couldn't find a
Speaker 1: spot that was protected, sheltered out of the wind or flat,
Speaker 1: and it made for a rough night of sleeping with
Speaker 1: just the wind ripping and sliding all over the place.
Speaker 1: So if you can find those things, that's those are
Speaker 1: things that make a good camp spot. Now we also
Speaker 1: have the considerations of the type of hunt you're doing.
Speaker 1: So one thing I would think is like, Okay, am
Speaker 1: I doing a back country hunt? Am I doing a
Speaker 1: front country hunt? What is the optimal camping scenario or
Speaker 1: where how close to where I'm going to hunt? I
Speaker 1: want to be camping. If I'm hunting the front country,
Speaker 1: I want to be camping more in an area where
Speaker 1: I can easily get to the places that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: want to hunt are places that I'm gonna want to
Speaker 1: check out, but far enough away where you know, I
Speaker 1: might have access to a few different areas. I'm picking
Speaker 1: my spot more based on access and a nice camp
Speaker 1: spot than somewhere that's just like convenient. Now, if I'm
Speaker 1: like the back country, I kind of pick a spot
Speaker 1: that's more convenient closer to where maybe I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: hunting and a little bit more based on like the
Speaker 1: area that I get into, because I've got everything on
Speaker 1: my back, I'm hiking around and I might find kind
Speaker 1: of a good spot and where the animals are simultaneously,
Speaker 1: and I kind of picked my camp spot based on that.
Speaker 1: Now there's gonna be some hunting consideration. So those hunting
Speaker 1: considerations are kind of the question that a lot of
Speaker 1: people get into is well, how far from the animals?
Speaker 1: How how close is too close? So let's just call
Speaker 1: it a back country scenario. How close is too close? Well,
Speaker 1: first you have to use your judgment, But I've honestly
Speaker 1: camped as close as a few hundred yards from places
Speaker 1: where I've seen elk and deer, and then as far
Speaker 1: as a mile. Um, it just really doesn't depend on
Speaker 1: one factor. But I would say the first thing you
Speaker 1: want to think about is what type of camping are
Speaker 1: you doing? And that's gonna kind of tell you how
Speaker 1: close the camp that you're gonna have. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a big base camp, maybe you've got like
Speaker 1: a bunch of friends, You're gonna you want to have
Speaker 1: a fire, you want to be you know, hang out
Speaker 1: at night, cooking dinners, talking all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: making noise, enjoying yourself. I'm not saying you can't enjoy
Speaker 1: yourself with no noise, but in those scenarios, I just
Speaker 1: pick an area that's a ways away from where I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hunt and travel to the hunting area. When I
Speaker 1: do that, I just pick a spot that's a nice camp,
Speaker 1: a nice flat spot near water. How's the things that
Speaker 1: I like make it a comfortable camp, and then go
Speaker 1: out from there every day. Because that noise and that
Speaker 1: that activity and maybe maybe people going back to camp
Speaker 1: to cook up lunch or whatever. That kind of stuff
Speaker 1: will cause pressure in the area if you're too close.
Speaker 1: So for the most part that kind of camping, I
Speaker 1: just do where it's convenient to get to multiple areas.
Speaker 1: And if I'm gonna hike in a long way as well,
Speaker 1: maybe it's somewhere am I all down the road. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. I can drive, I can plan my
Speaker 1: hunt accordingly, I can leave it with enough time to
Speaker 1: get into where I wanted to go, and then I
Speaker 1: have a nice, comfortable camp with friends and hang out,
Speaker 1: have a fire, have whatever. And it's not necessarily in
Speaker 1: the hunting area. I've seen people set up that kind
Speaker 1: of camp though, like wall tent right near the meadow
Speaker 1: where elk are coming out, and for the first day
Speaker 1: of the elks still might come out, but after that
Speaker 1: it kind of puts a damper on the hunting area.
Speaker 1: So I would say it depends on the type of
Speaker 1: camp you want to do. Now, if you're doing like
Speaker 1: a babysack kind of camp, you've got um, you're gonna
Speaker 1: run a quiet camp, which is what I like to do,
Speaker 1: no talkie, no talkie mostly so solo. It's the easiest.
Speaker 1: But you've got maybe just a MSR stove, jet boil whatever.
Speaker 1: You're doing a dehydrated meal, and you're just gonna be quiet.
Speaker 1: You're just setting up your tent and the quiet. You
Speaker 1: aren't making a lot of noise. You are not having
Speaker 1: a fire. I mean not that a fire necessarily would
Speaker 1: spook things, but it's just like that disturbance that gathering
Speaker 1: the wood to doing all the stuff. You're just setting
Speaker 1: up a camp, you're finding a place to sleep, you're
Speaker 1: gonna eat a meal, you're gonna get up, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna hunt. If that's the case, essentially you can pick
Speaker 1: a spot that would be no different than where you
Speaker 1: would be glassing from and not disturb the animals. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't go within sneaking zone. I wouldn't set my tent
Speaker 1: up hoping to open it up and shoot something from it.
Speaker 1: But it's like, hey, there's many times where I've ducked
Speaker 1: on the back side of a little glassing knob, or
Speaker 1: I've stopped and been glassing and said, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: camp from here. One thing that I will say is,
Speaker 1: you know that distance doesn't necessarily like there's no hard
Speaker 1: and fast distance. Let's say I've seen elk coming out
Speaker 1: in this one meadow feeding every night. I get up
Speaker 1: and I've got a glassing vantage, uh say four hundred
Speaker 1: yards away whatever. I wouldn't just camp right on that
Speaker 1: glassing vantage, because I wouldn't stand on that glassing vantage
Speaker 1: while I'm standing. But I would tuck back in the
Speaker 1: trees right there, set up a camp, be quiet and
Speaker 1: not think twice about it, or even set up a
Speaker 1: camp that maybe is in a baby camp, just like
Speaker 1: a spike type camp that I'm gonna leave and know
Speaker 1: that it will be fine. But I'm not really like
Speaker 1: putting a lot of um I'm really not doing a
Speaker 1: lot around there. I'm just sleeping, making a simple meal
Speaker 1: and waking up and starting to hunt. I'd say how
Speaker 1: close to camp to the animals also really depends on
Speaker 1: hunting pressure and the animal's location and movement, and then
Speaker 1: the wind as well. So I obviously don't want to
Speaker 1: camp somewhere where the wind is going to be blowing
Speaker 1: into where I think the elk are. I want to
Speaker 1: pick a spot that's down wind, just like I mean
Speaker 1: common hunting sense, being like if I wouldn't go there
Speaker 1: during a stock, if I wouldn't go there during glassing,
Speaker 1: if it's something that I wouldn't do throughout the day,
Speaker 1: I won't do it throughout the night. I'll move out
Speaker 1: to a spot where I would be comfortable standing up,
Speaker 1: where I would be comfortable, you know, staying for a
Speaker 1: prolonged period time, where I'm not going to get winded.
Speaker 1: So I generally like to find those places that are
Speaker 1: out of the way, down wind and not necessarily going
Speaker 1: to impede the patterns of the animals I'm hunting. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be miles away.
Speaker 1: And like I said, how close I can't might depend
Speaker 1: on the hunting pressure. Sometimes, if there's a lot to
Speaker 1: hunting pressure, I actually prefer to kind of camp close
Speaker 1: to where I'm hunting, because then people go, oh, somebody's
Speaker 1: camping here maybe, and then they move on. Um. There
Speaker 1: is also that thought of though, if there's a lot
Speaker 1: of hunting pressure there's animals might get pressure and running
Speaker 1: into that camp or having that camp there as their
Speaker 1: patterns start to shift and change might cause them to
Speaker 1: no longer use that area. So that's just one of
Speaker 1: those things. It's very situational, and you kind of got
Speaker 1: to decide, Okay, if I'm camping a mile away and
Speaker 1: every day guys like past my camp and are up
Speaker 1: kind of in my area before I get there, maybe
Speaker 1: just move your camp a little bit closer so they think, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: he's hunting this basin, not that next basin that was
Speaker 1: back there, that other base in to the left. It
Speaker 1: might just be an easier way to kind of claim
Speaker 1: a spot. But I definitely wouldn't get too aggressive with that.
Speaker 1: In areas that are there's more hunting pressure, I'd be
Speaker 1: more cautious of where I camp and not spooking something.
Speaker 1: In areas that get a lot of pressure than areas
Speaker 1: that don't um. If you're in a back country setting
Speaker 1: and it's like, hey, there's no one else back there,
Speaker 1: there's not gonna be those animals are very unpressured. You
Speaker 1: can oftentimes get away with kind of camping closer. One
Speaker 1: thing that I have found generally I like to hike
Speaker 1: up to hunt and down to pack, so I find
Speaker 1: it easier, but it's it's not always the best. But
Speaker 1: when you camp in the bottoms, like let's say I'm
Speaker 1: hunting this basin instead of hunting like camping up on
Speaker 1: the ridge on the top, unless I've got a good
Speaker 1: glassing vantage and the wind is good for that, I'd
Speaker 1: probably just camp down in the bottom near the creek
Speaker 1: where I've got shelter away from whatever animals might be
Speaker 1: popping out. Where I'm hidden kind of in the trees,
Speaker 1: I'm probably closer to find water, more cover options as well,
Speaker 1: less wind disturbance, and generally that scent isn't going to
Speaker 1: make it to the top of the mountains, so being
Speaker 1: down in those canyons can be good. One thing I mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to camp in your water if
Speaker 1: you can, but you definitely don't want to camp on
Speaker 1: springs or isolated water holes. You want to be at
Speaker 1: least a quarter or a half a mile from something
Speaker 1: that deer want to be using to drink. I just
Speaker 1: like to give them a night. So a corner mile
Speaker 1: isn't that far. It just depends on topography and other things.
Speaker 1: In areas that it's like, very few water holes, very
Speaker 1: few water services. In places where there's a running stream,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily a big deal whether you can't fairly
Speaker 1: close to it or not, because they have plenty of
Speaker 1: places to water. I would say, like, if you're asking yourself,
Speaker 1: am I too close? Is this a good camping spot?
Speaker 1: I would say, just a good rule of thumb, like
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, say seven hundred yards at the minimum
Speaker 1: would be as close as you want to camp to
Speaker 1: a good hunting area. But you know, if you're in
Speaker 1: a spot you're gonna be a quiet camp. You can
Speaker 1: bring that a lot closer. When I'm babysack hunting, I
Speaker 1: generally just camp where I stopped, like I pull off
Speaker 1: into like if I'm last year, for example, I was
Speaker 1: hunting a new area, just through everything in my backpack,
Speaker 1: hunting deer in a backcountry area I hiked in I
Speaker 1: had to drop down in this long, big ravin the
Speaker 1: first night, I just camped in the bottom. The next
Speaker 1: day I start hiking up. I kind of run out
Speaker 1: of water. I'm a very long way from the valley floor.
Speaker 1: I'm going to the top, and I just sleep mid mountain.
Speaker 1: There was some deer out in this basin. I just
Speaker 1: tucked back into the timber, set up a small camp,
Speaker 1: tried to get out of the wind, slept, woke up,
Speaker 1: and those deer were probably three yards above me in
Speaker 1: the morning. They had no clue I was there. I
Speaker 1: had no clue they were there. There's actually some bigger
Speaker 1: bucks in there. I did a stock, almost got a shot,
Speaker 1: got into like I think fifty yards um. It was
Speaker 1: bad wind and just not a great cover option, and
Speaker 1: there's a couple of deer looking my direction when I
Speaker 1: drew back, but ended up not getting a deer there.
Speaker 1: But it was like where I was camping had no
Speaker 1: bearing on them getting spooked off or any of that.
Speaker 1: They were just being deer and I just so happened
Speaker 1: to kind of camp tucked back in the trees, just
Speaker 1: on the back side of the basin that they're hanging out,
Speaker 1: And it didn't really affect any of the hunting. Now,
Speaker 1: had I set up like a big camp and me
Speaker 1: and my buddies were hanging out there every night for
Speaker 1: a week, it definitely would I would say, probably disturb
Speaker 1: their patterns. But you just really have to use your
Speaker 1: judgment narrow on the side of not spooking stuff. But
Speaker 1: I honestly, when it comes to picking a camp spot,
Speaker 1: I don't get too paranoid about it. I just I
Speaker 1: don't think about it that much most of the time.
Speaker 1: I just like tuck into the trees and treat it
Speaker 1: like if I were glassing or um. Sometimes we're like
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, this would not be convenient for a
Speaker 1: spot and stock hunt. I wouldn't. I wouldn't approach from
Speaker 1: this way, I wouldn't hang out here. Then I won't
Speaker 1: camp there, and I might even hike a long ways
Speaker 1: to find a spot where I would camp. And that's
Speaker 1: that's the way that I think about picking a spot
Speaker 1: to sleep, picking a spot to camp. And when I'm
Speaker 1: setting up a camp, I like it to be in
Speaker 1: a spot where it's convenient, where I can access the animals.
Speaker 1: I prefer to hike. Start hiking up hill. It's nothing
Speaker 1: to start hiking up. You know, you hike up every
Speaker 1: morning you start hunting, You hunt up, and then it's
Speaker 1: a lot easier to get back to camp in the evening,
Speaker 1: is a lot faster and a lot better packing to
Speaker 1: just start hiking down. So when I'm thinking about setting
Speaker 1: up a camp, those are a lot of the factors
Speaker 1: that I consider, And there are things that I think
Speaker 1: as you get out there. I think it's one of
Speaker 1: the things that I think people ask it because they're
Speaker 1: nervous about doing the wrong thing. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things once you start getting out there, you realize it
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily matter so much. The only way of matter
Speaker 1: is if you camped, Like, if there's elk using a meadow,
Speaker 1: don't camp in the middle of the meadow. If there's
Speaker 1: elk using a water hole or a wallow, don't camp
Speaker 1: near that. Find a spot that's tucked out of the
Speaker 1: way but close enough to access the area. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's been many times where I have glassed from where
Speaker 1: I'm sleeping, and there's been a few hunts where I've
Speaker 1: actually a goat hunt. A couple of years ago, when
Speaker 1: we actually slept on that steep spot. We're making a
Speaker 1: meal and I look up, there's a good band of
Speaker 1: goats walking across the hill ninety yards above us um
Speaker 1: that I've actually shot a moose while packing up our
Speaker 1: camp one time, and there's been many times where I've
Speaker 1: picked spots that I camp just a quiet camp, just
Speaker 1: tucked away where I just essentially can glass from my
Speaker 1: sleeping bag in the morning. That's the nice thing about
Speaker 1: a backcountry style hunt is you actually get a lot
Speaker 1: more sleep because you're kind of camping and hunting right
Speaker 1: in the same area, Whereas if you're kind of front
Speaker 1: country hunting, there's a lot more hiking involved. Some people
Speaker 1: think that like, oh, back country hunting is the hardest,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I think you cover more miles when you're
Speaker 1: you've got like a big base camp out of the
Speaker 1: back country because for the most part, once you get
Speaker 1: into your area, you're there. You aren't moving a lot.
Speaker 1: There might be some tough country, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: you're kind of like glass and camping and right in
Speaker 1: the zone where you want to be when you want
Speaker 1: to be there at the best times, and you just
Speaker 1: make a meal, go to sleep, wake up, and repeat,
Speaker 1: where you don't have to start glassing and hiking so
Speaker 1: far every day, So there's some pluses and minuses to that.
Speaker 1: But I think when it comes to setting up a camp,
Speaker 1: don't let it deterior, don't get afraid of it, don't
Speaker 1: worry that you're doing the wrong thing. Just kind of
Speaker 1: treat it like, Hey, I'm hunting these animals where it's
Speaker 1: going to be a spot that I'm not going to
Speaker 1: spook them. And if along the way you find an
Speaker 1: awesome place that looks nice, it's got a flat spot
Speaker 1: with some water, some shades, some cover, feel free to
Speaker 1: set up a camp and then start hunting from there.
Speaker 1: I hope that helps a few of you. I know
Speaker 1: that sometimes if you're doing something new, or maybe you
Speaker 1: got a tag and it's just a new thing for you,
Speaker 1: you've never done a back country hunt. You've never actually
Speaker 1: um gone somewhere else to hunt where you didn't need
Speaker 1: to camp. Maybe most your hunts are based out of
Speaker 1: your house or a cabin where you you know, family
Speaker 1: has a cabin where you hunt or whatever. Um, this
Speaker 1: might be all new concepts. So I appreciate these kind
Speaker 1: of questions because it's the things that these kind of
Speaker 1: questions that come in that I know Okay, people are
Speaker 1: interested in understanding my thought process on this, and I
Speaker 1: just want to help kind of check that off the list.
Speaker 1: So anytime you guys have questions, feel free to keep
Speaker 1: them coming my way at Remy Warren on social media
Speaker 1: or Remy at the meat eater dot com. Social media
Speaker 1: is probably the best way I can check that a
Speaker 1: little bit more often. It's a little bit easier for me,
Speaker 1: but whatever floats your boat. Um. I thank you guys
Speaker 1: again for all the support, all the questions, and until
Speaker 1: next week, don't pitch your tent on a red Aniel.
Speaker 1: That's just a story for another time. Catch you guys later.
Speaker 1: M