Toughing Out The Backcountry

Backpack hunting--venturing into the real backcountry for a week at a time carrying your home on your back--has never been mainstream.

There's a reason for this. Several reasons, in fact, and all valid. One, it's a lot of work, not only when you're doing it but for a year or so beforehand, getting yourself in shape. Two, it places a real burden of self-reliance on both hunter and guide. Also, it demands skills that relatively few hunters possess these days.

Probably the ultimate backpack hunt is for sheep in the mountains of Alaska, the Yukon and down the Rockies. In his book Sheep and Sheep Hunting, Jack O'Connor said of backpack hunting that "It's for the young and the tough" and dismissed it in a backhanded kind of way as the preserve of those who could not afford a proper sheep hunt on horseback.

O'Connor wrote those words almost thiry-five years ago, and much has changed. Today, a horseback expedition to hunt Stone sheep in British Columbia or Dalls in the Yukon will cost $30,000 to 40,000. Anyone of modest means has to find an alternative, and not just for sheep. For some, going in by ATV is the answer, but anti-ATV sentiment is growing; many prime areas are closed to anything except foot and horseback, and there are good hunting areas even an ATV can't get to.

Backpacking is still for the physically tough, but you don't need to be young. Anyone wanting to see some large stretches of lovely country but cannot afford to hire a pack string may have no choice but to buy a backpack and learn how it's done.

There are two separate aspects to backpack hunting--the equipment and the physical conditioning. Of the equipment, the two most vital are the right pack and proper boots. Lack of either one can be disastrous.

For a week to ten days in the wilderness, you will need to depart with about a sixty-pound pack. Of that sixty pounds, at least half will be food. Most people embarking on their first serious pack trip are amazed at how little equipment goes along compared to hunting from a truck or out of a camp. After you have been out three or four days, eating like a wolf and losing weight at the same time, you will wish you carried more food and less of everything else.

For a big-game hunter, the only pack to consider is a top-notch external frame. Internal-frame packs are great until the moment comes when you have to lash a sheep head to it or a set of elk antlers and start descending a mountain. In this situation, it is critical that the load not shift unexpectedly, and the only way to ensure that is to lash it to a sturdy frame. Generally, external-frame packs are not as comfortable, but you'll get used to it.

Remember, your pack is used to carry in your food and gear, but once you have an animal down, it is also the vehicle that will be used to carry out your meat, hide and trophy.