age 49 and working out for elk hunt

[iowabow]

Just an up date the hot weather has slowed me down a little.
July 13 1mile walk
July 14 shot with Tom and Paul walked 2 miles ate hotdogs at shoot
July 15-16 recoved from hotdogs very sick
July 17 ran 2 walked 2 miles in morning do to heat.
July 18 ran 2 miles walked 1/2 miles.
July 20th hiked 5 miles with 15# pack.
21 shot 3d course with paul
July 22nd Packed logs up from valley for heat treating flint.
July 23 ran 2.5 miles walked 2.5

[iowabow]

Aug is almost here and the departure date arriving quickly! I have about four more weeks to train. I started the summer at 166 # and now I am 154 #. I feel much healthier and in shape for the trip. If nothing else it feels good to be back in shape and running with my son and hiking with Annette. We all have benefited in more ways than one. It was nice to spend hours talking with Isaac  and talking during hikes about growing up and nature and his future. He is 13 and these days seems more important than any others during his childhood. Annette and I spent many hours during hikes talking about our family and goals and etc...it has been a really good process with more rewards than I had planned from start.

[Badger]

  Pappy, I thought you always walked on water!

[iowabow]

Here is another update

 July 29 five mile hike.

July 30 target practice

Aug 2 ran 2 miles

Aug 5 ran 2 miles

Aug 6th hiked hill with pack up and down, annette joined me

Two more weeks to train then a week off then it is elk hunting time.

My wind is good and my leg s feel strong. I should be better off  now with all the hard work this summer.

[Little John]

you are way ahead of me, guess I will just have to slip on the backpack head to the mountains and hope it don't kill me. any way the weather is cooling off and I am getting excited for a back country elk hunt. 58 and still doing it the hard way. Good luck.       Kenneth

[iowabow]

you are way ahead of me, guess I will just have to slip on the backpack head to the mountains and hope it don't kill me. any way the weather is cooling off and I am getting excited for a back country elk hunt. 58 and still doing it the hard way. Good luck.       Kenneth

Oh yeah its real hard to get up each day and work out. I am looking forward to not working out before the trip. Good luck to you as well! 21 days left!

Ran 2.5 on the 8th

[iowabow]

A back injury  from my tractor, and a cut on my shooting finger set me back a week with no training.
On Aug 13, I started shooting my bow again

Aug 14 ran 2.5 miles
 
Aug 17 ran 3.1 miles

Aug 18 hiked 1.5 miles.

Another week of training and I will take a week off before I leave.

I have lost about 12 lbs over the  summer. I feel like I am  ready for the  trip!

[Adam]

Good for you! I hope you have a wonderful trip. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures.

[iowabow]

Well here is an update and review of how I feel my preparation for this trip went.

I never felt that I was being over whelmed by the vastness and scale of the territory. Once we arrived on horse back to about 11000 feet around 4:00 pm on Sat we set up camp and I went on a short hunt and it rained all afternoon but I felt great but a little cold and returned back to camp before dark and ate supper then turned in for the night.

Day 2 climbed/scouted up to turret peak shot at two grouse hit one but could not find it. I contiued  north for a couple miles scouting game trails and marking on my gps areas that look good for morning and evening hunts. I guessed that day based on gps data that it was a 7 mile day and not knowing the ground it was a hard 7. I found some real nice very fresh sign where elk had walked across mouse mounds or something like that and left tracks that day. I returned to inform my party of the discovery.

Day 3 Monday. I thought I would wake up sore from the hike the day before but I felt perfect like another training day in Iowa. We all walked back to the area where there was sign and sat up where we thought the elk might most likely would be and that plan worked great because Scott ran into a group plus ran into a bull 3x3 and I got busted by something big that I did not put eyes on.

[iowabow]

Continue day 3 afternoon ate lunch with party and talked about the morning Jr headed back to camp and Scott and I continued up the mountain looking for sign and keeping an eye out for grouse. We bumped into another hunting party that saw 2 elk. We smelled elk up the trail and stalked in slowly but no elk sighted so continued to the location I marked on my gps of rubs where Scott decided to hunt for the evening. I continued for hours south to a great trail above a rock slide where I got to see more grouse as I walked in. I made a blind and hunted till dark. Gps died no extra batteries in pack so I pulled out my google earth preloaded map and identified key terrain features and set a course for camp. It was very dark and as I crossed an open field I fell into a deep hole and lost from my pocket a knife from bowtist and a tree pruner. I was lucky not to break my leg or bow.

[iowabow]

Day 4 Tuesday. I thought after 2 days of 7 mile hiking that I would be sore and have to hunt close to camp. After waking and having breakfast. I felt no effect from the previous days hunting so I decided to return to the rock slide to hunt for the morning. This was a 1000 foot climb back to the location I was at the day before. It was a beautiful morning even without seeing an elk. Having run out of water I decided to walk all the way back to camp where the closest water source was anyway. Once back to camp had lunch with party refilled water with hiker pro filter and back on my feet headed south like a dog on point scouting more sign. I headed down to what the outfitters called "the shooting gallery" and headed southwest from camp toward the end of the valley where I got another shot at a grouse and hit a log just behind him. Lol  I headed south to the top of the ridge and found a nice rub where I set up a blind and sat for an hour. A large storm rolled in and I set up a shelter but the storm broke up as fast as it rolled in with only a bark and no bite. I broke down the shelter and set off staking and found a deer that I was able to stalk in on to 20 yards. It was spooked by something on the other side and ran right past me what a rush. I did not shoot because I had no tag.

[iowabow]

Continue day 4 ...the deer was in a great location for our party to hunting the next day for elk so I headed back to report the location and in five minutes I bumped an elk lol. I had just stopped stalking.  Just my luck but found a great trail for the next days hunt. It was a long walk back up lots of ups and down. By now I was starting to understand how the trails and sign fix together and was hopeful for the following days. As I walk back I reflected on all of the and good advice you folks gave me and how nice it was that you shared your knowledge so that I could prepare for what was a great physical challege. With good food and good health it helped with my concentration at high altitudes. I learned with something new you have to have a clear and open mind. I really put to heart all of the advice all you gave me and relied on it when I really need it. Returned to camp relayed info ate dinner and turned in.

[iowabow]

Day 5 wedesday head back to location of good trail where I saw the elk last night. Sat all morning. I decided to follow the advice of Outback Bob and climb a mountion just for the heck of it and ate lunch up there. Bummed I ran out of water at noon. 3liter gone wow did not know I was drinking that much. No water for miles unless I risk going down a rock side. I was not going to take chances this far out so did without and returned down the mountian to the trail I was hunting . Really really thirsty by 4pm when I remembered that the water filter had some water still in it. I was able to pump 1cup out of the filter and make a cup of hot cocoa. After the hot cocoa a horrendous storm with terrible lightning cracking above my head for a hour as night fall sat in . I did not want to cross open fields with lightning cracking across the open ground so I sat tight till it was dark and the lightning continued so I decided to just risk it and walked as fast as I could untill I hit the camp. This is where all of the training came in handy. I was able to walk consistently at a 3 mph the whole way. Forgot that I also saw a mule deer up close.

[iowabow]

Day 6 thursday. Leaving at 1pm so a close hunt was planned. The wind was in my favor but still no elk. I returned and broke camp and waited for the outfitter to pick us up. The ride down was great.

All in all even though the hunt did not produce an elk it was extremely successful in testing my mental and physical character. I am very proud of what I accomplished and learned from the trip , from all of you and how how it brought my wife and I closer together.  She was with me every day with love letters she put in my bag before I left. Before I left on Friday I ordered flowers to be delivered on Monday.

[JW_Halverson]

Comes an age when just getting home in one piece can be called a successful hunt! WE AIN'T THERE YET, JOHN !   

Of course, pert' near everyone here is insanely jealous of the time you had out there in the mountains.  Glad to hear the training paid off in high dividends.