Living a life that is rich in health and fitness is becoming way more common practice in this day and age. More and more folks are caring about what they put into their bodies and the long term effects of neglecting their health. For me, this all boils down to fear. I am simply fearful of not being able to do the things that I love for as long as possible. As many of you know, that is bowhunting the backcountry. In light of that, I started watching what I ate as well as working out on a regular basis. Longevity is what we are striving for here. So, when I heard that someone was coming out with health conscious meals for the backcountry, I was thrilled. Meals that were made with real food from the real world. As someone who lives mostly off of wild game, this was extremely appealing to me. Heather’s Choice meals for adventuring had my attention and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a few to try out.
Here is a brief overview of the tent I have been running on my backcountry adventures over the past year. It is the Nemo Hornet 2P backpacking tent. Super cool tent. Lightweight, durable, packable, and has a simple design. You can check it out at www.nemoequipment.com. If you have any questions, lets have them!
Something that I have grown to look forward to every year is the coming of new products from various companies in the hunting industry. I am always so eager to see what these folks have been cooking up and how the new additions might fit into my gear list. Our gear has come a long way in the last 10 years and somehow it just keeps progressing. Look at bows 5 years ago, or technical clothing. We have come leaps and bounds in that time. Just when I think that nothing else can be improved, a company like First Lite crushes my assumptions with their 2017 line of clothing. One of the products that I am especially jacked up on is their new Sawtooth Hybrid Jacket and that is what we will be diving into today.
Earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to start looking at smaller, more lightweight options, in terms of backcountry gear. I feel like I say this to myself every time I set off for a new adventure. As the saying goes, “ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain.” Right off of the bat, I thought of my cook set. Not necessarily for the weight(although less can’t hurt), but for the size. The one I have been using is rather bulky and takes up more room than I’d care for in my pack. So, my goal was to find something that was efficient, lightweight, and more compact. I looked at a ton of different options and finally landed on the Optimus Crux Lite stove.
The discussion of boots is a fickle one, but one that every hunter needs to have with themselves. You might try on 10 pairs of boots before you find one that you like. Then when you do find that one, is it gonna be able to withstand the rigors of the mountains? Are they going to give you blisters after hiking 10 miles? Are they truly waterproof? Only time will tell that.
After trying a half dozen or so boots over the years and dealing with issues ranging from hot spots, faulty waterproofing, and literally walking the sole off of a boot, I was ready for a change. Taking care of our feet and having a good pair of boots is imperative and I was feeling that. The research began and I landed on the Salomon Quest 4D 2 GTX backpacking boot. I’ve put in about a year and a half of use on these and WELL over 300 miles of hiking. Now, that I’ve gotten to know this boot like I have, I think it’s time I give you all a review.
As I’ve gone down the road of this blog, one of the things that I’ve gotten asked the most is “what are you bringing on your backpack hunts?” In light of that, I have decided to post up my current backcountry gear list for 2017. My gear list is forever growing and shrinking, but hopefully you can get the gist of what is usually in my backpack. This list is going to be for an archery hunt in the early fall. If it were later in the year, I would just be bringing some extra layers along. I am by no means an ounce junkie, so I can’t tell you the EXACT weight of my pack and all of the contents in it. For most hunts, I am sitting in the 35 pound range though, depending on how much water I am packing in. That number will increase with the amount of days I am planning to be out, simply because of food. Each one of my food bags is in the realm of 2 pounds per day containing about 2500-3000 calories in each one. Besides food and water, everything else pretty much stays the same. If you have any questions, feel free to ask below in the comments.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I miss an animal and lose an arrow, I start hoping I don’t run out of arrows. I know that might sound hilarious, but it’s the truth for me. Probably just a mental thing really. This is especially true when I am backpacked into an area and have only the arrows that are in my quiver. Like a lot of folks, I have been carrying a 5 arrow quiver for quite some time and as of a few years ago, that quiver has always been a TightSpot. I loved the idea of the quiver being so much more closer to the riser, which would make it a lot easier to lay my bow in my lap while crab crawling my way down to a bedded mule deer. Just this past December, I was able to do just that and brought home my first archery buck. It was a day to remember for sure.
My first year ever really hitting this hunting thing hard was about 4 years ago. Of all things that I could hunt, I chose to chase black bears here in Arizona. One of the primary general seasons here lands right in the middle of August. For people in Arizona, that means 2 things. It’s deathly hot out and it’s monsoon season. Yes, it does in fact rain here, unlike what most people think. We aren’t all sand and cacti. This posed a potential problem for me on my hunt. My problem being, I could get rained out. I know. What a wimp right? I was a noob, what can I say!?
Something that I looked forward to every year, when I was a kid, was when my dad and I would make our annual trip up to deer camp. The key word there is “up.” Our deer camp was located at 9800 ft. on top of a mountain. What a beautiful area. I didn’t even know that places like this existed in Arizona until I saw it with my own eyes. I am used to seeing mostly desert/high desert country. Where we were, straight looked like the photos that I would oogle over in my outdoor magazines at home. Even surrounded by all of that beauty, something always bothered me for the first day or so I was there. I’d have headaches and just feel downright drained of energy. I didn’t know, until recently, that I had been suffering from Altitude Sickness. Never before, did I give any thought on how I might remedy the issue. It was something that I just dealt with for the time being and then it would go away. That was until I heard of Wilderness Athlete’s Altitude Advantage. Let’s take a closer look at what Altitude Sickness is before we dive into this product.
What if I told you that you could get a bomber pack capable of handling as much weight as you could pick up, carry that weight extremely well, AND come in at a mere 4 lbs 14 oz? Sound too good to be true? Surely, there must be some give and take or sacrifice happening to reach these numbers. The only sacrifice that happened though, was all of the man hours that Steve Speck and Lenny Nelson put in to make said pack a reality. If you don’t know what I am talking about yet, I am referring to the company that is Exo Mountain Gear, and specifically, the Exo 3500 backpack. I have been using this pack for the past couple of months and have been VERY impressed with its performance and functionality.
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