Well, at least I learned some things

[MT Beard]

My early season foray into the Rattlesnake with an early season cow tag turned into a learning experience/oopsie. I am still kicking myself over it.
It unexpectedly turned into a solo trip when the two friends I'd lined up for it backed out a week prior. My plan was to take my bike and get way back in the wilderness area. Well, I made it up about twelve miles and then I got a flat tire, a really flat tire. Here's the learning experience part, I didn't bring two ways to get air back in the tire. Of all things, I packed a can of fix-a-flat. Can't say why I chose that instead of, oh I dunno, a spare inner tube and an air pump. Well it worked, but only inflated the tire about a quarter of the way. Now if I'd had a small, frame mounted pump, I would have been in fine shape. Alas, woe unto me, I did not. Now by that time my rear felt like I'd been beaten in the crotch repeatedly with a baseball bat. So, I pitched camp. Two tarps = dry! A 10x8 and a 6x8 made a great shelter that kept me and all of my gear completely dry during a hellacious thunder/rain storm that lasted 12 hours or so. During that thunderstorm I really started thinking about how I was going to get an elk to the freezer without a bike, by myself, 12 miles plus from the truck. The obivous plan, hike out with camp, return with supplies to fix the tire and then wheel out the elk, was not so obvious at that time. Anyhow, In the morning a nice fella and his family showed up in the clearing with two horses and a wagon, his plan was superior. I was visiting with the guy and he offered to throw the bike on his wagon and take it to the trailhead for me when they came out. By this time my spirits were a bit in the dumps and instead of staying up there and putting in a good effort to find an elk I folded like a cheap camp chair. Wheeled the bike to his camp and hiked out with my pack the next day.

Lessons learned
-Pemmican is great, ate hardly any and was never even close to hungry even after hiking 12 miles
-I do not need 70 lbs of gear to be out in the woods
-Riding a bike with a 70lb pack will not do good things to your neather regions, if you're not padded down there your seat should be!
-The Kelty Cache Hauler is an awesome pack, not one hot/sore spot at the end of the pack out. Highly recommended!
-Two ways to air up a tire are essential. Trucks have spares, bikes should too.
-No matter how much some people love their Thermarest, mine makes my back hurt like a jagged pebble in the ureathra

I am still upset that I didn't stay and hunt. If I'd killed one I could have packed out camp in one trip and then returned with a new bike tube and pump and wheeled out the elk. As it turned out it I had a good training hike, and I'm fairly happy with taking 5 hours to do it.

So there you have it. My mental toughness was akin to veal. I am weak, feeble, and undeserving of being called a man.

I'm heading out again this weekend and am determined to make the most out it.

[Indian Summer]

hmm I don't know... I think your learning curve is right on par. Anyone who's a real elk hunter has run into similar ordeals. One time we packed a pile of crap up a mountain on a couple mules. Map showed water..... yeah ok... it was nowhere to be found. You can't sleep on it when horses and mules need water. We searched high and low, dropped some bales of hay and other miscellaneous items and rode back off the mountain. Those things are still there. On the way home my good Eureka freighter blew out of the truck somewhere. Talk about adding insult to injury. Ugh!!!

You are a very descriptive writer. lol

Curious.... have you ever hauled elk on a bike? What's the plan there?

[RockChucker30]

The mental factor of being in deep by yourself is hard to get past. Many, many guys have similar experiences their first few trips.

Did you buy the pemmican or make it yourself? I've got a recipe but haven't made it yet.

I personally wouldn't want to be riding a bike wearing a 80+ lb pack...seems severely top heavy. Have you looked into any of the bike trailers?

12 miles solo is too deep for an elk without help or wheels. The guy with the wagon may have been able to haul your elk out along with the bike?

The Kelty Cache Hauler is a great pack for the money. It's got the second best heavy load belt I've used, with our belt being tops.

[ElkNut1]

12 miles one way just to shoot a cow???? I'd find a closer spot! (grin)

ElkNut1

[MT Beard]

OK, 12 miles was a bit ambitious. This is not the first solo trip I've done, for some reason I just couldn't get past getting the flat tire that far back. The plan with the elk and bike was to strap the hind quarters to the frame, level with the horizontal portion of the frame. Knuckle below the handlebars and the hams slung from the metal on the underside of the seat. Then strap the rest on top of the hinds. That was the plan anyway, and it may still come to fruition. Though I will not be heading back 12 plus miles on the next trips.

Rockchucker,
I did make the pemmican myself, pretty easy to do. It is much better if you add chili powder, pepper, and garlic powder to it when you mix it all up. If you're thinking about making it; buy a hand grinder if you don't have one. A coarse plate works very well for reducing the dried meat to a powdery texture.

I wanted to have a bike trailer for the expedition, but I just haven't welded one up yet. I will have that done by next year though. Riding the bike with the pack was not very fun, but it was manageable. Definitely some pucker factor involved, at least for me.
I just didn't feel comfortable asking the guy with the wagon if he would haul an elk out for me. I was thinking it, but couldn't bring myself to ask.

Unfortunately, the district boundary is not the same as the wilderness boundary. That would have been nice to know when I was sending off the application, but was not included in the reg book. I still have time left, maybe this weekend will be my weekend?