Using Mountain Bikes?

[Hot Cow]

Does anyone have advise on the use of mountain bikes to get to/from camp? Currently I have a 4.5 mile trail walk to base camp and could use a bike to get to camp and help with getting meat back to the vehicle. 50% of the trail is wide where a vehicle could drive on and 50% is a trail that is approx 12-18" wide. I was thinking of using my bike and get saddle bags or a tow behind cart that has one wheel. Does anyone use their bikes or have any advise? I have checked the DOW and they have said I can use a bike just nothing motorized.

[WapitiTalk1]

Tim, on a trail system, you're not gonna gain much by using a MT bike (unless you turn your bike into a meat hanger as shown below). I don't think saddle bags will hold much. On a gated road system, then yes, MT bikes with a good trailer works amazingly well. Sounds like you could potentially get a good two wheel MT bike game cart in about 1/2 way which would help you move your elk out for the last leg. I have not heard anything good about putting a single wheel game cart behind a MT bike. Hawkeye Bilt game carts out of Astoria, OR makes the best carts I've seen. Below is a pic of the setup I used this year (cart was a loaner from Slim9300 and is one of the Hawkeye Bilt carts); worked like a charm. Yep, you end up pushing your bike and trailer up every hill but holy catfish, it's a fun ride coming out.... just hold on to both the brakes I should have had an elk on mine coming out last Saturday but the mountain gods did not favor me. Oh, make sure you put slime tubes in your tires if you end up using a MT bike in the elkwoods.

DSCN1228_0.jpg (77.74 KiB) Viewed 2953 times

MT Bike meat hangar

Setup this year with Slim's game cart

[Peskadot]

Tim, on a trail system, you're not gonna gain much by using a MT bike (unless you turn your bike into a meat hanger as shown below). I don't think saddle bags will hold much. On a gated road system, then yes, MT bikes with a good trailer works amazingly well. Sounds like you could potentially get a good two wheel MT bike game cart in about 1/2 way which would help you move your elk out for the last leg. I have not heard anything good about putting a single wheel game cart behind a MT bike. Hawkeye Bilt game carts out of Astoria, OR makes the best carts I've seen. Below is a pic of the setup I used this year (cart was a loaner from Slim9300 and is one of the Hawkeye Bilt carts); worked like a charm. Yep, you end up pushing your bike and trailer up every hill but holy catfish, it's a fun ride coming out.... just hold on to both the brakes I should have had an elk on mine coming out last Saturday but the mountain gods did not favor me. Oh, make sure you put slime tubes in your tires if you end up using a MT bike in the elkwoods.

DSCN1228_0.jpg

MT Bike meat hangar

photso.JPG

Setup this year with Slim's game cart

Good tip about the slime tubes..

[airsix]

My first elk hunt my brother and I did on mountain bikes. It worked well for the primitive area we were in which required a 1/2 mile steep climb on foot to a logging road abandoned in the 1960s. Once on the remnants of the logging road we could cover ground quickly and VERY QUIETLY on the bikes. We'd use them to get in deep quickly (5-6 miles), then stash them for the day and hunt on foot. Late in the week he took a 5x5 about 3 miles in. We hauled out all 4 quarters in one trip with the bikes. I don't recommend bombing a 4% grade on a road with 40 years of overgrowth on a bike with a pair of hind quarters between your bowed legs but that's what I did. That was quite the ride! The bikes were great for getting in and out each day but not great for hauling quarters unless you haul a single quarter and walk the bike. The bike just doesn't handle the load well - it's very hard to manage the load because the bike ends up top-heavy and awkward. I'd do it again but only if I was hunting pretty flat ground and had a trailer for haul-out.