Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: iowabow on July 06, 2013, 01:33:26 pm
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First off I have had many health issues that I have had to over come. First I had Lyme disease 14 years ago that I have fully recovered from and recently a twisted knee from the course at the classic. So starting around the 14th of May I started my workout for this Elk hunt. I have never gone on an elk hunt so I have very little knowledge of what I am doing but this is what I have done up till now. Most of the hikes are done very fast to keep heart rate @130-160 per min with short runs to keep the heart rate up. I have no idea if this is going to be helpful to me but thought I would post it to reflect on later after the hunt.
May
14th off crutches
15th walked 50yards
Walked to end of driveway
May16th, 2/10 of a mile walk
May 19t, shot archery course 2 mile hike with Paul.
May 22 , ran Alaskan chainsaw mill for 2 hours good workout!
New Mexico, hike high altitude
May 24, 2 miles on one day
May 25, 4 the next day
Light walking last week of May to build leg/knee muscles
June
June week 1 total 10 miles walk, without pack for 5 miles then other 5 with pack
Week 2, total 25 miles run, hike with pack and trail shooting at archery course.
June 9th , shot archery course with Paul.
June 13, gun training with 44/ran archery course with pack and shot bow.
Week 3, total 35 miles
Run, hiked with pack shot course etc.
No training
June 21 shopping for trip, stayed in hotel returned 22nd
Week 4 of June total 21 miles, with running hiking, and archery course work
June 23, Shot archery course with Paul.
June 25-27
8.5 mile hike with 40# pack
2mile hike
8.5 mile return with pack total of 19 miles
July
First week in July/hill work
July 1st, 1.5 mile run with 1 mile walk
July 2, 3.5 mile hike with Scott.
July 4th, 8 mile bike ride
July 5th, 5 mile run hike with 20# pack
July 6th hill run with Isaac 1.5 with 1 mile walk at end.
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Additional info
Lost 8 # as of today started at 166# and I am 5'9"
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Forgot to add
Every other day 30 sit ups then 30 push ups but this week moved it up to 45 sit ups and 32 push ups. These I try to do on non target practice days.
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I never hunted elk but my son is doing, right now, what you have been doing. He is in Co. right now and hiked a "14er" yesterday in preparation.
Being in shape seems to be the main factor and a couple days into the hunt, you will adjust to the altitude.
You have 15 years on my son though and I don't think there is much you can do to lower your age.
Wish I had done what you are doing when I was able.
Wishing you all the best, Lowell
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Iowabow, I am 56 this year and I have also been running and some weight lifting. Sounds like you will be good to go if you stay with what you are doing. Once you get there just be certain to take it easy for two days and keep water with you. If you get sick it will be a tough hunt. After a couple days you can start hitting it harder. I try to hunt areas near base camp the first few days then start going higher and farther. For what it worth I take an aspirin and a tums for the first several days that is suppose to help with altitude sickness. I haven't been sick yet. And remember if you figure out it takes a little longer to climb that mountain just set your alarm a little earlier and make it work for you..
Good Luck
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Good going! Keep it up. Do some lifts on the balls of your feet. The first couple of hills you climb, and side step, your calves will feel like concrete, and be screaming at you. But you will adjust to it, as well as the altitude. Oh, and as for getting the heart rate up........ First sighting, and or first Bugle, not to worry, your heart rate WILL BE UP! ;D ;D ;D
Good luck with the training, and the hunt.
Wayne
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Ant sure if you don't live in the mountans you can fully prepair but what you are doing will help a lot, I promise that. :) Good luck on the hunt,when are yall headed out ?
Pappy
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Try and be as specific as you can with your training. If you're going to be hunting while carrying a 20# pack, train that way. If the terrain is going to be hilly... walk some hills. You get the idea.
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I remember in an older post about this that WW Joe said to climb stairs at the local stadium using a straw to breath through...I don't see that on your work out report? ??? ??? >:D I'm gonna stay tuned and see how this works out for ya. ;) Sounds like your serious about it, which is what I expect from you, and that counts for somethin. dpg
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I remember in an older post about this that WW Joe said to climb stairs at the local stadium using a straw to breath through...I don't see that on your work out report? ??? ??? >:D I'm gonna stay tuned and see how this works out for ya. ;) Sounds like your serious about it, which is what I expect from you, and that counts for somethin. dpg
Country stairs
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Looks like an ankle twister course,be careful!
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Yes it is hard on the legs too...here is a work out up date
July 6, walked easy 1.5 miles in the evening
Week 2 July
July 7, 7 mile hike with family.
July 8th, 4 miles with 60# for 1 mile and 40# for 1 mile.
July 9th 8 miles bike hike and pack haul #60 (very hard workout hills killed me) the humidity 98%.
July10 took the day off
July 11th 5mile hike with pack
July 12 th going to run and give shoulders a break
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Get there two three days early to acclimate. Went to High altitude with a guy in really good shape and he almost passed out when at 11000.
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Sounds like you are getting there, What Moggy said is also good advice,or at least take it easy the first day or so if you can't get there early. :) :) Just thought I would throw in my work out for my up coming Gator hunt,been working on my swimming in the pool to pick up some speed and also working on my walking on water technique. Sorry had to throw that in. ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D Good luck on yalls hunt. :) :)
Pappy
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Sounds like you are getting there, What Moggy said is also good advice,or at least take it easy the first day or so if you can't get there early. :) :) Just thought I would throw in my work out for my up coming Gator hunt,been working on my swimming in the pool to pick up some speed and also working on my walking on water technique. Sorry had to throw that in. ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D Good luck on yalls hunt. :) :)
Pappy
Hehe funny....I have been doing 50 yard dash training in the event of a bear attack! I am training not to out run the bear but just Scott ;D ;D ;D
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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
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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.
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Pappy, I thought you always walked on water!
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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.
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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
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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
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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!
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Good for you! I hope you have a wonderful trip. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Comes an age when just getting home in one piece can be called a successful hunt! WE AIN'T THERE YET, JOHN ! ;D
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.
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Like the flowers, John, we all have to do it one way or another. That's the reason I've been married 38 years. It sounds like you guys had a great hunt in some beautiful country with some good friends. That's what it is all about. ;)
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Yep that's nice when it can come together. Here is a picture from on top.
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Sounds like a great time,don't have to kill something to have a very successful hunt/trip. :)
Pappy
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Sounds like a great trip you guys had. I've been twice and was awe struck both times even without elk. ;)
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Great story John. Maybe someday I'll have a chance to make it back out West for a hunt. Good for you for what you have done and accomplished. dp
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Sounds like y'all had a heck of a good time.I enjoyed reading about how you prepped for your adventure. God Bless