Charlie P
AH member
I'm 63 so have made a few mistakes in my time. We often hear what we should do. It is not as often we share real life experiences of "this is how I screwed up so no need for you to do it also". Wisdom= information gained right after you needed it! I'll share some of my ignorance and hopefully others might do the same. It should be entertaining as well as helpful to those that will take the time to read and try to understand. I look forward to what others have to offer, especially things specific to Africa.
1. In my youth I did extensive backpacking so you would think wise to moving about in the outdoors. Once I was in Alberta on a weeklong horseback wilderness trip. At a point in the trip we stopped and the guide announced that there was a waterfall up the mountain and we tied the horses for the walk up to it. Now picture this, I'm in full riding gear, chaps and all. Having the information at hand and a bit lazy to be honest, I struck out behind the group, me being the eldest. Let me tell you what, you take a fellow from sea level in south Alabama and put him in Alberta going up a mountain side through raw brush, over and under dead falls and it don't take long before he's out of gas. Now, I was in decent shape but you put on jeans and then heavy leather shotgun chaps on top of them and every leg lift is a major physical effort.
So you think lessor learned right? Well of course not. I later in life found myself at the Canadian border in Idaho, January, waste deep snow hunting Mountain Lion. The dogs were on the trail and the snow machines parked. The Guide says to shed the cloths, time to go in after him. Being it was freezing I had on extra heavy long-johns and waterproof double layered pants. I remembered the mistake I'd made that is mentioned above but what was I to take off, unlike the chaps I could have taken off that time? So, off I go. Do you know how long it takes to be spent going through waste deep snow, going over, under and through stuff that you can't even see because it's hidden by snow. I can testify, not long. The outfitter had brought his wife along and one of the guides had brought his daughter (a delightful family affair). They're moving about like it's a cheerful, sunny afternoon in the park and I'm doubting I can take another step and will likely die right here. Very humiliating.
Lesson learned- if you will be hunting, unknown circumstance's will occur and you may need to travel through harsh terrain. DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR ABILITY TO MOVE YOUR LEGS! Sacrifice some comfort, take an extra minute, but by all means maintain your agility and thus stamina.
2. Watch out for the drugs! No, not those kind of drugs. Again, back when I was younger I had a Moose hunting trip out of Dillingham, AK. At that stage of my life I was more sensitive to air sickness so had acquired with a doctor's prescription the patches to place behind my ear. So I put the patch on and flew over to Dillingham from Anchorage after seeing my wife off on her journey home. We had just spend a week touring the state together. I arrived in Dillingham and began looking for my outfitter to meet me. Nothing, nobody there to meet me. I set down and wait. Hours later the airport is closing so I call my booking agent. He says that it's Alaska and things happen. The Outfitter will eventually show. I go next door to the bar/hotel (plywood bed and community bath) and get a room. The next morning I'm back in the airport waiting room. I set there all day and again nothing. Needless to say I'm worried. The booking agent gives me a repeat on the advice. Back to the hotel. Next day the outfitter shows up just before noon with a story about the weather delaying him. We fly into basecamp and there are caribou everywhere. The plan is to take a caribou then take a short flight out to a spike camp for moose. I settle in and the next morning it isn't long before there is a Caribou on the ground and the rest of the day is spent tending to him. The next day is spent about camp and plans are made to fly myself and a guide to spike camp the next day. We're up and gone to the new camp with plans to be there a couple of days. Can't hunt the day of arrival, but the next morning we're up and out. The couple of day's pass and nothing. Food is getting down to peanut butter and crackers. No plane shows. The next day the plane does arrive but he says there's big moose right over there if you want to stay another night and try him tomorrow. The guide and I choose to stay. The next day we go in and spook the moose. The young guide takes off running after him down a muddy trail with me in tow. I'm having a hard time navigating the trail. He side steps a bog that I don't see and now up to my knees in mud and stuck. He's hollering to come on and I'm struggling to get out. Finally successful we make it to a slue's edge and the guide is hollering shoot, shoot! I lay the rifle in and something's not right. I do the biggest of no, no's at this point. Confident I'm looking at the moose, although he's a blur, I take the shot, and off he goes. The "kid" keeps hollering shoot again but I can't see the moose. As we all know moose are big. How is it I can't see a moose. Furthermore, at that time I shot competitively and was good at it. How did I miss a moose? Later the outfitter flies back in and defeated we fly back to basecamp. A day or two later I'm back on a commercial airline headed back home. The concern of airsickness over I remove the patch from behind my ear. Many days later after my eyesight recovered I read the details on the patch instructions- "do not wear over 8 hrs or blurred vision and dry mouth will occur". I'd wore mine for over a week and had severe problems with both issues.
STUPID on my part.
3. This is a simple one. I was hunting black bear out of Valdez. It rains constantly there. I was hunting two hunters to one guide. We maneuvered around the bays looking for bear and I noticed the guide and the other hunter were always spotting the bears before myself. I felt a bit humiliated at my lack of equality. After studying the what's wrong I came up with two explanations but one answer. With the constant rain my glasses were always covered with water drops obscuring my vision. Secondly, the glasses were photo grays. Although that makes them good for not allowing certain harmful light to reach the eyes which is good in one sense it is that very light that makes a black bear stand out against the background. So lesson learned, no darkening glasses for such hunting and a better option would be contact lenses so that rain does not build up on them.
Hope some find this helpful or at least amusing and will not think of me as always being stupid. Looking forward to the replies.
1. In my youth I did extensive backpacking so you would think wise to moving about in the outdoors. Once I was in Alberta on a weeklong horseback wilderness trip. At a point in the trip we stopped and the guide announced that there was a waterfall up the mountain and we tied the horses for the walk up to it. Now picture this, I'm in full riding gear, chaps and all. Having the information at hand and a bit lazy to be honest, I struck out behind the group, me being the eldest. Let me tell you what, you take a fellow from sea level in south Alabama and put him in Alberta going up a mountain side through raw brush, over and under dead falls and it don't take long before he's out of gas. Now, I was in decent shape but you put on jeans and then heavy leather shotgun chaps on top of them and every leg lift is a major physical effort.
So you think lessor learned right? Well of course not. I later in life found myself at the Canadian border in Idaho, January, waste deep snow hunting Mountain Lion. The dogs were on the trail and the snow machines parked. The Guide says to shed the cloths, time to go in after him. Being it was freezing I had on extra heavy long-johns and waterproof double layered pants. I remembered the mistake I'd made that is mentioned above but what was I to take off, unlike the chaps I could have taken off that time? So, off I go. Do you know how long it takes to be spent going through waste deep snow, going over, under and through stuff that you can't even see because it's hidden by snow. I can testify, not long. The outfitter had brought his wife along and one of the guides had brought his daughter (a delightful family affair). They're moving about like it's a cheerful, sunny afternoon in the park and I'm doubting I can take another step and will likely die right here. Very humiliating.
Lesson learned- if you will be hunting, unknown circumstance's will occur and you may need to travel through harsh terrain. DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR ABILITY TO MOVE YOUR LEGS! Sacrifice some comfort, take an extra minute, but by all means maintain your agility and thus stamina.
2. Watch out for the drugs! No, not those kind of drugs. Again, back when I was younger I had a Moose hunting trip out of Dillingham, AK. At that stage of my life I was more sensitive to air sickness so had acquired with a doctor's prescription the patches to place behind my ear. So I put the patch on and flew over to Dillingham from Anchorage after seeing my wife off on her journey home. We had just spend a week touring the state together. I arrived in Dillingham and began looking for my outfitter to meet me. Nothing, nobody there to meet me. I set down and wait. Hours later the airport is closing so I call my booking agent. He says that it's Alaska and things happen. The Outfitter will eventually show. I go next door to the bar/hotel (plywood bed and community bath) and get a room. The next morning I'm back in the airport waiting room. I set there all day and again nothing. Needless to say I'm worried. The booking agent gives me a repeat on the advice. Back to the hotel. Next day the outfitter shows up just before noon with a story about the weather delaying him. We fly into basecamp and there are caribou everywhere. The plan is to take a caribou then take a short flight out to a spike camp for moose. I settle in and the next morning it isn't long before there is a Caribou on the ground and the rest of the day is spent tending to him. The next day is spent about camp and plans are made to fly myself and a guide to spike camp the next day. We're up and gone to the new camp with plans to be there a couple of days. Can't hunt the day of arrival, but the next morning we're up and out. The couple of day's pass and nothing. Food is getting down to peanut butter and crackers. No plane shows. The next day the plane does arrive but he says there's big moose right over there if you want to stay another night and try him tomorrow. The guide and I choose to stay. The next day we go in and spook the moose. The young guide takes off running after him down a muddy trail with me in tow. I'm having a hard time navigating the trail. He side steps a bog that I don't see and now up to my knees in mud and stuck. He's hollering to come on and I'm struggling to get out. Finally successful we make it to a slue's edge and the guide is hollering shoot, shoot! I lay the rifle in and something's not right. I do the biggest of no, no's at this point. Confident I'm looking at the moose, although he's a blur, I take the shot, and off he goes. The "kid" keeps hollering shoot again but I can't see the moose. As we all know moose are big. How is it I can't see a moose. Furthermore, at that time I shot competitively and was good at it. How did I miss a moose? Later the outfitter flies back in and defeated we fly back to basecamp. A day or two later I'm back on a commercial airline headed back home. The concern of airsickness over I remove the patch from behind my ear. Many days later after my eyesight recovered I read the details on the patch instructions- "do not wear over 8 hrs or blurred vision and dry mouth will occur". I'd wore mine for over a week and had severe problems with both issues.
STUPID on my part.
3. This is a simple one. I was hunting black bear out of Valdez. It rains constantly there. I was hunting two hunters to one guide. We maneuvered around the bays looking for bear and I noticed the guide and the other hunter were always spotting the bears before myself. I felt a bit humiliated at my lack of equality. After studying the what's wrong I came up with two explanations but one answer. With the constant rain my glasses were always covered with water drops obscuring my vision. Secondly, the glasses were photo grays. Although that makes them good for not allowing certain harmful light to reach the eyes which is good in one sense it is that very light that makes a black bear stand out against the background. So lesson learned, no darkening glasses for such hunting and a better option would be contact lenses so that rain does not build up on them.
Hope some find this helpful or at least amusing and will not think of me as always being stupid. Looking forward to the replies.
I do not regret my 18 or so hunt/fish trips to Alaska beginning mid-70s. Having friends and relatives scattered around up there helped assure that trend. One mistake, nearly very serious, was also a moose hunt in AK. Got some very minor frostbite on all my fingers.
