Update:
We had a number of guys reach out to me about this scouting trip I organized. We had a few cancellations last minute but we had a couple of folks come out for a pretty successful trip!
We all arrived at the trail head around 6 am. After chatting for a little we set out a on a fairly leisurely 3 mile hike to a fork in the road. At the fork we began to bushwhack up a gnarly ridge. 1800 ft elevation gain in just under a mile. The climb was brutal to say the least... but it was a good icebreaker for sure. Along the ridge we found several good sized buck tracks. We slowly moved along the ridge while glassing adjacent high country clearings. Unfortunately, after a 4 or 5 hours of glassing we were unable to find a buck. We made our way back to the trailhead at 8 pm! Exhausting but fun day for sure.
Overall, I think the trip was a good start to meeting new hunters but also learning more about backcountry hunting. None of us were "experts" in any one category (gear, scouting, deer habits, etc.), but we all learned from each other because someone we all had different
knowledge we could share.
I hope that others who are new to hunting use this post as a model for how to get into the backcountry hunting world. It seems that if you don't reach out to people or go about it on your own then you won't ever learn or grow. On a side note: don't hesitate to reach out to me if you would like to see another trip like this! It seems that we might be able to squeeze in one more trip before hunting season.
Cheers,
M
