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Big Game Hunting => Backcountry Hunting => Topic started by: highcountry_hunter on October 13, 2023, 07:29:50 PM


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Title: The boredom…
Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 13, 2023, 07:29:50 PM
Man, I completely forgot about the night time boredom. I usually bring a notebook and write out the days events in the evenings after dinner and by then I’m ready to hit the sack. But I forgot it…

Packed in 5 miles today and had camp set up by 4. Ate dinner at 6 out of boredom. Luckily I get to go get more sticks for the fire every 20 minutes while I bounce back and forth between huntwa and rokslide while telling myself “only 5 more minutes of phone time.”

Solo hunting at its finest!


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Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Jpmiller on October 13, 2023, 07:48:27 PM
Just so long as youre not pulling your phone out during hunting hours, unless it's to take a photo of the successful hunt! Good luck!
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Sandberm on October 13, 2023, 08:59:40 PM
Your 5 miles into the woods and still checking social media? *SIGH*

Major Dick Winters, Leadership at the point of a bayonet, #8 on the Ten Principles for Success

-Take a moment for self reflection. Look at yourself in the mirror every night and ask yourself if you did your best.

If you read his book, he was big on a little alone time to reflect, contemplate, and plan the next day. There was no such thing as constant stimulation during WW2 like there is now.

Good luck on your hunt, i wish i were with you.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: wadu1 on October 13, 2023, 09:06:51 PM
Your 5 miles into the woods and still checking social media? *SIGH*

Major Dick Winters, Leadership at the point of a bayonet, #8 on the Ten Principles for Success

-Take a moment for self reflection. Look at yourself in the mirror every night and ask yourself if you did your best.

If you read his book, he was big on a little alone time to reflect, contemplate, and plan the next day. There was no such thing as constant stimulation during WW2 like there is now.

Good luck on your hunt, i wish i were with you.
Thanks @Sandberm for that post, I had to look up the other 9.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: boneaddict on October 14, 2023, 04:39:48 AM
It’s good not to own a phone.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Smokepole on October 14, 2023, 07:25:13 AM
I can't think of a time when I've been bored in the back country.  There's just too much exciting stuff going on all the time.  Camp chores, weather, critters, tomorrow's hunt plan, and stoking the fire.  Time to commune with the Creator.  There's a period it takes for your awareness to unfold.  Boredom never even crossed my mind. :twocents:
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: follow maggie on October 14, 2023, 07:36:07 AM
Once the sun goes down it can definitely get boring. I usually bring along a book or a few magazines to read before bed.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Houndhunter on October 14, 2023, 08:09:15 AM
Bring a kindle, I'd go crazy if I didn't have one.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: cpawlowski19 on October 14, 2023, 10:02:28 AM
Download music or podcasts from rokslide, etc on your phone to give you something to listen to. Books on audible, kindle. Lots of options.


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Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: jaymark6655 on October 14, 2023, 12:07:50 PM
LOL My first and only high altitude hunt. Dark way to early and nothing to do. Decided I couldn't take another night of that so I packed up in the morning and hiked all the way out. I had no.phone signal and never travel without a deck of cards or game boy or something if I'm alone.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 14, 2023, 05:55:22 PM
LOL My first and only high altitude hunt. Dark way to early and nothing to do. Decided I couldn't take another night of that so I packed up in the morning and hiked all the way out. I had no.phone signal and never travel without a deck of cards or game boy or something if I'm alone.
Whoa…I’m not bored enough to quit hunting. Normally the notebook I bring to write in keeps me plenty occupied but as I said, forgot it. Next year it’ll be with me along with a book.


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Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Karl Blanchard on October 14, 2023, 08:44:18 PM
Podcasts and audio books for me. I don't do fires or such so it's dinner, then into my sack. Nice to have a book but no way I'm adding that extra weight to my pack so audio stuff it is.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: ganghis on October 14, 2023, 09:48:23 PM
Thanks for voicing this - it's something I struggle with a bit too.  I usually hunt solo, and when I'm in the backcountry boredom has more to do with 10-4 or so...I fill it with a bit of still hunting, and glassing while listening to a podcast or something on headphones.  I think there's a mentality that you always have to be giving it your all, but you might be overall more successful if you space things out so you don't burn out.  WA deer isn't super important to me because I have MT tags this year so I'm taking a break and watching the Seahawks tomorrow before getting out for another overnight.  Sometimes you have to take a season-long perspective and ask what's going to keep you engaged and interested the longest - at least that's how it is for me!
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: MR5x5 on October 15, 2023, 09:20:05 AM
Perfect time to whittle some new utensils!

Good luck out there.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: BKMFR on October 15, 2023, 09:32:31 AM
Bored at camp has never been an issue. Usually tired from hiking or eyes tired from glassing. Dinner, than time to relax, start planning for tommorrow, off to bed, and next thing I know is alarm is going off! .....Now camping with no hunting season, that's a boring night by myself, thank goodness I usually have others with me.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: jaymark6655 on October 15, 2023, 11:17:19 AM
LOL My first and only high altitude hunt. Dark way to early and nothing to do. Decided I couldn't take another night of that so I packed up in the morning and hiked all the way out. I had no.phone signal and never travel without a deck of cards or game boy or something if I'm alone.
Whoa…I’m not bored enough to quit hunting. Normally the notebook I bring to write in keeps me plenty occupied but as I said, forgot it. Next year it’ll be with me along with a book.


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It was so horrible. I think it must have been dark at 1700 or something. Nothing to cook, no-one to talk to, no cell service, nothing to sit outside and look at. I just lay in the tent and was so wired that I couldn't get to sleep. I did hunt some the next day before leaving, but there was just too little hunting hours vs hours and hours of darkness with absolutely nothing to do. I could have stayed if I could at least sleep through it.

Now I have never gone out hunting for the day and stopped early because I was bored sitting there. Always something to look.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: boneaddict on October 16, 2023, 07:03:54 AM
You should be a photographer in November.   Done with light about 430 pm.  Have to wait until about 730 the next morning.  Sit under a pine tree until bedtime then lay under the pine tree until 7.  Knock the frost off and hit it.  Lots of time to meditate.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Sandberm on October 16, 2023, 07:48:30 AM
I'm 53 and have always suffered from boredom. Lets just say school was frustrating.

I didn't have internet till I was 26 so it cannot be blamed for shaping my brain as I grew up like kids today who were born really after 1990. I think the internet is shaping our brains to ALWAYS have STIMULATION. Its addictive really.

When I was a kid I slept with a fan on for the white noise it provided, it relaxed me. I now fall asleep with a fan and wireless headphones on playing some podcast. If I don't, I will be lost in my own thoughts and cant sleep. I need something outside myself to focus on.

This was a first for me. A couple of falls back the wife and dog and I took the 20 ft travel trailer up to the blues to camp for a couple of nights. There was NO wind, and NO moonlight. That night as the wife and I tried to sleep in the  NARROW bed I believe I came the closest to having a panic attack I ever had. It was completely SILENT and completely DARK. I felt confined in the narrow bed, like I was in a coffin buried underground, my brain could not turn off. I got up multiple times to sit and read, hoping I could relax. I never did fall asleep. 
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: Pacific Ghost on October 16, 2023, 09:43:14 AM
I think there's a mentality that you always have to be giving it your all, but you might be overall more successful if you space things out so you don't burn out.  Sometimes you have to take a season-long perspective and ask what's going to keep you engaged and interested the longest - at least that's how it is for me!

Lots of truth to this.
Title: Re: The boredom…
Post by: bigmacc on October 26, 2023, 04:21:59 PM
Perfect time to whittle some new utensils!

Good luck out there.
Ha! This is exactly what I used to do. If I was back into a spot where I knew I’d be in for a couple days, I’d whittle👍 over the years I created some “interesting” stuff. One time I didn’t plan on being overnight but I killed a big fella in some nasty terrain, 6 miles in with only an hour of daylight left, killed him on my way out. I built a fire, had some candy bars and some sardines in my day pack along with some vizquine. Had a great time, whittled a wooden hand, looked like the one Woody Harleson had on Kingpin😆 I had that thing for years, I’ll have to see if I can find it. I had a lot of fun with it, shaking hands and having it fall off! Hopefully my wife didn’t burn it, she thought it was creepy 😆😆
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