Elk Camp is Home

Hello out there fellow Elk Camp Alums. I thought it would be interesting to hear from some of you about how you set up your Elk Camps. I'd like to hear about your superstitions, your campsites, your stories, your meal choices, your choice of dry camp or by a stream, etc., etc.

I'll start by sharing a bit of our camp.

We have a couple of favorite spots in NE Oregon. Both are at the edge of fairly large meadows. We set up wall tents complete with carpeted floors, working kitchens and wood heating stoves. The wall tents are, in our humble opinion, the warmest, nicest, most comfortable way to set up a cold weather camp. Usually we are at the site 3-5 days before season opener and set up tents and head out to cut firewood for the duration of the hunt. This generally takes a couple pickup loads of Tamarack or Lodgepole. Once the tents are up and the fires are burning it is time to go about the pre hunt rituals of scouting, cleaning, planning, mapping, dreaming and generally just hangin' out waiting for the day we head into the woods to find our quarry.

These are great days. Taking in the scenery, sharing old stories that never seem to get old. Showing off that new piece of gear that ya just couldn't do without. (how we ever made it before, I'll never know). Planning out the meals for the following evenings. (this is important stuff, we usually eat pretty well, and we do enjoy our steak and salmon and yes even pizza from the coleman camp stove oven). We are still sleeping in on these days, because 4-bells comes early and we'll be doing plenty of that soon enough.

You also have to decorate the tents. This can mean a multitude of things, but we enjoy elk tapestries, the carved woodbox, the "what happens in camp, stays in camp" banner, the "hamms beer 'Welcome Hunters'" banner, and an antler or two hung from the rafters, just to remind us what we are looking for.

Well, there is a taste of our Elk Camp. Tell me about yours.........................................