The Wall Tent Experience Begins

Welcome Elk Hunters and those of you who do not hunt elk end even you folks out there that just wanna be elk hunters. You know, there are all types of elk camps. There are those that say they are camping, really believe they are camping, and yet, they come up into the woods with a bloomin' "hotel on wheels". I'm not kiddin' ya either. Here I am bumpin' along some mountain road in a 4x4 rig, and I'm way off the main track. I come up over this rise and right there in the middle of a meadow is a big ole bus. Now I'm not talking about some worn out old converted school bus here, I'm tellin ya this bus is 13' tall and 8' wide and it's got 4 tip outs and enough storage space under it to hold 4 or 5 elk camps. I've just been down this road you see, and after traveling this track, I can't figure how on earth these guys got this monstrosity in there. But none-the-less, there it is, and it just aint right. Elk camps are supposed to be, well, elk camps, not luxury apartments with 2 bedrooms and a 42" big screen. Heck, this thing probably has better accomodations than a 5-star resort. Oh yeah, speaking of 5-star resorts, a REAL elk camp is just that and more, but it doesn't start out that way. It takes years of collecting, planning, accumulating and dreaming to produce the ultimate 5-star elk camp.

You may remember the tale of our first wall tent experience. We refer to it as "Elk Camp Blown Away". Anyway, it does get better, not right away, but boy does it get better. See after the "Blown Away" experience we figured that maybe, just maybe, wall tents weren't the thing for us. So we opted for the travel trailer method of setting up elk camp. This isn't necessarily a bad camp, but it sure leaves a few things to be desired. We start headin to the woods with an old 13' pull camper that has just about enough room for two people, but there's like 3 or 4 folks tryin to use this thing. It isn't too bad when you are asleep, but that being awake part where you are tryin to keep hunting clothes and boots dry and find a place to sit and cook dinner and, well you get the picture. So we move on to bigger trailers, yes I said trailers. You might have thought that we'd just try using one bigger trailer, but no. I kid you not there was one year when we headed to the mountains, and there are four of us, pulling 3 travel trailers. That's right, no more sittin on top of each other and bumpin into skillets and guns and whatever else is in the way. We pull into our favorite meadow with a 21', a 19' and a 14' trailer. Here's what's real funny, the smallest of the three trailers is housing 2 guys. Problem with this setup is that no matter how hard you try, there just isn't a good place to really get wet clothes and gear dried out in a trailer. So..........next year we get this great idea. Remember the old green wall tent that was handed down from my dad? Well, we decide that we are gonna take this tent to the hills with us and use it as a dining hall/place to dry clothes.

Now we have a camp that looks like there must be 10 or 12 hunters hangin out there, but in reality we have now begun the quest to become the "More Crap Per Capita" elk camp than any other seen in these woods. Yup, it is the same four guys, only now we have 3 travel trailers and a wall tent. This is really gettin ridiculous, but we don't care, this is our home in the woods and we love it. And it isn't just trailers and a tent, we just have to add some other piece of gear or a couple or three pieces of gear every year. Now this is real fun! Ya just never know what your huntin buddies are gonna show up with. Heck, this crew starts thinkin about the next elk camp just about as soon as the one we just left get stowed away. Sometimes I figure I just survive from one elk camp to the next one. One of these days I'll tell you more about how our elk camp has evolved. Needless to say, it just keeps gettin better, and if you've ever had some good huntin buddies and a comfy camp, you know just what I mean, so until next time, get to planning for next season.

THE BOX IN THE TRAIL

Now this has just got to raise the interest level of the reader of this little tale. A box you say? In the trail? Must me something somebody dropped out of their pack when they were fishin' around in it trying find the bung fodder. I'll go into the necessity of ample bung fodder some other time, for now, lets get back to "the box in the trail". I'm pretty certain that this here box was not in this particular location by accident. In fact, I can't figure out, for the life of me, why on earth it was there, but there it was, big as life, surely planted where someone would find it. Thats where Randy and I come into the picture.

We had, or Randy had I should say, gotten a cow elk on opening morning. As a side note, this guy (I'm talkin bout Randy) seems to be in the right place on a pretty darn regular basis. Now I don't know if it is because he is such a masterful hunter or if he's just plain lucky either way, the elk seem to be drawn to him. What I'm finally beginning to figure out is that I should just stay close, maybe it'll rub off me someday, please someday soon.....

Well anyway, we get this cow back to camp on Randy's mechanical horse, some people know em as quads or 4-wheelers, and get her up on the meat pole. After this the elk seem to be pretty scarce. We've hiked and glassed and hiked and glassed and, well, you get the picture. We aren't seeing critters. So about the 5th day of the season we figure it's time to check out another place to hike and glass, yup, same thing different place. We drive down the road a piece and stop off at a locked gate, we do this a lot, and head off down an old loggin skiff. Now its a nice day, not too cold and the ground is quiet, but no snow. We walk for a while and then stop and glass the far wall of the canyon below, lookin' for any sign of life. There's ravens and squirrels and chipmunks, but no elk, looks like yet another day void of our quarry, so after checking this spot out for a half hour or so we move on. We've been following this loggin' skiff for the better part of an hour now when we come across this box. Not just any box, but a sealed beam box. I spose there are a lot of you out there that aren't familiar with the term 'sealed beam.' Well a sealed beam is a headlight for a car. Not really all that long ago, we didn't have just a bulb that you twist into the headlight assembly, NO we used to have to remove 3-4 screws and unplug this big lamp called a sealed beam. Then you put the new one in and put the screws back in and you have to adjust the beam so it isn't shining too high or too low or too right or, whatever.

Back to the box. This thing is setting there, right in the middle of the trail, like someone had carefully and meticulously placed it where someone would find it. We stop and start lookin at the thing, its all closed up nice and neat like and appears to be in pretty good shape. After a bit I say, "why don't you open it". "Naw" Randy replies, "not sure I want to know what's in there". "Aw c'mon" I add. "You open it" he says. To tell you the truth, I honestly don't remember who opened this thing, but I do remember the surprise we got.

Now picture this, we are about an hours walk from the truck, down this ole loggin' skiff which has pretty much turned into a trail. We come across this box, which, when it is opened reveals, now this is the honest truth, six sets of buck deer genitalia. Yup, deer balls, a sealed beam box clear full of papa deer's family jewels. Six of em! I know, this sounds like a tall tale, but who could possibly make this one up. Back in those days I didn't carry a camera with me, and I have wished ever since that I did. I still have a couple questions.

#1 Who on earth goes to the trouble of boxin' up 6 sets of deer jewels in a sealed beam box and hauls em out on a point and sets em in the middle of the trail for me and Randy to stumble upon?

#2 Where was this yahoo sittin' as he watched us argue over who was gonna open the confounded box and see our faces as we discovered the surprise contents?

I figure we were being watched, cause what fun would it be to plant this thing if you didn't get to watch the show. I'll probably never know the answer to either question, but if you do, let me know.

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.........................................