Droppin' Pins
E-Scouting, a Hunter's Dilemma, and Grizzly Bear
We are close to 15 days until the start of the 2022 general archery elk season. The time of year that brought me to Idaho and the time of year I love the most. Cool mornings, warm afternoons, and the ability to hunt elk, deer, and black bear. Yet, instead of being out in the woods scouting the area I plan to hunt, I am trapped in suburbia lamenting the traffic and awaiting the birth of my second child. Now, that last point may sound like it’s laced with frustration (well, the traffic and dense population does suck), but it’s not… I couldn’t be more happy to add a new future hunting buddy to the mix… BUT, I won’t be having another fall baby if I can help it… Thankfully, though, my DIY hunting partner has come to save the proverbial day. Like some sort of caped superhero he started to light up my phone this last week with a now omnipresent logo in the hunting community, OnX maps:
Yes, my text messages were blowing up as my hunting partner was scouring the woods on foot to find the best areas in our East Idaho hunting unit. The pins he would drop and send to me were all a part of our emerging planned surgical strike on elk during the rut. Each time I would click the little red box with a white X I would get excited to see what topographical surprise lay on the other end of the digital yellow brick road. He shared camp spots, wallows, rubs, known herds, and a bunch of other detail that one can usually only get through being somewhere in person.
Though I usually bemoan technology writ large (…and have focused on trying to live a more digitally sanitized life…) I would be a huge liar if I didn’t say that technology has been my life line this pre-season. Receiving the digital pixels of where we would be hunting allowed me to visualize the area, understand the elevation, and get an idea on the density of vegetation and how animals may travel in the area. Then with actual pictures of the terrain itself to mentally couple with the topographical maps, I have a pretty good idea of what I am getting into and will have a shorter ramp up time once I am boots on the ground.
Of course nothing beats the real thing when preparing, but for many people who don’t live out west this is the norm. Find an area, buy a tag, and spend countless months e-scouting. To be frank, I had never had to do that much as I have always hunted areas that I spend time in year round, but my current pre-daddy redux situation has opened my eyes to a new way of hunt preparation and one that I will likely be employing when I fan out to new states to hunt over the next few years.
Aside from a second child and a new area to hunt in… this upcoming season also brings another element that I have not had to contend with since moving to Idaho… Grizzly Bear. Yep, my central Idaho location *allegedly* holds no grizz and I have been fortunate enough to only have intimate experiences with black bear… who are usually pretty skittish, save for one angry mama bear I ran into in the White Cloud Wilderness. But, this year I will have to be extra vigilant and will be packing both my bear spray and Ruger Super Redhawk .44 magnum.
According to my friends at Idaho Fish and Game, the area we are hunting has what is considered a “dense” population of these feller’s and should add an extra element to the hunt. Taking proper and quick care of any meat we may get will be vital and we will have to keep our heads on a swivel to avoid getting “Hugh Glass’d”. Potential mauling aside, we are pumped for the season and have zero expectations on our success. That may sound counter-intuitive, but with less preparation going into this year’s hunt, there also seems to be way less pressure built up around the experience. A double edged sword that I am sure to unpack in my post-hunt recap.
Anyhoo — It’s time to go shoot my bow and do some burpees, but I will leave you with this picture of a beautiful moose my friend stumbled on while scouting our unit:
I hope to someday visit this majestic area.