The Weight Of Love
With hunting season upon us, it’s time to talk WEIGHT. Every item in your pack is a blessing or a burden. If you’re exhausted due to the weight of the gear you’re carrying, how the hell will you possibly add 50-100 plus pounds of wild meat. Below is a story explaining the gravity of knowing the weight of every item that you carry. This can be the difference between success, or leaving the mountains with an empty pack.
It’s 10:00 A.M. you already did a hell of a trek for a few hours in steep terrain. Your 55 year old father (who brags about his cardio from cycling) is huffing and puffing from the sunrise march up the hills. The year previously I nailed a hog in the canyon we were above. On the hike up, there was hog tracks and shit on the game trails. It rained the day before so their tracks were fresh from predawn. I had high hopes. The weather was perfect, cold and gloomy with the fresh pig tracks. An hour to an hour and a half goes by. We were dialed into our binos looking for that one stump that moves… Nothing. It was still early in the day so my confidence was still strong. A close friend of mine was hunting the same mountain. He was a few peaks over from my father and I. As my father and I debated whether to make coffee or not, I feel my phone going crazy, I pick-up and what do you know… My buddy spotted a large herd of pigs in the mountains. I tell my father to put a rain check on the coffee and pack-up. We check my OnX account and realize we had no easy way of crossing the peaks. We had to go back the way we came and start all the way from the main road.
Pig tracks
With the adrenaline rush from the tip on a large herd of pigs, my father and I started a long trek back to the main road in order to drive to the trail head for the peaks my buddy spotted the hogs from. We were moving quick… and I mean nearly jogging type of quick. I personally don’t carry a side-arm in California. With the lack of grizzlies from the north or cartel members from the south, I don’t see a reason for the extra weight. My father on the other hand doesn’t take any chances in the wild, he decided to pack his .44 Ruger Super Black Hawk. A totaling weight of 4 pounds. Yes, at the sound of it, 4 pounds does not sound like a ton of weight. But, trekking in the rolling hills and steep terrain of California, the 4 pounds is like carrying bricks. While marching up the steep hills, I see my dad’s face, tomato red and gasping for air like a fish out of water. Hell, I don’t want to lie, I was on the verge of throwing up from the weight of our Winchester Model 70. After a grueling hike of nearly vomiting, leaning over and gasping for air, and jello for legs, we finally get to my buddy.
Once to our destination of the last known sighting of the feral hogs, my father lay on the ground from exhaustion. I had no time to waste. I came up with a plan to hike to the next ridge and glass for the hogs while my father and buddy took a well earned nap. About 20 minutes into their nap I spotted them… a large passel (family of wild pigs) was near the top of the mountain facing us. I tried to flag down my father and friend on the previous ridge, but they were deep in slumber.
Once I hiked back, the guys packed up and headed to the ridge I glassed the hogs from. It took us a few seconds through the binos to find the hogs. We ate some packs of tuna and decided to take a vote on what to do next. The majority vote was to watch the pigs and come back in the future… It was our last day here and I couldn’t imagine walking away from a herd of pigs I already worked my ass off tracking. My father and friend made a point that the pigs were another half hour to an hour of hiking. They physically were exhausted and had no desire to pack out any wild boar. You can imagine that everyday I play this scenario back in my head and wish I would have pushed forward to nab a boar solo.
Looking back, my father admits that carrying a 4 pound pistol may not be the most helpful addition due to traversing up and down steep hills. The moral of the story is, know the weight of everything that you are carrying. The last thing you want is to finally get an opportunity that you worked your ass off for and decide that it would be past your physical boundaries. Imagine laying bricks into a boat, it can hold only so much till it begins to sink. Hell, I forgot game bags on a hunt once and had to carry a wild pig by hog tying it and traversing through a canyon for miles in the dark. The added weight of wild game can be overwhelming. Which is why it is dire to know the weight of every item you have in your pack.
