Hunters need a home base that they can return to after a day hunting deer in the woods. When returning the hunting camp, many hunters will keep a mental reminder of the area of land where they hunted the night before so that they can continue the quest for a trophy later that evening. If they were lucky enough to shoot a deer, they will naturally get a vehicle and return to pick the carcass up.
On return to the hunting camp, they will usually spend time writing in their hunting journal about the experiences of the kill. They will also document as much of the experience that they can remember so that when the hunting trip is over they will have something to talk about with other hunters in town. Many hunters are curious about the amount of game in an area, so they will write that in their journal too.
Before leaving the base camp, hunters will typically go about cleaning their weapons and ensuring that they have enough ammunition to carry them through another night in the wild. They will stock up on snacks that they can place in their pockets to find the hungry feeling that comes over a hunter in the early morning hours. Many hunters will feel rested from the recent repose and the thrill of the hunt will be in them.
As they leave the hunting camp, hunters will normally chose an alternate route out of the camp than the one they used the night before. They are familiar with the scents that animals leave behind and feel that the same policy applies to them. No hunter wants to establish a trail that animals will become familiar with so they alternate the way they come and go to give the scent time to weaken.
Many hunters have been surprised by animals entering the hunting site during the night. Many are in deep slumber when this occurs and will normally sleep through it. For the few hunters that are definitely devoted to burning the late night oil, the hunting opportunity that presents itself is too good to pass up. Firing a weapon in the perimeter of a hunting camp is risky business though, so the hunting skills will have to be keen to ensure that no human target wanders into their sights.
The journal entries of that hunter will be especially interesting and the other hunters when they return to the hunting camp will surely look forward to hearing that hunting tale. For this hunting trophy though, there will be no need to take a vehicle out to reclaim the carcass because the trophy has found the way to the hunting camp and certainly will not be going anywhere else.
WATER AND WOOD
The two basic necessities for any big-game camp are a suitable supply of water and ample firewood. In the habitat of the larger species of big game, the water problem tends to solve itself. Moose, elk, caribou, and grizzly country is normally watershed country where rivers and lakes are born.
In such country there is usually ample fresh water. Moreover, the water found in high mountainous country has not been contaminated with sewage and pollution and is safe and pure. Higher country is largely wooded country, and the problem of firewood is easily solved. Most of the wood there will be pine, fir, spruce, and aspen.
SELECTING A CAMPSITE
Choose a campsite close to the water supply and as close as possible to dry wood. The sandy beaches or shore lines of mountain lakes, so long as they are well above waterline, often make good campsites. So do the points of small promontories overlooking a creek or lake. The edge areas where timber meets meadow, small elevated river bars, or small humps of semi-open land near timber are suitable campsites if water is handy.
In each instance, camp should be set up on some kind of elevated ground. This insures that the earth will be comparatively dry, and that sudden storms won't drown out a camp by draining water under it. For this reason, it is never wise to camp in gully bottoms, however attractive they seem to be. Flash floods in mountain and desert country can suddenly send awesome amounts of water through such gullies.
PITCHING CAMP
Once having chosen the campsite, the first thing to do is unload the pack animals, if you are packing into a hunting camp. It is a cardinal sin to allow any pack animal to remain loaded for even a few minutes once it has reached its destination.
The next thing to do is to get a tent set up. In the mountains, storms come up out of nowhere and can saturate people and gear in minutes unless dry storage space is provided.
Miner's tents are pegged down at all four corners and their tops tied to the crosses of two shear poles (dry standing jackpines or large willows make good shear poles), and the poles stood erect.
A baker tent is pegged down at the rear; the flap for its open front is placed over a ridgepole set upon two sets of shear poles, stretched taut and tied. Often one end of the ridgepole can be attached to a standing tree. This eliminates any need of guy ropes to keep the shear poles from wobbling sidewise.
GARBAGE PIT AND LATRINE
A garbage pit and some form of latrine are necessary for sanitation. Both should be downwind and downstream of the camp, the latrine the farthest away, in a clump of trees if possible.
The garbage pit is simply a hole dug in the ground. Tin cans, empty bottles, vegetable peelings, and food scraps are all heaved into the pit. A thin layer of dirt spread on top each day over the accumulated refuse is the best guarantee against flies around camp. When camp is broken, the entire pit is filled and covered.
Camp latrines are of different kinds, depending upon the permanence of the camp and the availability of transportation. The simplest is a long smooth pole, anchored at toilet-seat height between two trees, with its middle over a dug hole in the earth.
With experience you will be able to set up your camp quickly and efficiently.
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