Riding in the dark

[2rocky]

If you are camped a couple miles from where the elk activity is, it seems like riding out before daylight is the only way to catch elk before they feed into the timber.


My first time riding in the mountains in the dark was a real eye opener for me. Seems like we always manage to pick the week of no moon, or a new moon to hunt. No science, just happens that way.

I wish I could convey to folks the feeling of hearing your horses hooves hitting rocks and logs in the timber, the spark off of the shoes of the horse infront of you, riding through thick timber and NOT being able to see even a light colored horse ahead of you and just as you strain to see the horse ahead....."WHAAACK" the dirty bugger ahead of you lets a branch go right in your face...!@#$%%

Or detouring around deadfalls in the trail in the dark and ending up 30 feet off the trail in a worse tangle.

It is never advisable to take another person up a trail in the daytime you have only ridden in the dark. Chances are you will totally over exaggerate how bad it is and look like a real wimp when you see it in the daylight.

I was raised in the tradition of not turning on a flashlight when riding to "save the horses night vision" That resulted in a very spooked foot hunter who about wet himself when some guys from our camp rode up on him in the dark. Guess he thought it was a bear...

[huntsman22]

Your post brings back memories. Kinda seems that I've spent my whole life riding drag on on a packstring in the dark. The times I've spent as 'front' man, I try to pick out the foot hunters first, and talk to them and tell them to keep their flash or headlights pointed to the ground and talk to the ponies as we pass, as we are just a bunch of horses not bears, and want the ol' nightvision intact and want the horses to know by their voices, that they are people and not a bear either.....