Prepping for solo outdoor adventures

GOING IT ALONE HOW ONE CALIFORNIA OUTDOORSMAN PREPARES FOR SOLO HUNTING, FISHING, PROSPECTING OUTINGS

ByCalKellogg

Through seven days of sitting in ambush and rough lava playing hell with my backside, the first thing I did was position the makeshift sitting pad I’d created the night before, using duct tape, a strip cut off my foam sleeping pad and a shemagh.

With the seat in place, I arrayed my gear around me so I could easily and quietly access everything I was likely to need. In 30 minutes, it would be legal shooting time.

By the time the darkness gave way to the milky light of dawn, I’d spotted the first deer, which was a dandy buck. The deer was feeding in a patch of brush maybe 1,500 yards away. I have no idea how many points the buck had, but through the 10x50 binoculars there was no mistaking the high straw-colored rack.

The air seemed charged with electricity. On an instinctive level, I knew I was going to have an opportunity. I kept telling myself, “This is your window; pick a spot and make a sure shot when the time comes.”

When you sit on a stand day after day, you become acutely aware of your surroundings, so when I spied a dark blob screened by brush to the west of my position, I knew right away it was a deer. The binoculars

There are inherent risks associated with heading into the wilderness alone, but for some outdoors enthusiasts, confronting danger just adds to the satisfaction they feel when hunting, fishing or prospecting. Author Cal Kellogg is willing to take those chances on solo

confirmed what I’d seen was indeed a deer’s hindquarters, but there was no way to tell if it was a buck or doe.

I watched the deer for a good five minutes, and while it moved around a fair amount it never revealed its head. I wanted to keep an eye on the deer, but I also had to keep my eyes open for movement in other areas.

After scanning the area below me for the umpteenth time, I once again glanced over at the deer. It was now standing in the open and I could see with my naked eye that it was a buck. The binoculars revealed a nice set of antlers. I had no idea how many points the buck had, but I knew it was a husky mature blacktail. My heart started racing.

The buck had its head down feeding and was clueless about my presence. Buck fever twinged as I picked up the rifle. My mind spun.

“That’s a long shot, almost 300 yards. Don’t miss or you might not get another opportunity,” I told myself.

I took a deep breath and pushed the negative thoughts from my mind. I crowded up against the stunted oak tree to my left and tried to steady the dancing crosshairs.

The bellow of the 7mm came as a surprise. When my eyes opened a beat later the buck was down. It was 8:30 a.m.

The path to the buck was treacherous and steep with lots of lava dropoffs. The last thing you need on a solo hunt is a twisted ankle, or worse, a broken leg, so I took my time, backtracked and took the long way around. A half hour later I was standing over a handsome blacktail with an 18-inch spread, deep forks and complete with brow tines.

Just about the time I reached the buck it started spitting rain. It took me about an hour to field butcher the deer and six hours to backpack out the meat. Back at home I ended up with 59 pounds of boned meat, so I imagine the buck had a live weight of 140 to 150 pounds.

I hunted the rough country alone, sacrificed my body and went headto-head with one of North America’s most elusive big game animals: the mature public-land blacktail buck. The satisfaction I still feel is unmeasurable.

Quality gear is critical to the solo outdoors enthusiast. A waterproof tarp, GPS, waterproof matches and extra ammo are only a few of the things the author carries during his outdoor adventures. (CAL KELLOGG)

YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN

Going alone. For me that means hunting, fishing or prospecting alone in the outdoors with no immediate backup if something should go wrong.

Multi-tools offer a ton of utility for hunters and anglers. They can be used to clean fish and game, most of them feature a saw, and they can be used to fix or repair other gear. (CAL KELLOGG)

The two women in my life – my wife and my mom – and even my dad don’t like it when I go solo, and they’ve told me as much.

First off, I will say that going into the field alone, particularly when hunting but also when fishing or prospecting in rough terrain or in remote locations, holds inherent risks, some of which can’t be overcome and must be accepted by the solo outdoorsman.

For Mom, Dad and Gena, accidents are a big concern – something like a broken leg that immobilizes me and has serious consequences up to and including death. Other concerns are health issues like a heart attack, appendicitis or a bout of kidney stones.

A side concern of family members is that by going solo you run the risk of being confronted by two-legged and four-legged threats in the form of pot farmers or backcountry robbers, bears or mountain lions, respectively.

If you discount these risks, you aren’t very smart. Yet I don’t allow them to keep me from going into the field alone. The list of things that could happen in the woods is long and some of the risks are very real, like breaking a leg. Other risks like a mountain lion attack are mathematically possible, but remote enough to be of little concern. Yes, if you see the headline, “Cal Kellogg Eaten By Mountain Lion” in a future issue, you have permission to laugh!

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

I’ve been hunting solo for the past 30 years. My longest and most remote solo trips have been 10-day-long backpack hunts into the Yolla Bollies and the remote reaches of the Lassen National Forest.

These trips hold risk, but so do a lot of the other things that don’t get a second thought, like driving on the freeway and frequenting marinas in rough urban areas in predawn hours.

Over the years I’ve reflected a lot on what could go wrong in terms of solo adventures and I’ve done my best to answer each of these possible challenges. First, when I’m out in the woods alone, I keep the thought that I have no immediate backup in the front of my mind, which means I

Kellogg surveys a rough, lava-strewn canyon during a challenging blacktail hunt. During the adventure it rained eight out of nine days. Cold, wet weather makes hunting the backcountry even more challenging. (CAL KELLOGG)

Headlamps are critical equipment for any hunter or angler, but they can and do break, so it’s wise to follow the philosophy that two is one, and one is none. In other words, carry two headlamps and you’ll never be left in the dark. (CAL KELLOGG)

don’t take any unnecessary risks.

GEAR YOU’LL NEED SOLO

In the event I still get into a bad situation I carry a locator beacon with me at all times. There are several of these devices on the market, but they all basically work the same way. If you get in trouble, you hit the panic button, the device pings a satellite and search and rescue teams get dispatched to your location.

Do your research when you pick out a beacon. Some are better than others and some have great additional features. My beacon was about $300. It’s highly reviewed, so I know it’s going to work out in the backcountry. It’s 100-percent waterproof and it features a strobe light that will flash for 48 hours once I hit the rescue button, making it far easier to locate me at night.

The beacon has given my wife and I far more than $300 in peace of mind. I have never used the beacon, but it’s sure nice knowing that help is one button click away.

Beyond looking at each situation critically with the idea of not getting hurt, I carry a lot of items in addition to an emergency beacon that might be of use in said emergency. I always wear a pack and it contains water and a solid selection of “survival gear.”

I’ve got a space blanket, a quality 6-foot-by-8-foot tarp with small aluminum stakes, 50 waterproof matches, a magnesium fire starter, tactical first-aid kit, medication, two headlamps, GPS unit with extra batteries, fully charged cell phone (turned off), two energy bars, a Leatherman tool, parachute cord, police whistle, and extra ammunition for whatever firearm I’m carrying. And no, I don’t go into the country without a firearm.

This looks like a lot of stuff, but in reality, once it’s in the pack I hardly notice it. The beacon and phone are aimed at helping me get found by rescuers and a lot of the other stuff is intended to make spending an unexpected night or nights in the woods safer and more comfortable.

The tools needed to combat a worst-case scenario when alone in the wild start with a tactical firstaid kit and space blanket. With the former you can stop serious bleeding, while the latter may keep you from becoming hypothermic. (CAL KELLOGG)

BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING

Practice makes perfect and that applies to survival skills too. Knowing that one day I may have to spend a night in the woods out of necessity, I’ve done it several times over the years just for practice. A couple times I’ve set up a “survival shelter” within yards of my truck on a rainy afternoon after a morning of quail hunting. I’ve started a fire, hunted up a wood supply that would last the night, roasted the quail over the coals and spent a damp, cold and uncomfortable night wrapped up in a space blanket under an improvised tarp-roofed lean-to.

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Kellogg spent seven days hunting solo in the Lassen National Forest to harvest this dandy blacktail buck. “There is something very basic about going into the wilderness alone,” he writes, “where you are responsible for your well-being and where every decision could have life-or-death consequences.” (CAL KELLOGG)

but it has given me confidence and an idea of what to expect. I don’t have to think about how to knot a shelter together with parachute cord. I’ll just do it because I’ve done it before. That sort of knowledge saves time, energy and limits fear and frustration.

LET ’EM KNOW WHERE YOU’LL BE

Speaking of rescuers, even if you have a beacon, you should still leave a detailed trip plan with a concrete return date with a responsible person. Once you give your plan to your contact, you’ve got to stick with it. That way if you don’t show up, the rescuers will have a firm starting point and they’ll know what areas you were planning to cover.

If the risks are real, even if I’ve prepared as much as possible for said risk, why take the chance?

For me the reason is multifaceted. For one thing, a lot of the time I go into the field during the week when no one is available to tag along with me. Being in the woods alone allows me to better tap into what’s around me and that has often resulted in a better level of success for me when hunting game, fish or gold nuggets.

FOR THE LOVE OF ADVENTURE

Perhaps the final piece of the puzzle in my zeal for solo adventure has to do with the risk itself. There is something very basic about going into the wilderness alone, where you are responsible for your well-being and where every decision could have life-or-death consequences.

When you are in the pitch-dark woods deep in the Yolla Bollies and a bear starts ripping apart a fallen tree looking for an insect appetizer less than a hundred yards from your tarp shelter, a switch is thrown and something inside of you changes – especially when you illuminate said bear in the beam of your headlamp and yell at him, only to have him pay you zero attention!

“He knows I’m here but doesn’t care. If he gets aggressive, when do I shoot?” your mind races as you clutch your weapon, ready to rock and roll.

Going solo and overcoming the inherent challenges and risks is profoundly satisfying to me. I accept and own the risks. I would never advise anyone to do what I do, but I know there are plenty of folks out there who do and feel much the same as I do. When they read this piece, they too will feel a jolt of excitement deep inside that can’t be fully described; only experienced.

Use caution in pursuing your adventures. Have fun and come back from the void alive and well! CS

Editor’s note: Cal Kellogg is a longtime Northern California outdoors writer. Subscribe to his YouTube channel Fish Hunt Shoot Productions at youtube.com/ user/KelloggOutdoors.