Most of my summer weekends are taken up doing short scouting trips. I think they are the best way to prepare for the season. You get to learn the animals you plan to hunt, find ideal places to camp or vantage points to glass from, you get in “mountain shape”, you get to test out gear and the advantages go on. I don’t know why everybody doesn’t do as much of this as they possibly can.

Most of my trips start out during the week, when I scour GoogleEarth in the evenings looking for potential hunting areas. Come Friday at 5, I know where I am headed and hit the road. Sometimes I get the trailhead late and pack in during the night so I am closer to where I want to be in the morning. You can cover a lot of country in a weekend and they can be very productive scouting trips.

Following are some pictures from my weekend scouting trips from over the years. These trips include multiple mountain ranges in Wyoming and Colorado.

-Justin Starck