Line at Camp Ripley

[Crappie Rage]

I am heading to Ripley and would like a clarification of the process of getting in line. If you are there before noon are they making you wait til the next day?? Any help here would be appreciated.

[RogersMN]

they don't make you wait until the next day. they put you in a different line and make you wait until the regular line goes through before they let you go in. don't go before noon.

[Crappie Rage]

Got it. Thank you.

[frogtosser]

is it bad for me if I come late, like after dark?

[RogersMN]

no, not at all. you'll still be ahead of all the people that show up in the morning. it's all kind of a mad scramble in the morning anyway.

ripley is a whole different beast. the deer move all day long. the game wardens there will tell you that most bucks are killed between 11-3 out there. unless you know the exact tree that you are going to setup in there's really not much need to get out there super early. I shot my buck at 2:15 pm.

you might just see more hunters then deer. last year i accidentally setup by a buddy of mine (i didn't know he was there until he told me back at the truck) and then someone else came in and setup a ground blind by me. There were 3 people within 150 yards.

anyway, good luck this weekend!!!

[ricqik]

I've hunted one same area for 4 yrs straight and seen a new group each yr, all claiming to have been hunting that same area every yrs. Hmm. You'll run into some pushy people and some really courtious people. You may find a spot with no one to be seen all day or a spot where 12 people will be walking past your stand through out the day. I've bumped into many hunters by accident. Some parked on the road 2 miles on the other side and walk for who knows how long only to be just 300yds from where I parked and came from. You just never know with so many winding roads and logging roads. I hunted the first hunt. This yr it appeared they didn't let no one in until noon. I arrived about 12:30 and waited in the 2 mile long line on hwy371 for 3.5hrs before reaching the gate. They "should" make all who arrived early pull into camp ripley like their getting in early but direct them to a staging area and make them wait until 3pm after all the folks who arrived on/or at noon, that way there won't be a 2 mile long hold up on the hwy that is holding up local traffic.

[Jim916]

For the people going the 2nd weekend, we found a few changes they did the first weekend. First of all we did not park the truck in line. We usually take our time and just wait until the lines goes through the checkpoint in the morning and then be one of the last ones in. Well we were waiting as the people went by and then a security guard came up and told us we had to go back to the cement baracade and go up the river road. They split the line and reversed the direction. And we were told if we did not do this we would be removed from the camp for cutting in line.

And for the second thing, watch your speed. We saw 3 trucks that the camp Ripley security had pulled ocer.

We went 1 for 3 with a small doe.

Good luck to all.

[RogersMN]

my buddy got pulled over on camp a couple years ago. the woman that pulled us over was rather, um, how should i say this....SMOKING HOT! no ticket, just a warning.

what do you mean they split up the line and reversed the direction? Not sure what you mean.

[Jim916]

When the double line got back to where you turn(roughly 1 mile from the check-in point), they sent all the vehicles after this up the river road(the road you exit on after the day of huning).

And they also bunched the campers into certain areas. it was not spread out like they normally do. So we parked our truck in line and had to walk almost a mile back to our camper.

[NELS-BELLS]

What a joke!!! After last year, when they penalized us for being early, we decided to show up at noon. When we got to the exit, you could see the line on the shoulder of the E/W cty rd. We turned east to find the back of the line and where blown away by how long the line was already.

Then when we finally got in 2 hours later, they wouldn't let us set up the camper across from our vehicles in line like we usually do. The whole area with the shelters that you could park under in the past were off limits. They made us take the camper way up front by the concessions bldg and parked us in like sardines. So we had a very long walk to the trucks. Combine that with twice as many people camping this year due to it being a Sat. This was by far the most unorganized Ripley hunt that I have been too. Its like they were trying to make it as miserable an experience as possible.

On the positive side...the weather was nice and we ended up with 2 nice does for 4 guys. None of us even saw any bucks.

Good luck to all of you hunting the 2nd wknd. I hope they learned something from the last weekend.

Nels