Where Would You Focus #2

[MLayden]

Similar to an earlier thread...
Archery hunt. Beginning of season (Sept 1)

Black Line is a seasonal road (open June - Dec).
2 southern blue spots are potential spike camp. Blue line is a potential used hiking trail. To northern blue spots are spots I suspect one should look at.

[cohunter14]

This is tough to tell how big this area is, but I would definitly take a look at the saddle just to the right of where you covered the mountain name. That could provide access to some good feeding areas to the south and some good benches to the north that I would also take a look at. Should be some water in some of those drainages too I would think.

How big of an area is this?

[MLayden]

Roughly 3 x 4 miles

[Swede]

Mitch: I like your plan for a starter. It generally take me 5-6 seasons to where I feel I have a good handle on the hunting situation in an area. I would start with what you have then keep on scouting and looking. Scouting is not just a preseason effort. Some of your best insight about a place will come from hunting it. It doesn't take long to determine if elk are in an area, but coming up with effective plans to get them takes more time and much effort. It is not that you won't get elk the first day, but with knowledge of the area you will increase your opportunities. All the best.

[WapitiTalk1]

Some lunchtime ramblings. I really like the areas marked with red X's for the hot days of September elk hangouts (N, NE draws/slopes). Saddles between draws/drainages are great places to scout for transition areas (marked with a T). Finally, I put a few BP's on your map (Bugle Points) as these are nice spots to see if you can hear unsolicited bugles, or, throw out a locator yourself and see if anybody is home. If the blue line is a trail, and, there are elk in this general area.... there will be hunters using it for ingress/regress. Looks like a nice area.. Good luck!

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[MLayden]

Thanks everyone! I love this forum!

This is on the list of a few spots we plan to check out...will update once we have had a chance to look at it in June once the snow is gone and road is open!

[cnelk]

I cant quite see the contour lines as well as I like, but from what I can see between the topo and aerial, I would scout the area in 2 sections
as noted by the arrows

[JohnFitzgerald]

Those open meadows will give you an idea of quantity of elk in the area. If the sign is good spend the first day hiking them and giving locations bugles along the way. If you hunt from the bottom up you could be dogging elk up hill. This could frustrate you, especially if you don't know the area. I would not commit to bivy spots until you get a sense of what the elk are doing and where your water source is. Base camp on the paved road and make scouting trips. If things look good, drop a bivy.

Locate bugle, a lot! And remember, the elk may not be where you expect them so be willing to adapt and pull out for a different spot. Don't stake everything on a 3 day bivy hunt because the elk might just be 300 yards off that main road.

[MLayden]

Awesome. Thanks guys.
It's a short season for this area (8days) unless you get drawn. 6 pt or antler less. I have 0 priority as I've only hunted for a full season and a half and haven't put in for any draws yet.

I spend hours every day looking for spots so may have a few more areas for your guys input. Have a better idea now what to look for so I'll try to come up with a plan and have you guys critique our plan.

[MLayden]

Update and input needed...

Went out and finally scouted this area...

First image the exlamation point was a bedding area for 4-6 bulls that we had found. Followed their trail out but it was lost shortly afterwards. The NE camera icon is a great bugle point that will extend over several valleys. The westerly camera icon is where my friend found two sheds, both 2+ years old (7pt, and a 5pt).

Fairly certain that theres a water hole(s) on the inside of the blue line (Route we took when we scouted), but didn't have a chance to pop into them and look.

The meadows on the east side of the map have lots of game trails going through them, but the grass hasn't been eaten down.

Trying to determine where the bulls from the bedding spot we found would have headed to. I'm unable to see any water holes North of the map and theres a big gorge that way which would limit there route. Thinking it has to be to the water that I spoke of above?

This is very steep country, steeper than what we've hunted before, so any insight would be great.



Westerly Camera Icon


Westerly Camera Icon


NE Camera Icon

[Lark Bunting]

I'm jealous of all the GREEN pine trees!

The beetle kill here sucks.

[Mikeha33]

Beautiful area. It just put my anticipation level at a strong 12.5. Have you looked at the topo's on any other sites? Caltopo does a good job of showing seeps and springs that could be of some big help, especially on the Aerial Topo Hybrid layer.

[MLayden]

Countdown is on...Heading in Friday AM after my buddy finishes work at 2am.

We've hunted, rather we've sat and walked, our usual property since opening Sept 1, but the elk haven't moved into it yet and we haven't heard or seen any elk. It's amazing how closely a loons call sounds like a bugle to start out when you're desperate to hear one!

We got 4" of snow here yesterday, with more to come today and tomorrow. Might be a bit chilly up in the mountains, but we should be able to find fresh sign.