Wasn't sure where else to post this but figured here is good since I'm doing some late archery elk homework.
I'll be honest...I'm going back into Winston. We hit it last year for a couple weekends. Got on tons of good sign but never even caught a glimpse of an elk. Only bumped a few does around. Last year we hunted the NW part of the unit which as most of you know it's largely un-gated which makes for freeway like conditions. That being said it was hard to get far from a road.
I'm hoping to do things differently this year as we now have mountain bikes. I've heard of a couple areas that are sort of "roadless". maybe by roadless my source means that it's mostly gated, which would be a good thing. I'm all about gates and nasty terrain.
So, my question is...I'm looking at my St. Helens tree farm map and am trying to find a good route into this area I'm thinking of. To me, the map seems kind of vague, but maybe this is a good thing.
I emailed the wdfw biologists for the unit and they refered me to the USFS. I called the USFS ranger station in Randle and got a tiny bit of info, but still feel like there's more I can find. I was thinking about trying to contact Weyerhaeuser but being that they're an enormous entity I have no idea if there's somebody good I could even reach??? Are there any Weyco employees that spend good deals of time in there that know the road systems I can contact?
I have searched, google maps, google earth, wdfw gohunt maps, my iPhone maps app, and the RMEF map feature.
I'm thinking short of posting the location on this forum it's just gonna take time in the field. I'm fine with paying my dues and will be scouting the weekend before the opener but want to make sure I have some decent base knowledge of my area. The only thing I haven't checked that's available to me at the moment is my Gazeteer map book.
FYI I don't own a GPS as of yet.
Working on that for next year.
I'm not even sure I was was just ranting or if I posted any questions worth asking. Haha.
Thanks,
Drew
