The whole Frank Church now days can be a very odd place. I have been in areas that you would think you were looking at zoo animals, nice bucks walking right through camp (7 miles back in), walking right by deer without them being scarred, they would just look right at you, 20 yards away. One time, I put a sneak on two bucks from a couple of thousand yards away and I "jumped" two real nice 140" 4-points (separate) on the way to the two bucks that I wanted, I hadn't seen them. The thing is these bucks didn't even really "Jump" they just kind of got out of their bed, snorted and watched 100 yards away as I walked by, it was odd, like going back 60 or 70 years ago when the mule deer would stop and look back.
I have also been in deer deserts up there, where you could go a day or two without even seeing an animal. The church in general should hold a lot more deer, it looks great but it just doesn't (for a number of reasons).
The airstrips get used, you will have to get away from them. A lot of first timers think that just flying in will get you out of the way but in general it just isn't that way, you should get back in from there and that usually means going straight up! Also, it just depends where you are at when you get to the top whether there is going to be any water or not. Water can be pretty scarce when you get on top of those mountains.
In general, the rut tends to kick off a little early up high. Most of the guys are going to be in there early in the season, make sure that you are there late, right up until the last day. I think that most of the guys are scarred of being up there late because of the possible bad weather.
