High hunt landscape

[bankwalker]

I refuse to go another season without hunting the September high hunt or general season in back country. I've put it off for 10 years now and it's time to change my hunting lifestyle.
Every year I tear Google Earth apart looking at every mountain peak and valley all over every wilderness area.
But one thing I have never figured out is what type of terrain should I be looking for. It all looks so good 
There is just so much to choose from without actually putting miles on your boots to see if there are animals in the area you have picked out.

So how do you narrow down your Internet scouting. What are you looking for.
We all know, food, cover, water. You can close your eyes and point to a map and find all of those aspects in the wilderness areas.
So looking at a map how do you decide the spots youre going to scout. Do you want to find more open areas or more dense hillsides. Steep, really steep, or wishing you were a mountain goat steep.

[wa_archer]

You answered it in your own question.  Boots on the ground.  You can look at maps
All you want but you can only narrow it down to certain areas until you have to put some time and effort in and go check the areas out.  The more you look at maps and check those spots the better you get at figuring out what to look for.

[JimmyHoffa]

Also look at things like aspect:  Where does the sun hit in the morning, where in the evening, what's the shade pattern.  High hunt overlaps the equinox, so you can be pretty safe using due east/west.

[bankwalker]

You answered it in your own question.  Boots on the ground.  You can look at maps
All you want but you can only narrow it down to certain areas until you have to put some time and effort in and go check the areas out.  The more you look at maps and check those spots the better you get at figuring out what to look for.

When time is a factor those miles on the ground are best used by not wasting them on areas I really shouldn't be scouting in the first place.
I'd sure hate to be that guy spending every weekend scouting a new drainage only to find out I was doing it wrong the whole time 

I mean it's never really wrong. The worse looking spot on the map could hold a once in a lifetime buck. But there definitely has to be a theoretical right and wrong when it comes to what you should and should not be hunting in the back country.

[bankwalker]

Also look at things like aspect:  Where does the sun hit in the morning, where in the evening, what's the shade pattern.  High hunt overlaps the equinox, so you can be pretty safe using due east/west.

That is absolutely the type of advice I'm looking for. That thought has never crossed my mind
Thank you

[ian_padron]

Buy Robby Dennings book. Read it. End of story.

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[sumpnz]

Buy Robby Dennings book. Read it. End of story.

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Haven't read that but I have read Mike Eastman's "Hunting High Country Mule Deer".  The gear discussed in that book is seriously out dated by now (it's from 1995), but the tactics he discusses are still just as valid today.  Also, note that there's an exchange rate between the Wyoming country he writes about and Washington.  That exchange rate is to read "legal buck" whenever he writes "trophy buck". 

[splitshot]

    the deer are really spread out.  lots of country during the summer for them to hide in.  beautiful scenery to look at.  you are right , you need to do a hi hunt, you will never forget it even if you don't score.  mike w

[Eric M]

PM sent.

[Bushcraft]

Topo maps and Google Earth will generally point you in the right direction if you know what to key in on.  However, they are not infallible. I've scouted and hunted places that on paper and pixels "should" have held deer in abundance only to find few or none.  Alternatively, I've been in other places that "shouldn't" be good but were epic. Also, you've got to realize that EVERYONE already does this during our cabin fever months and many of the "best" looking spots are overrun year after year with lazy computer screen cowboys that don't scout, want something for nothing, have zero boots on the ground experience, don't really know how to hunt an area, and end up screwing themselves, others, and the resource(s).

The bottom line is that you need to actually get out in the field and wear out some boot leather.  Go bear hunting in August. It will not only help you get a feel for an area and maybe see deer and/or kill a bear, but it helps get you in shape for High Buck and the rest if the fall hunting season.  It may also make you realize that the rigors of carrying your camp in on your back and your camp and a buck out on your back in invariably crappy weather don't quite match up with what might just turn out to be just a romanticized interest in a particular hunt.  There's a world of difference between sipping a cup of coffee while staring at a computer screen in the comfort of one's cozy home and crawling through slider alder on a steep wet hillside with a 100 lb. pack in the rain or snow with a headlamp.

[bankwalker]

Agreed. Like I said. I'm trying to learn what to look for so i can narrow down my scouting efforts with the minimal amount of time I will get to spend on the mountain scouting.

I have no issues with heavy loads. I hike alot of miles in August and September bear hunting in very steep terrain along the Olympic Park boundaries.

[boneaddict]

Think of it as a camping trip.  You said it in your first post.  All the country looks the same, all of it looks good.   The deer can be anywhere.   It's really big country.  Alot of folks that go in may not see a deer, even on a good year when the deer population is up.   They are spread out.  Pick a spot you'd like to go. Have fun.   Remember the country is way bigger than what it looks like on google earth. 

[nwwanderer]

It is not a garb field in Walla Walla county, a long ways between critters that normally travel miles and miles to find what is required for survival and reproduction.  Good glass and better boots would be my advice

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Hike in high and far. Hunt hard. Make sure there is water where you are going.

[Okanagan]

Good advice here.  For me, an aspect that may only apply to me is that I am never confident about a topo map nor Google Earth etc. if I have not walked some part of the ground shown by the map.  Maybe it is my defective brain but until I have seen and touched the vegetation and slope etc. up close, I don't have a good sense of what the map or aerial photo is showing me. 

So, like boneaddict, I'd take a summer hiking trip through someplace you are interested in, learn all that you can and then you can extrapolate that for a good many miles around that area. 

added:  you will love the early high hunt.  It is the prettiest time of year up there.

[7mmfan]

Think of it as a camping trip.  You said it in your first post.  All the country looks the same, all of it looks good.   The deer can be anywhere.   It's really big country.  Alot of folks that go in may not see a deer, even on a good year when the deer population is up.   They are spread out.  Pick a spot you'd like to go. Have fun.   Remember the country is way bigger than what it looks like on google earth.

This. I ran head on into this realization this year. It was a real eye opener to see what 5 miles across rugged terrain really looked like. Don't get in over your head.

[bankwalker]

Think of it as a camping trip.  You said it in your first post.  All the country looks the same, all of it looks good.   The deer can be anywhere.   It's really big country.  Alot of folks that go in may not see a deer, even on a good year when the deer population is up.   They are spread out.  Pick a spot you'd like to go. Have fun.   Remember the country is way bigger than what it looks like on google earth.

It doesn't look very big at all on Google