Winter coyotes in Whiskey Dick?

[jbauch357]

I'm looking for someplace near the west side to do an overnight coyote hunt / camping trip.  Figured based on snow levels that means I need to get over to the east side and lower elevation, which would make Whiskey Dick / Quilomene / Colockum ideal.  We frequently hunt the Lower Crab Creek Wildlife area, so I'm pretty familiar with the high desert / scrub type terrain, just haven't hunted these specific areas west of the Columbia before.

Anybody been out in the there lately and have a report on back road conditions as well as my chances for calling in a couple dogs?  Being able to find/cut some firewood would also be great, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen in the lower elevations.

[ThomMedic]

Not sure if this will help. Capitol State Forest is full of game of all sorts. Coyotes are suppose to be abundant in the southwest potion of the area which has a lot of clear cut land.

As far as camping goes, I believe the inside camp grounds are closed in the winter - however the rangers don't seem to mind much as long as you are being respectful to them and the land. Camp grounds on the edge of the forest are most likely to be accessible this time of year, but a little further from the safe hunting areas

There is the Evergreen Sportsmen Club at the entrance of Marksmen Dr, Little Rock/Bordeaux, that has camp sites. Call ahead to make sure. the club is on the edge of the C.S. Forest a few minutes from the clear cuts.

A good recon on Google-maps will be helpful, even better onX maps on a mobile device.

Hope this was helpful.

[Brad Harshman]

I'd advise against hunting whiskey dick / colockum/ quilomene.  It's been a rough winter.  The elk are down low too and you'd be inadvertantley pushing them around. 

Lower crab creek has tons of yotes.  Why not hit them there and leave the elk alone?  There are also private lands surrounding lower crab creek that you can reserve to hunt through the WDFW website they offer less pressured yotes as well.

[jbauch357]

I hadn't thought about the elk, thanks for bringing that up, would be neat to see them out there but I don't really want to be pushing them around without a good reason either.

As much as I'd like to explore a new area might just have to go to lower crab creek and hunt familiar grounds that aren't buried in snow.

[brew]

totally not where i thought this thread was going.....