Wilderness deer hunting question

[Tbob]

Hey gang,
  So I lucked out and scored Labor Day weekend off (fri-mon) so I'm planning on revisiting a wilderness area (west cascades) that I camped/hiked in around 7 yrs ago. I've been looking at google earth and marking areas on my GPS, but I'm curious as to how most of you guys would hunt a wilderness area? Meaning there's no clear cuts or typical food sources that I'm used to walking around.. This area is a little busy with hikers, but there's plenty of area to get off the trails.. I'm just curious how you guys go about archery hunting deer in a wilderness area? Do you set up on a game trail and wait it out? Do you still hunt? Look on meadow fringes? Hunt the timber? Sit on a ridge? Any advise would be awesome! I've seen deer/elk and bears in the area in the past, but wasn't hunting and was camping with friends and usually just bumped these critters off the main trail system traveling from one spot to the next.. I'm going to hike in Thursday night after work and hunt all day Friday/sat/sun.. Thanks for any insight y'all can offer.. I really want to get one of these west cascade mountain bucks!

[muleracks]

I would hunt the edges of meadows or open ridge tops.  Spot and stalk or get the targeted buck patterned and do a ground blind.  Remember that most mornings the air flows up hill and in the evening the air flow tends to be down so set up to take advantage of air movements.

[Tbob]

Thanks for the heads up on the advise man!!
     Just for y'all, this isn't the alpine lakes Wilderness. This area has a top out elevation of about 3800 ft and doesn't really have the classic "get up high and glass the basins areas". Is mostly old timber with a few meadows here and there and lots of little ponds.. I've seen a few masher bucks in there and that's why I really want to revisit the area.. Thanks again for any and all advise how to hunt an area like this..

[Skyvalhunter]

Make sure this is in a wilderness area and that particular wilderness area is open for hunting.

[Tbob]

Good looking out, but yep. I'm archery hunting and it is a wilderness area and is definitely open for archery deer. Any deer to be exact..

[krew]

Good looking out, but yep. I'm archery hunting and it is a wilderness area and is definitely open for archery deer. Any deer to be exact..

at the risk of asking a stupid question ( i've never hunted a wilderness area) how can you tell if one is open for hunting or not? Is there a list in the regs I'm missing?

[bobcat]

Good looking out, but yep. I'm archery hunting and it is a wilderness area and is definitely open for archery deer. Any deer to be exact..

at the risk of asking a stupid question ( i've never hunted a wilderness area) how can you tell if one is open for hunting or not? Is there a list in the regs I'm missing?

If it's within a Game Management Unit that is open, then it's open. Simple as that.

[krew]

Good looking out, but yep. I'm archery hunting and it is a wilderness area and is definitely open for archery deer. Any deer to be exact..

at the risk of asking a stupid question ( i've never hunted a wilderness area) how can you tell if one is open for hunting or not? Is there a list in the regs I'm missing?

If it's within a Game Management Unit that is open, then it's open. Simple as that.

Well that makes sense. I guess I got the impression that Wilderness Areas had their own set of rules that I wasn't aware of based on some of the previous questions. Thanks for the quick response!

[Tbob]

Sorry for any confusion.. I guess I was just meaning a backcountry hike in hunt that isn't a tree farm. I'm used to hunting in Rainier or Weyerhaeuser land on the wetside and sort of know the habitat I'm looking for there to hunt, but with big open backcountry areas, I'm just a little less sure of what I'm looking for. Like I said, this area doesn't have the classic "get up high and glass" areas so I'm just wondering where to concentrate what little time I have. That's all.. Like if I find a good game trail, should I just sit it out and wait? Should I be still hunting the timber, meadows?? That's all.. This area I'm going is in an open gmu to hunting and happens to be a "wilderness area" as well... Regardless, I'm just super stoked to be getting into the mountains with a tag in my pocket!