Eagle Cap Wilderness (recent pics added)

[theleo]

Might as well add some pictures to this.

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[renrutbocaj]

Seems my question that re-surfaced this thread was burried.

Those of you with experience in the Caps, my brother drew a Muzzy Elk tag for this year and I will be going along with him in October with my pack goats. Is there any recommendations of non-horse trails to look into? Is it even worth worrying about the horse hunters during the muzzle loading season?

Thanks for any advice in advance. I have horses and love to ride and pack, but my wife and I are trying this pack goat adventure out and it has been great so far. Much cheaper and much more versatile.

There's no such thing as a "non-horse" trail for that hunt, all the trails are open to legal forms of transportation in a Wilderness area. I don't know what to tell you in regards to pressure but I'm sure a decent number of those tags will be either guided or drop camp hunters. There's plenty of ruff stuff in there but if comes down to weather elk won't hold in the upper end for to very long. Speaking of weather, be sure to have a set of changes since most of those trail heads can be a little sketchy coming down from once the snow starts sticking.

Great, thanks for the response.

Looking at the Forest Service online map, they list the "maintained trails", "Maintained within the last 2 years", and "Not Maintained". Are they more maintained than it looks? I see a lot of "Maintained within the last 2 years" and a lot of "Not Maintained". Should I not read into these labels as much as I would like to?

Also, what is access/popularity like in the Lostine River Rd area?


Thanks,

Renrut

[theleo]

Seems my question that re-surfaced this thread was burried.

Those of you with experience in the Caps, my brother drew a Muzzy Elk tag for this year and I will be going along with him in October with my pack goats. Is there any recommendations of non-horse trails to look into? Is it even worth worrying about the horse hunters during the muzzle loading season?

Thanks for any advice in advance. I have horses and love to ride and pack, but my wife and I are trying this pack goat adventure out and it has been great so far. Much cheaper and much more versatile.

There's no such thing as a "non-horse" trail for that hunt, all the trails are open to legal forms of transportation in a Wilderness area. I don't know what to tell you in regards to pressure but I'm sure a decent number of those tags will be either guided or drop camp hunters. There's plenty of ruff stuff in there but if comes down to weather elk won't hold in the upper end for to very long. Speaking of weather, be sure to have a set of changes since most of those trail heads can be a little sketchy coming down from once the snow starts sticking.

Great, thanks for the response.

Looking at the Forest Service online map, they list the "maintained trails", "Maintained within the last 2 years", and "Not Maintained". Are they more maintained than it looks? I see a lot of "Maintained within the last 2 years" and a lot of "Not Maintained". Should I not read into these labels as much as I would like to?

Also, what is access/popularity like in the Lostine River Rd area?


Thanks,

Renrut

The Lostine in a popular drainage, it receives it's fair share of archery and rifle hunters. As to what's maintained or not, you need to give me an idea about what trails you're looking at or where you want to go. There's a couple hundred miles of trails in your hunt area and the Forest Service doesn't do anything of significance towards maintaining them themselves. There are trails marked on there as not maintained that I've personally been on and cut out (within the past year) with a volunteer group. If you want, feel free to send me a PM and we can discuss some of the trails if you don't want to talk about where you're going on an open forum.

[spin05]

Haven't been this year but please post photos.  I always loved the Eagle Caps.

There's some Wallowas photos in the mix.

It was on one of the Imnaha forks. And there was a big area with down trees like the one pic. If i remember right it was Middle fork of imnaha. Almost to the glaciers

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Im pretty sure this is where i went on a drop camp bout 10 years ago

You'd have to be more descriptive on where you drop camp was. Those photos cover 3 drainage's, Little Minam, Catherine Creek, and the Imnaha.