Maps and Strategy

[Magnus]

Good morning everyone! I’m new to the forum and have just gotten out scouting public lands by Lake Whatcom. I’ve noticed the DNR sells quadrangle maps of Wa locations, but does anyone know if these are good enough to use when looking for public lands access? Also is there a simpler way to find a parking spot, hike out and verify you are actually on public land? (GPS device maybe?)

My strategy is to find 2-3 different land sites that I’m familiar with scouting and focus my first weekends trying to get a buck in those locations. Is there a better way to go about planning?

Happy hunting!

[Skyvalhunter]

So if you are in the Lake Whatcom area I take it you found one or many of the gated roads you plan to park at and hike in correct? or will you be hunting a clearcut near a drive in road? There is a fair amount of State land up in that area. You should probably get a map then go check out some areas first. Some might be private with no trespassing. But your best bet is a hike in on a gated road.

[fowl smacker]

OnX will show you boundaries

[Mr Mykiss]

You can probably find a free 30-day trial of onX somewhere out there

[TheStovePipeKid]

I use paper maps during my planning phase at home and use a garmin with the onX chip as well as my phone with the onX app while in the field. If you plan to hunt and scout several times a year having a GPS or phone app with boundaries and landowner info is something I consider essential. I always bring my paper maps to reference at camp as well. Something about handling a paper map and marking it with a real pencil.

[BeerBugler]

I love paper maps but it’s getting very hard to justify there use. As others have said, OnX is the answer your looking for. $15 a month, I  use it almost every day.

[pianoman9701]

I love paper maps but it’s getting very hard to justify there use. As others have said, OnX is the answer your looking for. $15 a month, I  use it almost every day.

Monthly? Is that for a smart phone? Multiple states? I paid $110.00 once for GPS and Basecamp downloads,  and if I feel like I need to update it, $30/year. I haven't yet in 5 years.

[BeerBugler]

Monthly for smartphone, all states

[pianoman9701]

Monthly for smartphone, all states

Are you able to suspend the account during off months?

[BeerBugler]

No idea, I probably use it more in the off season than I do during hunting season. More of a planning tool than a hunting tool for me.

[fishnfur]

Magnus - if you pick a large area of public land, park your rig and go for a hike, there's little chance you're going to hike/hunt your way off public land.  WDFW used to maintain a good mapping tool that was excellent for planning hunts.  I have no idea why they did away with it.  They now have printable maps that show public land if you zoom in.  Combine that with Google Earth and you have enough information to find a few likely looking spots to hunt that are isolated from private lands.  https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/locations/gmu#region4gmu

OnX is in the App Store or online for download and 30 day free trial.  I hunt public and my own private land so I have no need to pay for mapping areas I already know.  This would be a great addition to your arsenal for finding some hunting spots.  Ultimately though, boots on the ground is what gets it done.

[predatorG]

I use ONX for just washington, Which is like 30 bucks a year. I remember cause I saw a charge on my card that confused me in August but then I remembered 

[goldenhtr]

Just used ONX on our Elk hunt and it was only a 7 day free trial. I have the chip in my GPS but wanted to see how it looked on my phone. Prefer the phone BTW.

[Magnus]

Thanks everyone for great tutelage! I found a lot of gated roads on the north side of lake Whatcom but only hiked up the wickersham truck hill road because the others looked to be crossing private lands. I found a couple trails that branched from the main trail and head towards public lands, but I didn’t follow them all the way. On the south east side of the lake, north of Anderson Mtn. I found a great piece of DNR land which i traversed and found no deer. I’m going to add ONX and continuing scouting land for good local hunts. Super motivated to hit the ground running on opening day! Thanks all!

[fishnfur]

Don't forget - finding deer is not paramount in scouting.  Finding fresh sign/evidence of heavy deer use is what you're after.  Lots of tracks, dung, browsed plants, old rubs etc. will tell you more than seeing a couple deer while you're in there.   If you see a huge buck though, give me a call and I'll go check out the area for you and make sure it's OK to spend time there.   

[Tracker0721]

OnX is great. From my couch here in Washington I placed pins in Colorado where I thought elk might be after watching some “how to scout with onX” videos on YouTube. Went down there and found elk or fresh sign in most places I dropped pins. We tracked our long hikes, buddy lost his range finder and backtracked right too it, the overlays are awesome for figuring out where animals stay and move through. Ran into a group that were surveying a property line and the OnX was dead on while the farms fence was 50 yards into public. Not to mention my thousands of pins I have here that now are drawing me a map of where and when animals are using which areas. If my account gets hacked I’ll have to move for sure. Picture is the elk 20 yards from my pin I dropped for a good mid day bedding spot.


AND if anyone wants OnX for a year use the code Randy. Gives you like 40% off one time. I did it to get all 50 states.

[boneaddict]

Maps....people still use maps???    AWESOME

[TheStovePipeKid]

Maps....people still use maps???    AWESOME

My three maps go on every hunt. This past year I moved all my marks and overlays to onX on my phone. I never even took them out the last trip, but they still came along. Real Paper! If I could just learn to fold them.

[Doublelunger]

I use onx to find general areas and access, then do the more precise e scouting with Google earth (vastly superior IMO) then when I find stuff I like I drop pins on onx and go ground truth it.

[WaltAlpine]

I use ONX for just washington, Which is like 30 bucks a year. I remember cause I saw a charge on my card that confused me in August but then I remembered 

Ditto.
And I use it for all hunting in a few different areas of the state. It is the best.

[jared p]

I keep a paper gmu map and compass in my pack every time I go out as a backup to using OnX on my phone. I keep an extra battery pack so I theoretically have a few days worth of juice for my phone. But in case some sorta accident happens, either break my phone or I'm stuck for more than a few days.  I can revert to my paper map and compass to figure out where to go. Generally I scout topo maps and satellite maps hard of where I'm going to know what ridge is where, where's the mountains etc so I'll always have a bit of an idea of everything when I'm there.