Mt Adams Wilderness; Permit only during general season?

[TRD1911]

Looking at scouting the the western cascades during late summer for archery season and trying to figure out the rules for these regions. I like the idea of hunting wilderness areas as the lack of roads thins out competition but it looks like 5059 (Mt Adams Wilderness area) is a special hunt/permit only? Am I reading the maps correctly? Are all Western Cascade wilderness areas specialty hunts? Between the regs, GMU maps and permit/specialty hunt-only regions its making it real difficult to make sure I"m doing the right thing.

[optic2]

First off you need to look at the permits again since they are weapon specific. In the "tag required to apply" column it will say something like WA (western archery) or WM (western muzzleloader) or WF (western firearm). The only permit I see for Elk Area 5059 is an any bull western firearm permit for the September 21-25. This does not apply to you as an archery hunter. This permit is simply allowing 5 firearm hunters to hunt elk in September in the Mt Adams Wilderness.

Moral of the story. You can hunt the whole archery elk season without a special permit. Although I've got some bad news for you, you most DEFINITELY will not be alone.

You don't need a wilderness area to find elk. I know some good areas to hunt elk in the Gifford and they ARE NOT in wilderness areas. I'm not going to tell you where they are because I've driven every road in that forest and hiked many many miles without seeing anything. Now it's your turn to do the same thing.

[msg]

I had that rifle tag many years ago. It used to start October 1 , 3 point or better. Those elk rut late up there and that hunt was perfect. Horse access makes it easy to get in off the Crest trail, so as stated you won't be alone. I talked to several bow hunters that said that we may get a little activity at the very end of our season but we don't get the rut. It is a big beautiful area, on foot you will put on a pile of miles looking for elk. Even then and in later years I heard that " It is not what it used to be"  But then again, most places in this state are not!

[elkontherun]

I also had the rifle tag years ago.  Beautiful country to hunt elk in. 

[Matth]

I had that rifle tag many years ago. It used to start October 1 , 3 point or better. Those elk rut late up there and that hunt was perfect. Horse access makes it easy to get in off the Crest trail, so as stated you won't be alone. I talked to several bow hunters that said that we may get a little activity at the very end of our season but we don't get the rut. It is a big beautiful area, on foot you will put on a pile of miles looking for elk. Even then and in later years I heard that " It is not what it used to be"  But then again, most places in this state are not!

 I have hunted this area a bit with archery gear, and didn't notice a late rut at all. I would say that the area is fairly on par for rut activity in late September.

[TRD1911]

Thanks for the input and advice. In looking at the harvest reports it appears that this unit has an exponentially higher number of hunters in it. Looking forward to checking out a new area. Thanks again on clarification on the regs.

[Matth]

Nice bull elkontherun. Yes as stated you will not be alone on the mountain. as usual look for all the in between places, and there is only one large drainage up there.