550 Coweeman or 554 Yale?

[MIKEXRAY]

Main road in from headquarters. The gate was open and manned but my buddy looked to the side and drove right by the guy. So they locked his ass in, tried to drive around but couldn't get out. The next morning (after sleeping with no gear) he asked the guy at the gate and he told him it was locked up during active logging activities due to vandalism.

[PNWCOONASS]

A couple of more questions,

Are you saying that they lock down the Head quarters road?  So is planning to camp in the area not such a good idea?  Any pointers on where to park a camper?   

Should I look at areas North of the Coweenman river or south?

I took out my atlas and just looking at the map I would initially plan to go to the area between Wolf Pt and Baird Mtn, any thoughts?  South Areas around 19th Mtn and Baldy Mtn? 

thanks again guys, you have definately suppling me with good info.. Pete

[Curly]

You are not allowed to stay on the Weyerhauser property over night.  They do lock the gates and they do patrol the area.  It is kind of a pain in the ass because of the lockdown, but it maybe helps the hunting because of the lack of camps in there.

[p-ohana]

As to your question early or late season. I hunt modern firearms, so middle of Oct thru the middle of Nov. Last year on opening day deer season driving in I came across 3 cows bedded down in the middle of the road. I don't know who was more surprised me or them. Just get back as far in there as you can find some tall timber that looks good and walk thru it, if theres a clearcut near by even better. It's a mad house in there for the modern firearms season, so I can't say about the M/L season. I hope this helps you out.

[Little Fish]

I haven't hunted late muzzle loader in there, but I've heard it's crowded. Not compared to moder firearm season, but crowded none-the-less.

I short ways before the Headquarters gate (few hundred yards) there is a gravel parking area. During modern season there are one or two groups that make camp in the parking area so that tells me its probably not timber company land. My guess is you could park a camper/trailer here.

[popeshawnpaul]

There is a guy on every ridge during rifle and muzzle seasons and they all have radios and it sounds like a war zone.  I wouldn't suggest hunting it unless you can sit on some escape route.  There are better units out towards the coast...

[Opportunist]

There is no late general season in 554, Yale is open in the early season. So the Coweeman is your only general late season opportunity that's any good.

The coweeman cow tag is a gimme kill if you get drawn. It's pretty tough to find a legal bull in the late hunt, they've had the *censored* chased out of them by archers and rifle hunters. Watch out for active logging, roads that access logging setups/landings are locked at night and usually these areas are shutdown weekend only. There's elk throughout the whole unit.

The yale tag is weather dependant. The lower part of the unit is private and public access on the Pacific Power property. Upper part is timber company and is mostly logged off now. They've really been dumping the timber that is left in the unit. The reprod is always good. You need good snow on Lakeview peak to push toutle bulls down into the Yale so later is better. The elk will jump back and forth on the boundary road between the toutle and yale.

Good luck on the draws and like I said in my pm give me a call if you want to go out, my dad is muzzleloading and my son has a multi-elk tag so we'll be definetly hitting the coweeman late season.

[shag]

I also applied for the Yale    Haven't spent much time in there in the past.  But it looks good to me. 

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

If you havn't been into yale you will have a hard time finding animals. If there is no snow the animals are far and few between.

[popeshawnpaul]

I disagree with the above...

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

Oh yeah shawn you caught me,  You just can't get away from the extra people. Tons of elk in there, easy to find...

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

We live 30 minutes from the unit and do not hunt it... We do alot of scouting in it though.

[popeshawnpaul]

Us archers do well in there.  High success rates...