Forest Service Road 23 Area Hunting.

[seansfire]

Took a drive through USFS road 23 the other day from basically lake wynoochee over and came out at highway 101 at purdy cut off road. went by spider lake and browns creek campground for landmarks. just curious if anybody has ever done any scouting or hunting out there and if you would recommend a new guy like myself trying it out. i hunt archery only and have very little experience. thanks for any info you might be willing to share.

i didnt see any deer or elk while driving through but it sure seems like a great place to go. is that area a special permit area or anything like that?

[iRem]

Sounds like you went through the Skok unit and it is very productive for. I hunt that area during the early archery season and I usually see about 20 deer a day. The bucks are tough to locate in the early season but can find them during the rut later on. So far I've spotted two 3 point blackies and a ton of does. They changed the regs this year for deer but elk are a permit only. So the area that you drove through is productive for deer.

[seansfire]

the area i was in is where the high steel bridge , browns creek campground , spider lake area. it is at the end of the skok valley road you hang a right up the dirt road there. does that sound like the right area? feel free to PM me if you want. i will be up there camping this weekend.

[croix]

last time i hunted there, i was still rifle hunting and it sounded like a gun range opening day. quite a few deer hanging in the campground.

i drove out there last year (just driving not hunting) and the area has changed a lot in 15 years. i'm sure there are still plenty of deer there but i didn't get very far off the road to see any.

some of those hills and valleys can get REAL steep REAL quick - be careful.

[seansfire]

thanks alot guys. i am camping right by browns creek this weekend so i guess i will do a little scouting while i am there too. thanks again.