673 Williams Creek

[hunter_sean08]

Yes you are right that you can get in from jorgenson slough, but it is just a matter of time before there is a gate there or is dug out as well.  There are a number of gates sitting in the parking lot at the Cathlamet hancock office waiting to go in.  They are either going to gate or dig up all access to get into the hancock unit as soon as they get to it and I dont believe I would be caught driving around back there especially now during fire season when your not suppose to be back there.  They know where all of the backways are to that unit and are going to put some sort of barrier up as soon as they get to it.  It still will not be any different in rifle traffic wise, just cant camp on the ground anymore.

Good to know. So are they going to open the gates during the modern season then? I was sitting back thinking last night that none of this is fair if they keep all of these roads gated during hunting season, especially the archery and muzzy guys that never see an open gate. I mean think about it, we get shafted by the WDFW with short seasons that usually don't go any longer than 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, and those are the long seasons. It should not be a big deal for them to let us in for a few weeks out of the year just to hunt. I understand that they're worried about vandalism and dumping, but not much, if any is going to happen within the few weeks we're in there. We kill the bears that damage their trees, the deer and elk that overbrowse. They could use our help in my opinion. I dunno, I just feel like they should open the main gates at least. It's all frustrating....

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

What might be confusing to some, Unit 673 is Williams Creek, while, I think the Rayonier land is in Willapa Hills unit,...
Niether has a ML season, Archery and Modern only..... 

[hunter_sean08]

What might be confusing to some, Unit 673 is Williams Creek, while, I think the Rayonier land is in Willapa Hills unit,...
Niether has a ML season, Archery and Modern only..... 

You are definitely correct, although I have a ml tag in the Willapas for a cow in December. For sure the Rayonier land is in the Willapa Hills Unit though. It's all Weyerhaeuser and Hancock in Williams Creek.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

It's all Weyerhaeuser and Hancock in Williams Creek.

And DNR,

[Paps4]

It looks like there may be some rayonier land to the northeast of Williams creek road.  Google "pacific county mapsifter" for a detailed sat. map showing the ownership of all parcels in the area.  When you zoom in the parcels will show up.

[rose673]

Was glad to see a pacific county sherriff sitting about a 100 yards inside the gate of the fossil keyed area.  Talked to him for about 30 minutes and he had been sitting there since 4 this morning, will be issuing tickets not warnings to violaters.   The sherriff's office and WDFW are starting to do patrols in the area or at least sit at the gate..... A nice site to see if you have a key.

[willapawapiti]

I understand the Williams Creek mainline is gated also....FYI

[bobcat]

Isn't it funny how the WDFW created all the extra (and unnecessary) special permit categories last year, so they could raise more money, for what they said was to be improved access on private lands for hunters. Well, I'm not seeing a whole lot more access than what we had before. In fact I'm hearing of gates going up everywhere in SW Washington and some areas the timber companies are charging a fee to hunt. What happened to all the extra FREE access for hunters, WDFW?

[grundy53]

Isn't it funny how the WDFW created all the extra (and unnecessary) special permit categories last year, so they could raise more money, for what they said was to be improved access on private lands for hunters. Well, I'm not seeing a whole lot more access than what we had before. In fact I'm hearing of gates going up everywhere in SW Washington and some areas the timber companies are charging a fee to hunt. What happened to all the extra FREE access for hunters, WDFW?

[bobcat]

Did a little more thinking about this situation, and what I see happening in the near future, with many of the BEST elk hunting areas on the west side of the state being locked up, is that people are going to be crammed more and more into the areas that are still open to public access. And what this is going to do is to force the DFW to go to permit only elk hunting, to have some sort of control on the number of hunters in certain areas.

I foresee some big changes coming with our elk seasons. They can't just continue unlimited general season hunts in all GMU's, with access being severely restricted like it is now. And it's only going to get worse. It's pretty bad right now with what seems like the majority of the Willapa Hills units being gated. I'm close to giving up entirely on elk hunting in this state.

[AKBowman]

 

I agree to a certain level; if the tendencies of the timber co's is going to head towards access permits than yes it will only be a matter of time. If the timber co's limit access to walk in-non motorized vehicle access by gating more roads than I believe OTC elk hunting on te west side will not only continue but continue to get better (more high quality). The unfortunate side to this coin is that this limits the field to those with the physical capability to perform on these demanding type hunts.
If access permits are the wave of the future for timber co's, which I believe will be the case than things are really going to change.
Personally I do not see why they would limit access for a person who was willing to hike/bike in. What damage can you cause? What means will you have to dump anything?

On a side note, I would be more than willing to pay an access fee to hunt in an area that was gated with NO motorized vehicles. However, I will never pay a dime to hunt in access fee area under the arrangements that are currently set up for Fossil Crk. Every yahoo with a permit will be driving all over hell

[AKBowman]

And why open gates for modern firearm? I have never understood that. Gates that are locked for archery are opened for mod firearm. I love the locked gates but if
Your going to lock a gate than keep it locked year round. The only reason I can see why the timber co's would open gates for modern firearm is they want people to run the elk off of their land to minimize damage to reprod, etc

[CJ-5]

I agree, if you lock it up for archery and muzzleloaders, lock it up for rifle hunters as well.  It would be some pretty good hunting for those who put in the work! 

[Dbax129]

BUMP

So I was doing some searching and reading, and was curious, does anybody have any idea if there are parts of Williams Creek (673) that are closed during modern to all vehicles?  I know most that posted in this thread seemed to disapprove of the new gates and holes blocking roads, but personally I am hoping that this means better hunting for those of us who are willing to hike/bike in. 
This thread was mostly prior to the 2011 season, so my bump is for an update.  After 2 more seasons, what does it look like?  Is there drive-in access on all the Weyerhaeuser and Hancock and DNR land there?  Thanks everybody! 
I might try and go down there this weekend to start driving around and scouting gates and access points.  I've never been before, but I think I'm going to hunt this unit this year with a couple of buddies who are also new to elk hunting.  We live in kitsap, so we've got a 3 1/2 drive, but my other thought was 615, which is almost the same distance, and it rains there sooo much, it might scare off my buddies... we'll see. 

[Halo]

Probably going to be a mess down there this year, Rayonier just leased out another 1025 acre area down there. That will bump alot of hunters around, probably myself included. I have property there and have hunted that area for over 30 years. Hopefully I will draw a decent out of state tag and be able to just abandon that area for a while.