Lake Chelan Recreation Area

[Arteman]

Hi HW members Arteman here, I live in Cowlitz county SW Washington.  Hunt mainly Blacktail and Elk on private timberlands in the surrounding areas, been hunting Asotin the first week of deer for mulies the last 10 or so years, hunted Okanogan twice on cougar pilot hunts, both times successful, seen a lot of deer both times during that late cougar hunt, tried hunting Okanogan the next year after the first cougar hunt and found out quick that all those deer I was seeing were not locals and that the snow pushes them down in the later, did kill a bear there opening day however, but kind of ruined a day of deer hunting.  Anyways thats about the just of my north central hunting experience.  A buddy and I are thinking of leaving town tonight to try new country, he's stuck on the lake chelan high buck hunt area, in my research so far I'm having a hard time finding an actual boundary, I found the maps I need however unfortunately this late in the game I wouldn't be able to pick one up tell I got over there, from stories I've read it seems hard to access with all this talk of ferries, float plains etc.  I just would like to know if this hunt is hard to access, not afraid to do a little hike to get in to legal hunting if that is all it is.  Any info would help, if anything I would love to see this country.  Last cougar we took near Twisp the dogs on gps tracking colars where less than a mile away and we had to climb 1600 feet in elevation to get to them, the view was amazing and country like that can make a man feel small.

[sirmissalot]

Sounds like a pretty cool hunt. My friends have been trying to talk me into taking the boat there and running it up the lake, probably near the area you're talking about. I'd love to see some pictures and hear how the hunt goes for you.

[WilliamWallace]

Mytopo.com Click on online maps. Zoom in to the area you want and find the wilderness boundary, then you can come up with a plan on where to hunt/hike. Its pretty warm out still so the deer are gonna be HIGH. Access is limited for the areas you will want to hunt. Like you said boat will be the way to go for transportation. The float plane only goes to Stehekin, unless you want to pay the big bucks and charter it to where you want to go. With it being so warm the deer are probably gonna be on the north slopes. Once it starts to cool they will move to the southern facing slopes, I was at 5500 feet two days ago and it was in the 40's for the overnight low. Knowing that I would focus on the south shore of the lake. Lucerene to holden village and hike up into the hart lake and lyman lake areas might be a good bet.

[Arteman]

Thanks WilliamWallace for the info, I can't do the boat or plain thing this year on such a spur of moment short planning, ill turn my focus more towards the south shore like you said and plan from that area, you seem to know what your talking about and have some good info, thank you.

[WilliamWallace]

Your only problem I am thinking about is getting into the wilderness to hunt for deer if your not gonna be on the boat... You can hunt bear but your gonna have to hike a ways to get into deer access land. You can drive up the Entiat till the end of the road at Cottonwood Campground, then your only looking at a 4 mile-ish hike past Myrtle Lake to get into the wilderness. You could stay near Larch lake but thats still a push if your not prepared for backpacking. Just some ideas I guess.