Entiat A Tag!!!!!!!

[shag]

well guys i'm not gonna beleive it until it comes in the mail.  But I drew a Entiat A Tag Nov 1-18!!!!!!!!!!!!  I hope this is forreal!!!

The best part is that I put in for this tag as a group.  Well hopefully this is true and the best part is that my partner is my kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to watch my kid slay the big one!!

Oh yea I'll be needin some help with territory and gear!!

CD

[bobcat]

Congrats on the tag. It's a good one, but it's not as good as you might think. You'll see a lot of deer but finding a good buck might take a while. Plus there will be more hunters in there than ever before. Personally I would hunt as far to the west as possible, depending on the snow.

[WAmuleyHunter]

congrats on a great tag, you and your kid or gonna see so many animals and have a great experience.  hunt as much as you can!!! it will be a blast, there will be a bunch of guys but put in the time and you will be rewarded.

garrett

[shag]

If this is true I'm gonna hunt 15 of the 18 days!!  CD

[wackmaster]

sweet draw

[shag]

What a great opportunity for my son and I to go on a quality hunt!!!  I have never hunted the Entiat.  I'm planing on huntin 15 of the 18 days. 

I'm hoping that  anyone that's hunted the Entiat in November can inform me as to the type of tempetures(weather) we can expect.

I gotta outfit the kid with boots and clothes. I'll need boots also and we both need sleeping bags.

If anyone has any ideas on a place to set camp please any help would be really appreciated.

This is a dream come true.  My 14yr old son is as excited as I am!!!

You can PM me with any help or E-mail me if you like.

cfshag@hotmail.com

Thanks  and good luck to others that drew their dream tags!

Chuck

[bobcat]

Sent you an email.

[GOcougsHunter]

sent a PM

[shag]

Thanks guys for the PM's!!!

I really just want a safe and enjoyable hunt for the boy and I.  i'm gonna research this to the very end.  I need to be prepared!  I'm pretty sure some Schnees(boots) gators and some wool will make the trip.

But I need to find out the temps so our bags keep us warm.  I'm already worried about being able to keep us warm cozy.  to kill would be the iceing on the cake!!  A good experience would be awesome.

I'm feeling sucessful all ready! Just to spend time camped with my son is better than I'd hoped for.  Hope to get the kid a respectable 4x4!!!  I'll worry about me later.

If anyone has any pics of the conditions over there this time of year please post!!  Also any pics of big mulies on any of the late hunt will provide even more motovation!!!

Which part of the hunt would you not miss. The first half or the last half??  I'm shootin for 15 of the 18 days.  At least 10 of the 18!!!! 

I'll try to post a pic of my sons blactail from last year on a very tough high country hunt.

Thanks  alot

Chuck

[WDFW-SUX]

I slept in the back of my truck in swakane last year in a 0 degree bag and was warm

[ICEMAN]

Creeping Death. I know the area and also do a  bunch of tent camping below freezing, on top of snowpac. Keep in mind that most bags freeze you from the bottom as you compress the insulation...it loses it R value. We sleep on doubled foam camp pads from Wallyworld. An inflatable pad is ok, but you will want to double up as a safety measure, those pads have a habit of deflating in the middle of the night.Many winter campers use an inflatable over a foam pad. We prefer the cheaper doubled foam pads. Another trick we do, is to sleep next to each other, back to back... In extreme cold, we wear dry themals to bed. I also toss a thin sheet over the sleepers. This thin sheet is called a "neatsheet", also found at wallyworld, look in the picnicy stuff..... It is a proprietary fabric, developed for having a picnic on, or resting on at the beach. The microporous material is water resistant and quiet. These sheets are a staple of my outdoor gear. I keep a small one in my daypack, to toss over my legs while I sit on a stand for a while. When you toss this over the sleepers it serves two purposes. Your body gives off up to a quart of water thru your pores every night that you sleep. In ultra cold conditions, this moisture travels thru your bag, and condenses at the dew point in your bag, somewhere in the middle, or near the surface of your bag, depending on it's insulative value. Very often, in really cold temps, we find this moisture at the surface of the bag, many times freezing on the top of the bag. The sheet helps to cause this dew point to move to the surface of the bag. Moisture will be at the surface, where it can evaporate off all day while you are away. If the moisture manifests itself within the insulation of the bag, then day by day, you bag loses insulative value and becomes laden with hidden dampness and moisture, causing the bag to fail you after many days.  The second purpose of the sheet is to help retain lost heat from the sleepers, and to share the mass lost heat thru radiation, sort of a second shot at the warmth. Remember to sleep with you mouth respirating to the outside of the bag, and not inside as you try to duck out of the cold. You can really pump alot of moisture from your breath into your bag.

This info is probably most useful for those who intend to stay for more than just a few days. Remember, you can always bring an extra (non cotton, synthetic only...) blanket or two or three depending on the quality of your bag...

[Idabooner]

Thanks Iceman, that's all very good advice and should be taken seriously by any body in the out back, even if they don't intend to lay out, you never know when it could happen.  I've learned these tricks through the years spending a lot of time in the back country, before Wallyworld and all the great insulated gear was invented.  It's good to know these tricks in a survival situation when you have to use what's available at the time to the best advantage.

[grade-creek-rd]

Call me crazy, but why would anyone sleep in the back of a truck in 0 degree weather, in Swakane Canyon...Wenatchee is only 20 minutes away, with several affordable motels.

Which brings me to my next point. The Entiat Tag is an awsome tag...but don't think it a remote tag. I grew up in Chelan, and well lets say I would rather drive home and sleep in my comfortable bed than in a tent to save the 1 hour differnce...

My Dad drew the Swakane A tag this year, and he will "commute" from his house in Manson (about an hour away) each day.

Make your camp as comfortable as you can, especially if taking your son (I don't know how old he is, but just the memories together will be great).

Not to put a damper on those giving suggestions on "cold weather camping" but I would rather treat this like a vacation or "hunt of a decade"...not really of a "lifetime" but a good hunt, and spend a little of that money on the locals and stay at a motel. Or buy a good wall tent and stove (since you will be "car camping"...driving to the camping spot).

Afterall, that time of year it gets dark by 5:30 PM, and Chelan is only 20 minutes from the town of Entian (no motel in Entiat...) so if you hunt till dark, got back to your truck at 5:30, and say it takes 1/2 hour to get to hwy 97A, then you would be in your cozy motel room at 6:20 PM...plenty of time to take a hot shower, cook a good dinner, and sit around the table looking at maps for the next days hunt.

A great hunt doesn't mean you have to "rough it" to get the "total experience"

Just my .02 cents.

Grade-Creek-Rd

[boneaddict]

OH FINE CD   after I sent you all of those awesome pics, you're going to bail and hunt the Entiat.

[shag]

Kinda gotta now.   It's pretty bizare. I got a call from a longtime buddie I grewup with.  Well his son(14) also drew the same tag!!  So we'll be huntin together!
They live in spokane. He said he's not gonna beleive a damn thing tell he get notification by mail. But the day he dose he's the wall tent and stove search is on!

Good for me !!  Oh i got plans for those pics you sent bone!!  They just got set back a year is all!

CD