Free: Contests & Raffles.
I'm in the same boat. I drew a 16A tag for the 3rd archery season (Sep 19-24). I've read that a fire can actually improve hunting (provided of course they put it out) as the animals like to eat the new vegetation that pops up. Looks like they're making progress on containing the fire. Hopefully that trend continues. We'll see...
For what it is worth, the season of the big fire here was really a good season. They fire was out in Sept and by the end of Oct the elk were right back in there and visibility was good so to speak. Keep baby wipes handy to wash all the black off.