Toutle Unit Acess--Permit Only?

[SilkWWU]

I know this is only Muzzleloader, but it got me a little excited that they might do this for Rifle as well.  I hold a Toutle Modern Permit as a lot of you know as I've been bugging everyone on here for as much information as I can   That being said, I just called the Weyco hotline and the Toutle is "only open for motorized access IF you have a muzzleloader Elk Permit.  That would be fantastic if they only allowed in vehicles where people had a permit...Anyone know if they do this for rifle too?

[fishm@n]

Yup Toutle and Margarette (sp) are both permit only for all weapons.

[Blacktail135]

 SilkWWU, I had a Toutle rifle elk permit in '06. I can't remember for sure but, I think the permit season for there opened the same day as the westside general elk rifle season. Opening morning, while sleeping in the backseat of my truck at the end of the blacktop of a road locally refered to as the "landfill?", waiting for Weyco to unlock their gate (along with a whole bunch of other hunter's) a Weyco rep came thru (about 4:30am) honking his horn as he drove by before unlocking the gate. I couldn't find my map's but the Toutle unit western boundary was about 20 mile's in on the mainline. I think the west boundary was road #235. I too had hoped that all the side road gate's would remain closed but, alas, not the case. EVERY gate was open. While I was cleaning my elk some folk's stopped to chat (before it started raining, remember the rain's of '06? Whew!) I was surprised at how many general season (non-permit holder's) were in there driving around. To me the Toutle rifle permit is a pretty easy meat hunt. The archery permit (if there is one) would be a nice trophy tag for a Roosie IMO. I got a map at a sporting good's called Bob's? down yonder somewhere. Nice store. Spent some money there on stuff I didn't need right away but would in the future because it had that local feel to it. Some of this we've discussed thru PM but, rehashing out in the open might fetch you some info from people that know the unit. I passed on some elk first day and took the first 4-pt I saw on day 2 and never for a second regretted it, beside's, I was sitting on a sheep tag in my wallet and had a terrible itch to get to Naches!      

[bobcat]

I haven't heard them say on the message that only permit holders were allowed motorized access. But I will have to call it tonight and listen. I called Friday and they said then that the message would be updated on Sunday. I'm really not sure why they would need to have a rule not allowing anybody in unless they had an elk permit. Why else would somebody want to drive into the Toutle unit? Bear or grouse, maybe   Also what are they going to do, stop everybody at the gate and ask to see the permit?

By the way, we spent all day yesterday and all day today in there and did not see an elk! When we hunted in '07 elk were everywhere. I guess the WDFW's plan to reduce elk numbers is working.

[SilkWWU]

I'm not too worried, I've talked too some archery guys who were into elk every day.  Though some guys from my camp went up yesterday and didn't see any elk, there friend called them while he was up there and was currently watching a couple of five points near the area we are thinking of camping   I'm pretty much hunting from sun up to sun down every single day until I tag out.  No stops.

On a side note, one of the earlier posters was talking about "why anyone else would want to be in there?"  There is apparently a major problem with hunters shooting a Toutle Bull and then quickly driving into the Coweeman and saying they shot it over there and such.  Also people are idiots and don't realize it's a permit only unit, or they are hunting grouse, or scouting for this or that...apparently opening weekend is a zoo, even though there's only 130 tags...

[Antlershed]

Also what are they going to do, stop everybody at the gate and ask to see the permit?

They do that up Vail for the youth early opener. We used to use that weekend to go look for deer, but now you can't get in unless you have a youth hunter with a permit in your rig.

[hard hunter]

I was up there on Sat. with a disabled hunter that had a cow tag.  You guessed it a 5X5 at 50 yards was the only thing that we could have shot at.  Saw a few cows but all were at mach 1.  I was a little disappointed with the amount of game we saw.  I expected to see more and most of those we talked to had not even seen an elk both Sat and Sun.

Well see what happens, the disabled hunter is trying to get down here again for this next weekend.

[bobcat]

Well we finally saw a couple elk today. Same deal as you, had a raghorn bull first thing this morning at about 75 yards standing there looking at us. A little later saw a cow with two calves that had crossed the road and were running up the hill. That was it for today. Will be out there again on Friday searching for a cow.