Wa high buck hunt???

B

bonefreak

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anyone have any luck in the wilderness hunt in WA?
i went to alpine lakes and didnt see anything i wanted to pack out.
 
Yeah that was me with the 23 incher. Here's a photo:

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Hey guys,
4 fellas that I work with went on a 8 day trip to Alpine Lakes and all 4 had bucks by the 3rd day there. There were 2 nice 4 points and 2 nice 3 points. I will try to get an extra picture from them and post it. JB

They were there this last week.
 
what part of the lakes were they in?
i was north and east by Larch adn Ethel.
didnt see much there.
 
I am trying to get a picture. They are not very specific to where there were, all I know is that it was a 14 or 15 mile walk in? JB
 
I hunted for 5 days (it was supposed to be a week but we got too tired)with my bro in the glacier peak wilderness and I passed up 8 legal bucks, none were what I was looking for (140+). After school on Friday my girlfriend and I hiked in to a spot closer to home and after an extremely productive 40 minute hunt I shot a decent 4x5 with eyeguards, a couple sticker points and some charactar to boot. It isn't a huge buck by most peoples standards but it's my first high hunt buck and my largest deer I've seen during deer hunting season (doesn't speak highly of my skill!) I'll post some pics when I figure out how.
 
Well, I didn't get the monster muley this year, but we did find a big Washington buck (more later). Our 10-day drop camp (5 guys 9/14-9/19 - 3 guys 9/14-9/23) started Wednesday at 4 a.m. in my driveway for a 3 1/2 hour drive to the Entiat trailhead (Icicle Outfitters - great family run outfitting service for 20+ years/check them out at www.icicleoutfitters.com).

By 11 a.m., we had 7 pack mules loaded up with about ? ton of gear, and 5 hunters on horses, and 2 outfitters hitting the trail for a 12 mile ride. By noon, we pass the Wilderness Area marker. By 3:30 pm, we are at our soon to be base camp at 5500 elevation and 50 miles from the nearest electricity or cell phone coverage. By 5 pm, our 14x16 wall tent is set up, the campfire is lit, and dinner is cooking.

At daybreak on opening day, I head up my favorite hillside to walk the base of the rock cliffs where I got a quick glance at a monster last year. By 8 am, and 1000 feet elevation later, I spook through a few does in the timber and am above the treeline moving real slow and glassing the high country. At 9:30, I look around a rock cliff up a steep draw over a creek with the wind in my face and see a sole deer feeding that does not look up. Up goes the rifle, off goes the safety, and I see a forked horn (high hunt is 3 pt. min). I scope up and count the third point, then scope down to behind the front shoulder and squeeze off one shot for this opening day 4x3 (3x2 with eyeguards):

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Then the work begins. I drag this buck for 2 hours before the others could find me. Then, two of us drug for another 4 hours before getting to camp. At 5 pm, the meat is skinned, cleaned, and bagged.

Two days later, my buddy?s nap is interrupted by this 3x3:

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Two days later, my brother does a spot and stalk on this 5 point in a meadow right below a rock cliff:

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So, out of 5 hunters, we filled 3 tags and had a great high hunt.
 
You guys did good. Your brother's buck is really nice! I'm wondering, why the heck did you drag your deer out??? 6 hours of dragging just doesn't sound like much fun! In fact it sounds like about the worst torture I can think of. That would just kill my back. My buck was a mile from camp, and we boned out the front half, my brother carried that meat out (in a back pack) and I carried the 2 hind quarters out in my pack. Only took us a half hour to get to camp.
 
congrats to all you guys on some nice mountain muleys
it sure is an awesome hunt.
 
That's what I am talking about! Great story and a great hunt it sounds like, I've got my drop camp for next year booked, I'm hoping for a hunt like yours, thanks for sharing the success with us.
 
The first 25 guys we packed out from our drop camps had 16 bucks and a bear. Several of them are 24" plus some heavy racks all from the Chelan County area; Glacier Peak and Alpine Lakes wilderness areas.
 
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness does have pockets of good bucks. Our drop camps did very well in the Alpine GMU 249. Most of our hunters go to the Clark GMU 244 in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.
 
I have a picture of some deer my buddies got this year during the high hunt. I can't post it so if someone knows how I will send you the picture to post. JB
 

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