We hunted it last year. We were south of encampment about 10-15 miles up the forest service road that meets the highway just west of town past the river. (can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. Beautiful country. Steep, by the way. This is what we learned:
Early October is awfully early for deer in there. Most likely you'll be hunting local deer. They are very scattered, but there are a few there. Some were in the lower, more open BLM country, saw some on the NF. Not sure one was better than the other as we saw deer in both areas. Big bucks were scarce. My guess is the ones that were there were holed up in the timber since it wasn't real cold.
Be careful of the bears. We had one in camp trying to get into our cooler when we came back one night. Luckily the cooler was bear proof. But it made sleeping a little more interesting knowing that there was a bear around that knew we had food. Take the necessary precautions. As the week went on, we found that the deer on the NF were traveling most just inside the aspens and timber near the tops of the fingers and ridges. We did catch a few out browsing early and late, but not a lot. The locals told us that that deer heard summers west of there over towards Baggs, and moves through when the snow starts flying. Maybe you guys will hit the weather right.
We never did go all the way to the lookout at the very top. If I went back, I would definitely check that area out, since the bucks weren't with the does at that time. Hopefully you guys have a great hunt. If you want specifics, send me a pm and I can try to give you the exact areas we were in. I know south of where we camped was the encampment wilderness study area.
BTW- we hunted the second week and did not see a ton of other hunters. Maybe that should've told us something ;-)
Best of Luck,
WH
