Colin, I sent a PM to Huntnut this week, but the gist is this. You don't need the nastiest/steepest anything. You don't need to be at 5000 foot ridges. You need is some forestry (cutting) in areas above some bottom ground. If that ground has alfalfa fine, if not it doesn't matter. Whitetails love creek bottoms and travle easy routes where possible, IE benches, sadles etc. I hunt an area where there are old cuts where roads have been closed off. Some so old you can't hardly see the roads anymore. Work these back to areas between old cuts with a bench or low elevation ridgline within a mile or two of valley bottom and you have as likely a place as any. There's tons of state from Chewela to the canadian border. Huckleberry gets hammered though. They should be in pre rut now so hunt buck sign. If you find a scrape or series of rubs that are near thick area to bed or cut edges, take a seat and wait. It's an ambush game find the best fresh sign, take a seat. I tend to repeat this one, but the best 10 or 20 yards of clearing on great sign is worth most all the clear cuts on the mountain. Leaving in the morn!
If you need help picking some areas, there's a F&G office and an NF office right in downtown colville. Good resources. Have fun! We can compare notes when you get back.
