I'm planning my fall elk hunt, and based on a recommendation from a guy I used to work with I'm going to try the area near the William O Douglass Wilderness Area just south-east of Mt Rainier National Park. For those familiar with WA hunting, it's GMU 513.
Territory.
I was hoping that the accumulated experience on this board would help me to narrow down the good spots to scout when I head out there in a few weeks. Scouting trip is planned for the weekend of Oct 10. Hunting starts on Nov 7.
Vehicle access is very limited, so I'll be hiking probably 2-5 miles from the truck to set up camp. I don't have a horse so going much more than 5 miles in will be a bad idea. I don't know at this point if it will be a solo hunt, or if I'll have a partner as the two guys I was supposed to hunt with can't go. I'm trying to find another partner, but nothing confirmed so far.
Wherever I camp I want it to be a short hike (<2 miles) to where I'll be concentrating my glassing and still hunting. One area I'm leaning towards is Carlton Ridge with a camp near Log Spring. For obvious reasons I want to camp near a decent water source, but I don't know how decent of source that spring would be. There are some creeks shown on my topo map that aren't too far from the trail near Log Spring but I don't know how much water, if any, will be in them in the fall. It's quite a bit further to hike in, but Jug Lake would also be an option for a camp site. Then there's the area near Laurel Hill but there's not much water shown on my topo map near there. I was also looking at following Carlton Creek up a ways and hunting between it and the Rainier National Park boundary.
Anyway, if anyone has knowledge of that area any intel would be greatly appreciated for good camping/hunting spots.
Thanks.
