Idaho Unit 26 Roads

[boxx]

Hi all,
Me and my brother were lucky enough to draw Mule Deer tags in Idaho 26. From what I've see so far, access will be our biggest concern. We are planning on driving out and hunting from October 10-25. Plan right now is to drive in on the forest roads on the west from McCall or Cascade. My question is are the roads going to be passable that time of year or should we be looking at flying? We are comfortable driving forest roads here in PA but they aren't at 8000'.

 

[WstrnCP]

I wouldn’t plan on driving to hunt 26. Even if the weather is perfect not much of the unit is really accessible by road. You might want to look into options to fly in.

 

[WstrnCP]

Forgot to add, even if you do fly be ready for lots of walking.

 

[AustinTravis]

I haven’t been to 26 but I hunted 21 and 28 this fall for bear. I think you’re probably going to have to fly into 26 if you want to get in there. If not, you’re going to have to pack in deep or go by horse because almost the whole unit is frank church wilderness. The forest service roads we went on were sketchy and were on a lot of cliff edges. We ran into snow around 8k and would absolutely not drive on those roads with snow on it. You'll need 4wd in case of rain but the main roads were well maintained. I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have a good pair of binos and a good spotter because you’ll be doing a ton of glassing. It’s big, steep, and rough country. It was very dry in a lot of 28. As we went up to unit 21 we got into more moisture. All of the muleys we saw were grouped together. We wouldn’t see any for miles and then see them stacked. Population looked good and we saw some really solid bucks in 28. Don’t be discouraged, just be prepared. Your biggest issue will be access. I’d look into flying in, or going by horseback, or you’ll be stuck hunting from a very small portion of the unit.

 

[BAKPAKR]

My brother has a cabin at Edwardsburg. There is not much of a road system in that unit. The lowest drivable pass is almost 7600 feet so an early snow could keep you out, or keep you in…

The lodge near the airstrip serves a pretty darn good breakfast.

 

[BAKPAKR]

I haven’t been to 26 but I hunted 21 and 28 this fall for bear. I think you’re probably going to have to fly into 26 if you want to get in there. If not, you’re going to have to pack in deep or go by horse because almost the whole unit is frank church wilderness. The forest service roads we went on were sketchy and were on a lot of cliff edges. We ran into snow around 8k and would absolutely not drive on those roads with snow on it. You'll need 4wd in case of rain but the main roads were well maintained. I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have a good pair of binos and a good spotter because you’ll be doing a ton of glassing. It’s big, steep, and rough country. It was very dry in a lot of 28. As we went up to unit 21 we got into more moisture. All of the muleys we saw were grouped together. We wouldn’t see any for miles and then see them stacked. Population looked good and we saw some really solid bucks in 28. Don’t be discouraged, just be prepared. Your biggest issue will be access. I’d look into flying in, or going by horseback, or you’ll be stuck hunting from a very small portion of the unit.

Did you have any trouble figuring out if you were in 28 or in 21? Did you happen to see Ryan Lampers?

 

[boxx]

We know that most of it is Frank Church Wilderness, so we were looking at some of the trailheads around it, driving to them and then hiking in the rest of the way. But I will talk to him and see if he's up for flying in instead based on all the comments so far.

 

[AustinTravis]

Did you have any trouble figuring out if you were in 28 or in 21? Did you happen to see Ryan Lampers?

Good one, I haven’t kept up with it and I didn’t know that was where all that happened at. But 21 and 28 are clearly separated by the salmon river, there’s no mixing it up.

 

[AustinTravis]

We know that most of it is Frank Church Wilderness, so we were looking at some of the trailheads around it, driving to them and then hiking in the rest of the way. But I will talk to him and see if he's up for flying in instead based on all the comments so far.

It won’t be impossible to hike it and have a good hunt, but it’s going to be rough. I’m sure those trailheads see a lot of traffic and that would be my concern. Some of those drop in areas also see a decent amount of traffic too. I’m not familiar with the weather in October.

 

[Customweld]

There are 2 roads in there. The Yellowpine (Cascade) side and the Elk Summit (McCall) side. Coming in from Yellowpine is the much better route in terms of road shape.
Both have substantial summits:
Warm Lake, Landmark and Profile are on the Cascade side. They are mining in Stibnite, so the mining company has been keeping Landmark plowed. Valley County plows the road to Warm Lake. You are on your own for Profile.
Going in from the McCall side, you have Secesh, Warren and Elk Summit. No snow plows past the snowmobile parking lot at the end of Payette Lake. The road from the South Fork of the Salmon, over the top of Elk Summit is miserable at best.
Both Elk Summit and Profile can get snowed in overnight. If you are back there and it starts snowing, be prepared to bug out.