Has anyone ever hiked or packed into the Entiat from the Cottonwood trailhead for either the early or regular season? I'm thinking about scouting that area out this summer to pack in for the early hunt on 9/15. Any information would be appreciated.

I didn't hunt that drainage, but did hunt some a little west of that over a 20 year period.

You hunt any of those?

I gave up on that area after they did away with the extened season, but used to hunt up on duncan hill, took a couple nice bucks out of there, also hiked in off the cow creek trail, there is a huge bowl back in there which can be good if you get weather, not alot of animals there during the early season, you need to get back to the glacier to find 'em. The terrian is steep so be prepared. If I can be of more help, just post.

This will be my first hunt into a wilderness area in 15 years. We have hunted Icicle Ridge in the Alpine Wilderness Area out of Leavenworth, but that's it. We now hunt Goldendale area on a 3 mile walk in beyond a locked gate. Even that is getting busier. Always wanted to pack in where no one is, and so we are looking at a drop camp in the Ice Lake area off the Entiat, or Lake Michael Area in the Cle Elum drainage area. Both are 11 miles in. Am told the Entiat is more productive than Alpine, but either way the glacier will be longer than we'll likely want to hike from camp. We will be close to the timberline, above which is where I hear the big bucks like to hang out in summer (I had hoped "above" did not mean near the glacier). Last year, I hear they got 4" of snow on opening day, so maybe we'll get some weather to send those big racks down.

I saw Duncan Hill and Cow Creek on the Forest Service Map. Is this where you hunted late buck, and stopped when they took it away, or did it become less productive? I want a huge buck this year and am in search of the most productive area to do that. The topos in this area do appear steep, fortunately, we'll be riding in.

I'm doing the same hunt this year...... wait a minute ..... Hey I just looked at your avtar photo.... Knucklehead, I'm going with you.
Can't wait to go.

It's gonna be emberassing though, when I post a pic of you having to drag my monster back to camp.

My partner's hunting my donkey again huh? here I thought I was on to my own monster buck secrets....

I hunted it a bunch in the 80's. The access is not as limited as you would think and you will be suprised at how many people you will find back in there either hiking or hunting. The hunting was real good in the early days but went down hill a bit. I last went in in 89. Nice country with lots of Cougar and some color phase bear. Fire restrictions might nail you this year as well.

Yep, thats exactly where the bucks came out of, we basically stopped hunting there after they did away with the late hunt, from what I hear it is still productive, and have heard of some huge bucks coming out of there the last couple of years. I am not sure how much pressure there is now, when we hunted it, there were 3 camps, for a total of 8 guys, had some great times with those guys. If you are hunting out of a drop camp at ice lakes, you should be right on those animals. If you can get back onto the meadows, that area should be productive. We had a spike camp set up off duncan trail, which is marked by reflector tape on some trees, i can't tell you exactly where it is, but if you spot the tape, just follow it, hopefully it is still there. Good luck to you!!

It's no secret boys Several packers now take dudes in there, plus many private camps. That area is really funny, one mountain will have a few deer (and nice bucks)and the next 2 or 3 peaks (look identical to me) won't have squat. I haven't seen any "big" bucks the last 3 years come out of that area during the high hunt The deer are rebounding from the fires in the mid 90's, but there are still alot of small/average 3 points gettin' capped. Plus we're really gonna burn this year over here, so it'll probably be closed for access. The Lake Chelan side is way more inaccessible...thus alot bigger deer

Thanks for the info guys! Looks like we may get fired up only to get fired out... We'll keep an eye out for that, as well as alternative less accessible areas like the Lake Chelan side.

there's some "interesting pockets" that a person could access by way of going in via Holden. I scouted that area out about 10 years ago after I discovered where some buck were headed to via some escape routes.