Fortunately, there are High Buck Hunt options for hunters in good shape, but who lack experience or don't have time for an extended trip. The first possibility is to hire an outfitter, either for a fully decked-out pack trip or a less expensive drop camp. Second, many of the High Buck Hunt areas are only a couple of miles from trailheads leading into them, and in some areas you can camp below the wilderness and hunt it as a day hiker. And several trails in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area are accessible by boat or floatplane.

MULE DEER WILDERNESS HUNTS
The state's largest wilderness area, the Pasayten, encompasses more than 500,000 acres on the east slope of the Cascades between the Canadian border and Highway 20. Its mountainous spine is incredibly rugged, with more than 150 peaks over 7,000 feet of elevation, but drops into subalpine meadows, scattered forest, and the upper tributaries of the Methow River.

Horses are the most effective way to hunt the Pasayten because it is usually a long hike from trailheads to the mountain meadows where mulies spend summer and early autumn. Fortunately, the Pasayten is a premier setting for traditional Western pack trips, and a number of packers offer full-service and drop-camp hunts, most originating out of Twisp and Winthrop. Pasayten mule deer are migratory, wintering in the lower Methow Valley, but they tend to remain in the high country until the first heavy snows drive them downhill.

The Lake Chelan Recreation Area occupies ridges and peaks above Lake Chelan's north shore. Its 194 miles of trails can be reached by more means of transportation than any other High Buck Hunt area. Roads off the North Cascade Highway and Twisp River can access trailheads on the north. On the south, Cooper Mountain and Grade Creek roads will get you there. Floatplanes can make drops at trails on Lake Chelan all the way up to Stehekin.

The Glacier Peak and Alpine Lakes wilderness areas sprawl across both sides of the Cascade crest, from North Cascades National Park to near I-90. Many horse and boot hunters concentrate on the more open mule deer country of their eastern slopes. The upper portion of the WDFW's Clark Game Management Unit is popular with Wenatchee-area outfitters and hunters. Early Winter Packers at (509) 996-2659 and North Cascades Safaris at (509) 997-0215 offer full pack and drop camps.

BLACKTAILS ON THE WEST SIDE
If you wander over one of the passes in the Glacier Peak Wilderness into the westward-draining side, you needn't worry -- the entire wilderness is open during the High Buck Hunt. Blacktails naturally occur on the west flanks of the Cascades, although there is considerable mixing of populations in high-elevation areas and passes. Fortunately, that doesn't matter either, because if the deer has three points on one side of its rack, it is legal to shoot.

Most hunters who pursue blacktails here approach the wilderness from the west. Trails follow the Suiattle, White Chuck and North Fork Sauk, all of which are accessible near Darrington, to penetrate the Glacier Peaks.