Mountain hunting Eastern style - Whitetail Deer in the Adirondacks

[glennw89]

While we certainly don't have a fraction of the wilderness/mountain hunting here in the east that is present in Western Canada, we still do have some opportunities to hunt wilderness areas.

Adirondack Park is a 6 million acre protected area in upstate New York. Some of the mountains located within the Park are impressive, with 3000 plus foot climbs from the base to the summit. Overall, the area is very rugged and almost 100% forested.

The northern edge of the Park is about a 3 hour drive from the Ottawa area. The section I was hunting is known as the High Peaks Wilderness Area, a 200 000 acre area where no motorized vehicles of any sort are allowed. There are maintained hiking trails you can use to access the backcountry and small backcountry "camp grounds" (essentially a lean to structure, a few tent pads, and an outhouse) are present in limited numbers.

Deer numbers in the Adirondacks are low (harsh winters, predation, and the fact no forestry is allowed in the wilderness areas), but the remote access and low hunting pressure means many of the bucks are older and larger.

On my first day of hunting I managed to get 6 km from the only road in the area and found some great big buck sign - but no sightings of the bucks themselves. The second day I explored some swamps within 2 km of the road and again found great sign. What I didn't find were any hunters. Over the two days (and 20 plus kilometers of travel) I saw zero hunters. I met two local hunters in the parking lot access point, but they were hunting only a few hundred meters from the access point and said that once I got about 1 km from the road I would probably never see anyone.

This was my first venture hunting south of the border and it was seamless. Transporting my rifle to and from the U.S. was very straight forward and the NY DEC has a very clear and simple system for purchasing tags and such. I was able to camp out for free (winter sleeping bag and 4 season tent).

It remains a dream of mine to engage in mountain hunting in Western Canada, but hunting in the wilderness of the Adirondacks is something I can see becoming an annual trip. Definitely the best wilderness/mountain hunt available to me in Eastern Ontario - albeit in another country!

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[tuner]

The area looks fantastic, it's ironic however, that you could freely cross the border into a foreign country and legally hunt without a guide, but could not do the same in a different province in your own country. Your wish to one day hunt in BC will require a kinship, or friendship,with a resident here, who must apply for a permit to accompany, otherwise, you legally need to hire the services of a guide to hunt here.

[glennw89]

No kidding. I could potentially hunt mule deer, elk, etc. in several U.S. western states basically "over the counter" - but Western Canada is a "closed shop".

Financially I could swing a guided hunt in the future, but I much prefer hunting either by myself or with a small group of friends - even if our odds of success are lower than a guided trip.

Two of my friends have moved west in the past year (BC and Alberta) and I have my fingers crossed that they can be my "Hunter Host" in the future.

In the meantime, the Adirondacks are great and I'll be back.

[tuner]

Just out of curiosity, why hunt New York State as opposed to Ontario? Whitetail are abundant in Ontario are they not?

[glennw89]

I hunt here in Ontario as well. I live in the Ottawa area.

I hunt both. Our rifle season is two weeks long (first two week of November) vs the 6 week season (late October to early December) in the Adirondacks region of New York.

My favourite type of hunting is getting as far away from roads as possible and covering a lot of ground. Realistically, you need access to a lot of Crown Land to do that. In Eastern/Central Ontario there is quite a bit of Crown Land - but it is (overall) hunted pretty hard during the rifle season and is absolutely laced with logging roads/ATV trails. This ease of access makes it difficult to get away from the 4 x 4/ATV crowd.

[tuner]

A friend of mine from Ontario( who's lived here for several years now) was saying that there is a limited entry hunt for elk in a few areas there now. The odds of being drawn must be astronomical.

[glennw89]

The elk hunt was introduced in 2011. The number of applicants have decreased every year as the core elk herd is centralized in a few areas and private land can be hard to get permission to hunt. That might change as the number of moose tags available in Ontario has plummeted in recent years and some of those hunters may opt for the elk draw instead.

I apply every year, trying to work the odds of the draw in the different hunting areas. The best odds are about 1 : 10 in the fringe elk areas where I always apply. I figured I would at least like to get the tag and then worry about finding the few elk in that area. The core population areas have draw odds about 1 : 50.