Paska Lake/Greenstone Mountain?

[tbrowning89]

Hello,

My hunting group is planning on going on a deer hunting trip this October 18-23. We are coming from the lower mainland, and have decided to try out the Paska Lake area. We only had time for one day of scouting, so we are mainly relying on Google maps. Does anyone have any experience with this area? We love to hike and aren't afraid to debone and pack out game. Any suggestions or information would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

[twoSevenO]

You wont be looking at much of a packout there. Roads run all over the place and if you got a quad you can almost get to any downed buck with one. Tons of clearings and i find thats where most get shot. Hiking in there can be difficult. Lots of blow down and lots of thick bush that is too hard to walk through.

However, i find you really only need to be a quarter mile away from a road to get away from people. Mostly quad and truck hunters around there.

Greenstone has a lot of recreation around. Go east toward chuwels mountain instead. Way less people.

Dont waste too much time in bush that is unhikeable. Dont think its just the first section that is thick and miserable. If it looks like shi**y area to start it probably is. Thats been my experience there.

Still hunting in the bush can be ok in Nov when theyre most active at day but in Oct ive seen the most bucks by far by picking a good vantage point and glassing at last light. Stay till dark. I was up there beginning of this month and all the bucks i saw came out between 6:15 and 7:00pm. Good luck

[Big Lew]

I've extensively hiked and backpacked around the area west and north-west of there before the maze of roads.
Mt. Fehr, Mt. Forge, and Mt. Savona. If your potential area you wish to hike into is as knarly, rugged, and choked
with nasty windfalls, then you had better take a gps with you because it's extremely easy to get lost otherwise.
Hunters have died in there over the years.

[twoSevenO]

I've extensively hiked and backpacked around the area west and north-west of there before the maze of roads.
Mt. Fehr, Mt. Forge, and Mt. Savona. If your potential area you wish to hike into is as knarly, rugged, and choked
with nasty windfalls, then you had better take a gps with you because it's extremely easy to get lost otherwise.
Hunters have died in there over the years.

I got lost in a large patch of new growth back in 2011 a stones throw from Paska in 2011. Big field of 15ft christmas trees around me that i couldnt see more than 10 yards for a good half hour and buy the time i made it out i realized i was nowhere close to where i was hoping to be. Only had a few mins of daylight left. Picked a direction and hiked until i stumbled onto headlights of cars on the highway in the distance. That gave me orientation to where i was at least. Now a hike back in the other direction in complete darkness. Almost got ran over by a small herd of cows roo. That was not fun.


Moral of the story .... always have a GPS even if you think you know the terrain.

[lovemywinchester]

Not to dampen your enthusiasm but the Greenstone area is POUNDED by hunters EVERY day. Since Sept 1. It's a quick access hunt from Kamloops, tunkwa resort, mile high resort. Very tough to hunt with other trucks pulling in front of you off spurs and quads and trucks comng down every road you're going up. I'd look farther out.

[tbrowning89]

Thanks for all the information! We are definietly concerned about the amount of traffic, as we usually like to hike and get away from it all. Would a guy have any opportunities to do that in the area, or should we be looking elsewhere? We aren't committed to that area at all, but would like to still maintain the proximity from the lower mainland. We were also possibly thinking about the summit of the coquihalla area.

[swampdonkey]

Hello,

My hunting group is planning on going on a deer hunting trip this October 18-23. We are coming from the lower mainland, and have decided to try out the Paska Lake area. We only had time for one day of scouting, so we are mainly relying on Google maps. Does anyone have any experience with this area? We love to hike and aren't afraid to debone and pack out game. Any suggestions or information would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

Google earth is to far behind on the clear cutting in that area. + they are logging in that area again now in 5 different areas that I know of. Good luck and happy hunting.

[CBH]

In my experience, if you want to do some hike in hunting do t go there. Try the aforementioned areas. They provide a lot more opportunities for what you are expressing that you are interested in.

[skibum]

Google earth is to far behind on the clear cutting in that area. + they are logging in that area again now in 5 different areas that I know of. Good luck and happy hunting.

ya areas that look like nice clear cuts on google earth will be 6-10 foot christmas trees in some spots.

I have done a bit of hiking around the area to get away from the crowds -- always eventually end up running into another forestry road that was not on google earth. Which is a piss off when you think that you are in a spot that took you some effort to get into and then you see tire marks. But for every 5-10 spots that are a bust, you find that one magic cut that make the frustration worthwhile.

As stated above be careful - Last year I also got lost in the Christmas trees, thought it would be easy to find the path out - it wasn't. I use a gps and flagging tape.

Flagging tape is nice to see when you are hiking out in the dusk/dark. Just grab it on the way out.

[Steelpulse]

This is right on I've hunted the area for years quite extensively and this describes it very well, sure its busy sometimes, but it has never stopped us from leh bull moose, bears, and some fine mule deer, we would for the most part drive to areas then walk for the day and hunt these small thick areas hard daily. Never need to really pack out, as roads everywhere and you can always access from some angle within a 1km usually, my leh bull did take 11 hours though off gstone, special place.
Tracking the area in November is the best and usually where we find our success. Good luck, there's a metric F ton of info on greenstone, paska area just read through the threads I find searching through google is best and it brings up all hbc threads with the words you want



You wont be looking at much of a packout there. Roads run all over the place and if you got a quad you can almost get to any downed buck with one. Tons of clearings and i find thats where most get shot. Hiking in there can be difficult. Lots of blow down and lots of thick bush that is too hard to walk through.

However, i find you really only need to be a quarter mile away from a road to get away from people. Mostly quad and truck hunters around there.

Greenstone has a lot of recreation around. Go east toward chuwels mountain instead. Way less people.

Dont waste too much time in bush that is unhikeable. Dont think its just the first section that is thick and miserable. If it looks like shi**y area to start it probably is. Thats been my experience there.

Still hunting in the bush can be ok in Nov when theyre most active at day but in Oct ive seen the most bucks by far by picking a good vantage point and glassing at last light. Stay till dark. I was up there beginning of this month and all the bucks i saw came out between 6:15 and 7:00pm. Good luck

[Looking_4_Jerky]

It's fairly busy for people, but still decent for animals. You have the right idea if you are planning to get off the road. You will want to make yourself a map showing all cut blocks and forest roads. The imagery on Google Earth is well out of date and as someone else mentioned, what looks fresh on the imagery is now thick with 10' regen, while there are roads and cuts that show up as uncut forest in GE.