CA hunters TIA

[NickCNC]

So my son decided last minute he actually wants to hunt this year (he's 16 and on the football team, so he thought time wise it wasn't gonna be in the cards for him). I respected his choice and he's regretting not deciding to hunt sooner, as the tags available were limited. We ended up with a D8 tag for him and I've never hunted the area and know minimal about it. Any insight would be appreciated as I've been escouting some spots but I have zero knowledge of the area. We plan to head up after this weeks game and spend a weekend in the woods while we look for a deer for him, and I can of course keep an eye out for any bears that happen to be around. Again, thanks in advance for any info you guys can share, I appreciate it.

 

[old270hunter]

I was just up there a month ago doing a cabin trip with the kid and G-Kids. I can tell you everything is burned bad above Camp Nelson to Ponderosa, and all of the way between Ponderosa to Trail of 100 giants. Its a moon scape from last year's fire, and saw very little new growth or browse for deer. I saw no game, except a cinnamon phase smallish black bear in Ponderosa.

 

[NickCNC]

I was just up there a month ago doing a cabin trip with the kid and G-Kids. I can tell you everything is burned bad above Camp Nelson to Ponderosa, and all of the way between Ponderosa to Trail of 100 giants. Its a moon scape from last year's fire, and saw very little new growth or browse for deer. I saw no game, except a cinnamon phase smallish black bear in Ponderosa.

Thank you sir!

 

[NickCNC]

I was just up there a month ago doing a cabin trip with the kid and G-Kids. I can tell you everything is burned bad above Camp Nelson to Ponderosa, and all of the way between Ponderosa to Trail of 100 giants. Its a moon scape from last year's fire, and saw very little new growth or browse for deer. I saw no game, except a cinnamon phase smallish black bear in Ponderosa.

Spots I'm looking into right now are north end of zone, from anywhere just south of river to national park zones.

 

[old270hunter]

Spots I'm looking into right now are north end of zone, from anywhere just south of river to national park zones.

You‘ll need to put boots on the gound for sure and you will have lots of company. Lots of that zone burned. I was really shocked how much burned, and how bad it was. Most of the pines fully burned and are dead, thousands and thousands of acres. Even some decent sized sequoias burned bad enough to die. Some of the southern area on the west side in the foothills is ok, and there are some pockets on the south end that are ok too. In 4-5 years, with a few average or better winter rain/snows, it could be a real good bet. So, good plan to stay out of the central and south end of D8 this season.

 

[NickCNC]

Thanks for sharing info. I imagine the area I'm looking into features lots of road warriors? I like to get off the grid even if it's just a mile or 2. How low of elevation are you typically seeing bears at up there?

 

[old270hunter]

Thanks for sharing info. I imagine the area I'm looking into features lots of road warriors? I like to get off the grid even if it's just a mile or 2. How low of elevation are you typically seeing bears at up there?

I saw the bear outside my rental cabin in August, literally in Ponderosa. Guessing he was trash and cooler raiding, because not much natural feed outside of that small pocket that was protected from the fires. Think the elevation is like 7500 maybe. I’m not familiar with the Northern area of D8, but seeing as how the South half is mostly a moonscape, you’d be on track to explore the Northern part, but a lot of that is burned too (I just don’t know where). If I were to hunt that zone this year, I would find areas the did not burn and focus on edges that have some new growth from the fires up high.