I live in the Denver area. Used to hunt near Steamboat, but wanted to change units this past year and 82 was on my short list due to dreams of some alpine. Ended up going elsewhere after scouting out another unit. Still have dreams of going back in there so may just go for the fun of it if I have a free weekend this summer.
82 is a steep SOB. Any notion of jumping down one major ridge and up to another with a pack of gear and all off trail just wasn't going to happen. Some serious elevation and some serious climbs. At least where I went over by the dunes. I'm fairly young, backpack pretty often, and in pretty good shape and thought I could power over and thru some stuff and it just want gonna happen. I will say finding and following water in that unit would be good if you go there. There wasn't nearly as much water as a lot of spots in CO which could help finding them.
If you want shoot me an email and I can tell ya more if I didn't scare you. I'm quite positive there's a lot of elk in there.
82 is a steep SOB. Any notion of jumping down one major ridge and up to another with a pack of gear and all off trail just wasn't going to happen. Some serious elevation and some serious climbs. At least where I went over by the dunes. I'm fairly young, backpack pretty often, and in pretty good shape and thought I could power over and thru some stuff and it just want gonna happen. I will say finding and following water in that unit would be good if you go there. There wasn't nearly as much water as a lot of spots in CO which could help finding them.
If you want shoot me an email and I can tell ya more if I didn't scare you. I'm quite positive there's a lot of elk in there.