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triggerspring

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Hey guys,

I am hunting the watershed this fall/permit bow and I'm looking for a winter bow spot as NWS is off limits after Dec31. Anyone know how far up Canistear Rd Wawayanda SP starts? Im coming from the south and looking for as close a spot from my home as I can find.

Thanks,

TS
 
You can get in from Cherry Ridge Road. East from Clinton Rd.(Lookover lake) or West from Canistear(after1st lake on right) Check the State Parks website.....some areas/trails may be closed due to the pipeline!!! I don't think the West gate(main rd.) is open in the winter. Or......Just use the main entrance from Warwick Tpk.
 
As always maps are not 100 % correct, but this is a very good one. Take a current street map of the area and lay it over this one. You can also get a road and trail map from the office at wawayanda.
 
Yes, you need to get the hunting map from the Wayway office. That map shows (rather crudely), the areas you're not supposed to hunt (I think next to Laurel Pond and some other areas). The whole park is not open to hunting so be careful.

Also, take advantage of Bearfort Mountain and AH State Forest. A LOT less hikers and bikers in those areas, although the terrain can be killer.
 
All of Canistear road is Watershed from 23 to Highland Lakes....you can enter the park via Cherry Ridge from Canistear road but that area has a ton of traffic and the pipeline guys built a "highway" there. I use to park on the pipeline and the hike into the watershed to hunt but now you can't even drive the cherry ridge trail past Cabin trail...its marked closed area. Once the pipeline guys are gone should be better next year.
 
whats a natural area? hunting or not?
I have often hunted 2 of the so called natural areas, but not recently. However when I did hunt there these places were refered to as "natural areas"

What that map calls "Waywayanda Natural Area" I call "Cedar Swamp" I haven't hunted it for at least 10 years. It used to be you could park by County Road where intersects "Double Pond Trail". Since then the County road area had many new houses built there. The last I checked there is no longer a place too legally park. That area can be accessed if you park by the boat house or on Cherry Ridge road, but it is a long way to drag a deer.

The area they call "Waywayanda Hemlock Ravine Natural Area" I call "Moe Mountain". I have hunted there in the last 5 or so years. The problem with that is they started locking the gate on Warwick Tpk/Moe Road and do not open it early enough to get on stand. In addition to that they possibly could lock you in the park in the evening. (This gate problem also applies to parking by the boat house to get to Cedar Swamp.)

Both areas are otherwise good places to hunt. Deer are edge animals. Both places have an edge where thick cover meets open hardwood forest. I have taken many deer in these areas.

I never hunted the Bearfort Mountain area.
 
The problem with that is they started locking the gate on Warwick Tpk/Moe Road and do not open it early enough to get on stand.
I had heard that also but can't say as I havent been there that early in years. It used to be open all the time as I had been in hours before dawn to fish and hunt geese.

In addition to that they possibly could lock you in the park in the evening.
Happend to me, thirty some years ago! Stayed till dark at Laurel Pond for ducks and the old "Red Headed Ranger" was waiting outside of the Barry Lakes gate to give us a REAMING!!!
P.S. Lots of big woods and thickets of laurel's and rhododendron, one of those roll-up plastic sleds works great. Good Luck
 
Wayway doesn't actually touch Canister rd. It does come out to Barrett road near the farm. To access wayway from cannester you must go down Cherry Ridge road. I was told by the park employees that Cherry Ridge road is now closed from park boundry to park boundary.
 
You guys know the area really well. I hunted the watershed land 11/26 for the afternoon accross the street from Range Road. I was in about 1/4 mile on a ridge. My buddy was in a little further. Neither of us saw a deer. Pretty dissapointing.
 
Not to hi jack a thread but the hunting pressure in my usual neck of the turkey woods is insane and I was considering wawayanda. I did some scouting any report on the pressure there it was ass to elbow in my neck of the woods to unsafe and unproductive for my tastes.
 
I am hunting the watershed this fall/permit bow and I'm looking for a winter bow spot as NWS is off limits after Dec31
Incorrect!
the watershed permit info says no hunting after dec. 31st. Next years permits aren't valid till opening day of trout season unless you know something I don't

ive been in communication with wawayanda about the main gate. They say it should be "half open" whatever that means
 
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