When I lived in North Carolina a hunted a public game land once, cant remember the name of it, was divided into 4 sections, near Stone Mountain State Park. Just day hunted it, it seemed to hold potential i thought
I'll be getting out there next year and packing in for three day weekends. The issue with NC early archery is that I is usually still 80 degrees or more most days.
KY hunter here. I hunted the mountains of north GA a couple of times. Very nearby you. This was a while ago and up until then I had only really hunted whitetails on private land where you could just drag them to the truck.
In GA we were bear hunting. We packed in climbers and little daypacks, but had no plan for getting meat out. He shot a small one, maybe 125-150 lbs, and we tried to string it by its legs from a pole spanning our shoulders to hike it out, but it was wobbling like a sack full of jello. Eventually I decided to tie it’s front paws together and loop it’s legs over my head and wear it like a backpack. We tied it’s back legs around my waist like a belt. He carried my climber and we hiked out that way.
A couple of days later, I shot a big one at dusk and we ended up hiking it over a mile out to the truck, hugging one quarter at a time against our chests like idiots. We got back to camp at 4am, sweaty, bloody, and exhausted.
I’ve learned a lot since then, thanks in large part to forums like these, but I wouldn’t go back and change a thing even if I could!
I did a 3 day bear hunt there last year outside of Asheville. It was a real mountain hunt and there is tons of area to wonder. Had it to myself. Tons of bear sign but it was too warm in the day and they were moving at night. If I had a week I feel like it would have been successful. I had a great time. 10-15 miles a day.
I hunt the mountains of NC. On the state owned land you are not allowed to back country camp, so I just day hunt it. I usually do a 3 day pack in hunt in the national forest and a 3 day canoe-in hunt on the Roanoke Wildlife Refuge.