ast year was the first year of hunting in Washington and after having success hunting higher elevations in other states was eager to do the same in Washington. I originally planned to focus on the high hunt but a work trip got in the way and instead ended up hunting the general season. I parked in a pretty well known and extremely heavily hunted area and ended up packing in 8 miles or so, other than a drop camp at mile 4 I had the entire valley to myself and never saw another track, let alone a person. I'm not sure if that is typical or a result of the weather but I'm guessing the former. I had scouted a bit in the summer for the high hunt but that area wasn't accessible so I focused on a trail head and valley that looked good on google earth and that I couldn't find any reference to on any hunting forums (reverse internet scouting?), as I think drop camp traffic can be fairly high in some areas. I also looked for areas that allowed me to get as far away from trails as possible as I have found that to be a huge factor in past success.
I haven't hunted in any of the really premier high country states so I don't have much to compare it to but I have never really found many deer up high, and this hunt was the same. I never saw a ton of sign and the combination of rain, snow, fog and wind pretty much killed any opportunities to glass but still hunting the right below tree line got me into deer (not a ton though) and they were almost all bucks. I really prefer glassing but it sure beats sitting in the tent and still hunting in the driving wind and rain has accounted for a fair number of deer for me over the years.
As other poster have said don't go expecting to see many deer, and the deer you do see probably wont be giants (although they are definitely a few out there). But if you love being in the mountains I think Washington has some absolutely awesome mountain ranges that also happen to hold mule deer which was the big draw for me. I ended up moving out of state but there is a good chance I'll be burning vacation days to do the same hunt next year.
Most of the areas I found from my summer scouting as well as this hunt required a long approach so even a three day weekend trip wouldn't have been enough time, also be prepared to get camp and a deer out in one go so make sure you have a decent pack and are in decent shape. This was the first year I actually trained (trail running) and on day 5 I felt better than I did on day 2 of years past which made a huge difference. I was in the northern part of the Cascades, other areas might be different though. As long as you adjust you expectations and are in it as much for the experience as anything I really can't recommend this hunt enough. I know people complain about the crowds but from my experience and from talking to others they are mostly in areas with a lot of trails, get off the trail a few miles and you probably won't see many people. If you have any more questions feel free to PM me.