At Sawmille Road and Route 563, a portion of the uphill land leads into a southern portion of SGL 157 that few hunters bother to explore because it's not near other roads.

Continuing on Route 563 to Top Rock Terrace, turn left and then follow the terrace to lesser-known portions of the state park and more of SGL 157. After Top Rock Terrace, the highway crosses the Haycock arm of Lake Nockamixon. Hunters often park on the road before the bridge and work into the flat and swampy terrain north of the bridge.

Continuing over the bridge, the eastern boundary of the state park has rocky, terrain and high, wooded hills above. There is private land just outside this border, and whitetails are often seen coming down to the lake from this direction.

For more information on Nockamixon State Park, call (215) 529-7300.

EVANSBURG STATE PARK & SGL 134
While SGL 134 is a little distance away, the lands around Evansburg State Park are great places to hunt. There is such a patchwork of properties divided by major roadways and private land that, at first glance, the terrain here might not appeal to fall hunters. But look again! Skippack Creek serves as a focal point, and the moderately dense woodland surrounding the stream means this public land is highly huntable.

Evansburg State park has over 1,000 acres of open hunting grounds, and access is excellent. In addition to woodlands along the creek, there are also agricultural sections situated away from the waters.

Five bridges within the state park offer access to varied parcels and habitat. From east to west, Old Forty Foot Road bridge, Skippack Pike (also called Route 73), Kratz/Anders roads, Germantown Pike and Ridge Pike all cross Skippack Creek and have nearby parking.

The first eastern bridge, Old Forty Foot Road, has parking at nearby Hedrick Road. This area has some of the least developed ground in the park -- a combination of stream land with hardwood buffers.

Route 73 is a major crossing with parking on the north side of the bridge. Near the placement of this bridge, Skippack Creek is nearly at its widest, and there is good woodland cover, particularly on the southern side of the stream. Stump Hill Road marks the private-land border.

Toward the center of the park is the Kratz/Anders roads crossing, with parking on the south side of the stream. While there is huntable land on both sides of the creek, hunters should consider walking south along Anders Road to the open field that lies between Green Hill Road and Anders Road.

Farther west, the Germantown and Ridge pike bridges lead to some truly thick and brambly land in the area of the bridges and along Old Baptist Road in the middle of this section.

West of Ridge Pike, there are pieces of developed land where hunting is not permitted. The section between Grange Avenue and the creek is worth a look.

For information on Evansburg State Park, call (610) 409-1150.

SGL 234 covers 350 acres in two parcels west of Route 29 and Schwenksville in terrain very similar to the state park, but without the creek.

WMU 3D
Naysayers continue to assert that there are no deer in the Poconos. But an estimated 12,400 successful whitetail hunters might say otherwise.

WMU 3D, which includes the bulk of the Poconos plus the Blue Mountain entrance, accounted for an estimated 5,000 antlerless deer in 2006-07, up from an estimated 3,900 antlerless deer the year before.

The antlered harvest declined slightly, from 7,400 two years ago to 7,300 last year.

WMU 3D contains a combination of steep, elevated ridges and mountain chain plateaus, all thickly wooded. In addition, there is agricultural land in large pockets in the eight counties that make up WMU 3D.

Public holdings in this unit consist of a state forest, significant state game lands and a federal recreation area bordering the Delaware River.

As late as mid-March, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources issued another "deer warning" regarding the Poconos: