ENAVILLE - Sitting alongside the tranquil North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, Idaho Fish and Game's check station at Enaville is a nice place to work.

The autumn forest is cool and colorful, the river is peaceful, and the long line of hunters and fishermen rolling through the checkpoint keeps everybody busy. The only problem, said Wayne Wakkinen, an IDFG regional wildlife biologist, is that there's never any sunlight - the mountains throw a long shadow, even when the sun is high in the sky.

But there's always a crackling fire and a warm coffeepot to ward off the October chill.

"It's not too bad," Wakkinen said with a grin. "We're not roughing it too much."

The Enaville check station is on the north side of the Coeur d'Alene River Road, a major national forest access route that connects with Interstate 90 at Kingston. It's about half a mile from the Enaville Resort, better known as the Snakepit.

There's a small trailer, a handful of IDFG officials and volunteers, and two traffic lanes marked by orange cones. Open only on weekends, the checkpoint will be up and running until the end of deer season later this fall.

Hunters and fishermen are required to stop at the station when they leave the woods.

"We're mainly focused on management stuff here," Wakkinen said. "It's a good opportunity to make a lot of contacts with folks."

IDFG records game animals taken, measures antler size and chats with hunters about their observations or concerns, Wakkinen said.

At season's end, IDFG evaluates the check station data, comparing it to years past and looking at telltale trends. The department also studies helicopter survey info, as well as mandatory hunter reports that are mailed in during the winter and early spring.

"All that goes into the decisions on season-setting (for next fall)," Wakkinen said.

This time of year, hunters are searching for elk predominately. On Sunday, the Enaville station opened at 10 a.m. By 4 p.m., Wakkinen and his colleagues had already checked in 420 hunters, 16 bull elk, 17 cow elk and two mule deer.

Wakkinen said he has seen 500 hunters come through in one day.

"So at times it's pretty darn hectic here," he said.

IDFG often enlists volunteers to help with the check station work. Chuck Tapia, a second-semester forestry student at North Idaho College, was helping out Sunday.

"It's part of a forestry class I'm taking, and we have to do volunteer work with an agency, and I chose this one," Tapia said. "I've just been talking to the employees and trying to get as much information as I can."

After graduation, Tapia said, he'd like to work for an agency like IDFG or the U.S. Forest Service. The check station job provides valuable experience.

"There's been a couple big elk, and a bear," he said. "That was interesting."

The data isn't concrete, but Wakkinen said both hunter and harvest numbers seem to be up this year. Many hunters are shooting young elk, he added, which is a good sign.

"This year we've had a lot of yearlings, lot of spikes coming through," Wakkinen said. "It tells us, for one, we've got good calf survival."

Moose hunters have done well, too, the IDFG employees noted - especially in the Panhandle, where 386 moose tags were doled out this season. For the big, heavy-antlered animals, the North Idaho mountains have a lot to offer.

"It's pretty good moose habitat," Wakkinen said. "We've always managed moose fairly conservatively. We're not harvesting the population real hard."

Coeur d'Alene resident Laura Wolf, who has worked four years for Fish and Game, is a check station veteran. Once, down in Salmon, she checked in a spotted white mule deer buck - the most bizarre color pattern she had ever seen.

"It looked like a fallow deer," Wolf recalled. "It was cool."

Sometimes, especially on a rainy day, the check stations can be tedious. But Enaville offers consistent action, Wolf said.

"At this one, it hasn't been too boring. It's been pretty busy," she added. "As soon as you try to eat, they all come in. Most people are friendly, and just want to tell you about their hunting experience."