My first glimpse of the lion (red circle). Having never seen one in the wild, I was pumped. It gave me the little boost of energy I needed to finish the climb.
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Getting closer, lion still in the tree. Dogs still going berserk below.
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The cat looked HUGE to me, and I was about to get my pack off to grab my bow when I heard Tyler say...‘I think it’s a female’.
Talk about being defeated. I had just hiked through 5+ hours of hell and it wasn’t a cat they wanted me to kill!
I was still snapping pics when he said he was going to throw a stick at it to see if it would move so he could get a better look at the business end. No big deal I thought, until he threw the stick and the cat started running down the tree right towards me. I saw his eyes get the size of tennis balls has he ran backwards and all I could think to do was turn my back and hope the cat jumped on my pack instead of my face.
It leapt out of the tree from 10ish feet up landing writhing a few feet of me and sprinted back down the cliff with the dogs in tow.
I was so in awe I couldn’t even be mad.
Then the death March back out of there started, it was miserable, getting dark, and I knew somewhere nearby there was a lion looking down at us from a tree.
Last pic i got f the cat coming down. Wish I had been videoing.
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Trail coming down.
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Waist deep snow.
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Lion was all the way at the top of the cliff. I just followed the lion tracks down by myself as Tyler had gone to search for his GPS.
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That's not a very tall tree and he is looking pretty mean.Comment
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Thankfully Garett was waiting for us at the bottom and had a fire going so we could warm up. Grueling day, I wasn’t sure whether to be ****** I wasted so much time and energy chasing a female cat, or excited I had gotten that close to one.
I was beat on the drive back to check into the same hotel, and by this point the desk clerk/manager was awfully suspicious of what I was doing checking in and out everyday.
Sleep should’ve come easy that night, but my muscles were cramping all night.
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Day 4 started early again with me checking back out of the hotel, cursing my life decisions, and driving back south the meet Garett. Lion hunting with dogs is supposed to be easy, right??
We went way further south today, but it was brutally cold. -6 was what his truck read. He did a little snowmobiling, thankfully leaving me in the truck with the heat on. I was gassed from the day before and was honestly hoping he wouldn’t cut any tracks as I didn’t have much left in the tank.
We searched and searched while driving through deep fresh powder and literally found no lion tracks.
In my mind I was already planning my return trip as my tag was good through the end of February.
As we were driving to another part of the unit to continue our search, Garett got a call from a buddy (Corey) and as they were BSing Garett jokingly asked if he knew where a tom in the Nebo unit was...he did! Random coincidence, but sometimes that’s just how it happens.
Corey had talked with two elk hunters from some private land a couple hours earlier and they mentioned spotting a large tom while looking for elk. Corey called them, explained that I had a Nebo tag, got us permission to get on the private, and it was on.
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We made it to the private land gate, where Corey met us with a snowmobile and his dogs, and the two elk hunters (brothers) met us with one of their 11 year old daughters and a really awesome razr on tracks.
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They showed us the tracks, Garett and Corey agreed it was a large tom worth pursuing, so we got the sleds ready and cut the dogs loose.
We thought they were going to be hot on the trail, but we watched in disappointment as they scattered all over the mountain. A large group of the older dogs went what appeared to be the wrong direction (backwards on the track), so Garett and Corey took off on the sleds to gather them up and get them restarted. I was left at the base of the mountain by myself as the two elk hunters and the daughter had trekked up the other side following the tracks.
I was really doubting my luck as the elk hunters headed back my way. About the time they got back, the radio cracked and Garett said ‘I think the dogs have him trees up here’. I jumped in the razr and we headed up the mountain.
I don’t know who was more excited, me or the elk hunters! They’re ere supposed to be back home at a certain time that afternoon but called their wives and said we’re going to be late, we’re lion hunting.
We got to the top of the mountain and started following the noise from the dogs back down through the snow into a spruce thicket. As we rounded a corner, I saw Garett and Corey so I knew the lion was close. I started to get my bow out of my pack (should’ve already done this), when I saw the lion leap out of the tree maybe 10’ of the ground and take off running with the dogs in tow.
Another defeat, all I could do was laugh. Again, I was in awe seeing a lion up close and personal.
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This is awesomeComment
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