In our neck of the woods, winter snowfall means Mountain Lions. We all sit by the radio, glued to the weather channel, and checking the internet every ten minutes for any precipitation that might make it to our mountain ranges. Come about November we start working the dogs, training them to get ready for the infamous lion track that we might cut. The ideal day is a beautiful cold sunny day right after any kind of snow fall. It doesn’t have to be a foot, but even a dusting will do. Anything to decipher if the track is fresh or not, the dogs take it from there.

With the sun coming over the mountain tops and our breath crystallizing in the air, we bundle up to take a trip on the snowmobiles, covering lots of land until we see a track worth investigating. Once we find something, we head back to the trucks and hook the dog sleighs to the sleds, load up the hounds and back we go. The worst part of this is staying calm enough to not tip the sleigh and dump the dogs to many times on the way back to the track. We start by pulling the lead hounds out first. Still leashed we lead them to the track to see what they do. We’ll walk them (or I should say, they’ll drag us) a ways to see if the track is hot enough to run and on the hounds cue, we turn them loose. From there, we better be ready cause we are in for a hike. Whether 500-yards or 6-miles, we push thru snow and trees, trying to stay as close to the tracks and the dogs as we can. There are few things that I compare to the sound of praising God in song, but the melodious sounds that hounds make when they are on a hot track is one of them. Not to mention when they are treed!

It’s an exhilarating experience to come up on a pack of hounds baying up a tree at one of God’s most majestic creations. But at the same time, before you do anything to that cat, you have to contain the hounds. That can be one of the scariest things you will ever do. 20-yards or less from a mountain lion and you are getting in closer to contain the dogs. The dogs are so excited they are trying to climb the tree themselves and you are going in after them! Stupid or… no, it’s stupid!!!

Sometimes we actually take the cat, but most of the time we just take photos. It’s amazing to follow and watch these creatures; they are just like a house cat. They may be in the wild, but their habits and instincts are very similar. The same way that my big fluffy orange cat (Tang) lounges on the couch with a ray of sunshine on him, a mountain lion will lounge on a rock. The way Tang creeps around the house, staying as close to the walls as possible, the mountain lion covers his country, slithering between trees and under rock lips. However, I keep waiting for the opportunity to find out if a mountain lion, like Tang will dive his head into my hand when I scratch his ear, or, will he just eat my hand?!!!

I hunt many seasons and many animals, but this one gets me thinking and working more then any of them.

It is not always about the trophy you can put on the wall, but about the trophy you keep in your heart.

God Bless

Julie Hughes