Went out yesterday about 14 hours after measurable snow, and anywhere from 12 to 6 hours after scattered flurries...
My best opportunity to cut tracks so far in the 08-09 season. So, I decided I'd pass all the .....
...fresh Bobcat tracks... that I came upon.
Ruling out all the tracks that had ANY snow in them, and all the tracks that could have possibly been the same cat 1/4 mile later, I cut no less that 6, <12 hours fresh Bobbies is probably 40 miles of some really technical Mountain snow driving!
I fought with my front chains for about an hour, then finally just put on the rears. A few spots I wished I had all 4's chained, but I managed to smash my way through! I'll be tweaking my equipment and have things straight for next round!
Not one single Cougar track!!! I was discouraged. Not only about the lack of Lion tracks, but not having stopped on any Bobcat tracks in a doggedly focused search for Cougar.
I stopped the the bitter end of the road... well, 1/2 mile short of it, actually. It was getting really hard to drive. I walked the rest of the way up and...
...set up here and did a 2 hour cold Cougar stand. Nothing showed. Then I drove the rest of the way up, turned around, and went back down.
Good day out in the mountains, but wish I'd have cut a Lion track. In retrospect, I saw a TON of deer tracks, so it's likely the Cougars are still above the roads. This is the first significant snow of the year here.
Wish I had more pics, but I had a steelie eyed focus, and a white knuckle grip on the wheel!