Bearpaw Season - Fall 2022

[bearpaw]

The new Skidoo Expedition 900 Ace with 24” super wide track is working out well, the other day I had 3 hunters (myself included) on the sled, and pulling a dog sled with 6 hounds inside and another hunter riding on top of the dog sled. That was about 1800 pounds total!

One thing I learned, I need to build rails on top of the dog sled so two guys can ride the sled and hang on, one forward, one facing to the back, and two guys on the snowmobile, three on the snowmobile is too hard to maneuver, it all rides better with 2 on the snowmobile and 2 on the dog sled.

[bearpaw]

Out hunting again this morning, found a nice tom and a female That crossed in a couple places but they went in the private land so I have to let them go for now. In another drainage now and found a female and kitten, hoping for a Tom over here.

[bearpaw]

The female and kitten

[bearpaw]

A yearling, the file is a video, Apparently I don’t have good enough service here to get the video to load, So I attached a screenshot of the tracks

[bearpaw]

Found another female, this female is bigger, It’s easy to see the difference in tracks from the Yearling

[bearpaw]

Looking for cats again today, so far a couple females and I think the same tom crossed but still on private property, so still looking for the right cat to chase.

[boneaddict]

I really do miss doing that.  Idabooner and I spent a lot of time on the sleds looking for Lions.

[Machias]

Boy that brings back so many great memories.

[idaho guy]

All these tracks you’re finding are making me jealous 😂😂 found a few but it’s been a slow start in my area. Thanks for posting I really enjoy this thread

[Machias]

All these tracks you’re finding are making me jealous 😂😂 found a few but it’s been a slow start in my area. Thanks for posting I really enjoy this thread

Good luck this season!!!

[bearpaw]

We got hit by a big storm as luck would have it one of the tomes we were watching for crossed. We ran him at day light, but the snow was liling up in his tracks and the dogs struggled, by noon they had lost him, we weren't sure where he went because we couldn't tell the snowed in tracks from other tracks. The day after that we hike through the middle of the area he had gone into but nothing, couldn't find him. The next day he crossed again two drainages south, the next road we could access, this time he was hunting and made so many circles the dogs couldn't figure it out and neither could we, we lost him again.

Been watching for a few other toms, one is on private currently, one went into a large area and waiting for him to cross out, and another crossed numerous times a couple daays before we started hunting that area, we think he is currently on a kill and waiting for him to cross again.

Currently in another large storm system, this morning might be a bust with too much fresh snow to run anything.

[bearpaw]

Snow, I'm usually praying for fresh snow, now I'm praying for it to please stop, and sooner than later!

I found another female yesterday morning (top photo) notice how she is plowing through the deep snow, but we are really trying hard to find toms for the hunters so I kept looking. Finally at last I find another lion track (bottom photo) crossing the road, the stride was very long, but I couldn't see any toes or pads, it had snowed several inches since I checked the road the day before and the tracks were full of snow, he had walked over my snowmobile track after I went through and then it snowed all day and night until I found the track the next morning. Underneath a tree I was able to tell that it was probably a very large lion.

Female tracks top, snowed in male track bottom.

[Machias]

More on the way next week, a lot more!    Stay safe out there!  Gotta be brutal this year.

[bearpaw]

I called guide Zach, he had Phillip with him, "Hey I found a female made last night and I found a tom made yesterday after I went through checking for tracks yesterday, if you haven't found anything better come over here.

I told them about the tom, full of snow, a day old track, probably have to walk it until the dogs can take it, and then it may be miles of hiking in rough country with no roads, he's headed into a roadless area. We'll decide what to do when we all get there.

I checked additonal road to make sure the tom hadn't crossed back but found nothing, my feet were getting cold and those other guys should be coming so I headed back to my truck, I was just getting in to turn on the heater and the guys pulled in. I should have changed boots but didn't, I wanted to get that track going, we were burning daylight.

We loaded everything and headed up the trail, I stopped and showed them the fresher female tracks and then we proceeded to the tom. I don't think they had realized over the phone just how badly snowed in the tracks were, they weren't excited now that they were looking at the tracks, but nonetheless wanted to go after the tom. I told them this is more of a hike than I can do, you have to promise me if we turn my dogs loose, you have to follow the tracks until you catch the dogs or the lion, either way you have to come back with all the dogs, you can't quit until you have the dogs? They agreed! OK, lets get the dogs out!

[bearpaw]

I got “13” out first and walked her around so she could clean out her nose, she knows the routine and was sniffing everything, I walk over to the lion tracks she sniffs hard but nothing. Just like I figured, from the morning before after I went through.

We talked, the guys still wanted to go after the cat so I got out two more dogs, better only take three dogs so they are easy to keep track of. Go ahead and follow the tracks a ways with the dogs leashed and then let them go after you get away from the road, they will follow you or keep coming back to you if you call to them, until they can smell the tracks and then they'll leave you behind.

The guys made it about 100 yards and there’s a 6x6 bull dead with lion tracks all around, no snow in those lion tracks. The dogs blew up and headed out. I released the other two dogs to follow.

(the cats bed, not far from the elk kill)