Ok, ok, I'll save you the scrolling, I didn't put it on the ground.
Lemme rewind to Sunday... I saw a fellow Lion Hunter friend at church. I said, "Hey, weather looks great for Tuesday, wanna go?" He hemmed and hawed about it, said he'd see about it. He never called.
Cost him a lion
Well, I guess anything can happen....
No, it cost him a lion!
Well, you be the judge....
I went as high as I could go today, LOTS of Bobcat tracks. They were frolicking in the pre-dawn this AM! But no lion.
I got to where I was dragging bottom in the snow with chains on the front, riding on about 8" of crust, in 5" ruts. I figured if I started breaking through I'd be up there all day shoveling. So I turned back. Got quite high, but still had 3 or 4 miles to go. LOTS of snow.
Anyway, stopped for two quick bobcat stands on the way back out. Hadn't got to where I had seen the most tracks yet. Nothing.
I cut some bigger tracks and stopped, they were a small lion. I wasn't sure if I'd missed them in the morning or if they were new. It had been about 3 hours.
I came to a side road that I KNOW didn't have any tracks in it this morning. They ran up the road!
I drove them for about 1/4 mile and found this...
The Lion had sat down on his haunches, pawed a couple times, and watched the road. Then wheeled around and followed his tracks back down the road.
This was an uphill side road. I followed back down and hit the main line. The cat had walked the ditch for about 50 yards, then crossed and went downhill of the main line. This was a little lower elevation, so let me tell you, it was THICK!
I went a little further and got on another side road that went down. I drove it for about 300yds and the lion had come out onto that road for a little ways and then headed up a brushy timbered ridge.
I drove the road all the way around the ridge, no tracks. So I stopped and headed up that side to the top. Super thick, I got literally stuck a few times in the undergrowth. There were 12 foot tall Rhodys, impenetrable salal brush, and the typical dark timber underjunk.
On top there was some opening. Very small, but some. I could see about 50 yards from uphill to downhill on the crown of the ridge. Still thick, but low brush and many shooting lanes thru the timber. I figured I'd try it.
I set up on the uphill side of the opening and set the call about 10 yards up from the downhill scrub. I would have set up off to the side, but there was almost no visibility until I got about 10 yards from the call, so I decided to go uphill of the call and just get slightly to one side of the crown of the ridge.
Big Mistake.
I was alone, as usual, so that meant most of my 360 was unobserved.
(If my friend had come with me we would have set up different, and had almost the whole 360 covered.)
I started the call. Distress for about 1 minute, then my favorite vocal (the one I did the CD on) for about 10 minutes. Then another vocal for about 3 minutes, then back to my favorite vocal again.
The Lion sounded off RIGHT BEHIND ME!!! I mean, CLOSE!
I was right up against some very thick stuff, so I didn't have much of a view. Probably 3 shooting lanes on my 6 for MAYBE 40 yards. MAYBE!
My heart's pounding out of my chest again!
I saw nothing behind me, so I slowly and carefully got the gun pointing behind me and kept watching. Nothing.
I sat like that for about 10 minutes, the re-oriented back towards the call... VERY NERVOUS!!! I kept calling, changing sounds, some silences, heart still pounding.... Nothing. For about another hour.
I finally gave it up.
I got up and snuck back behind me...
This is a close up of the track, the little red twig goes diagonally thru it.
44 VERY SHORT steps!!! Probably 70 feet!!! It had come in, then right where it could see little bits of the opening it veered off and went down and around. It went around my front, but down deep in the scrub. I never saw it or heard it again.
It must have seen me. I stood in its tracks, and danged if I could see my spot, but these cats are SHARP! It must have known something was up.
So, anyway, I've got the same adreanlin headache as a couple weeks ago, but nothing to show for it!
Fun Fun!!!
