Cat Down ( Pictures added) ( STORY ADDED)

[mulehunter]

    bet it feel soo excited with in 12hrs. The best thing u ever felt. I am happy for u and tell her thank u for serve our country.

Mulehunter.   

[Ray]

Joe, that's a fine looking cat there. 

[saylean]

An awesome cat! Those claws are awesome. Congrats on having your lady come home too.

[Machias]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!  Very happy your wife is headed home finally.  Once things get settled, would love to hear the story on the lion.

[BLKBEARKLR]

Thanks everyone, and momma is still trying to get home, stuck in Japan now in an awful snow storm.  Hopefully tomorrow....


Joe

[LittleJohn]

Sorry Joe!!! Hang in there. How is the little one handling the waiting game for Mom??

[BLKBEARKLR]

Sorry Joe!!! Hang in there. How is the little one handling the waiting game for Mom??

John,

Was really bad this morning, I told her to go to sleep and momma would wake her up. Well that did not happen so she took it pretty hard.

Joe

[Austrian Hunter]

Wow, what a cat... Congrats... Hope your wife makes it home safe and soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wea300mag]

Great looking cat Joe, sorry about the emotional rollercoaster with your wife's travels.

When you get caught up and have a chance, don't forget to enter that beast in the HuntWA Head Competition.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,51092.0.html

[BLKBEARKLR]

Technology, is great, sit back and enjoy my automated story. Its at the end of my written version.

Just a couple side notes, I was overjoyed when I found out that I drew that hunt, I had a lot of offers to help me, but I wanted to have someone that was from the area, and was going to be able to do a solid week of hunting. I searched around and chose Dale from Bearpaw outfitters. This was my first guided hunt ever, so I really did not know what to expect. I decided right up front to be honest and to establish a working relationship with my guide. When I got there Dale and I sat down I told him what my goals were and also what I knew I was capable of being able to accomplish.

We then started putting a plan together, and that is when I was introduced to his son Brian and his wife Tara. I became part of their family. And everything went smoothly from there. We started out on 1 Jan at 1201, two different rigs putting on as many miles as possible. Between the two rigs we found four sets of tracks. The tracks that Dale and I found was a great learning experience for me and was also a confidence booster in knowing I made the Right decision using Dale. He got out looked at the tracks and said without a doubt that was about a 90 pound female. I asked him how he knew that, and I got a first class lesson on tracking cougars. The next day we unloaded snow machines/mobiles/sleds, or whatever name you use for them. That was awesome -7 ridind sleds for about 90 miles. No really I am serious I had a blast doing that, reminded me of being back in Alaska. That day between sledding, driving two rigs we found 7 sets of tracks. Dale and I found a nice tom track and Dale told me it was about a 115-120 pound young tom. A lot of you know my wife is deployed and getting back soon. So based on time I almost made the wrong decision. I told Dale lets do it. He very nicely told me to go sit down on my snow machine, smoke a cigarette and to think about it. I took his advice and did that. I came back up to him 4.8 minutes later and asked him do you think you can get me a bigger cat. He said one word YES. I said lets go. And we ended that day. Met up with Brian and he told us he found a track of a mature Tom about 135-140.

We got up on the third day and went cat track hunting. Dale and myself were looking for tracks when Dale pulled over and said what track is that. Me being not of sound mind and judgement jumped out of the truck, went to the 2 feet of snow, looked at the track, put my hand in the track to test the size of it, buried my head in the track to smell it. Then went running up the hill to sample the yellow snow I could see. I came back down the hill very excited and said yes that is a mature Tom track. Dale kindly told me next time, Just look right here where the snow does not have a crust on it and you can see the track. I said oh, well it's OK I was thirsty anyways. But honestly we stopped looked at the track and I got another lesson. Dale sat there and explained how the cats gait was and how its belly drug through the snow. And told me as plain as day at 4 am 3 hours before we even released the dogs. That was the cat I was looking for, I asked him how big he thought it was, he told me between 150-160 pounds. And I have to say he was 100% accurate.

You can see the hunt on the video so will not go into depth on that.

With a closing note I will say once again this was my first guided hunt for any type of animal. I did not know what to expect. I was very skeptical about the entire thing. Now that it is over I am glad I chose this route to pursue my cougar.  Dale, Brian, Tara. Treat you like you are part of the family. They have awesome accommodations, the food was outstanding.  I told Dale but did not tell Tara, that was one of the perks. With the wife being deployed I have had to cook for the last 365 days. It was fricken awesome to come in and a meal be prepared. And not have to think about what you were going to eat. Brian was great, he even took me along for a ride in his Toyota. I have been in everything from a Subaru brat to a M-1 (Tank) I have had many hours of off roading and thought I knew it all. I get in Brian's Toyota and off we go. We go up the mountain and down this old trail. We get to where all have turned around and I expect him to turn around. He looks sideways at me and says you might want to hold on a lil. And that is when I got shown what a truck can really do. I am still impressed, enough that I just might buy me a beater Toyota again and ship it over there and let Brian play with it.

So if you are ever thinking of doing a guided hunt and want someone with knowledge, experience, and to become part of an extended family I 100% recommend BearPaw Outfitters.

Last thing I know alot of you are wondering, the wife has still not made it in. She is stuck in Japan, she sat last night in an airplane for 9 hours hoping they would get  a break in the weather. They can not de ice and plow the runway fast enough to keep up to get the plane off the ground..They will try again tonite.

Cougar Hunting In Washington

Joe

[Pathfinder101]

Congrats Joe!  That's a great cat!  Enjoy your time with the Sergeant Major!

[400out]

super video thanks for taking us along  very nice cat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[trippledigitss]

Wow - that is a nice looking cat. Thanks for sharing the video....although I couldnt hear half of what you were saying because of those crazy dogs! Congrats man!

[gaddy]

very cool, great video and thanks for taking us along

[MuleySniper]

Great video! Way to capture the memory.
MS