You Might Not Believe This One...
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:07 pm
The day before the big snow came I had relocated the Red Runner after looking and waiting for 8 days. The tracks were on glazed over snow that was like ice. All I saw out of the corner of my eye that morning was a few slivers of ice on top. They did not look quite right. I stopped and got out to take a look. It was a large tom and he had his paws spread wide and claws out as he hit the base of the slope. The claws dug into the ice and left small shavings on top. I tried to circle him up, but I did too big of a loop and he was still inside it. The following day, in came a big snow and subzero temps. We went from almost no snow and 50 degrees, to 18 inches of fresh dry powder and 23 below zero in 36 hrs. Well that shut things down hard. No cats moved for four days after. Days 5-8 saw 2 females and 3 kittens move some, along with a few bobcats. On day 8, I saw a lion track from the top of the ridge with my binocs a couple of miles away. The next morning, day 9 after the storm, I cut the track I saw from above. Here was what I was looking for. The track was big. I could stick my gloved fist into any track and never touch the sides. I was all kinds of pumped up. I spent the next couple of hrs getting it circled up. Once I saw the line it was taking, I knew it would be runnable and on the ranch. On the final pass, I saw where it had walked across my snowmobile trail. What a surprise it was to be looking at a huge female track! I should have listened to my instincts, because two things did not seem right. First, the stride was only 40 inches. Second, the tracks did not sink as deep as I would have thought. She had traveled the whole way with her toes spread as wide apart as possible in order to float on the snow better. But after 9 days of relentlessly scouring 30 square miles, I was more than ready to make this one into a big Tom. But try as I might, the clean tracks still said female. As I sit on the sled, I looked over the knife edge and saw that the ledge a couple of hundred yards below me was all tracked up, so I climbed down to look around. This female had stashed her cub here for quite awhile. As I was tracking around the ledges, I saw a smoking hot track coming out from under one of the overhangs. It had dirt on top of the crusted, hard packed snow and I instantly felt the jig was up, so I ran to the top and looked both ways, no tracks to the south, but there to the north, about 150 yards away, was the female with spotted little junior in tow. That is only the third time I have ever seen a lion in the wild without dogs. What I would have paid for a camera right then! The view was spectacular, the both of them standing on a ledge, with the snow covered peaks in the background and the deep blue sky above. This female is an absolute specimen. She is in the 130 pound class and muscled up and ripped. In my mind, she is a serious Booner factory. Long live the Queen! Waiting and watching for a particular Tom to come back and passing up all else is a lonely, thankless job. I guess the hardest part for me, is passing up all the female and bobcat runs in the meantime. Tomorrow will be day 12 and maybe I will get lucky. When it comes to lions, you just never know for sure it seems.
