Postby Rowdy Fitz » Wed Feb 19, 2025 3:17 pm
I made it back to look for those lions. We cut a small female track right at sun up. I put my females on it and they had her treed in about 30 min. They trailed for about half a mile then jumped her. She ran another 1/2 mile then treed. It was the perfect race for my females. It took me over an hour to get to the tree because the terrain was miserably rough with snow and ice. We climbed over 1100’ in elevation. It took my 2 buddies another hour and a half to catch up. So after they caught up, I let them take pictures and catch their breath. Then I jumped her once for the dogs. It was a 300 yard mad dash down hill and they had her treed again. That’s when shat got strange…
The dogs went quiet and ran 400 yards side hill then treed again. I assumed she just jumped and treed again. I got to the tree and was immediately confused because it wasn’t her up there, it was a tom! In my excitement, I didn’t pay attention to the dogs when they were wandering off downhill. Now I understand why they kept wandering down hill a hundred feet or so.
Anyways, I told the guys as they were getting to the tree that they weren’t going to believe me and they were going to think I’m crazy because it wasn’t the same lion in that tree. It took me a minute or two to confirm it was a tom just because I was still in disbelief. But after that, I told my buddy that had a tag he was clear to take it if he wanted. So he made a great shot and the tom went about 150 yards straight down the little draw before piling up. We had a hell of a time pulling him off the mtn with all the ice and no straps or packs. We used belts and just drug him because someone would have gotten hurt trying to pack him down that NASTY mtn.