Best/worst day
Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:35 pm
Found a good track Friday morning of a cat that I have ran before but never caught. There was allways some malfunction with the dogs, dogs couldn't settle down, track stomped out by moose, etc... thinking this time is going to be different we put dogs down the track at about 7:30 and the race was on. We grabbed packs and started after the dogs being there are no roads for quite a ways in the direction they were headed. We caught up with the dogs after about 1 mile due to the track being washed by a herd of elk. We circled the mess and found where he had came out and restarted the dogs. After 5 more miles and 2 more drainages we hadn't caugt the dogs again or got the cat jumped so we turned around to go back and get the truck because the dogs were still 2 miles ahead (GPS) and headed to a canyon with a road in it. We got back to the truck about 2:00 and about 12 miles (total) later (worst day).
We had to run to town to get gas and on the way we got a reading on one of the dogs treed at 7.6 miles so we grabbed some gas and hauled but in there direction. We had to climb a hill and come into another small valley and as soon as we hit the top we got a signal on all the dogs treed at 2 miles up the hill. We cut around on another road and got the truck to about 900 yrds from where they were and started in to them. Well 900 yrds on the gps is about 1 and 1/2 miles as you walk or atleast thats how it felt. We got to the tree just before dark and there was a nice tom up it. After a short discusion we decided to reward those young dogs ( the oldest one is on his third season) for there hard work and shot him out to them. (best day)
The best I can tell from the gps and the map they trailed this cat for about 14 miles and though 5 canyons. I couldn't be happier. Sorry no pics of the tree the cold sucked the battery life out of my camera. But here are a couple from the next morning.
We had to run to town to get gas and on the way we got a reading on one of the dogs treed at 7.6 miles so we grabbed some gas and hauled but in there direction. We had to climb a hill and come into another small valley and as soon as we hit the top we got a signal on all the dogs treed at 2 miles up the hill. We cut around on another road and got the truck to about 900 yrds from where they were and started in to them. Well 900 yrds on the gps is about 1 and 1/2 miles as you walk or atleast thats how it felt. We got to the tree just before dark and there was a nice tom up it. After a short discusion we decided to reward those young dogs ( the oldest one is on his third season) for there hard work and shot him out to them. (best day)
The best I can tell from the gps and the map they trailed this cat for about 14 miles and though 5 canyons. I couldn't be happier. Sorry no pics of the tree the cold sucked the battery life out of my camera. But here are a couple from the next morning.