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this is for the guys who run the cascades. is there a trick to running bobcats in that thick manzanita or alder or whatever you call it? i went up this week and turned loose on a good fresh track. the cat was just wandering. i followed the dogs for a ways and the track went back and forth checking out squirels and rabbits. so i went back to truck to keep up with dogs. the garmin said treed so i started hiking. got to about 100 yards and the garmin and their voices said they were running again. this happened about 3 times. i must have sounded like a freight train going thru this crap. after 2.25 miles i finally caught up with the dogs and they were still on the track but they were so cut up and my shins were so bruised up and i was tired of falling down that i pulled them off. i dont think a bulldozer could of gone threw there. so whats the deal? do i need faster dogs? a better area? or is it like cats that like the rock...and know if they head to that crap they can lose the dogs? i've hunted deer in the jungle of the valley and its thick but there's holes thru it down low. but this stuff is as bad as it gets. or maybe if i hunt it enough the dogs will appreciate a good old ochoco pine tree run and thank me.even if they sit in the box for days on end before a track is found. dont know what to do except sit in truck and listen cause my days of following them and learning while they do too are done in that stuff. i'll do it here in central oregon but not up there. when i pulled them off it was 1.5 miles across country and 3.5 by road back to the truck and i went by the road cause i wouldnt of made it thru that stuff.

It might have been a tough cat, but it sounds more like a fox.
If you have a garmin, go to the trees they've been locked down on and see what they look like.

In 45 years of cat hunting and in four western states { that is thousands of cats]I have never had a cat jump out of a tree. It does not mean it can't happen. I think something else was going on. Dewey

Sounds like they might have falsed tree and then figured out the cat eas not there and ran it some more. Might not have never really jumped it and the cat had pleny of time to stay well ahead of them. If that brush freezes up it will do a number on the dogs. I have made the mistake and turned loose when it was bitter cold and the wet brush was froze solid and cut up the dogs pretty good.

Ive had some of this happen to me when the dogs get out of hearing and it has to do with trusting the garmin to much, the first thing that helps is make sure your garmin is set to update rate of 30 sec, the tree switch in the garmin goes of quickly and easily and does not require there head to be tipped back. In my cases i think the dogs were cold trailing through a tuff spot rocks or a sec of bare ground so the gps shows them treed but if your were within hearing you would know they werent barking treed. notice how your garmin comes up treed when they are on the box and your reading a map or something. So wait it out a little longer and try to stay in hearing. Hope that helps.

thanks for the replies. i didnt actually think the cat was jumping. well maybe at 1st i did. but after awhile i thought that the brush was so thick that the cat was hiding on the ground or they had him bayed up and the noise of me breaking trail was spooking him off whenever i got close. my dogs arent kill dogs,they will nip at a cat but have never finished 1 off by themselves. my main question was more to the part about the thick brush. next time maybe i'll just wait till they come to a more open section of hillside to walk up to them or maybe i need a kill dog in the pack? i did catch 1 on the ground last year but i was with a guy who had a cur dog and im pretty sure he did the killing. i was just wondering how you deal with that head high alder and manzanita? almost killed me and i was soaked from head to tail.

As far as walking through it just got to pick your route in try to be in it as little as poss, and just tuff it out there is not really any other anwser except hunt somewhere else LOl it is a pain on the shins.