Trailing conditions?

[Cowboyvon]

For those of you who have done it how is the trailing in the high desert sage brush country? No snow ..

[Grzyadms4x4]

It can be tough or easy, for me at least. I walk hunt so traveling around in high brush can be a little tough to say the least. I have had to crawl through game tunnels to get through some spots. I think moisture, amount of sun/time of the year and soil type make a big difference in the dogs ability to trail through that stuff. It is nice because often you can see the dogs working a lot more than in the pines or even the low desert. Just my $.02 from my limited experience.

[Mike Leonard]

Brett,

We have a lot of sage up here where we hunt and it can be tough at times as it slows down a lot of dogs that really seem to grub a track on the ground. If a dog has a tendancy to trail higher even on a colder track it doesn't seem to hinder as much. Sage as we know robs ground water from other vegetation so it will reduce other ground cover but in turn if the animal brushes thru it it will leave considerable scent on the brush itself at times and this can speed things up.

Here is a scenario that happended to Bobbie and I awhile back . We had made a pretty good big circle of about 8-10 miles I would say and left not long after daylight we did n't strike a track and so it was getting pretty warm and we decided to head back towards the ranch house. We hit a pretty good two track ranch road and were clipping along pretty fast on our horses when I looked down and saw a female lion track going right down the road the same direction we were going. where she came on I don't know but the four hot dogs I had panting along didn't pick it up on that trail.
Well I stopped by a big juniper and shaded the dogs up for a bit and let them cool out and then I led my horse back out on the trail and followed the track by sight. She went about another 75 yards and then veered off to the right thru a big sagebrush flat. There had been a little moisture a few days before and this track was on top of that but I couldn't tell exactly how fresh it was. I called my Ben dog over and told him to look for it! He went to casting around and hit it and opened and the others ran to him and they started pounding it across that flat. Now Ben and his daughter Vicky trail pretty high it seemes and the clipped along pretty good , but Old Blue and Tom two of the other dogs cold nosed as they are are more the type to trail with their noses right on the ground, and they struggled thru the thick sagebrush. Ben and Vicky carried it across the sage and when they hit the slope that was pinion/juniper and a few poderosa pines they really lit up, and when Tom and Blue got there they were able to pick up their speed considerably not having to bump and dodge thru the sage. They all got together pretty quick and moved it well and took her to and elk kill and quickly jumped her.

I think the worst sage I was ever in was in southwest Wyoming. In some areas that stuff will tower over your head and in those creek and wash bottoms it can really make trailing a bobcat a real task.

As a side note on that tall Wyoming sage: I jumped some of the biggest bucks I have ever seen in my life out of that really tall sage as they seem to love it for cover.