Got a call mid-week from a relative who owns a large chunk of property bordering town. I'd been waiting for it for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she saw the first set of cat tracks this Winter.
There is a public easement road that goes through here but dead ends, multiple gates, private property on both sides, all of which I can hunt. My relative and her daughter walk up this road and back 2X a day, about a mile or so, just for excercise. They are always very good about calling me every year when the cats start coming lower.
The Blue puddle jumper of cougar frustration made it about 1/4 mile up the road and had to stop at a snowdrift that would have scared a polar bear. No problem, I planned on hiking a lot today anyways.
Unfortunately I could not find the tracks they had told me about since we'd had some snow since I got the phone call, but I thought it worth a try, just go up the road and try to cut tracks crossing it.
This road is popular for some of the after-work crowd to hike/run/ski etc. back and forth so there is a pretty well worn path the first mile and a half. I decided to not use the snowshoes today, it's deep up there but heavily crusted, with some exceptions.
The elk migrate back and forth between this hill and the lowlands, every Spring there are fences that need to be repaired. Most times they jump em' but other times they just go right through em'. I mean, the first one to bust through a fence, that's gotta' hurt.
With a mile behind me, evidence of human travel began to wane. I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw this though.
Looking back towards town, the icon of the Grande Ronde Valley.
Close to three miles in, looking back at my own tracks. Finally alone.
This was a stretch that I should have had snowshoes for, quite arduous but a good work out. I was getting to the point where I felt like turning back, couldn't even find bunny tracks crossing the road.
But I hate going back the same way I came so I made up my mind to finish the hill and loop back down towards truck in a rather circuitious path. Another 50 yards after I made that decision I found some tracks crossing the road, actually two sets but they looked at least a day old.
What the hell, I'll follow them anyways. It's always fun to try and get into the mind of a cat.
I was about to get schooled today though. An experienced tracker would have figured this out right off the bat. See the tracks on the right, there's also some larger ones off to the upper left.
I knew I was following an adult and a juvenile hunting side by side. I should have paid a bit more attention to the picture above.
Only til' I saw this did I figure it out.
There was three cats, not two.
Momma cat on the left, young un's on the right, going through each others prints but deviating from time to time.
Momma cat had to take a potty break, lots of deer or elk hair in the stuff.
I was having fun now! I've been doing this for 5 years, albeit unsuccessfully but have learned a thing or two about how cats like to travel.
They hunt in circles. They like to have the high ground.
I decided to test this today and make a prediction where these tracks would cross the pipeline when I was still a mile away from it.
I was only a few yards off. They crossed it right down the crest of the ridgeline where they had the best vantage point.
Based on my knowledge of this area, and the fact that the prints I followed weren't smoking fresh I think I'm going to access the Southern end of the properties from a different put in tomorrow.
Sorry for not having a dead kitty picture on my tailgate for ya' guys. But I'm tryin'.
Mad Mikey
Another try at tracking cats today
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