How often do we get into a situation where we get the feeling we are not top of the food chain? I suppose the people who hunt the big bear or predator species would understand this feeling, one false move and you could get a firsthand experience of what being fertilizer feels like. For those who have never felt their true spot on the food chain, this is my firsthand account of those feelings.
Monday, day three in eastern Oregon September of 2009 began with my father and I glassing a very steep unforgiving old burn for elk. This burn area was very thick with re-growth pine trees or what is known in the west as reprod. Reprod makes glassing and traversing slightly more difficult, however; it can hold some dynamite elk spots. The sky was gray and the temperature hovered in the high fifties. Less than five minutes after sitting down to glass the reprod, we counted fourteen animals file out into the open at the very top of the mountain. We both looked at each other and said, “Game on.” Dad had hunted this burn before having several close calls with big bulls. This kept my hopes high that there would be at least a simple rag horn up in the mix. We jumped on the small ever so faint pack trail to the top although it didn’t really help our cause all that much since the terrain was so steep. We should have been more careful where we were walking. About half way up the mountain we stopped for quick breather and some water. Dad stepped off the trail zipped his pants down and had just started relieving himself when I heard, “Shoot, Jay, they’re looking right at us, don’t move.” Sure enough a small five point and about eight cows were staring straight at us from across the valley about 300 yards away. Talk about being caught with your pants down. We crouched slowly behind a stump and reached for our binoculars watching their every movement in between the thick reprod for about 15 minutes until they cautiously began feeding again. Talking over our options we had two choices: try to sneak through the thick under brush and go straight at them or, double back down the trail and make a huge circle to try and get above them. We aired on the side of caution and attempted to circle the group. It wasn’t long before the animals got antsy though. The rag horn rounded up his cows and began pushing them over the far ridge to be gone from our lives forever. Dad pulled an old cow call from around his neck and produced a long mew which stopped the bull in his tracks. He gave us a courtesy bugle as to acknowledge our existence, then took his cows over the ridge. “Shoot” I thought we just blew it after busting our butts to get halfway up this mountain. As we sat under a pine tree dad whispered he didn’t think that was the same group we had seen earlier. He was right, where were the rest? We worked our way up to another vantage point to call but as soon as I knocked an arrow, I counted 20 elk trotting away single file towards where the other group vanished. I wanted to puke I was so miffed. Waiting for the animals to get out of sight we tried to hike up around and above and drop down to cut them off. The trip around the valley was incredibly steep and I thought there was no chance that we would ever catch them. I was wrong. Reaching a small rocky plateau, we nearly were run over by three or four cows that had been holding in a small group of trees. We had just spooked the entire mountain into eternity, what a great feeling that was. Regrouping from our dejected feelings we sat down at a small stream to replenish our camelbacks and grab some lunch. The remainder of our day we decided would be spent slowly hunting our way towards where our friends Bryce were hunting over a mineral lick. We had about three miles in between us. I held some hope that there would be elk on the undisturbed side of the mountain.
The far side of the mountain was slightly flatter and the trail we hiked down was a bit wider. However; there was a small bank to our left and reprod so thick in seemed as if it were just one giant airtight green wall. This trail was loaded with deer and elk tracks which raised my spirits slightly and I tried to keep my ears and eyes peeled. I was about ten yards behind dad fighting indigestion when, it happened. Time slowed down. There was a very sudden and loud THUD to our right and dad hit his Hoochie Mamma cow call in an effort to stop what ever had just moved in the brush. I looked into the brush no more than fifteen yards away and saw brown fur that definitely was not the shade of an elk or mule deer hide. Then it started moving. A long four foot tail appeared in the opening, it was mountain lion. The big cat was well over six feet long with a head as large as a steering wheel just sizing us up. My eye grew wide as I froze in my boots, “Dad!” I said In a loud shocked voice, “it’s a cat, it’s a cat, it’s a cat, it’s a cat holy smokes its cat.” I knocked an arrow and got ready to fight. Mentally I tried to remember what pocket my knife was in just in case this thing got personal. The Lion sulked off to the right; my heart was in my throat as I back peddled to my father. Release on the string, I was ready let an arrow fly in case the beast reappeared from the brush. We started yelling and throwing rocks into the brush. The eerie part was, this cat was not scared of us at all but just moseyed his way off. We walked the next mile backwards with arrows knocked.
The entire encounter lasted less than a minute but the image of that animal is forever burned into my soul and will never leave and I know it is the same way with my father. Later that night at camp, once the shock wore off, we agreed that it was one of the most exhilarating experiences either of us had ever had. Looking back on the encounter, it was an unbelievable experience to be less than 15 yards from one of North America’s top predators. How many people can say that about their senior trip? Not many I imagine. Being that close to such a formidable creature was nothing but a gift from God, a true symbol of the untamed wilderness
This is at the top of the burn we hunted, started down on that ridge, the lion appeared about half a mile away to the left of where we were in this picture
Do you have this edge? If you don’t, today is a good day to start.
Pushing the Wild Limits 