Posts tagged 14ers Mountain Lion
Posts tagged 14ers Mountain Lion
Hunting Mountain Lions at 12,000 feet
The original plan was to hike 12,000 feet of elevation and cover the equivalent mileage of a marathon while doing three 14ers, La Plata, Mt. Elbert & Mt. Massive, in two days. But as always when one lives an adventure filled life things change, sometimes very quickly and in a very frightening way!
Two friends and I left for Leadville late Friday afternoon to camp out at the trailhead of La Plata for the start of our adventure. It just so happened that while planning this push we discovered that it would be a full moon Friday night. This did not influence our decision to start early but it certainly gave us a bit more of a sane excuse to hike an entire 14er in the dark. We all knew though that the real reason we were doing it was so we would have enough time to also go up Mt. Elbert before noon Saturday.
We through our sleeping bags out around 9:00pm just off the parking lot on the side of Independence Pass and after finally being able to drown out the rush hour traffic going over the pass I fell asleep for about an hour; until the notorious heavy weekend traffic of La Plata proved true. Around 10pm my two friends and I gave up the idea of sleep when my friends dog started barking at every car filled with hikers that pulled into the parking lot to get sleep before their morning start. Instead we laid in our bags for about an hour convincing ourselves that a little relaxation was better than starting an hour early. But sleep or no sleep we were off on the trail at 11:30pm planning to be at the top in a few hours.
The hiking is really pleasant starting out down a county road until you access the proper trailhead noted by the sign in box. From here route finding in the dark was not too bad but careful attention was needed. We wound our way through the flat valley floor covered by aspen leaves. It was beautiful with the full moon over head, but the leaf-covered forest did make route finding a little more difficult. Eventually you cross over a well-made bridge spanning a small deep gorge and then over a small creek with a few logs in it.
After we crossed the bridge we started to smell the musky scent of an animal. We were completely unaware of what it was but all agreed that it was an animal, as we continued on the smell would come and go but never very strong. Shortly after crossing the creek the trail starts to shoot straight up out of the valley. The trail at this point becomes very clear and although there is a big elevation gain it is on a very well maintained trail, which makes it much easier.
Finally around 11,000’ the trail came to a more open meadow area and became flat for a brief time before shooting straight up a gully that leads to tree line and the ridge of La Plata. As we turned to head up the gully there was a breeze coming over the top and with it came a very strong musky smell of what was certainly an animal. We stopped and discussed what we though it was and if we should keep going. Knowing that it was elk seasoned we suggested that maybe it was just some elk and that since the gully was moving up out of tree line we would be more in the open so a cat could not hide as well and the likely hood of a bear being up that high wasn’t big. The trail up the gully was very steep and we gained elevation very quickly. As we continued to go up there was one point where the smell became very intense and one of my friends even suggested that it smelled like a dead animal. Hum weird how looking back all these red flags come up, but we continued on and the smell even completely disappeared.
We reached the top of the gully and followed the trail left and across an easy scree field that angles up towards the summit ridge at about 12:45. As we made our way along the trail we spotted very large animal prints side hilling up off the trail. We stopped an examined them for a long time. We were very confused by what they were because they were so large but spaced very close together, also it was hard to tell because in the soft gritty dirt the animal clearly was getting bad traction an slipping which completely deformed the print. The only thing that we could certainly gather was that it was not a goat or any other hoofed animal. Also the tracks disappeared as they went up the hill so we could not tell were it went. As we moved along I was in the front keeping my eyes open ahead of me for anything while also trying to find the trail. This made me completely miss seeing the next set of prints, but when my buddy stopped us to look at them I looked down and so they dog for the first time starting to act strange or seem like there was anything else out there. I yelled at my friend to grab the dog and don’t let it bark! As I said this I heard rock fall from a gully ahead of us and we all saw two animals jump up onto a big rock maybe 100 yards in front of us. We all froze and my buddy and I through our trekking poles up in the air and started making as much noise as we could with our other friend and the dog in the middle. Then the two animals lunged at us, the adrenaline at this point was pumping so fast I was not sure if they took 2 steps or 10 I just knew that they were coming towards us; I yelled at everyone don’t move, don’t run, get louder! Then very quickly the animals turned and ran up the gully completely disappearing in the dark. We did not stop making noise but somehow in the chaos started to discuss what we were going to do. Should we continue on because maybe they were tying to come across the ridge and get behind us or should we turn back and hope they don’t follow us into tree cover. The person in the back said lets get off the ridge they are here so lets not be. And with that we all started to walk the few hundred yards back towards the gully in a mix of forward and backward facing walking shinning our lights everywhere and making enough noise to be heard over the pass in Aspen.
As we made our way down we were signing and yelling as loud as we could, and me being in the back I kept turning around walking a ways backwards and then returning forwards hopping that there was not something lurking behind me. Although the hike down seemed very long because of the constant concern of some lions following us and trying to eat us we were moving very quickly and were back at the trailhead around 2:20am were we left a note about when and were we had spotted the lions and warned for caution to be taken.
When we got back to the car we pilled relived to all be there in good health and headed over to the Mt. Elbert trailhead were we pitched up a tent without even asking if anyone wanted to sleep out in the open and passed out for a few hours before heading off to Mt. Elbert.
After Thoughts
After coming home and doing some more research on Mountain Lions that is certainly what we came across. The reasons that the prints looked so close together is because they walk lightly and step with their back paws in their front prints. The intense smell was likely not them but instead a food cache that they had, meaning an animal that they had killed earlier and were coming back to eat on. The timing was also perfect they hunt and travel largely in early morning and with the full moon it makes prime conditions. Also when they travel in groups like we saw it is because the young does not leave their mother until a few years old, and often can be more aggressive than the adults because they are just running off of instinct and not experience.
It was a very interesting experience one that I am glad we all returned safely from and did not become anymore intense than it was.
Also sorry for the lack of pictures documenting was not high on my list at the time.
Cheers!
