8 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •
At last moment's thought I headed to Salmon Butte to see some fresh snow. Was a nice hike for the weather, but I didn't set enough time to make it to the summit (4th Salmon "fail" already - someday I need to plan and get it done). New powder was ~3-4 inches above 2000' and was easy to walk on, but near 4000' I started encountering old snow layer below, and it was firm and icy. Crampons would be helpful for the upper part. Coming back I saw that my tracks were followed by 2 cougars (or bobcats?) downhill - I didn't take my dog and my tracks were the only ones on trail beyond 1st mile, so these couldn't be dog tracks. They went on trail for about 1/2 mile before veering into the forest.
Comments
Roman
February 1, 2016
Yes pics 6-8 were at the first opening. My usual turn-around spot is viewpoint on the ridge, but this time I turned back just short because of ice/fog.
I did some research on tracks and think there were cougar tracks indeed (female with a young) - one source said female coug prints are 3.5'' in width or smaller, while male prints are 4-5'' (gives average of 4'' most sources tell). Bobcat tracks are 1.75-2.25''; ones I saw were a bit under 3.25''. At the bottom edge of pic before last (#19) the larger track fit into my heel print which is just <3.5'' wide.
Roman
February 2, 2016
But then, the stride was only about 26-28''... Hard to tell. One part of me thinks "if I just stayed at viewpoint with camera ready", while other part says "lucky I didn't hang out there longer", LOL. Either way, pretty exciting to be so close to actual encounter.
Woodswalker
February 5, 2016
I recently put this one on my to do list.
JM
February 1, 2016
Wow! So much cool, here. Bobcat tracks! So neat! Also, love the "snowsquito". Looks like you got pretty close to the top, though there is a spot where the trail opens up a bit around halfway up and that might be where you took pic 6,7,8.