Roman went hiking January 31, 2016 8 miles 2,500 feet gained

Salmon Butte (partial)

2

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.

Trail Talk

2 people have hearted this trip.

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.

Roman · February 2, 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.