Cougar Calling this year

WMFerguson said:
As of this a.m., there is abt 22-25" of snow at the chain lakes, right at the Stev. Co./Pend. Co. line. Granted, that's not in an open GMU though.
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Really? Not really jack for snow at my house in stevens county right now, and none in the forecast. Was barely any snow down low along the pend orielle river when i was last there, before i headed to alaska, and ive had no snow at my house since.
 
Slagiatt said:
Really? Not really jack for snow at my house in stevens county right now, and none in the forecast. Was barely any snow down low along the pend orielle river when i was last there, before i headed to alaska, and ive had no snow at my house since.
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Yep. Lake Leo. I don't know how much there is along the river, but that's quite a drop in elevation.
 
New area today. Looks great. Good spots for calling. Found a couple sets of tracks that were at least a day old. Got here late. Got 2 dry stands in. Holed up in a local motel now. Going back to the same spot tomorrow, planning on hiking in a couple miles in the dark to explore deeper and get a head start on the sun.
 
It's a good thing work jumped up and bit me or else I would be crying in my beard. We have a full blizzard going on here and there is no way I could make it over the pass into Idaho.
 
Question for my fellow lion hunters: do lions regularly cross rivers in non-pursuit circumstances? In other words, do lions regularly, as part of their home territorial circuit, incorporate a river or do they generally make a river the boundary of their territory? I've had lions cross creeks while being pursued by hounds, but I know very little about lion habits in non-pursuit settings.

What prompted this question: on Tuesday, Jan 28, 2025, I was headed over to Idaho/EWA for work. I saw a lion run up into the brush, as I was cruising along the Lochsa on HWY 12. Previously, I had seen tracks in the area on the highway-side of the river, so that made sense to see a lion on the highway-side. In case you are wondering, I did not stop. I was horribly unprepared and didn't have time to stop, kill the lion, and still make it to my dinner meeting. But to the point: on my left, was the Lochsa River and on the other side of that is the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. In developing an idea of this particular lion's pattern, should I cross the river to look for tracks? Does it matter? The river is exceptionally low, but it would still be a mofo to cross.
 
No idea if they would regularly cross rivers, but they certainly can and will swim. Though just a hunch, i dubt they would when its this cold out. Theyd be catcicles after they got out of the river.

Some lions have been proven to swim pretty decent stretches of the puget soubd island hopping. And heres a pic of a lion climbing around on haystack rock (of goonies fame) off the oregon coast not too long ago.
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Got out on the Lochsa, yesterday. No lions, but that's hunting. 2 easy lessons I learned: 1. Take care of small problems so they don't turn into big problems. 2. There is no substitute for preparation. It's really embarassing to forget my tags AND rifle. Luckily, I was only 20 minutes, rather than 3 hours, from home.

Other lessons I will have to learn by breaking down my set and eliminating bad variables I can control.
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Well, i was waiting for these single digit temps to pass, was going back to unit 113 on friday. They just closed it. Sonofabitch. These new cougar regs suck.
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Anybody here up in boundary / bonner co idaho that could fill me in on current snow / road conditions? Kinda thinking about heading up the upper pack river tomorrow since washington sucks so bad.
 
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