I haven't seen any wolves this year yet either.
Speaking of mountain lions though, in Unit 39, October 5th, my younger brother happened across a spike bull elk wearing a cougar necklace.
He was riding his atv down a logging road when he spotted an elk's butt sticking out of some thick buck brush. It's hind legs were on the road about 40 yards ahead of him around a bend. The elk was kicking his back legs out behind it. My brother turned off his atv and walked up the road to get a better look at what the heck was wrong with this elk. He thought it strange the elk hadn't run off yet.
He closed to within 20 yards when he saw that a mountain lion had a death grip on this bull's neck! He pulled his pistol out of his holster wondering what to do. He didn't have a cougar tag, the pistol was mainly for protection at this distance. The bull fell over onto the ground with the cougar on top of it. After the initial shock of witnessing something probably very few people have a chance to see, he eventually yelled out "hey!".
The cougar let go, jumped off the elk, and lept down the mountain. The elk got up and staggered off down the road like a drunken sailor. We figure the cougar caught up with his prey later in the morning and finished it off.
I've hunted elk in this area for years. Seen cougars on gut piles and even found a cougar eating our elk when we went in to pack it out. Anybody with dogs and a tag pm me if you're interested.
