Jones lives his dream of hunting mountain lions out west

Walker Jones, 28, Holcombe, grew up coon, deer and bear hunting, but he wanted more. As he grew older, Walker discovered videos on YouTube of using hunting dogs to track and trail mountain lions out west.

“As the time went on a little bit, it was kind of a big dream,” said Walker. “It was a to-do list, a bucket list, right away.”

He and his cousins talked about going on the hunt, as soon as they came of age and got their licenses, but as life often does, their paths diverged. However, Walker stuck with his dream and eventually made the trip out west when he was 22 years of age or so, with his uncle and some other cousins, to look for the big cats.

Using public land to hunt on, Walker bought an over-the-counter license, and because there are only so many lions allowed to be harvested, a hunter needs to check on the quota limits for each zone. The zones are closed when the quotas have been filled, usually in March or April, not January when Walker’s groups go.

“As the years go on, you stop and talk to ranchers…and just see where they’re at,” said Walker, adding that he has built relationships in Colorado over the years.

No special gun needs to be purchased, but the law states a hunter must have a .22 caliber center fire or bigger.

Although that first trip ended with no sign of a mountain lion except on the last day, when some tracks were found, Walker’s enthusiasm wasn’t dampened. That year, the group went to Maybell, Colo., and the last day, the dogs finally hit a trail, after getting familiar with the territory, but the lion went to the trees and every time it was cornered, the large feline “bailed out.”

Meanwhile, a snowstorm had hit, so the group had to leave the dogs on the trail and take shelter, retrieving the hounds by GPS the next day, after the storm passed.

The next year, Walker went with his brother and two friends to the Rifle, Colo., area. They found a track the second or third day, but since it was 32 degrees below, they waited for it to warm up to 15 below. Their hounds found tracks in the fresh snow and the hunt was on.

“We found where it (lion) actually killed a mule deer in a ditch on the side of the road and it drug the mule deer up the side of the mountain,” said Walker. “We figured a fresh kill – he ain’t too far away. Well, it wasn’t.”

The dogs and hunters found the lion up higher on the mountain, dozing with a full stomach after his kill. The dogs put the big cat up a tree, but the lion’s instinct when cornered is to bail out of the tree and run. The chase was on for about a mile, and after four times of it leaving a tree, Walker was finally able to take a shot.

Walker says bagging the lion was a huge relief in only his second year of hunting the animals, and something he could check off in life.

“That was my bucket list,” he said. Before making the shot, Walker had to ensure that it was a mature lion ready for harvest and if it is a female, that it doesn’t have kits.

In Colorado, the law states that when you harvest an animal, you have to take all of it with you, after gutting it. So, Walker cut up the mountain lion for meat, asking his mom, Joy, to fix it and inviting friends for the meal. Walker Jones, Holcombe, proudly displays a mountain lion he harvested while on a hunting trip in Colorado. It was a dream of Walker’s to hunt the big cats, and he now acts as a mentor to younger hunters who also are interested in the pastime.

“Everyone tried what lion tasted like,” said Walker, who thinks the white meat is gamey, but similar to venison.

Now, five or six years later, Walker has more experience under his belt and continues hunting in the Rifle area. The hounds are also more experienced and even if the track is a couple days old, the dogs can usually pick it up, unless the lions go through shale rock.

“The bigger the animal, the more the scent,” said Walker.

While there is not much risk of the lion hurting the dogs, the terrain it takes them through is another matter. The hounds could lose their footing on the cliffs while in pursuit of the animal, which is a risk hunters have to accept.

“A lion you can tree with one dog,” said Walker. “They kill moose, they kill elk, they kill these monster animals, but…it’s scared of one dog.”

It’s also not without risks for the hunters, and though Walker says it is beautiful country in Colorado, you never know what’s under the snow, because of the steepness of the mountains and hills.

This year, when Walker made the annual trek to Colorado, there wasn’t much snow to contend with, which made tracking hard.

“This was the toughest year we’ve ever had out there,” he said.

Traveling with Walker this time, were his friends from Holcombe, Tyler Jones and high school junior Nate Jones, Cornell resident Roger Jenneman, and a friend from the Madison area. Walker says he can’t wait for the next trip out to Colorado, and also likes to bear hunt in Utah, as hunting is such an important part of his life, as instilled by his dad, Jesse.

“When it’s in your blood, it’s all you do, it’s all you think about.”