T. Gunderson

I want to start by saying this was an outstanding trip. I couldn’t ask for a more knowledgeable Guide than Doug McMann and the phenomenal food that his wife, Julie served, in my opinion it is first class cooking. On our first day of hunting, Doug and I set out and we had some fresh snow that night. We were only on the road for about 15 min. when Doug spotted our first set of tracks. They looked promising, so he let the hounds loose and they were off. We sat in the truck and watched them run on the GPS unit. We decided to move further down the road to get into a better spot that was closer to the dogs when they treed the lynx. Once the dogs treed the lynx, we hiked in about 2 miles thru the snow to get to our treed cat. Upon arriving we located the lynx in the tree, Doug and I talked for a little bit and took photos of the cat and we decided to let this one go, even though it was a nice size cat he reassured me there were bigger Toms out there. On day two, we headed out first thing and Doug took me out to check bait piles for any signs of wolves. After finding no fresh signs he decided to take a different road then we took the day before to look for Lynx. About 30 min. into our drive we found a really nice Tom track, so Doug turned the dogs loose and away they started baying and on the scent they went. We patiently followed them on the GPS and when they had the cat treed we went on another 3-mile hike thru the snow into the back country to get to our cat. After a grueling hike in we finally got to where the dogs had the cat treed. To our surprise the cat slipped away, and it was a dry hole. Being a little disappointed we hiked out, but I knew we would get another cat.
It was day three, we took off to check bait traps on our way out we ran across a fresh big tom lynx track. The tracks weren’t there on our way in. So, we shot back to grab the dogs and hurried back to the tracks and turned the dogs loose. They took off running and baying, thru the woods. We again like previous days watched the dogs following the tracks on the GPS. After a 9-mile chase they had the cat treed. We decided to go back to the cabin and get the snow machines and ride them in to get to the dogs. We got in about ½ mile from where the dogs were, and we had a short hike in. To our surprise it wasn’t that easy, we had to hike thru and around of a lot of blow downs and had to navigate thru a really dense spruce bog. We finally got to where the cat was treed, to Doug’s surprise he had a client tree a cougar right next to where my cat was treed. We took photos and decided we were going to keep this nice 25 lbs tom. We loaded up the lynx and headed back out to the snow machines for the short drive back to the cabin, high on adrenaline and grateful for such a joyous kill.
Day four I took the day off to let my body recuperate and it was my 11 year anniversary of being injured in Iraq. We sat around and watched Hockey and Football and had a good day of conversation. Day five we went out and sat over a bait pile with no luck on any wolves. Day six we went back to the bait piles and were able to get a coyote early in the morning, we went to a different bait pile and sat on that all day with no luck. All in all, this was a trip of firsts for me, it was my first time getting a Lynx, Coyote, Snow Machining, and watching hockey. Doug, Julie, Courtney, and their Nephew Cody are truly amazing people with big hearts. Staying at their place I felt as if I never left home. For myself it was a physically challenging trip hiking thru the back country, I could see it probably wore on Doug a little that I couldn’t keep up with him, but he never said anything about it. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart the Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation, John McDaniel, and Corrina Hart for affording me this great opportunity. I would like to Lastly like to Thank Doug and Julie McMann for providing such an awesome adventure for me to be a part of. The wonderful memories and friendships made during this trip will last me a life time. Thank you for all for the many firsts in my life and memories that this adventure offered, it really means a lot to me.