Evans City man bags mountain lion
EVANS CITY — With temperatures falling to -12 degrees and snow piled as high as 3 feet, Scott Wimer was fighting the elements — and loving every minute of it.
Wimer, 48, of Evans City spent New Year’s Day in the mountains of Rio Blanco County, Colo., trying to bag a mountain lion.
Eight hours into a day that began at 3 a.m., Wimer bagged a 149-pounder.
“Between the altitude up there, the thin air and the temperature, it was absolutely brutal,” Wimer said. “But it was worth it.”
A hunter since age 12, Wimer was making his fifth big-game hunt. He has been to Maine three times to hunt bears and on a Colorado elk hunt.
He came up empty each time.
“I scheduled this mountain lion hunt back in July,” Wimer said. “Cliff Graham (of Evans City-based) Hunting Consultant Unlimited set me up with the guides and those guys were fantastic.
“Of the 14 hunters I was out there with, all but one of us bagged a lion.”
The snow was particularly tough on Wimer, who stands only 5-feet-6.
“I don’t have the leg span to get through that stuff. It was miserable,” he said.
And challenging.
Hunting guides in Colorado are permitted to bring dogs on lion hunts.
“The dogs can tree the lion, but those animals are so nimble,” Wimer said. “This particular lion jumped the tree three times before I finally got him.
“I never expected to get a lion on the first day. I figured it would take a while.”
Wimer is having a full body mount done on the mountain lion and plans to put it in his living room. He also got 70 pounds of meat out of it.
“The meat tastes like pork. It’s very good,” Wimer said
“That experience was once in a lifetime. I’ll never forget it,” he added.
