On December 1st, 2025, I put my foot in the stirrup of a white mule named Snowy River and threw my leg over the saddle. Over the next five days, he’d carry me 80 miles through some of the roughest ground in Southwest Utah in search of a mountain lion. Snowy River belongs to McClain and Hunter Mecham, a father and son team native to Utah, both lifelong mountain lion hunters and mule men. Also accompanying us on the hunt would be nationally known mule trainer and clinician Ty Evans of TS Mules. The following five days would take me on the roughest and longest mule ride I’ve ever been on.
McClain is a fourth-generation houndsman and known for having some of the best dogs in the country. He’s considered a dry-ground hunter, meaning most of the time he tracks lions without snow, on bare dirt. In many places, snow makes tracking lions easier and faster, but in the arid Southwest, often it’s cold and snowless.
Tracking them on dry ground is much harder and takes a dog with a different skill set than most hounds. Incredible stamina, prey drive, and an other-worldly nose are the hallmarks of a good dry-ground hound. Like many hunters in the West, he hunts mixed-bred hounds with Walker, English, and bluetick mixed in. Their hounds are known as some of the best in the West.
On the second day of the hunt we treed our first lion, a sub-adult male. We followed the dogs step-for-step and trailed the lion no less than six miles before they treed him. The cat likely weighed between 110 and 120 pounds, a completely legal cat. However, we decided to pass on him.
Utah has liberalized lion hunting in efforts to help mule deer and elk populations, much to the chagrin of many lion hunters. Currently the lion season is open 365 days a year, with no annual bag limits, and you don’t even need a tag—just a hunting license.
I’m confident the wildlife agencies have a bonafide reason for this, but according to McClain, “Utah doesn’t have the numbers of big lions we used to have.” The theme of our conversation over the next few days would revolve around lion management in Utah. Ironically, McClain and Hunter are also elk and mule deer outfitters, so they’re invested in healthy cervid numbers but don’t think killing all the lions will have that much impact. Some disagree, but I think it’s interesting that the lion hunters are the ones advocating for more conservative lion hunting seasons.
By the end of the trip, we treed three lions—two young males and a female. We chose to let them all go even though they were all legal. I’d have been happy with either of the males, but when you’re the guest of men as knowledgeable as the Mecham’s, you take the cues from them. Ultimately, I opted to pass them.
Perhaps some might think we should have killed all three, but I’m glad I made the choice I did. I hope to go back and finally get to see a big mature tom bayed on a rock cliff in Utah. This was a unique experience with some of the best lion hunters in North America. And to boot, I learned a lot about trusting my mule from Ty Evans. You can watch this episode of Meateater’s 12 in 26 film series right here.
Read the full article here