A New Cabin and Cougar Hunting

Following in the footsteps of his big-game-guide father, Gary shoots his first cougar.

Following in the footsteps of his big-game-guide father, Gary shoots his first cougar.

Then we really upgraded. My dad built a cabin when I was age 4, a huge mansion. Imagine four of us living in a 16-by-20-foot cabin and then moving into this giant log cabin that was 30 by 30 feet. As our family grew, all eight of us lived there. It was very intimate and very interesting sometimes.

I was called the “bad boy” because I always picked on my siblings. It was so crowded that we had to do something for entertainment because we didn’t have electricity, we didn’t have TV, and we didn’t even have radio most of the time; only if the wind was blowing in the right direction and the signal would come up the canyon would we get a radio station.

This picture is when I was age 14 when I shot my first cougar. I learned to hunt. That was our life. My dad made his living as a big-game guide and outfitter.

This was life in the mountains. Yes, I haven’t changed much. My favorite pastime is every summer taking my boys and Mary and my horses and packing into the Idaho wilderness.

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