What left this trail?

[Paul in Idaho]

I was deer hunting this weekend and found an odd long trail in the snow. It appears something was dragged a long distance. I was hiking a trail up the spine of a ridge, and this drag mark crossed from one draw, over the ridge top, into the next draw. There's only one way to access the area, and no other people were around.

My best guess is a lion dragging a deer or sheep, but there was no visible hair or blood in the trail. What do you think made this?

 

[p_ham]

Looks like a game sled to me.

 

[belshawelk]

Not a lion. They won’t drag stuff that far. There would also be extensive blood. Lions will kill eat and piss all over it without moving it much.

 

[TC207]

A person dragging a sled. Probably with a deer in it.

 

[Paul in Idaho]

Thanks for the replies. There is only one way to access this area, and no human tracks were visible anywhere in the 2 miles since the trailhead. The trail goes through doghair timber in a long narrow canyon, so I wouldn't expect a hunter to be dragging a deer perpendicular to the only travel route. The drag marks went down into some dense timber, and I didn't follow it to see where it ended.

 

[bullbugle]

Definitely a squatch...probably covering his tracks to avoid detection....

Sorry I couldn't resist.

In all seriousness though, it does kinda look like a sled was drug through there, but that does seem odd considering the other details you've given. Who knows... sometimes the outdoors gives more questions than it does answers.

 

[Paul in Idaho]

Definitely a squatch...probably covering his tracks to avoid detection....

I thought about putting that in my last post. A sasquatch on a toboggan. I'm stumped.

 

[bullbugle]

I thought about putting that in my last post. A sasquatch on a toboggan. I'm stumped.

That's a hilarious mental image.

 

[Hummer]

The only way to know for sure is to carefully follow the drag to look for prints, hair or droppings of the animal doing the drag or the one being dragged. Such a large drag suggests a heavy animal such that prints should punch through the snow.

This spring I followed a smaller drag for about 200 yards before finding clear prints and droppings of a Pine Marten and the hair of a rabbit. I continued to follow a half mile through thick timber and down a steep slope where it ended in a boulder field.

 

[rwc101]

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Chupacabra pulling a game sled with a dead body on it.
No blood cause' he sucked it all out!
Just think a few minutes earlier that could have been you.Ha!Ha!

 

[Hunting Wife]

Definitely looks like something a person did. Too uniform to be an animal. My first thought is some biologist or wildlife tech doing some kind of survey. Setting up/taking down hair snares, camera traps or something? Anything like that going on in the area?

 

[Sytes]

Same thought as above... However, the only part that seems a bit odd for human pulled sled, the drag tracks are almost into/under the tree limbs... Why a human would drag into/through there seems to suggest non human, though the consistency with respect to the grooves and ridges... Easy enough to explain lack of boot prints, covered by sled though never a boot print visible?

I would have lost thought for hunting and diverted to learn the suspect(s).

Something's afoot Watson...

 

[BigHornRam]

Looks like a small melted out snowmobile track to me.

 

[El Jason]

Absolutely no way a lion would drag something that far, and even if it did, there would be tracks, blood, and hair.

I'm thinking BHR is on the right track (pun intended) here.

 

[Panda Bear]

Definitely looks like something a person did. Too uniform to be an animal. My first thought is some biologist or wildlife tech doing some kind of survey. Setting up/taking down hair snares, camera traps or something? Anything like that going on in the area?

exactly. This was my first thought when I saw the pictures. Sometimes other signs that would give you a larger picture could have melted out or even snowed or blown over. If you had seen the beginning or the end of the trail it might have given you a better idea

 

[npaden]

Any pine martens in the area? Maybe someone riding a snowmobile looking for good places to set some traps? That might explain the tracks going up so close to the trees.

 

[Gellar]

I am going to guess it was a person on skis, pulling a sled. If they were on foot pulling a sled there would still be some boot tracks. I don't think it is a melted snowmobile track because I would not drive my sled under that pine tree. Than again I wouldn't probably ski under it either.
I have drug a lot of deer and even if it is the next day there is still going to be blood and they look much smoother than this track does.

 

[Bulldog0156]

Jet sled

 

[kansasdad]