Pat, you hunt mountain lions with dogs because without a dog to tree 'em, you'll never catch them! And even with hunting dogs, you are going to be wore out running up and down some of the steepest, nastiest country you could ever imagine.
I'm from the Reno,NV area and we have the big cats around here. Two killed in my area within the last three years. The last was a young tom that was waaay to curious for his own good. He would even sit in a cottonwood tree, scratching and peeing on it that was right outside my garage. He met his demise when he jumped on two of my neighbors dogs down at a park on the Carson River and the neighbor shot him. This cougar put a pretty good laceration on my Doberman cross one night when I turned her loose on him. These big cats are very quick and cover a lot of ground fast.
Quite a few cats around my area. They have lots of 'em in California that drift over into Nevada. I've never actually gone on a guided hunt and don't know any outfitters, but don't count Nevada out as there's plenty of cats here.