[pct-l] cougars in San Gabriels

[Jeffrey Olson]

I was sleeping on sand high up near a pass in the Enchantments in 
Washington, a dozen or so miles east of the PCT.  I awoke and got up and 
stumbled around preparing to make coffee.  I went back to my sleeping 
bag and noticed some indentations six inches behind where my head had 
been resting all night long.  I looked closely and there were two paw 
prints about three and a half or four inches across.  I took pictures of 
them, wide awake at this point, waking everyone else up and insisting 
they look at the cougar prints.  Apparently it had come up behind me and 
put its front feet down in the sand and sniffed my head as I slept.  I 
took them to a wildlife biologist friend when I got back to Seattle and 
he confirmed they were cougar prints...

Jeff, just Jeff... 

Bob wrote:
> Apologies to all who have heard my cougar story too many times.  
>
> In 2004, my wife and I were a couple miles south of Pines to Palms Hwy
> (Paradise Café) on the PCT when a Mtn biker came up from behind and stopped
> to chat. He asked if we had seen mountain lion tracks.   I said that, no, so
> far we hadn't seen any.    He asked if we knew what they looked like.   I
> said, "Absolutely."   He then said something we will never forget: "Well, I
> look for them too and I've seen some.  There are mountain lion tracks behind
> you and they are INSIDE your boot prints."
>
> We had been followed.  Nothing unusual in that, but I sure do look around
> more now, especially when hiking alone.
>
> Dr Bob
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
> On Behalf Of bharve at dslextreme.com
> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 1:54 PM
> To: montypct
> Cc: PCT-L
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] cougars in San Gabriels
>
> Several folks in my neighborhood have sighted cougars.  Now one has gotten
> a good picture of a cougar right next to a popular hiking trail.  The
> picture and story appeared in the Fri. Jan 26 issue of a foothills
> newspaper, and the story has been picked up a day later by the LA Times.
>
> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cougar26jan26,1,1265883.story?ctrack
> =5&cset=true
>
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