[pct-l] Fwd: Re: Mountain Lion Encounter

[Lindsey Sommer]

Sigh, honestly, THIS is the only thing that has been holding me back from
solo backpacking as a slight female. I don't worry about bears, or really
other people at all (it helps that I carry a large knife), but being from
the country in northern california, I'm always aware of mountain lions. The
more I hear about this stuff, the more I decide I DON'T want to put myself
in this position. Scary stuff.

I'm wondering, would it had made sense for her to move on that night and
get out of their territory? Or would that have made the situation worse??


On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 2:19 AM, Maxine Weyant <weyantm at msn.com> wrote:

> Time and again, it seems the younger cougars, just like domestic cats,
> don't seem to have a solid understanding of what's expected of them, what's
> OK to go after and what's not.  It's all curious and interesting to them.
>
> Last year when I was hiking in OR I met and hiked with a guy who had been
> one of the first 500 thru-hikers of the PCT.  Lots of great stories later,
> he told me he lived in central OR, not too far from the trail, and his
> community had a mountain lion who was spotted several times, but the locals
> knew not to kill it because it seemed to know it's place in the order of
> things.  They knew that if they killed it, a younger cougar would move into
> the territory and might not have the sense not to go after humans.
>
> I think about cougars a lot, as a short female who often hikes at night.
>  If you look at the statistics of cougar attacks on humans, short females
> or toddlers running or moving quickly are more likely to be viewed as prey
> to them.  They often attack the back of the head or neck. In parts of South
> Asia, some farmers wear hats with eyes and a face on the back, presumably
> to confuse tigers who might be attacking from behind.
>
> I sometimes think our backpacks make us less accessible to them, but I've
> been thinking that in the sections where I use my GoLite silver umbrella, I
> probably look less prey-like to a cougar.   It certainly freaks out dogs
> and horses.
>
> Lately, I've been considering purchasing a 1.4 oz mini air horn.
>
> Dys-feng shui-nal
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-- 
Lindsey Sommer
MLIS Candidate 2014 -- University of California, Los Angeles
lgsommer at gmail.com
M: (808) 298-1116
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lindsey-sommer/7/7b1/454