[pct-l] Couger attacks.....

[walkinglarry at yahoo.com (larry hillberg)]

Good advice from Ted.

I too have seen the scat and tracks, in fact, often
along the PCT.  On my 2002 thru hike, bounding and
floating up the mountain away from another hiker, I
saw a large cougar.  What a majestic sight it was! 
The other hiker, Montana Max, neither saw nor heard
it, even though it started from no more than fifteen
yards above him.  I was a hundred yards off, with a
great profile view of its beauty, powerful leaps, and
soft landings.

Earlier, thru hiker Load took some outstanding photos
of a cougar not far south of Kennedy Meadows.  He and
another encountered it eating a deer, approached "too
close" before it sensed them and ran off.  After some
minutes passed, they noted it circling behind them,
and made their exit.

Later, at the last creek crossing coming down into
Seiad Valley, cooking dinner near my tent, I sensed
the gaze of something.  Seeing nothing, hair on my
neck raised regardless, I passed it off as a strong
imagination.  The next night, tented at the same site
that I had used, another hiker saw a cougar cross that
same bridge at speed and just yards ahead of hiker
Nomad.  She was spooked to say the least.  Nomad saw
nothing.  Nor had I.

On my wife's thru hike in 1999, she was stalked by a
cougar in the North Cascades.  Crossing a high pass,
near twilight, on the second time that dirt slid down
onto the trail in front of her, alert, seeing nothing,
she pulled her leashed dog back alongside her.  The
third time stones slid down ahead of her, warier now,
she looked up quickly to see a cougar on the ledge
above.  When she threw her arms up, the cougar ran
off.  The dog had sensed nothing.  Resting off trail
in the next meadow along, she noted deer bones.

These encounters were rare and privileged.  This is
their turf after all.  I don't doubt that every hiker
is observed by many a cougar.  We just don't get to
see them very often.

Larry H
 
--- Magical Nexus <magicalnexus@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I agree entirely with Steel Eye but here are some
> personal anecdotes to keep you awake at night.
>  
> In the boulder field above Chariot Canyon I set up a
> stealth camp about 50 yds off the trail. I was
> tired, maybe a little sick, and so I set up quickly
> and quietly. About an hour later I heard a group of
> Mexicans pass by, I suspect they were hooking up for
> a ride into Julian...
> Anyway it was very late and I didn't cook. I was
> trying to stay fairly quite when I heard a distinct
> cough like those I had heard in Montana while
> hunting deer. The sound that a couger makes is
> similar to an African lion, it is a cough. I have
> never heard the screeching howl that are often
> associated with cougars when they are threatened,
> like when they are tree'd.
> The sound was very close so I froze, thinking that I
> might get a look if I was very lucky. To see such a
> beast in the wild is a rare and wonderful thing
> (unless you are a small human in the territory of a
> hungry cougar). I couldn't see much as I was in
> waist high crapperal.
> So I sat very still and just listened. 
> At one point I really thought I could see it about
> 15 ft from the end of my sleeping bag in a small
> clearing. I never found a way to confirm it but when
> I got on the trail the next am there was a huge pile
> of scat covered in fresh, wet piss and surrounded by
> large, clawless cat tracks...
> Perhaps my quiet rustling attracted his attention
> for a few moments.
>  
> Another time I was camping with my son on the ridge
> between Rodriquez Spur and the descent to the
> Anzo-Borrego floor. My son had walked away from camp
> and came running back to declare that there was a
> bush that was frightening him and he wasn't sure
> why. I picked up a flashlight and walked with him
> back to look at it and, sure enough there were big
> cat tracks behind it.
>  
> I am told that a mountain lion frequents the stream
> bank at Scissors Crossing as well.
>  
> I have certainly seen tracks on many segments of the
> PCT....
>  
> Every year there are one or two attacks in
> California by mountain lions. Mostly they involve
> people of small stature like children and women
> though one happened last year involving an attack on
> a bicyclist...
>  
> They used to close my school to recess out of doors
> when there were lions suspected to be in the
> vicinity. We watched one chase a deer across the
> playground once... in Kalispell, Mt....
>  
> So they are there, but rare. They are dangerous but
> so is lightening. They bite but so does every other
> damn thing out there from the bushes to the
> butterflies.... or at least it seems that way. 
>  
> Look big and dangerous yourself if you encounter
> one. Look above you when passing highpoints in the
> trail because they like to attack from above.. keep
> your camera ready because, like rattlesnakes and
> most other critters, they make a pretty neat photo
> opportunity...
>  
> Ted
> 
> 		
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