[pct-l] Mountain Lions

[jolson at olc.edu (Jeffrey Olson)]

This summer while hiking the PCT I finished my novel five miles north of 
Timberline, just below Paradise Park.  At the shop where the hiker box 
is, and where I picked up my resupply box - which cost nothing by the 
way - the only novel they had was about cougars and their attacks on 
humans. 

I hiked to a spot ten miles or so south of Twin Lakes, off the trail, no 
water, two miles from any of the wave at that point.  I read the book 
and started feeling really creepy.  The novel talked about a true story 
of a woman who went hiking by herself to go fishing in washington 
somewhere, and a mom and four cubs found her while she was in her tent.  
They didn't understand "tent" and the woman ended up cutting a hole in 
the floor and walking the tent the mile to her BMW convertible.  For 
some reason, the cougars brushed the tent with their paws, but didn't 
quite get they could have easily gone through the wall and gotten the 
woman.  One of the courgars jumped on the top as she drove away and 
started to rip through the roof...

The next day I spent the night south of Ollalie Lake, after a couple of 
pale ales - ummmm - and finished the novel.  Again, I went to sleep 
really creeped out about being alone.  Normally I feel at one with 
nature, knowing bears, cougars, deer, etc., all live in harmony, and I'm 
part of that world.  I remember a woman from Germany stopped for a 
moment - she was finishing the trail she'd begun in 2004.  I realized I 
was in my own "creepy zone"  after talking with her for a minute or 
two.  She was in a hurry anyway and didn't talk for long. 

I hiked later in the summer north from Burney Falls and found a note she 
left in the middle of the trail saying there was water not listed in the 
guidebook or data book just 100 yards down an abandoned dirt road. 

Luckily my imagination doesn't run to creating fear and the story left 
quickly.  I left the novel on a rock for some lucky hiker to find and 
read... 

Jeff Olson
Martin, SD