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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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A few years ago, a woman was killed by a mountain lion while she was biking near San Bernardino Mts.
Some years ago, I visited a guy at a wildlife refuge. He had a semi-tame mountain lion in a cage, and he let us go in and pet it. He said that the mountain lion responds to visual cues. A good size man standing is too big to be natural prey. But a smaller child is about the same height as a deer, and so the mountain lion would get excited whenever people brought their kids. Same with dogs, they are the right size.
The woman on the bike was short enough to look like natural prey, so the mountain lion went after her.
They show up once in awhile in the suburbs right next to the mountains, sometimes they drink out of people's swimming pools.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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i wanna chase one of those guys around,
if i hang some steaks in the trees, will they go for that?
what is the best way to get eaten by a mountain lion? which trail do i take?
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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A friend and i were descending , on mt. bikes , this old logging road in the magdalena mts. talking about mt. lion attacks and minutes later almost ran over one...... we caught it off guard and scared the sh#t out of it...i kept looking over my shoulder the rest of the descent...
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Went to climb the Becky route on the Hermit with the late T Burke. The night before we were camping where the approach starts. Had the fire going, hanging out with da kine and libations. The car was parked on the edge of the fire light. We noticed a light colored shape on the edge of the fire light. At one point it jumped on top of the car like it was nothing. We got the headlamps out to investigate, but found nothing.
The next morning I woke up to get the joe going and Tom was still sawing logs. When I walked over to kick him awake, I notice big ol' paw prints all around his ground cloth and pad, inches from his head. Same for my spot. Still gives me the willy's.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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i think it would be smart to carry one of these>
they took my concealed weapon permit away after that punk at 7-11 tried to get smart with me.
i didn't mean to shoot the motherf*#ker, but he deserved it,
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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The first one I ever saw was near Darwin Falls in the Death Valley area. My family was camping there in the late '60s. As we were driving off we saw the cat and my dad stopped the VW van to try and get a photo. Our mid sized German Shepherd "Mustard" jumped out the window and went after it. They took off and disappeared over the rise. This was a fast dog, we had clocked her at over 30 mph. About 30 minutes later the dog returned looking pretty sheepish with cactus in her paws. We were glad to see her.
I also saw one once in Woods Cyn. (yo Mike O!) (Laguna Beach). It was a juvenile with leopard like spots. I came within 25' of it when I stopped to wait for my dog after a fast mtn. bike descent. My dog Washoe was just behind me and never saw it. I told all my friends and was informed by Joe Know-it-all that it was impossible for a Cougar to live in Those hills as it was too small of a habitat and the rangers had assured him they weren't there. The trad view is that one adult cat needs a 50 square miles area. Mary Ann Kelley has seen them there as well. Saw another juvenile in Peters Cyn. (Tustin) a few years ago, also with the leopard spots.
Another time I went for a rainy day hike in Laguna (Woods Cyn.)up the famous "Telonix" trail and saw full adult sized mountain lion tracks. They are very distinctive from a large dog if you know what to look for (no claw track (unless running)and slightly different pad spread). It was wet and the tracks were practically steaming they were so fresh. Just above the "sonic s turn" I found where the cat had dragged a fresh deer kill into a rut just off the trail and kicked leaves over it. My skin was crawling and I felt like I was being watched by the cat!
Later I was returning down the trail and stopped at the kill and the carcass was there but the deers head was gone! What the f#%k? Later I started telling my friend Tom Sherman (who also then lived in the canyon) and he related to me that he too had been hiking that day and found the deer. He had busted out his knife and hacked the head off. The deer had a proud full set of antlers that he wanted as a trophy (we used to collect shed antlers as a sign of new trail exploration). He took the head and hid it off the trail intending to recover it after nature had cleaned it up a few months later. We returned later to get the head and it was gone! Sherman has had more sightings than anyone I know.
We do a lot of night rides and have had quite a few sightings in the Santa Anas and Rancho Mission Viejo area. It's not as scary if you have a few bros there.
Saw a giant one run across the road after midnight near the Ponderosa on the way to the Needles. It looked like it could have been close to 200 pounds. OK, maybe it was the lighting!!!
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REIGN 1
Trad climber
Mt. Woodson, Ca
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This thing belongs in a museum
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Any quick moving creature, like a biker, could easily spark an attack. Put bells on your bike. Prey does not usually carry bells. Mountain lions do not normally associate humans with food. But human behaviors that mimic prey animals will stimulate instinctive responses. The jogger who got mauled when she bent down to retie a shoe is a classic example. She changed from a bipedal threat to a four legged snack. Crunchy on the outside chewy on the inside. Better to be a ding a ling than a din din.
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REIGN 1
Trad climber
Mt. Woodson, Ca
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I kinda think the reason they don't seem to be afraid of us anymore is because there isn't a bounty on them anymore. I'm in ramona and we see tracks all the time on our night MTB rides. Mountain bikers in the southern california mountains have been killed or mauled. One guy that used to ride with our group got killed by a cougar and the same cougar mauled a women a day later. After the fish n game killed the lion they found some of the guys vital organs still in it's stomach and the womens blood on the lion. If you ride at night try to ride with someone and use a bear bell. When your in the hill and mountains, your on their turf and they will usually win the battle because of the suprise attack.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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These are cool stories. Stahlbro, I got goosebumps reading yours.
I only saw one once. I was driving back to the Bay area from the east side early AM in the winter, so I had to go the route up 395 past Lee Vining up to Minton. It's a beautiful drive and I had my camera on the seat next to me. Just after dawn I saw a big one cross the road up ahead of me at a wide pullout near the river. It disapppeared out of my sight down to the river. Excited and without thinking, I pulled over, grabbed my camera, left the car running and the door open and ran towards the embankment to see if I could get a photo. Seconds later, I realized, WTF! What am I thinking, running after a lion, all alone in the middle of nowhere! I kind of slowly backed up to my car.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Evans...your skin tingling and crawling may have been a sasquatch in the area...rj
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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"Later I started telling my friend Tom Sherman (who also then lived in the canyon) and he related to me that he too had been hiking that day and found the deer. He had busted out his knife and hacked the head off"
hah! i used to have a friend just like that. Ralph Kraus.
craziest mofo i have ever met.
had a dead rat with blue jay wings on it, hung it from some fishing line in his room, we get high, and i swear that think was looking at us,
every time we would pass roadkill, no matter what species, he had to have the parts.
if i spilled my beer on the dahsboard, i knew we had just passed something dead.
sometimes it was the fur coat off a dead skunk,
it was like "dude, i thru the glands over that guys fence.."
i'm like, ooo kkkkkaaaaaay...pass the schlitz malt, will ya?
this guy was like the Nudge, only on crack.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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I prefer "Yeti."
One time I was on a solo mtn. bike ride up near the Needles. I was going north from Windy Gap towards Slate Mtn along that classic trail. It was cold, windy, raining lightly and the clouds were at ground level. Visibility varied between 20 feet and a hundred feet. I didn't have my dog so it was a little spooky. After a couple miles some huge lion tracks intercepted the trail and continued up the trail ahead of me. They were super fresh, the water on the trail hadn't seeped into the imprints yet. At first I thought, "oh, how cool, there's a lion up here." As I proceeded I started to fantasize about a lion encounter. I scrutinized every tree that overhung the trail and gradually became more and more paranoid. Every shadow morphed from cat to bush, tree or rock. The tracks continued and just got fresher. After awhile I was starting to freak out a bit. I could just picture the cat dropping out of a tree or circling back around to get me from behind. Finally I couldn't take it any longer! I spun my bike around and blasted down hill, bombing the trail nonstop back to the car.
Whew!
I knew he was waiting for me just around the next corner.
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Srbphoto
Trad climber
Kennewick wa
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I prefer Yeti also.
They live at higher altitude and it makes the meat more tender.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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I have given some thought to an encounter with a female yeti. This dates back to a classic issue of R. Crumb's Mr. Natural comics series.
Might be kinda' fun, but, I hear they are sorta' stinky.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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I was in the yeti's 'hood (Pamirs) BITD on a solo jaunt. The
weather was good so didn't bother with a tent that night - just
laid there staring at the cosmos. In the morning I packed up and
discovered Snow Leopard tracks 20' from my bivy - got pics. About
a mile along I came across a classic ambush site where, indeed, an
Asiatic Ibex had fallen to a Snow Leopard. I guess they (there was
a cub and Ma) didn't like the smell of 'Merrycan. Can't blame 'em.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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yeah, it's like, ok, i'm a gonna get a concealed weapon permit so i can pack it around legal like, in the open space.
but these cats can drop out of a 60 foot tree and land on your back, no problem, so why bother with the 40 s&w?
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Beatrix Kiddo
Mountain climber
Littleton
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Feb 11, 2010 - 10:29am PT
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My partner and I were backcountry skiing last night up on Jones Pass and had a CRAZY mountain lion encounter. I'm still high on the adrenaline. We were about 3 miles in and getting ready to ski out. I sat down on the ground to take my skins off of my skis. I heard my partner say my name and then say, "I think we're about to have our cat encounter." He saw the eyes before me. I was still on the ground when kitty came running. Lee started yelling at the cat and all I could say was "keep him off of me!" Finally I got my ski off and was able to get up off of the ground. My partner and I yelled at the lion. He ducked off into the woods and then charged us. He was hunched low to the ground like a kitty ready to POUNCE. We yelled more, waved the skis and ran towards it aggressively. We scared him back into the woods. He came back again, this time faster. Lee and I yelled soooo loud and scared him off. The lion was not backing down. Juvenile lions might display this kind of erratic behavior but I didn't think an adult would. He was big! I'm so glad my partner and I knew what to do and neither one of us panicked. We were ready for the fight of our lives. I didn’t sleep much last night. I'm really excited, intrigued by its behavior and feeling extremely lucky. Oh, the skiing was good too!!!
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clymbrchk
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Feb 11, 2010 - 10:53am PT
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Whoa. Glad that you're okay!!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Feb 11, 2010 - 10:58am PT
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Juvenile lions might display this kind of erratic behavior but I didn't think an adult would.
Adults are exhibiting this behavior because the lack of hunting pressure
is creating more competition for territory. Those unable to claim a
viable territory or unable to put food on the table get desperate.
Also,maybe word is going around that human ain't that bad once you get past the Goretex.
Glad you stayed cool and acted mean!
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