Mountain Lions?

[tarol]

Anybody ever see any or any signs of them in the Round Valley area?

[Hikin_Jim]

Anybody ever see any or any signs of them in the Round Valley area?

Seeing a Mtn Lion, despite all the hype and scare stories in the media, is still a rare thing. I've been hiking and BP'ing for 40+ years. I've never seen one.

Beyond that, I believe they tend to stay at lower elevations. Round Valley is 8000 or so feet.

[neverwashasbeen]

I've never seen one in Round Valley, or anywhere else on the mountain, nor have I ever heard of one being seen in that area. Been playing around up there 30 years or so.

[Florian]

I saw a mtn lion attack a deer at about the 5500' level of the Skyline in 1978. Only mtn lion i've ever seen and was across a valley. The deer got away.

-Florian

[phydeux]

Never seen any evidence of mountain lions in the San Jacinto Mountains, but have seen their pawprints in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains. But coyotes are everywhere; unless you look like a rabbit or a fawn, they're nothing more than a nuisance.

Yes, I have seen a mountain lion in the wild - in Eastern Nevada in the sparsely traveled southern end of Great Basin National Park. That's after 30+ years of hiking/climbing in CA, NV, AZ, OR, & WA.

[physicslord]

This might surprise you people but the only mountain lion I've seen was over in Woodcrest (unincorporated part of Riverside) about 100 yards from some pretty nice homes. I was just walking along on a dirt path in the afternoon and I saw a twitching tail out of the corner of my eye. I froze and watched the tail. A mountain lion emerged from some tall weeds and brush probably 20 yards away or so. He saw me and ran off.
So basically the only time I've ever seen one was in the city.

I've never seen one in the wilderness on San Jacinto or San Gorgonio. I always tell myself where there are deer, there's mountain lions. I've always been a little spooked about them, but I've never encountered one up there.

[Marknhj]

bluerail, Ellen and I saw mountain lion tracks on Boo Hoff earlier in the year. Ellen, Karin and Kathryn met some guys coming down Skyline a few months ago who said they saw one at about 3500'. Our intrepid trio kept going, the guys bailed.

I was above Orchard Camp on the Mt Wilson trail this Tuesday, turned a corner and came face-to-face with two bears about 20m ahead of me, a mother and a cub. A first for me and definitely a moment for a few seconds! I decided to leave the peak for another day...

[bluerail]

I was on skyline early morning this past spring, and had my headlight on, came around a bend about 2800' or so, and ahead of me were two big eyes shining in the beam of my light. Now I have no idea what kinda beast it was, but after watching my cat blink and thinking about how those eyes blinked, and feeling certain it wasn't a coyote...I've convinced myself it was a cat. A pretty big cat. One of the Rangers on SJ mentioned they thought there was a mom and two cubs living on the east side of the mountain somewhere.
And as Mark said....we did see prints in the Cactus springs area. I have friends with a horse ranch in Garner Valley, below The Desert Divide and they confirm there are mountain Lions in that area.
I'm still just real scared of rattlers.

[zippetydude]

bluerail: that was someone's pet bunny. It was dark and you were nervous...

But seriously, they're all over out there, and I think bluerail is right - rattlers are dangerous, mountain lions seldom attack people. I've seen four since I took up trail running about 8 years ago. Each time, I've come around a curve, found myself face to face with the lion, then he's gone in the blink of an eye.

It spooks me a little, but not much. I would figure they simply don't attack humans, then I hear about one eating a mountain biker in Corona and I'm spooked all over again.

Incidentally, the only large pack of them I've ever seen was in the San Jacinto Wilderness. (It was a couple of miles west of the tram. There's some camp there with a water source, but I can't remember its name.) There must have been 20 of them, all looking pretty hungry and sniffing around the edges of people's tents.

Anyway, hope this helps.

z

[neverwashasbeen]

Z - Did you mean pack of coyotes?