Two mountain lions sighted on Skyline

[Ellen]

Howdy All

Just got of the phone with my OC friend Tim. He left solo at 5 AM and was about 12 minutes out from the museum when he sighted a mountain lion -- it looked like it was heading downhill to the golf course.

The second sighting was about 15 minutes above the picnic tables. This cat headed right towards him. He stopped and threw rocks at the cat, but it came pretty close Sounded similar to Pi's encounter on San Gorgonio. He headed back down.

He doesn't want the cats destroyed by Fish and Game but does want us to be aware that they're out there.

This is not a Halloween joke.

Ellen

[Hikin_Jim]

Wow. That's disturbing that the cat didn't break off when he threw rocks at it. That means that it is pretty habituated to human beings.

Soloists beware.

HJ

[bluerail]

Yea.....take an acquaintance and walk in front

[PatrickSupra]

I'll be sure to not mention this to the two friends I'm bringing up this coming weekend. Encountering a mountain lion is their biggest fear about Skyline. Me? I'd love to see one, as long as it doesn't get too close!

[zippetydude]

Since it didn't actually attack anybody I don't think DFG would hunt it down anyway.

The fact that there were two sightings makes it sound like it may well have been the same cat and it was stalking him. I've come across mountain lions 4 times out in the wilderness, and each time the lion fled the second we saw each other. This encounter sounds very different. It is kinda spooky, since a lot of us do Skyline alone from time to time, often starting in the darkness...

Patrick, there's about a zero chance a mountain lion would attack a group of grown men! Still, I'd wait to mention it to your friends til you're on the trail...then go behind a bush a little while later, make a roaring sound and scream, "Help!" See which way they run, towards you or away...

z

[Andy]

That's why I always carry a few of these to toss over my shoulder as I run away...

[HH8]

Yea.....take an acquaintance and walk in front

Like in this clip: "Feel my wrath", "ARGGH!" "Stand strong Phillipe, stand strong - right in front of ME"


[flash=http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786]width="400" height="300" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=35c450d112&photo_id=6299560769" bgcolor="#000000" allowFullScreen="true"[/flash]

Dangit! How do I make this work?

[zippetydude]

Like this.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786]width="400"height="300"flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=35c450d112&photo_id=6299560769"bgcolor="#000000"allowFullScreen="true"

A life and death struggle there before our very eyes!

z

[Ellen]

Howdy Z-dude

... I've come across mountain lions 4 times out in the wilderness, and each time the lion fled the second we saw each other
z

Of course the cougar took off, it knew you could outrun it and decided to look for slower (and easier) prey

Seriously though, Tim said it wasn't the same cat.

I'm sure glad I didn't encounter a cougar when I went solo on Skyline last Wednesday. Well, maybe there was a cougar and I just couldn't see it

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[halhiker]

The only cougars I ever see on the local trails are of the human variety.

I hope he took pictures.