Finding Mountain Lions

[gdurkee]

Mike: Ah. Yes, brain is finally engaging and I actually now remember that. It was the same year Rob got followed down Goddard Canyon for a ways, also in the rain and fog.

grazie!

g.

[SweetSierra]

The only time I've seen a mountain lion wasn't in the Sierra, though I was with a friend who ran into one near our camp in Golden Trout Wilderness, but at Pt. Reyes National Seashore on a solo hike into Wildcat Camp a couple of years ago. I had started the descent into Wildcat when I saw a large tawny-colored cat leisurely walking on the road/trail below me. I saw the big dusky body and long tail and after a few seconds of disbelief, I knew it was a lion. It turned a corner and since it didn't emerge, I assumed it dove into the dense brush at the side of the road. I very carefully walked by that section. Later, I saw animal bones, which looked like they had come from a relatively fresh kill, on the trail above camp and asked a ranger there about it. He said there was a big cat that called that area home. I like to run on mountain trails and later when I ran in that area, I looked around a lot and sang and waved my arms. Luckily there was no one around to see this

[Leadfoot83]

This is a bit of an older thread, but why not resurect it.
I have seen two mountain lions in the last twenty years. I was staying on some property I have in the mt home demonstration forest near Balch park. Both times I was on my way (driving) on the road to get to the tule river to do some day hiking in the area, and each time the lion was walking across the road right in front of me. They sure are beautiful animals, but I was happy seeing them safely from the inside of a vehicle.

[MountainMinstrel]

A few years ago I was doing the Alta Peak/Pear Lake loop. Camped at Panther Gap and had light rain off and on for most of the night. When I hit the trail the next day, beginning just a hundred yards or so from camp I followed the fresh tracks of a large cat. It must have been on that trail only an hour or so before me. I was very aware of my surroundings that morning until about a mile in when the tracks disappeared. Then I became a bobble head wondering from which rock it was going pounce on me from. I never saw it though.

The only one I ever saw (at least I think I saw) was about two years earlier on the same trail. It was just a tan blur flashing across the trail a hundred feet or so ahead of me. The only thing it could have been is a mountain lion but I can't really say I saw it.

Living in Sonora, I know they are around. My brother-in-law had one pass in front of him on a main road a couple of weeks ago. We heard the most horrendous cat scream about a week ago and saw a very large (like the size of a retriever) grey cat slink off up the hill from our house. Don't have any idea what that was, but it was not a feral cat.

[acorad]

a very large (like the size of a retriever) grey cat slink off up the hill

Could be a bobcat, I've seen a number of them.

Andy

[Cross Country]

In over 500 day in the Sierra I never saw one. I did see two things of interest. I saw a dead dear on my way to Edith Lake which had been dragged and partially eaten. I imagine it was dragged by a lion. I saw a dead dear half in and half out of a creek with talon marks on it's side that looked like they were made by a lion.

[MountainMinstrel]

Andy. Not a bobcat. Had a long tail and no spots.

[ericZ]

A couple of years ago I was driving in a car with my parents and daughter on the road from Hume lake to the grant grove area. Very windy at that point.

We came around a curve and there was a huge cat sauntering in the middle of the road. I told everyone to take a good look because they probably never see another in the "wild."

5-10 seconds later, it disappeared into the brush. It was huge.

Eric
Fresno, ca.