Actually, the guy who wrote that last trip report at ripplewake.com wasn't
me (I wish it was!), it was a guy named Andrew who goes by the nickname of
"Monster".

All of mine are he
http://picasaweb.google.com/tomfromvan/

I must already have showed you guys this though, no?

Yeah, mountain lion attacks are pretty rare, only like 20 or 30 in all since
europeans arrived, but almost all of them were on Vancouver Island, right
where we paddle from, LOL. When I lived in Port Hardy a small native girl
was killed by one. They brought in a special government cougar-assassin
with a pack of bloodhounds who tracked it down and treed and killed it.

The worrisome thing about cougars is that they are smart. Bears are stupid
in comparison --- if you're going to have trouble with a bear it'll be all
right in your face first, they're not as capable of sneaky, sudden,
from-behind ambushes. Cougars on the other hand are smart enough to use
almost always use the element of surprise --- they'll usually leap on you
without warning from behind. The fisrt indication you'll have is the sound
of something running and jumping behind you, by the time you turn around to
look it's already flying through the air at you. And they know exactly
where to bite you on the neck to effect a lethal injury. But still, cougar
attacks are rare.
This is way off topic, and I suppose the forum admins might shut us down for
going so far off topic with this, but, just out of curiosity --- what was
your encounter with one? You know, I've never even seen one in the bush.
I've seen zillions of bears, mainly black ones, and a wolf once, but never a
cougar.