On Apr 7, 12:04 pm, "tom" wrote:
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 hehttp://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.


"Mountain lion attacks on people apparently increased dramatically
since 1986. For example, in California, there were two fatal attacks
in 1890 and 1909, and then no further attacks for 77 years, until
1986. From 1986 through 1995, nine verified attacks occurred, an
average rate of almost one per year..."

http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks.html



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?

I don't think we need to worry about that. Far as I can tell there
are no forum admin's here - as the M15 dude's periodic spamming of the
joint illustrates.

There have been a lot of mountain lion stalking incidents around
Tucson, and they now have warning signs posted all over Sabino Canyon
rec. area.

About 3 years ago I was jogging by the Santa Rita River in northwest
Tucson early in the morning. I spotted some lion tracks that appeared
to be fresh. And then I heard - or thought I heard - a hissing sound
coming from the tall grass. Just at that point a man on a tractor
came along, the first person i had seen down there all morning. I was
happy to see him.