That Darned Cat...

After 51 years, I finally got to see my very first mountain lion in the wild today! To get away from the crowds (see posts above), I decided to take a real long trail today, one that went way out, and way up: the Odessa Lake trail. I was planning to take this trail about ten miles, but alas... About two miles out, I heard something hiss. It sounded like an alligator from the Okefenokee. Knowing that alligators aren't found at 10,000 feet in the Rockies, I stopped and looked around. Nothing. I walked about 50 feet further, and definitely heard something hiss, angrily, from the rocky outcropping on my left. I looked, and bingo, about 200 feet away, was this gorgeous, classic, mountain lion's head, complete with dark eye stripes, and scowling look, just barely poking up over some rocks. Before I could reach for my camera (or do anything, for that matter), it was gone. Poof. I had caught a brief, but perfectly clear, peek at the head of a mountain lion in the wild. It was so far away, that even with the telephoto lens, if I had been able to take its picture you would have had to blow the image up to see it. Now, I'm no dummy, in spite off what Dubby and the kids might tell you. I know that mountain lions, along with bears, gators, rattlesnakes, and practically all other predators, have this instinctive recognition that humans are the top tippy top of the food chain, and aren't to be messed with. Most predatory species give wide berth to a human once they recognized one - including mountain lions. So the fact that this one was hissing told me, either (a) it had a litter of young nearby, or (b) it was mentally unstable and was having problems understanding its place relative to mine in the overall scheme of things. In either case, I instantly decided that continuing on this trail was probably not in my best long-term interest at the moment. I waited a few seconds, looking around, hoping to get a photo in case the kitty re-appeared, but then thought better of it, and carefully backed back down the trail. I know enough not to turn my back on a threatening predator. I also extended my monopod walking stick to its longest length... ready to raise it over my head, should the cat reappear close by. (They say that making yourself look huge, by waving your hands over your head, swinging your walking stick over your head, etc. is one way to try to fool an attacker into believing you are more dangerous that you really are. Of course, this bluff may not work 100% of the time, hence I wasn't at all hesitant to back down the trail.) So there you have it. My first encounter with a real live mountain lion, in the wild. It lasted all of maybe 1/2 second, and was so far away, I'm glad I had my glasses on or I may not even have noticed it until too late. My only regret is that I didn't get a picture.