I'd like to hear about people's experiences with Mountain Lions here in California. I recently came upon a fresh deer kill that reminded me about this amazing predator. I've yet to see one but would love to hear your stories.
Ran across a deer kill two or three time, but have never seen a mountain lion. I hunted for over forty years in California. They are very illusive and don't like being seen. Most incidents in the state seem to take place when someone is jogging past one, bringing out the predator instinct. That may be the key. If someone really wants to see a mountain lion they might try jogging through their territory.
I do lots of mountain running, backpacking, and I used to do a great deal of fly fishing. The only mountain lion I've seen was running across a road (just good timing I guess). I have seen their tracks quite a few times, but they are elusive. That's why they are such good predators. They're invisible.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
Couple along the Pit river and a few in the Mt. Hood National Forest. Had tracks around my tent while snow camping alone on the Rubicon trail in the Winter a few years ago. Heard one scream in the middle of the night along a hiking trail that I had to climb up with a dead flashlight, no gun and alone.
I did see a bobcat a few days ago :)
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
I saw one in the SF bay area on the peninsula up above Portola Valley late one summer afternoon on the section of Alpine road that is dirt trail. I was riding a mountain bike and came around a corner when I saw a large animal stepping out onto the trail from some brush. I immediately recognized the cat shaped head but was temporarily confused when I saw the long tail that seemed to reach the ground. I kept trying to register it as "coyote" but my eyes kept telling my brain "cat hips" and "cat tail" and "cat head with cat ears", which conflicted with the other observation of "big as a german shephard". I had caught it completely off guard as I came around a corner that shielded my sound and my scent, it sauntered about 20 feet and disappeared into the brush, it was no more than about 30' away and was fully visible on the trail. I checked some photos on line and did some investigating when I got back and figured it to be a young mountain lion, way bigger than a bobcat but not quite full grown.
Not a mountain lion but a guy at putah showed me a pic. he took of a bobcat with what appeared to be a mink in its mouth that was taken at putah access 4 riffle below the cement blocks. Pretty cool. I didn't know there were minks around putah ?
The last mink that I saw at Putah was just below the dam on the resort side. I would guess late 70's or very early 80's. I was in the big rocks along the bank and it stuck its head up to look at me from maybe 10 feet before disappearing. That is the only mink I have seen in the wild.
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
I've seen the local bobcat that likes to stalk the banks of access 4, never any mink. I've yet to see a mountain lion yet but I have come across two fresh deer carcasses at access 5, and an older kill up by the resort. From time to time I'll run across tracks in the mud as well as get that eerie feeling that I'm being watched when fishing alone.
