Posted on October 19, 2013 in Encounters Hiking Mountain Lions Prose Arcana Recent Uncertainty
Death showed me one of its faces here, where the dust holds a track until the next strong wind. The sun did not warm me on that day. The cold chewed on my hands and dusk shoved the light aside to make way for the darkness. A clump of toyon bushes stood at the high point of the hike. I stopped at the sound of their branches cracking as a mountain lion hefted itself out of the shrubs and landed on the dirt road in front of me. We two stared at each other for an endless second before the cougar bounded away, his paws pounding the ground as he fled. I did not follow. Now when I go there, I look to the source of every rustle of the leaves, every shake of the branches, every whisper of the grass. This is uncertain country.
Note: Two months later, this same cougar slew one biker and mauled another. The incident made the national news.
Posted on July 17, 2012 in Mountain Lions Neighborhood
Though I told my Facebook users that I feared the worst for the lion, Fish and Game seems to be following a So-you-wanna-be-around-humans-we’ll-let-you-live-around-humans” policy and sending it to a zoo.
Posted on October 6, 2004 in Hikes and Trails Mountain Lions
A mother and her cub have been spotted in these parts.
Posted on June 22, 2004 in Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood
It was about ten to twenty yards south of the Sleepy Hollow entrance that I saw faint tracks in the dust on the left side of the road.
Posted on March 11, 2004 in Hikes and Trails Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood
On Tuesday, I went for a walk along the Sage Scrub Trail. There, preserved in the hardened mud along that mountain biker-eroded canyon, I saw a series of about ten tracks.
Posted on January 22, 2004 in Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood The Orange
Yellow police tape and red signs remain looped around the area following this month’s earlier mountain lion attack. I suspect that bikers are ignoring the signs.
Posted on January 11, 2004 in Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood The Orange
Was this my lion, the lion that I frightened off last October?
Posted on January 9, 2004 in Hiking Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood The Orange
We can and will learn from this. My sincere condolences to the family of the victim, to the woman who was mauled, and the two survivors of the incidents.
Posted on January 9, 2004 in Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood The Orange
Think of it: a biker never stops to look. He is always on the move, always — in the eyes of the lion — fleeing. It’s like dragging a piece of red yarn in front of your cat. It’s going to induce it to pounce.
Posted on October 24, 2003 in Biomes Creatures Hiking Mountain Lions Neighborhood
I came upon a park ranger who was deciding what to do with a dead rabbit. It had clearly been killed and chewed.
Posted on October 23, 2003 in Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood
I told my neighbors about seeing the mountain lion the other evening.