Mountain Lion Safety Tips

hey y'all Dixie here today I want to talk to you about mount lines I feel like the protocol of dealing with bears is pretty commonly known but I realized on the CDT during my thru-hike in New Mexico that people don't really talk about mountain lion encounters as much and the unfortunate part was that I realized that as I was staring face-to-face with a mountain lion on the trail and I thought you know this really isn't a good time for it to dawn upon me that I don't really remember what I once read when I briefly skimmed through mountain lion encounters on the proper way to deal with seeing him out lying on trails so I thought it would be a good topic to cover so hopefully y'all don't find yourselves in the same situation but it makes sense that we're not preached to very often about dealing with mountain lions on trail because really spotting a mountain lion on trail is a pretty rare occurrence but it's kind of interesting that we don't see them more often because second to humans mountain lions have the largest range of mammals in the Western Hemisphere more specifically mountain lions are found in the u.s. pretty much in any state west of the Mississippi and they do have a small presence east of the Mississippi but that's about half of the states in the u.s. that you could hike through and see amount lon mountain lion attacks that end in fatalities have been recorded in the US since 1890 in the state of California since 1890 there had been six fatal mountain lion attacks and actually there have kind of been eight because two of those was a child and an adult that were attacked at the same time and they didn't die from the wounds of being attacked by the mountain lion but they ended up dying of rabies later so we'll go ahead and say eight for California in Kentucky there has been one in New Mexico there have been two in Washington there have been two in Montana there has been one in Colorado there have been two and in Oregon there has been one and that one still might be up in the air I'm not sure if the results were finally released but apparently there was a woman who was hiking alone in Oregon last year in 2018 and that was the first known fatality by mountain lion in Oregon so if you add all of those up including the two that died from rabies since 1890 there have been seventeen attacks which led to death because of a mountain lion and obviously I'm not trying to minimize the deaths of those people I'm just saying that the likelihood of you being in a car wreck and dying on the way to a hack and trail is a lot greater than the chances of you being killed by mountain lion if you actually make it there safely now seven of those were children and they look small they look more like prey for a mountain lion than an adult human of the ten adults the majority were either back in or running so you've got that running back in you know fast motion going by a mountain lion and it kind of triggers that attack instinct within them earlier in 2018 there were two guys in Washington that were back in and a mountain lion pounced on one of the guys and the friend that he was with started running to get away from the mountain lion who was attacking his friend and the mountain lion was again triggered you know that little instinct in them to pounce and the mountain lion went after him and ended up attacking him and killing him when the original guy he was attacking ended up living so just imagine your cat if you have one at home and imagine taking like a stream and running it by that cat in front of it and you know a lot of those cats have that like pounce instinct it's the same kind of thing for a mountain lion but although the risks of death are pretty small of course nobody wants to be attacked by a mountain lion so the best thing to do is to try to prevent that if you can so the first thing is no back in or running I'm just kidding but I mean the kind of from reading the history of the fatal attacks I would say you are safer hacking than did back in our run-in but really the first thing is to just be aware of your surroundings mountain lions are pretty stealthy and I think it would be very easy to be stalked and not even realize that's happening but it never hurts to kind of look around or if you stop to kind of listen you know just just try to be as aware as you can obviously while you're in the woods next hacking groups the more you're in a group the more you look less like lunch the more it looks like the mountain lion is gonna have to fight more you know because there is a herd of humans instead of just one human alone and then also when you're in groups you're making noise and it becomes more apparent to a mountain lion like hey maybe this is not lunch maybe these are people and I don't really want to attack them all so you want to keep your dogs in close while you're hiking in Mountain Lion territory I certainly don't want to lose a dog but you know having a dog leading ahead of you you know very well can bring a mountain lion in that's not even paying attention to you and it comes after your dog and then you end up encountering it because you're trying to save your dog at least I would but you know so you just try to keep your animals close to you so you don't end up in that situation now if you prefer two legged children to four-legged children then you know treat your two-legged children the same make sure to keep them close at you at all times if they are small and you are in Mountain Lion territory especially be alert at dawn and dusk because that's when mountain lions are more active and finally kind of limit crouching and bending I know for a through hack that's not really possible because when you take a break you want to sit down and when you're at a water source you know you're crouching down to scoop up water but again it's just all about trying to be aware and to keep that in your mind hey I might want to do a little spin and check things out before I crouch down to get some water so you do end up encountering a mountain line though the first thing you want to do is try to stay calm next thing to remember is don't run because I know for a lot of folks that's like their first instinct they see this like monster of a creature and they're like oh my gosh you know I just want to get away and you run but again if you run that might trigger the attack instinct and then you end up dead while some people's first instinct might be to run other peoples might be to approach the mountain line so you definitely do not want to approach the mountain line you really want to stand firm and stand your ground and I found interesting that they suggest that you maintain direct eye contact now with bears that's a no-no but with mountain lions you are supposed to stare at them and you know make them realize like I am standing my ground and I'm not afraid of you it is suggested that you raise your voice and speak firmly and if you have any children with you you want to pick them up at that time but certainly you don't want to bend over and crouch down like I mentioned before you know you kind of want to just pick them up calmly and get them close to you but you don't want to make yourself look small in the process now Housley at this point if you've seen one and you've done all these things the mountain lion has realized like hey this isn't lunch I want to get away from this person and they run along about their business but it's not and they start being kind of at that point you want to show that you're big you want to raise your arms out lift up your trekking poles open your coat just whatever you have to do to appear big and like you don't want to be messed with and you're not sued if the mountain line continues to be aggressive at that point you want to maybe clap your hands or even pick up a rock or stick and throw it in its general direction not necessarily try to hit it but if things continue to escalate and you have to hit the mountain line with rocks and sticks and such then go for it if it comes to the point where the mountain lion attacks you and none of those other tactics worked then at that point you have to fight for your life it is not like with a grizzly bear where you play dead because they might be bluffing you or just trying to rough you up and see if you're a threat with a mountain lion if they're attacking you chances are they want to kill you and eat you so you fight with rocks sticks knives whatever tool weapon you have bear spray just anything to protect your life at that point now I know it sounds completely insane to think of Faton mountain lion but if that's your only chance you have to go for it it kind of reminds me of like a Louis L'Amour book like the second novels I know in one of those one of the seconds was fighting a mountain lion and one and I thought well that sounds really like romantic or something you know it just doesn't sound reasonable like you could actually fight a mountain lion and kill it and win but here in 2019 near Fort Collins Colorado there was a man who was running in the woods and he heard something behind him and when he turned around and saw that it was a mountain lion there is some conflicting story I've seen some articles that it says that you know he tried to look big and all that in the mountain lion still attacked and I've heard some say as soon as he turned and looked at the mountain lion it attacked but regardless this man fought with everything he had and he ended up suffocating the mountain lion now everyone's like well it was a juvenile and it was only 80 pounds but but this is like an 80 pound like vicious efficient stealthy animal that can just like you know end you and this man fought it with everything that he had and he ended up with some bites on his face and on his wrist I think but he lived it apparently he used his hands and arms and legs and and whatever he could but the mountain lion was there dead where he said that it would be if you're being attacked by a mountain lion know that there is hope because somebody has done it before now since my encounter in New Mexico on the CDT I have played the situation back in my mind and wondered did I do the right thing is there something that I could have done differently or you know better and the point is I came out of it alive I came out of it you know unscathed the animal did not attack or even really show any kind of aggression to me but you know it's good to play things back and to know like can we do better next time and there really isn't a one-size-fits-all for dealing with these animals because you kind of have to read them I mean they're not all the same just like all humans are not the same so basically what happened with me is I was going up hill for a stretch and I was really slow going up the hill which is normal for me I don't like up hills but then on the downhill I kind of started jogging so I'm going a little bit faster to try to you know get somewhere at a certain time before they were serving food that evening so it was like going to town day so I'm kind of jogging down this hill and I went from full Sun into the shade so my eyes were trying to adjust and next thing I know I see this thing jump up off the trail and I see dust fly and it took a second for me to realize but I was like holy this is a mountain lion so I'm staring face-to-face with this thing and again going wait what did I what do I remember reading or hearing about how to handle a mountain lion encounter now I knew not to run and I did not run so that's good I tried to calm myself down but you could hear in the video that I captured of the experience that my breathing really got deeper and heavier and you know I was trying to calm myself down and take deep breaths I did kind of try to yell and make myself you know seem intimidating no no no but listening to the video it definitely was not very intimidating but at least I tried and then it occurred to me what if I blow my harmonica at the mountain line and I don't know why necessarily I think that my logic behind it was maybe this will be an unfamiliar noise like you know music or something that an animal generally doesn't make and so you know the mountain lion will be like oh this isn't my normal you know menu for lunch so maybe I should leave this thing alone but after I blew on it I thought oh my gosh what if I just sounded like a dying bird or a dying animal you know some kind of animal call which it was pretty horrible playing but you know I just started to kind of worry maybe that would have the reverse effect of what I wanted but sure enough the mountain lion just kind of got a little confused and finally seemed to you know step back a little bit and run off and decide that it did not want to fight me so it all worked out but I still don't really know if that was a great decision you know I'm certainly not encouraging other people to do that and I do think that something I could have done better was maybe to continue to be a little bit louder and maybe you know yell a little bit more make more human noise I did not wave my arms and try to look big but I guess my month set was at this point the animal wasn't really showing any aggression so I just wanted to seem intimidating but at the same time I didn't want to seem like I was like trying to come at the mountain lion you know so I did stand my ground I did look directly at the mountain lion I did speak to it so I probably could have done some things better about trying to look a little bigger but it's it's really hard in the moment to gauge all of that and keep yourself calm so it is definitely something to think about while you're walking down the trail and try to practice in your mind what you would do what you would say and how you would react I think doing that mental exercise is a good idea I'll include in the video description today some of the stories I was talking about about the two friends that were together and the man that fought so bravely the mountain lion in Colorado also linked to the episode where I encountered the mountain lion and some other articles and things like that that you all might find useful if you're gonna be hiking or backpacking in mountain lion country I think it is good to review some of this information and again do that little mental game with yourself to help prepare yourself in case you do encounter mountain lion and that's all I have for y'all today if anybody out there has a story about encountering a mountain lion on trail or anywhere else for that matter I would love to hear about it and how you handled it and if you think you did a good job or could have done better it's always good to you know read what happens with other folks so you're just more aware and on a side note before I go if you like the content here this channel and you are not subscribed yet be sure to remember to hit the subscribe button thank y'all so much for watching and we will see y'all next time

Channel: undefined

Views: 166,908

Rating: 4.9196124 out of 5

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, Appalachian, Trail, PCT, CDT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic, cougar, puma, catamount, colorado, california, new mexico, mountain lion attack

Id: JTf9Hk6OSio

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 10 2019