Speaking of which, I had a pretty close encounter with a cat this afternoon.
It was a little one, but it spooked the crud out of me.
I was walking the Salmon, over some downed alder trees, when it poped up out of the vegitation in front of me and bounded away for about 50 yards. Then I lost sight of it.
It was little, no more than mid thigh or hip hight. But that's as close as I've ever been to one in the wild, but I still don't have the need to pack. Maybe I'll pay for that, but that's the chance you take when you are in there territory. I was beyond the nat'l park boundary anyway.
There was also a herd of about 20 elk in the immediate area.
I'm sure that even that little guy could've done some serious damage if it wanted to.
I saw a big one a few years ago at the tree line in the oxbow canyon while fishing. That one easily would have doubled, if not tripled the weight of this one today.
At what point do cougars loose their spots? I would have believed that this one was a cub, jugding by it size, but it didn't have thse spots. It looked like a miniature replica of an adult cat. Very long tail.