Mountain Lion Interstate 70

[Alex Heitman]

I was down on the current below baptist a few years back and heard a mountain lion screeching up in the woods. It sounded like it wasn't that far away. I was by myself and I knew it was a lion from the distinct screeching call. I walked immediately back to the truck and kept my head on a 360. I never saw the cat but I knew it was around close and did. It take any chances. 

[fishinwrench]

I guess that's my point to not wanting them around.  If I had drove from my place all the way to the Current to spend a day fishing, then got ran off by a mountain lion, I'd be kinda pissed.    It would be worse than having your day ruined by an unreasonable landowner.  At least with a landowner you can argue the law.....The mountain lion doesn't give a rat's @$$ about the law.  

I kinda enjoy living in a state where I can let my kids play on a gravel bar when we go camping and I don't have to stand there like a secret service agent protecting them.  

Nope, we've lived this long without Cougars in the woods, just fine, and I'm all for keeping it that way.

[ozark trout fisher]

I have spent counless hours fishing in places where cougars are actually common. I've never been chased off a stream, trail, or anything else by one. I probably never will.

Now moose? Different story. Actually that's a pretty good story but I don't have time now.

[Greasy B]

Bro and I were floating down a Wyoming river and ran across a cow moose with a calf. The guide told to shut up don't make eye contact and be prepared to jump ship when she charges and what ever you do always keep the raft between you and it. I didn't have the sense to be scared but the guide was all freaked out. 

[ozark trout fisher]

1 hour ago, Greasy B said:

Bro and I were floating down a Wyoming river and ran across a cow moose with a calf. The guide told to shut up don't make eye contact and be prepared to jump ship when she charges and what ever you do always keep the raft between you and it. I didn't have the sense to be scared but the guide was all freaked out. 

Yeah, my story is quite similar. Fishing on a meadow stream in the Bighorn Mountains, I suddenly found myself between a cow and her calf (they were on opposite sides of the stream, I was wading out near the middle). I just sorta backed my way upsream until I was no longer between them, then exited the river and got the heck out. Spooky but exhilarating.

My other experience with a moose came in the Indian Peaks of Northern CO last summer. We had been hiking all day, up to Sawtooth Mt. on the continental divide. It was a long hike, 19 miles, and we were on mile 17 or 18, it was already almost fully dark, raining, 45 degrees, hypothermia weather. There was one really good ford of a boggy stretch of middle St. Vrain Creek and a cow moose was blocking it. I was at that point too exhausted and cold to be scared (or excited to see a rare moose in that area, come to mention  it). I was just annoyed. I yelled at that darn moose for what felt like 15 minutes before she finally moved out of the way.

[Al Agnew]

Mountain lions are probably my favorite animal to paint.  I've spent a whole lot of time where they are common, but have only seen one in the wild.  Many years ago, bowhunting in western Colorado, we were climbing the side of a mesa when the cat appeared, no more than 40 yards away, and bounded on up the steep slope ahead of us.  That night...three of us in a four person tent atop the mesa, we heard something roaming around the tent.  It was circling the tent.  Then it went "RROWWLLL", just as one of us shined a flashlight out of the tent.  Sure enough, it was that lion.  It retreated and we relaxed a bit.  Then it came back, and this time, we heard the "RROWWLL", and then a mewing sound.  It had a kitten.  After a bit it they left.

Early the next morning after a night of very restless sleep, we headed out of camp at daylight to hunt.  Not 100 yards from camp, there was the lion, sitting on a rock and watching me.  When I saw it, about 30 yards away, it immediately ran off.  That was the last any of us saw of it, but we later figured out that our campsite was heavily used by hunters during rifle season, and there were a lot of deer remains around it.  Probably the lion came in to see if we'd killed anything it could scavenge. 

Even then, I wasn't really afraid.  I've never been in the least worried about lions.  Bears are another story.  We had a black bear in that same area take a dislike to an ATV we'd left at the base of the mesa.  It chewed the seat to shreds, gnawed off the handlebars, and bit holes in a gas can we had left on the ATV.  Later, my brother in law killed an elk.  He came and got us to help him pack it out, and in the two hours he was gone, the bear (probably the same one) took possession of the elk.  It didn't want to leave, and it took all three of us shouting and firing a handgun to scare it off.

And don't even get me started about grizzlies.  I've never been in danger from one, but they scare the heck out of me--hunters getting attacked has become a regular occurence around where we are in Montana.

Oh yeah, moose...the most danger I was ever in with wildlife was when Mary and I found ourselves between a cow moose and her calf in Alaska.  She charged to within a few yards, hackles raised, ears laid back, as we retreated as calmly as possible.  Fortunately, by the time she was that close she was between us and the calf, and at that point she stood and glowered at us as we continued retreating.

[fishinwrench]

The most scared I've ever been of any animals in the woods was from a pack of wild dogs during a rabbit hunt.   The dog pound was at the edge of town up in Mexico, Mo. and the escapees had formed a pack that roamed the woods behind it and the county landfill and occasionally they'd come into town.  There was 11-12 of them and the "leader" was a big black 1/2 German Shephard looking guy (looked like a wolf).   They took in after me and I started running, but I knew I couldn't make it back to my truck before they caught up with me.  When they got about 30-40 yard from me I let ol'blackie have it right in the face with a load of #6's and he went down and started spasming, I fired my other 2 shots randomly into the mass of the pack and then took off running as fast as I could.   When I got back to the truck I could still hear them yipping and barking.  

The next day 4 of us formed a posse and went (more properly armed) in search of the pack.  Ol'blackie wasn't where I dropped him so he lived.   2 days later we set up a cassette predator call at the edge of the landfill and after about 30 minutes here they came.  Ol'blackie finally got his by my buddy with a .30-30 and I dropped a mangy collie looking mutt with a load of #4 buckshot. The others cut and run before we could get another shot off.   We tried again the next day, and then another time a couple days later but they wouldn't come to the call after that.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

Dolls are creepy too. 

[Quillback]

So are clowns, especially if you run across one in the woods.

[Deadstream]

Riverfront Times reporting female lion confirmed by MDC today.