No, McMurtry, Lars, Brad, Mark, not that kind.
I’m driving home last night from an appointment, already stressed because my night vision is bad, and I’m on a one lane feeder road to the freeway that has a 3-4 foot high concrete barrier on my right separating the road from wooded hills. Concrete construction barrier also on my left. Narrow as can be.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see what I thought was a big ass deer leap onto the barrier on my right and onto the road just as I approached. All in one fluid, athletic motion. It wasn’t a deer, but a huge mountain lion as we call them out here, also know as a cougar or puma. Scared the shit out of me for a second. I swerved as little as I could and lightly hit the breaks. The animal saw my vehicle in a split second and stopped on a dime. I barely clipped him, and saw him bound back over the wall, so I think he’ll survive. That’s my first time seeing a mountain lion in the wild, and glad it was from my vehicle. I had no idea they can be that big.
Although the encounter last night was not dangerous other than I probably would’ve crashed had I hit the cat straight on, I’ve now had encounters with a mountain lion, rattlesnake (twice), wild boar, wild turkey, and a pregnant Halibut that almost took my finger off, in the wild of NorCal. Anyone have any stories around dangerous encounters with animals? McMurtry’s exes don’t count.😊
I’m driving home last night from an appointment, already stressed because my night vision is bad, and I’m on a one lane feeder road to the freeway that has a 3-4 foot high concrete barrier on my right separating the road from wooded hills. Concrete construction barrier also on my left. Narrow as can be.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see what I thought was a big ass deer leap onto the barrier on my right and onto the road just as I approached. All in one fluid, athletic motion. It wasn’t a deer, but a huge mountain lion as we call them out here, also know as a cougar or puma. Scared the shit out of me for a second. I swerved as little as I could and lightly hit the breaks. The animal saw my vehicle in a split second and stopped on a dime. I barely clipped him, and saw him bound back over the wall, so I think he’ll survive. That’s my first time seeing a mountain lion in the wild, and glad it was from my vehicle. I had no idea they can be that big.
Although the encounter last night was not dangerous other than I probably would’ve crashed had I hit the cat straight on, I’ve now had encounters with a mountain lion, rattlesnake (twice), wild boar, wild turkey, and a pregnant Halibut that almost took my finger off, in the wild of NorCal. Anyone have any stories around dangerous encounters with animals? McMurtry’s exes don’t count.😊