2 seasons ago, walking out at dusk after deer hunting all day by myself. Walking downhill on an old logging trail out of the clear-cut I always hunt. Saw a dark lump where the road I was on T'd with the road out to my truck (~3/4 mile away) but thought it was a stump. Kept walking quiet, trying to be sneaky in case a deer was nearby (had seen several deer while walking out this way in the past). No deer but still that dark mass in the road ahead. Got to about 50 yards away and decided to see what it was through my scope. I brought my gun up to my shoulder and looked and just as my crosshairs settled on the "stump" it stood up from a sitting, facing away position, and walked off the road over the edge away from me. I couldn't believe my eyes but I was seriously scared. After it disappeared over the edge I heard crashing, snorting, and thumping as it must have been stalking some deer on the far side of the road. It never knew I was even there. Of course I had to walk to the spot where it was sitting to get out of the area but by this time I was shaking. I looked around very hard but s/he was gone. Full size cat I'm sure but not a huge Tom.

Needless to say I walked backward to my truck that night. I still hunt the same area and every day I walk in there I get nervous and think about what I would do if attacked. Hunting the same area last fall my brother-in-law and a kid from the camp next to us saw a cat (probably the same one) in the exact same spot. It darted across the road right in front of them chasing a hare in the mid-morning.

Finally this year I've come to grips with it and since I'm 6', 220lb. I finally feel like I'm big enough that I could hold my own against him, or at least give him a run for his money. I have started to carry a fixed knife on my belt from now on up there (instead of the folding one I also carry). Still I play it out in my mind just what I would do "in case". I also leave a note at camp on where I'm hunting every day and stay true to that note.

Anyone else have some true, exciting adventures of close encounters in the wild?

-Power