Rifle huntin the high country on a cold, wet, foggy morning. I hiked to the top of a hill that I knew would be a good vantage point once the fog lifted. I crawled under afir tree to wait and as I sat there,a mountain lioncame walking up the same trail with his nose to the ground.At first I thought, what a cool experience. But he kept coming.By the time he was 20 yards away,I was getting nervous and when he was 15 yards away I was plain sacred and so Iput a round in the chamber.I don't know if I could have successfully shot him if I'd tried under the circumstances. Fortunately I didn't have to find out because he heard the action and looked up at me. We stared at each other for a minute, then he put his nose in the air as if in disgust, turned and slowly walked away. He obviously wasn't as impressed with me as I was with him.