Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Hiked 10 miles round trip up Fish Creek this morning with my friend Dustin looking for Bears and getting some exercise. On the way out Dustin was a couple hundred yards ahead of me, and as I rounded a corner I saw what at first I thought was some ones dog, about 15 yards away, but it lifted its head and I could see it was a lion. The lion was walking away from me, and could not hear me over the sound of the creek. It rounded a corner, so I unsnapped my holster just in case, and ran up around the corner to get some more photos. When I rounded the corner, it was still in the trail walking in Dustin's direction, like it was stalking him. I shouted "hey" to get it to look at me for a photo, and tooka couplepics as it stared back. The lion thenstarted to walk towards me. I then decided todraw my pistol andat the same time the cougar turnedand ran up the bank, so I shot a couple times into the dirt just to put some fear of humans into it, since it didn't seem to be very afraid, and may have even been stalking my buddy. It was a medium sized cat, a little bigger than my Lab. Not too often you get to be that close to a cougar in the wild. Here is a couple pics, larger photo files for most my pics are on my blog.

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Not much will get your heartgoing like having a lion 15 yards away staring at you.

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

That's awesome and a little bit creepy at the same time. Especially since it seemed to be focused on where you dog was at the time.

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Ya that is close. Those are nice pix. thanks for sharing.

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Awesome experience.

Seems to me you'd have tried out your stalking skills to see if you could get close enough to grab it's tail:D:D

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

I guess I could have tried "to catch a cat by its tail", but the little voice in the back of my head was telling me to keep my distance. I have learned the hard way over the years to listen to that voice, and also that startled wild animals are capable of unpredictable violent acts. I figured being close enough to see a tick on its butt was good enough for me.

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Unusual to see one out on the open in the middle of the day, must have been hungry. My one and only close encounter (15ft away) ended up with a dead cougar and a lifetime to comeof looking over my shoulder.

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Great pics, a truly memorable experience because of the way it turned out.

Jake

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

That is really cool. I have hunted in the Rocky Mountains for years and have never crossed paths with a lion. Truly a great experience for you. Thanks for sharing. CONGRATS!!

RE: Close encounters of the cougar kind up Fish Creek trail, off the Lochsa River today.
 

Why do they always look ticked off? I likely would be startled to know how many times I have been in close proximity to one and havn't been aware of it.I have never seen one in 10 years of northcentral Idaho hunting,for 10 days at a time.I have had one walk in my tracks on snow.That creeped me out.