Mountain Lions... or: things that hunt you while you hunt caudates.

Wanted: log flipping/ rock rolling buddy to traverse the state of California to hunt and photograph Salamanders, perhaps help defend against large predatory animals or provide a distraction while I escape. Must run slower than me...

I'm tired of climbing down into a creek beds only to find huge cat prints in the mud or a huge feline scat and have to leave because I'm hiking alone. I'm all for mountain lions, but I'm tired of the paranoia. It's really hard to keep your focus on the ground when you have to constantly make sure you aren't being stalked by large predatory cats... this is happening to me with greater and greater frequency...

not to mention all the pot growers... Seems like if it's a place that is remote enough to have healthy ecosystems, it is also remote enough that growers think they won't be found... well I'm not even looking for you jerks and I keep finding your garbage and plumbing running through the woods all over the place. I don't even care about the pot, do whatever makes you happy or whatever... but there is no way they would believe me if I said that i wasn't after their crop and was actually looking for salamanders... (sorry about the rant...)

anybody else ever get the creeps while alone, waist deep in a bog?
any florida caudate hunters paranoid about gators?
ever search for salamanders only to find yourself staring down the business end of a shotgun?

I'd listen to those stories...

I hate going herping alone. Not only for the saftey issue but if you find something cool there isn't anyone there to share it with.

I carry a pistol with me everytime I go out and it's a good thing because I've had 2 run-ins with wildlife and I've actually had to use it once.

The first time was with a Black bear with cubs that I surprised. She ended up bluff charging me a couple of times and snapping her jaws at me before she finally had enough and ran off. That jaw popping and salavating really puts chills up your spine.

The second incident involved a pack of coyotes. I was herping up a creek bed in a steep ravine and 4 coyotes came down the creek, I don't know what they were thinking or had in mind but they just wouldn't leave no matter how much noise and movement I made. The lead one got a little to close for my comfort so I shot and killed it. I made $50 (the county has a bounty on them) off that sucker so I can't complain.

bewilderbeast said:

Wanted: log flipping/ rock rolling buddy to traverse the state of California to hunt and photograph Salamanders, perhaps help defend against large predatory animals or provide a distraction while I escape. Must run slower than me...

I'm tired of climbing down into a creek beds only to find huge cat prints in the mud or a huge feline scat and have to leave because I'm hiking alone. I'm all for mountain lions, but I'm tired of the paranoia. It's really hard to keep your focus on the ground when you have to constantly make sure you aren't being stalked by large predatory cats... this is happening to me with greater and greater frequency...

not to mention all the pot growers... Seems like if it's a place that is remote enough to have healthy ecosystems, it is also remote enough that growers think they won't be found... well I'm not even looking for you jerks and I keep finding your garbage and plumbing running through the woods all over the place. I don't even care about the pot, do whatever makes you happy or whatever... but there is no way they would believe me if I said that i wasn't after their crop and was actually looking for salamanders... (sorry about the rant...)

anybody else ever get the creeps while alone, waist deep in a bog?
any florida caudate hunters paranoid about gators?
ever search for salamanders only to find yourself staring down the business end of a shotgun?

I'd listen to those stories...

Click to expand...

Once I got done wiping the tears of laughter form my eyes, here is how I handle it:

I am an epileptic so I am not supposed to go anywhere alone. Truth is I prefer to field herp solo. From California, to Virginia, and quite a bit of South and Central America, I broke most of the rules for going out in the field. Risky, I know, but for me that is a big part of the rush.

I always let multiple people know I am heading out and I follow a strict schedule. In remote areas, I rely on up to date topo maps and a compass to navigate. (GPS requires batteries... dangerous risk to depend on batteries) I plan out my route and mark it down on a copy of the map which I leave with at least one of the folks I notified. I do not bother with cell phones either as they are usually useless out in the areas I like to go. I do carry broadband radio with rechargeable batteries and a pocket solar charger for long excursions.

Long term trips are me my backpack and my mountain bike. Short day trips are generally in areas where there are too many people close by.

As for dealing with large predators, I generally do not worry about it (except in Death Valley area...I carry a hand gun there as I skip the touristy national park and go for the remote BLM areas). I only saw a cougar once, and it was only his hind end as he ran from me. With cougars, if one is going to nail you, you will not even know it is there until it has you anyway!


I have had quite a few encounters with bears back east, however that was always during deer hunting season.

I have two great horror stories about solo field herping though, one in Death valley, the other in Chile. Both were a result of my younger, stupider days.

In Death Valley, I got bitten by a rattlesnake and envemonated (I was a desert novice at the time, stupid stupid stupid!). Lucky me it was a bite to the upper arm! I was sick as a dog and literally crawling on my hands and knees to get help. While crawling I got stung by a scorpion or some other desert invertibrate I never saw... Luckily I was not far from a road and a few Harley-Davidson riders had stopped for dinner. Thanks to them I got to a doctor in Trona. I spent a few days in the hospital over that one!

Chile was a little bit more hairy. The US Navy ship I was on ran hard aground in Caleta Cinfuncho, about 450 miles from Antafogasta, Chile. We were stranded near a beach in at the western edge of the desert. After a month of waiting for the US NAvy to come get us, I took advantage of the situation and got three days leave to go backpacking in the Atacama. To this day I have been unable to identify many of the reptiles I saw! I hitched a ride inland from some locals. On day two of the trip however, about 60 miles inland from the ship I discovered the topo maps provided to us by the Chilean military were made in 1967. I got a bit lost to say the least. I did find some interesting ruins of some sort (mud brick foundations). I decided to camp there for the night and figure out how to get back by the stars. Go figure that the one night I actually needed to use the stars in the driest desert in this hemisphere, it rained. All night. No stars, and now any remnant of my trail was gone. I also learned that the Boy Scout handbook celestial navigation instructions only work in North America. By day five I was out of water. Day six proved to be my lucky day once again as some "locals" had come to the ruins to "dig artifacts". Once I got them to calm down in broken Spanish, they lowered their guns. I hooked them up with a crisp US 100 dollar bill, and they drove me back to a beach near where our shipwreck was moored. The scariest part was that after being 4 days overdue, no one had realized I was missing! The lessons learned from that mistake have saved my butt a few times over. Always take a hundred dollars into the back country with you. You never know who you may need to bribe for help.

Ha, I know this fear. Luckily I've never encountered a mountain lion, but this thread made me remember an earlier encounter this spring with a feral pig. Below I copied the story that I'd sent to my friends with some editing.

>>>
The Two Wild Pigs

...About a mile into my hike... oh by the way there tons of valley oaks. It's fantastic! Anyways, a mile, I noticed that there was this tiny, barely-noticeable trail to my left. And the map indicated that in a little under a mile, it went up to some small pond. So I proceeded to follow the trail and eventually found the pond which had a bunch of cows near it. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not such a fan of being near cows. I just can't trust an animal that I eat regularly. They must be waiting for that one opportunity to present itself where they can have their sweet revenge. So I avoided these mooing, poohing beasts, and I spent about an hour examining the pond happenings, including chasing a big white egret around. Towards the end of my stay I noticed a very bizarre rather sickly moo, if it even was a moo, coming from the hills. I investigated the sound further, thinking that perhaps a cow is stuck or injured, but my investigation was fruitless and I figured that whatever was making the sound was long gone. Happy with my stop at the pond, I began my return along the barely visible trail back to the main trail.

Along my way, I found myself on a stretch of trail which is about 10-15 ft wide, mostly overgrown with green grass. To my right the land extended upwards into a well-shadowed California live oak grove. To my left was a fairly steep down-hill to a creek, perhaps 30 ft down. It is on this path that the crazy event was about to transpire. I was walking along and I heard this tremendous thundering noise to my right, sounding almost as if a giant boulder was coming down the hill. It was roughly in the direction of the sickly moo. I turned to look, and I could see a large shadow charging towards me with two obvious eyes. I froze in shock as I tried to reconcile what was happening. It was no stone. Was it a cow? No! It was a wild pig! Oh my god there was a wild pig charging me, and it was freaking huge!

I began to tremble as thoughts began racing though my head. What do I do... I have no idea... I have no knife, I looked to the ground, but there were no stones or sticks... There wasn't even a tree even close to climb... Oh my god, virtually no one was in the park and no one knew I was here... My head cleared as I realized my only option is going to be to fight it off as I work towards a tree. In the moments that these thoughts poured into my brain, the beast continued barreling towards me. I could see it clearly now, it was enormous, about 3/4ths the size of the cows that I had just seen. It was covered in mangy brown hair with blond blotches on it's back, while an unkempt blond mohawk ran down it's spine that topped off its feral coat. Together, it was quite clear that this beast was as wild as could be, and quite scary.

So, I mustered all the rage I could gather, and put up my fists, jumped to a wide stance, and pounded my chest. Thinking to myself, ok if this pig wants a fight, I'm going to give it to him, though I knew full well that I stood absolutely no chance against this beast. So I stood, in my rage, arms flailing, shouting, "Alright, bring it you @#!%ing pig!", and other assorted nonsense. Luckily, as it got within 10-15 ft, the beast jutted to it's left and went around me continuing towards the creek, as if I was just a rock in his path and of no interest.

As it stepped into the light of the path, I could see that this was no beast, but a truly impressive and beautiful creature that moved with such an awesome power and agility. Then I thought, "I have got to get a photo of this." So, suddenly the pursued became the pursuer, and I raced down the slope to the creek with camera in hand. But, I tell you pigs are quite fast, and despite their bulky mass and barreling strides, they are remarkably agile, like a football player/ballerina. Nonetheless, I ran, and jumped the creek after it. However, that jump was just too much, because it was at this point that my noticeably loose pants found just the right place on my waist to succumb to gravity. Before I could catch them, my jeans fell and locked up my fast moving legs, knocking me to the ground. At all the commotion, my new swine-friend, barreled up into some thick brush and out of sight. As I had a moment to consider everything that had occurred, I had a little chuckle. For as I sat in the mud in my underwear, I could only wonder who the real wild pig in this encounter was?

That's it. I dusted myself off, pulled my pants up and everything else was relatively normal for the rest of the hike. But that was such an awesome sighting. I hope you all get to encounter a wild pig at some point.

>>>

These stories are GREAT! Keep 'em coming!

see... I knew it wasn't just me... I usually go out alone if it is a location I know well and is close to my house... but more and more, I find tracks and scat (I guess this is actually a good thing because it means the ecosystem is healthy).
On longer trips or areas I'm not familiar with, I have a couple hiking/photography buddies that i go with...
My brother works for BLM in Humboldt county, operating bulldozers ... I'm hoping he can introduce me to some remote areas up north...

I remember a s a kid in Michigan's upper peninsula, being followed by coyotes and feral dogs (not at the same time)... I used to hike the woods near my family cabin alone all the time when i was 13 and 14... now when I think about it it gives me chills (was I brave or just stupid?!?) If i didn't get eaten by something I still had a good chance of getting sucked into a peat-bog or breaking a bone...

I think I might invest in a trail pistol and a permit to go with it... right now I just carry a long pointed stick (snake stick/lion whacker)...

I'm glad the humor was not lost on you guys

The stories are an intersting read, not only to see what perils you've faced during your trips, but also useful information on what to prepare for when doing those trips.

Here in the netherlands the only hazard is that you slip and fall in the water

I had a run in with a large boar about a month ago in Texas (I was on a piece of private land that I didn't know was for hunting). I know that "sickly moo" Pete. I had never heard it before but I knew it had to be a pig or a mountain lion, and I doubt there were many mountain lions in the area. I got the hell out of there as fast as my legs could carry me.

However earlier in the year I was in wilderness looking for newts and getting my legs, body and equipment torn to shreds by the thorny vine things that were every where, when I stopped at a creek for some rest. Lo and behold 9 feral hogs of all ages walk into view. I thought the lead one was a bear due to the colour but as they moved into view I realised they were pigs. Thankfully, the wind changed and they smelled me, then took off for all they were worth.

I know Nate has had bear encounters - I wonder if he has any stories.

Yes, as I learned feral pigs are not a creature you want to cross your path. I generally, run into problems when I explore a new place, and prior to heading into the wilderness I focus more on learning about the local caudates or trees than the obvious dangers in the area. I had a similar experience with gators in the Everglades, once again impromptu exploring outside of my element without thinking. At least now I know what to do if I encounter a wild pig. For those that don't know.
-pigs are most active at dusk and dawn
-never corner a pig
-don't come between a mother and her babies
-they have extremely poor eyesight beyond 15 ft and rely mainly on their sense of smell.
-if one charges you, most likely it is spooked or confused, make noise and wave your arms around they tend to avoid you once they see you. Climb a tree if possible.

I had a quick run in with a large Black Bear this spring. I was looking in a creek for rubers when I looked up at what I thought was a burnt log. Then the log lifted its head to look at me. It was only 30 yards away. It stared at me for about 30 seconds and then dashed up the mountain about 50 yards and stopped to look at me again. Then he turned and ran into the woods. It was my first bear in 38 years and what a great looking animal. I never did find any rubers but my heart got a work out.