Comments (14)

By WSG, August 6, 2009 11:40 am

Watch out
Here is a Mountain Lion Story
At around 7:15 this morning, my dog met a mountain lion in the brush on the connector trail between Queen Esther Drive and Snowtop.  The cat was about 3 switchbacks up from the bottom, and was within 30 yards of me.  I did not see the cat, but he and my dog had an altercation.  The cat was growling and making high pitched cat screaming noises.  They were LOUD; I have never heard anything quite like it.  My dog was going nuts barking, and I was screaming as loud as I could trying to get him to come back to me.  Between my dog barking, and me screaming, the cat must have decided to take off.  I was able to get my dog to come back to me.  I am so thankful he didn’t chase, and he is unhurt.

I looked on-line, and cats that are that close to humans are probably tracking.  My dogs and I had made a lot of noise on both the way up to the top of Snowtop and back, and that cat was really close.  I have two 100 lb dogs (one was on a leash), and so that may have been lucky for me.  Someone alone or with a smaller dog may have been in trouble.
Wilderness guy said making a lot of noise is the best thing to do  and keep the dogs on leash.

Comments (3)

By WSG, August 4, 2009 9:27 am

That’s the distance Suzanne Lewis and I covered during the Katcina Mosa 100k.

What a day in the Utah Mountains with massive vertical and extreme heat, a perfect trainer for the upcoming Wastch 100. The day started at 3am to avoid some of the heat as the field cruised along I hooked up with Ultra runner Suzanne Lewis, we ran near each other all day until mile 45 aid station where the fun began.

The aid station volunteer gave us updated directions which sent us off course to climb a exposed heated rocky 1500 vertical foot climb, the time the four wheelers caught us we were part way to Daniels Summit. Hot, demoralized and a long way from any aid stations we were sad to say the least. Once we were back on course we lost about an hour on the field and Suzanne was well out of first place, so we chugged along staggering around the oven with no water in search of the next aid. Once we reached mile 52 we chugged a ton of fluids and jogged to the finish laughing about the day. Nothing like a good adventure, look for Suzanne to redeem at the Wasatch 100.

Katcina Awards