I started off 2008 with a backpacking trip at Big Bend National Park. I did the Outer Mountain Loop, a 30 mile route incorporating both alpine and desert terrain. This backpacking route is one of the most strenuous in the park and is impossible in summer due to heat and lack of water. Opportunities for landscape photography were everywhere, but I was specifically looking to shoot wildlife. There was plenty of water at Dodson Creek and a confirmed bear sighting in the vicinity fueled my motivation.
As it would figure, I spent a lot of time taking pics of deer and not hiking on the first two days. On the morning of day three, I had only made 10 miles progress and had to make a decision to either turn around or hike 20 miles to complete the route, with extreme elevation change for Texas as an additional challenge. I chose the latter. I stowed my boat anchor of a camera in my pack so that I could maximize my progress, and at sunset I still had about three hours of hiking to go. Within two miles of the visitor center, and very exhausted, I encountered a mountain lion on the trail. Its eyes glowed yellow in the light of my headlamp and it let out the deepest growl before running off straight up the hill to the next switchback. I clanked my trekking poles at it and it continued on. The mountain lion sighting is permanently recorded in my mind with a sharpness that no camera on earth could produce. On the way out of the park I did get an image that I'm fairly proud of. It's no mountain lion or bear, but there's always next time.
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WE have cougars on our ranch near New Ulm, Texas - 65 miles west north west of Houston. We have only seen one twice in ten years. A road crew and the county agent have also seen them on our property. I thought of you because the very first time I saw her my husband was coming in from a bike ride as he was training for the MS 150 bike ride from Houston to Austin. The cat was in hot pursuit of a doe and we would probably never have seen her except she was too busy to stop for us. She killed the dear. The creepiest part - the cat left the remaining carcass about 15 feet outside the fence that surrounds our ranch house - she left it during the night. It was like watching National Geographic. There is no way you would have even had time to get your gun up if she was after you. I do shudder when I think of all the times my young children and dogs spent the afternoon alone on the property/woods picking wildflowers, exploring, campin out, etc. We have baby angus born on the property each year and have never lost one to a cat - not even claw marks. We have fox and cayote too. I don't think we will be lucky enough to have bear - darn. I hope we see one of our cats again soon. I haven't seen one in about a year. This time it was way down the property by the tree line and I was on a deck by the pool about 250 yards away. The cat was getting a drink out of a pond. I made the slightest noise (metal rustling) when I immediately looked up, she was gone, long gone.
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