Running from a Mountain Lion

I have one hell of a thriller for my first blog post! Are you ready?

This is my first day out in the field as a full time photographer. I normally would never go on a hike alone. Hikes can be dangerous! ([mountain] lions, creeps, and injuries, oh my!) But, this is my career now. I can’t always rely on people to drop what they are doing on a Monday morning. The weather may be perfect, but most people have normal jobs, kids, and other priorities. Besides, being alone allows me to take my time and appreciate what’s is in front of me. I took all the precautions I could. I brought a first aide kit, an emergency battery/air compressor for the car, a knife, and of course, my trusty sidekick Cove. If something were to go wrong, I would be well prepared.

I load the car up with all my gear and head off up a near by canyon. The Oquirrh Mountains have a notoriously high Mountain Lion population, at least that’s what I was told (though now I can’t find any literature to support this claim). I knew that going into this hike, it was at the back of my mind all day. I mean, we’ve all seen the viral video of the guy jogging up Provo Canyon when he runs into some cubs. Haven’t seen it? Here’s a link, it’ll get your heart rate going! But, I also knew my chances of encountering one were low, especially on a well traveled trail. I pressed on!

I have the trail to myself. Not a soul to be seen! I hike for a while, start taking a few photos of the frozen river, ice formations, and my dog enjoying her morning walk. A fork in the trail comes along, one path stays low along the river, the other veers away up the hill. I am hoping to get a nice vantage point of the mountain range so I choose the later. This path is a bit trickier. The sun hits this part of the hill so It’s muddy in some spots and icy in others. It is also quite steep with large round rocks set into the mud. I don’t get far, about half a mile is all. In fact, I can see my car from this vantage point.

Its a beautiful view! I look around for a spot to get a nice composition. Up the trail it looks like there is a nice flat spot with a bit better view of the hills and valleys. At this point I am stopped, catching my breath and enjoying the cool air and sunshine. I glimpse some movement out of the corner of my eye. Turn my head just in time to see the tan back of a large animal lurking in the brush about 50 yards away. I figured it was one of two things. A deer or a mountain lion. Deer don’t move like that.

I know not to run from a cougar, you’ll never be able to out run them, and they pounce when your back is to them. I KNOW THAT! That being said, fight or flight is a very real instinct. I apparently chose flight. I book it down the hill as fast as I can, checking over my shoulder as frequently as possible. I saw the animal a few more times. It was moving towards me and fast! That is when I inevitably lost my footing. Running down hill, in the mud, with large rocks and bulky snow boots on is when mistakes happen. I clipped my toe on a rock, my knee drops and smashes into a rock. It hurts, but I’m a little busy running from a Mountain Lion to care. I immediately stand up and keep going, but I slow down. I realized I wouldn’t make it out alive if I keep running, the terrain is too unstable and I remember you don’t run from a cougar, you stand your ground, walk slowly backwards and make yourself as big and loud as you can. So I slow down, turn around, shout, wave my arms, etc., still trying to give as much distance between us and the animal as possible. When dog appears from behind a bush. A dog. A tan, medium sized dog with rounded prick ears.

I’m such an idiot.

I slowly limp my way back to the car. A guy with 3 off leash dogs catches up to me. We exchange pleasantries and both pretend like I wasn’t just shouting into the hill tops like a maniac 3 minutes ago.

“What a fine morning!” he says to me.

“Beautiful! I’ll let you pass, I skinned my knee and I’m taking it slow”

He gets a ways ahead of me when I really start feeling the pain in my knee. I look down and see Its bled through my base layer and jeans. I start to get worried, I’m alone in the woods in the middle of winter. If I let it sink in how bad it is I’ll panic and wont be able to get back. So I don’t look at it again, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

I eventually make it back to the car, pull my first aide kit out, put my gear away, and call my husband for help with the little bit of signal I have. I dropped my pants down to check how bad it was, which was when I saw bone.

Long story short, I ended up with 10 stitches in my knee running from a dog pretending to be a Mountain Lion.

Thanks for reading! I hope you got as good as a laugh out of this as I did! Follow along my journey as I try to become a full-time landscape photographer. Hopefully not every day in the field is this eventful, but I will be sure to update this blog if it is!

-Ashlin