|
I have many goals in life. Some are honorable and intended to help me grow, others are, shall we say, odd. One of my more odd goals in life is to see a mountain lion out in the wild in person. I may have achieved that goal this week.
Friday afternoon, I was invited to a campfire up Green Canyon. In attendance were several ladies, a couple guys about my size, and a couple brawny, muscular fellers. Ya know, the kind where if something tragic happened, they would be the ones people turned to for help.
Anyway, as darkness settled in the canyon, and we were a good ways up the canyon, past the more crowded and loud areas, people began to scare each other. A small group of us even headed down the dark and wooded road in search of another campsite to scare, though we failed to find one and only ended up scaring ourselves multiple times. After plenty of noises that startled people around the fire, I hatched a plan with one of the men of larger stature. There were over a dozen of us there, so I would quietly slip away with my hoodie and stand off in the trees in the dark. Then, he would say he heard something and shine his light on me. A dark, hooded figure in the trees, coming seemingly out of nowhere, would freak everyone out, including, by his own admission, the guy who wanted to shine the light on me. As I took a step back to casually leave the fire, I heard rustling in the leaves behind me. At first, I believed someone had already taken my idea and was going to jump out of the trees at us. The rustling got louder. Another member of the group heard it as well and stood up to look around. Assuming it was still a person who was terrible at sneaking about, I shone my light. My heartbeat shot up when I saw two, bright yellow eyes glowing sharply back at me from about twenty yards away. They seemed small, so after my initial taken abackedness, I picked up my fire tending stick and, as everyone else backed away, I walked up the hill towards the trees where the eyes were. When I got within about eight feet of the animal, which I now thought to be a fox or lost domestic cat (it did not occur to me I was miles from anywhere a domestic cat would reside), I stopped. The beaming yellow eyes reflected my light back and we just looked at each other for a few seconds. Neither of us seemed afraid of the other. We were both curious. Perhaps the animal was more curious than I, because he began to move around the small cluster of bush and trees that separated us. As he turned to the side to walk, my illusion of a small fox or kitty cat vanished instantly and a bit of terror entered my body as I saw his three to four foot long body which was now approaching me. I backed up a bit, then started screaming "It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" as I barreled down the mountain toward the rest of the group, who were gathered below watching me. Already on edge and half scared to death from the earlier events of the night, they wasted no time in reacting. As I ran down towards them, I saw the funniest sight I have seen in a while. The group, who, mind you, saw little more than eyes and part of the animals head, were in a complete state of panic. It was every man for himself. People were throwing each other out of the way, tripping over themselves, scrambling in sheer terror, with arms flailing, and shrieks piercing the night as they ran for the safety of their vehicles. When I reached the fire, nothing remained but a cloud of dust and me. I knew I had kind of overreacted and I had really wanted to see what kind of animal it was, so I turned around from my safer distance to shine my light, but, alas, the panic from the group had scared our guest away. The group returned to the fire, all of them hilariously huddled on the side of the fire so their backs were not to where the animal had been. A couple minutes later, the big macho men, who we discovered had little bravery after the sun sets, decided "it was getting late", and they left. To the group's shock, I walked back up the mountain with a hot dog offering in the hopes my friend would return, but, he was probably long gone, never to be seen by me again.
Based on what I did see, I believe the animal was a young mountain lion. He was obviously not in search of eating us, because he was blatantly obvious in approaching our campsite. I think he was just walking in the area, heard some noise, and went to see what was up. I hope he was as amused by me as I was by him. Though if he understands humans, he too is probably telling his family and friends the story of how he scared a bunch of young adults half to death.
Friday afternoon, I was invited to a campfire up Green Canyon. In attendance were several ladies, a couple guys about my size, and a couple brawny, muscular fellers. Ya know, the kind where if something tragic happened, they would be the ones people turned to for help.
Anyway, as darkness settled in the canyon, and we were a good ways up the canyon, past the more crowded and loud areas, people began to scare each other. A small group of us even headed down the dark and wooded road in search of another campsite to scare, though we failed to find one and only ended up scaring ourselves multiple times. After plenty of noises that startled people around the fire, I hatched a plan with one of the men of larger stature. There were over a dozen of us there, so I would quietly slip away with my hoodie and stand off in the trees in the dark. Then, he would say he heard something and shine his light on me. A dark, hooded figure in the trees, coming seemingly out of nowhere, would freak everyone out, including, by his own admission, the guy who wanted to shine the light on me. As I took a step back to casually leave the fire, I heard rustling in the leaves behind me. At first, I believed someone had already taken my idea and was going to jump out of the trees at us. The rustling got louder. Another member of the group heard it as well and stood up to look around. Assuming it was still a person who was terrible at sneaking about, I shone my light. My heartbeat shot up when I saw two, bright yellow eyes glowing sharply back at me from about twenty yards away. They seemed small, so after my initial taken abackedness, I picked up my fire tending stick and, as everyone else backed away, I walked up the hill towards the trees where the eyes were. When I got within about eight feet of the animal, which I now thought to be a fox or lost domestic cat (it did not occur to me I was miles from anywhere a domestic cat would reside), I stopped. The beaming yellow eyes reflected my light back and we just looked at each other for a few seconds. Neither of us seemed afraid of the other. We were both curious. Perhaps the animal was more curious than I, because he began to move around the small cluster of bush and trees that separated us. As he turned to the side to walk, my illusion of a small fox or kitty cat vanished instantly and a bit of terror entered my body as I saw his three to four foot long body which was now approaching me. I backed up a bit, then started screaming "It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" as I barreled down the mountain toward the rest of the group, who were gathered below watching me. Already on edge and half scared to death from the earlier events of the night, they wasted no time in reacting. As I ran down towards them, I saw the funniest sight I have seen in a while. The group, who, mind you, saw little more than eyes and part of the animals head, were in a complete state of panic. It was every man for himself. People were throwing each other out of the way, tripping over themselves, scrambling in sheer terror, with arms flailing, and shrieks piercing the night as they ran for the safety of their vehicles. When I reached the fire, nothing remained but a cloud of dust and me. I knew I had kind of overreacted and I had really wanted to see what kind of animal it was, so I turned around from my safer distance to shine my light, but, alas, the panic from the group had scared our guest away. The group returned to the fire, all of them hilariously huddled on the side of the fire so their backs were not to where the animal had been. A couple minutes later, the big macho men, who we discovered had little bravery after the sun sets, decided "it was getting late", and they left. To the group's shock, I walked back up the mountain with a hot dog offering in the hopes my friend would return, but, he was probably long gone, never to be seen by me again.
Based on what I did see, I believe the animal was a young mountain lion. He was obviously not in search of eating us, because he was blatantly obvious in approaching our campsite. I think he was just walking in the area, heard some noise, and went to see what was up. I hope he was as amused by me as I was by him. Though if he understands humans, he too is probably telling his family and friends the story of how he scared a bunch of young adults half to death.
Post a Comment