[timberghost]

3 years back I was coming out from a hike in the Chiwaukum mtns with my dog. My dog was about 30 yards in front of me on a brushy part of the trail. I heard a yelp from my dog and looked up to see him running back towards me. I saw a tanned object behind my dog thinking at first it was a deer.. Then as it came running closer I could see it's long tail.. I had a pretty large pack on and when the cougar saw me it jumped off the trail disappearing into the bushes. Tried to look for it but never saw it again. A year after that while hiking in the snow I came across some deer tracks. Jumping down hill with cougar tracks behind it. There was some blood spots in their trail headed down. I chose not to further investigate.

[forest gnome]

Ran across this and was enjoying reading again!

[Kascadia]

I guess this is an "almost encounter" of less than 10 feet although it was unknown at the time - we have motion detector lights across the back of the house, right by the bedrooms. A few months ago, the lights started being activated multiple times per evening. There's a population of feral cats and we have plenty of raccoons around the house with coyotes, bear, bobcat, deer, elk in the pastures/forested areas, but the guess was that it was mostly feral cats...Up goes a trailcam - often there would be no pics, or the occasional cat or raccoon. So boring, in fact, that dear husband doesn't usually bother to check that camera when he makes the rounds of his camera traps on our south of Issy rural property. He came in this morning with his pocket of cards and shortly thereafter I heard a whoop! He'd pulled the bedroom camera monitor and while we lay sleeping....#wherethewildthingsare!!!! What a gift it is to live in the PacNW.

[Lazyhiker]

About 10 years ago I was hiking cross country from Clara Lake to Mission Peak in the Wenatchee Mountains with my two dogs. We were in the vicinity of the old Hogloppet route below Mission Peak. The dogs were ranging and checking back in every few minutes. Spot to the left and Zeke off to the right. Pretty thick lodgpole with lots of deadfall. I noticed something brown bolt off to my left and Spot was after it. He would cut off chase of a deer if I called him off but he didn’t this time. He jumped over a big blowdown and it was on. I could tell right away that it was a cat by the screams and growls. I was terrified that the cat would kill him. I grabbed a big branch and started yelling and advancing on the blowdown. I couldn’t see them but there was a lot of dust and debris flying and terrible noise. Zeke came charging in from the right and joined the frey. As I got to about 8 feet from the blowdown the cougar jumped over the trunk and landed right in front of me. It was a huge male easily close to a 150# with a face like a dinner plate. It screamed at me with it’s mouth agape. I started hollering and swinging the branch I was carrying just as the dogs jumped onto the trunk of the blowdown. I guess the cat decided between me and the dogs he’d had enough and he bolted down a steep hillside into a thickly wooded draw with the dogs in hot pursuit I followed a short ways hollering for them to cut off their chase. Zeke came back first and was unfazed and unharmed except for a bare spot on his side where a stob had scraped him in the thick timber. Spot came up the hill very slowly and sheepishly cowering and I realized that he was afraid because I was still carrying the big branch. I dropped the branch and embraced him and started looking him over. He had about two dozen claw and tooth punctures and a few small lacerations. None were bleeding very badly. We jogged through the woods past the ski area reservoir and down the road back to my rig. Took Spot home and cleaned him up. He was fine, a little fired up on the way back to the Jeep but he passed out on the drive home.

[JimK]

In 40 years of hiking my one cat sighting was a bobcat running across the snowy Teanaway Road. Gone before I could get my camera out. That is, until a couple weeks ago. This bobcat gave me plenty of time to watch. Unfortunately, I only had a cell phone camera with minimal zoom. The first photo is the cat in grass near the road. The second one is right before it pounced across the ditch. The third is walking back to the road with a mouthful of breakfast. The last is the cat before heading into the forest.

Cat In The Grass

Ready To Pounce

Successful Hunt

Are you still Following Me?

[Now I Fly]

West Granite

[Bowregard]

My wife and I were at the beach watching an older dog and owner playing in St Mary Lake (GNP) when we heard a commotion behind us and turned around just in time to see a young bear bounding towards us. It was only 5ft away when we turned and it veered off away from the beach at that instant. Unfortunately, we have no photos of the encounter (it bounded away too fast for a selfie or even to identify type . I estimate it was about 250lbs, cinnamon in color with a blond streak along the spine.