Flickr Home Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums
I am allergic to all cats, but I have to admit there is something to be learned from the critters:
“Observe your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why? Naturally, his superior hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it. He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He’s not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical security. Do likewise.”
---Col. Jeff Cooper
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
.... he sleeps all day, barfs on the rug as soon as he does wake up, then tickles your nose in the middle of night with his whiskers when he wants you to play with him. The only kind of bird he ever ate came in a can, except for a helpless fledgling that landed on the lawn. He also messes up the whole pile of IRS paperwork whenever possible.
When hiking in the woods, always carry a laser pointer to distract the cougars...
"I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."
Most Sierra Clubbers these days wouldn't know the difference between a cougar and a Shetland pony. I'll bet a cougar would rein in its chase instinct if I waved the spike end of a Ries tripod at it. But the whole point is, not to stir up that instinct in the first place. Those guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not their fault for being ignorant how to best handle a sudden panic situation. Call it a freak accident if you like, certainly a tragedy, but so rare an occurrence that it barely puts a blip on the statistics.
It wasn't that long ago that a hiker in Olympic NP was killed by a mountain goat on a popular trail. That too was a statistical anomaly, but differed in being entirely preventable. Billy goats can be territorial and belligerent, and that particular one was known to stand its ground and not cede the trail. There was ample opportunity, apparently, to either detour or back off before a confrontation.
I saw a mountain lion once while mountain biking (in the state park next to UCSC, where deer are common and lions are present). It avoided me. Actually I barely saw the lion at first, I just noticed that something moved off the double-track ahead of me. After I passed some distance, I happened to stop and turn around and saw the lion re-emerge from the bushes and cross the track.
I've never seen a road lion while road biking, but given the decreasing quality of people's driving I consider that significantly riskier.
Lion attacks are extremely rare and may involve a sick or weakened animal that has not been able to hunt its natural prey, or a juvenile.
Memo to self -- sharpen Ries spikes...right now the lion might die of laughter.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
Flickr Home Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums
Bookmarks