MOUNTAIN LION

On Friday, September 11, 2009, during Lillian Trevisan's Old Cabin Site 8 am morning hike, a Mountain Lion was spotted coming down the trail towards her group of seven hikers. It was only 250 feet away from them!  It stopped for a few seconds before slowly turning away and muscling back up the trail a few feet and then disappearing into the brush. Ken Clark was the first to see the lion and his first thought was it might be a riderless horse?  Yes, it was very large. All this happened within a quarter mile of the trailhead at Wendy Drive and Potrero Road. Six out of seven saw the beast; Chris, Henry, Ken, Lillian, Liz and Melanie. Fontayne was the only one to miss it. From descriptions by the hikers it appears that they had gone roughly 5-6 minutes from the trailhead at the trail junction with the meadow trail on the right and their trail going straight uphill towards the lion. The lion’s hind quarters had darker markings against its buff colored coat.

Contributions: Ken Clark, Lillian Trevisan, Melanie Ashen and Fontayne Holmes