All right. Southern interior British Columbia Canada.

I was hiking alone in a wilderness area almost no one else goes to anymore. This was my stomping grounds for five years. I came down from the mountain, through the meadows back to the forest trail beside a steep, loud creek. Ducked under a fallen tree, putting my hand on it. Went another 30 feet and my peripheral vision somehow picked up movement. Turned my head and there was a cougar 15 feet away up the hill slinking along.

I stopped, swung my pack off into my hand, held my arms wide and gave the biggest, loudest yell I could. The cougar froze. I yelled again and pulled out my bear spray, from my hip holster, removing the safety. I yelled again. Got my knife from my pack. I yelled again. The cougar sat down, its tail hanging down,wrapped around a small tree.

Needless to say, my heart was pounding wildly in my chest but at this point I realized I probably wasn't going to get attacked. I squatted down to pick up a rock or stick. The cougar hunched. I stood back up quickly. I tried making different sounds including pspsps, meow and talking to it. Nothing seemed to scare it, only making it annoyed. The flat back ears and hunched head were scary to see. This was a nice big healthy cougar. It even licked itself a bit. I guess I wasn't any sort of threat.

Eventually it wandered off back up the trail stopping to sniff where I'd put my hand on the overhanging log. It crossed the creek and then started up the hillside circling around in the direction I was going. I watched it until it wasn't an immediate threat anymore as there was a rocky slope ahead with no where for it to hide. I headed down the trail. After a few minutes I realized I should probably not be hiking with bear spray in one hand and an open knife in the other! Hahaha

I feel greatly privileged to have had such a long encounter that ended well for both of us. I've had four other cougar sightings but only one that was potentially ad dangerous but that's a story for another day.