"This wilderness area is characterized by certain inherent dangers. These dangers include mountain lions, rattlesnakes, poison oak, and rugged terrain."

Patrick and I decided to visit a local wilderness park today after church. Sure we'd read the reports. 3 deaths, a few injuries due to Mountain Lions...but certainly they weren't running rampant or the parks would close. Right?
As we drove up to the park, through the ranger station, and into the day parking area we saw multiple large yellow posters stating "You are entering a dangerous area." There were tactics listed for what to do in case you encountered a lion. Gulp. The last reported sighting was September 26, but as we began our ascent into the wilderness I began to wonder what they would classify as a "sighting." I didn't allow myself to ponder that question for too long because the trail became smaller, more vast, and more silent every foot we went.
I'm going to add a spoiler. We don't have a confrontation or even a sighting to report, but as we walked I gathered some pieces of scientific data to examine...I'm sure there were some lions in that great open space of wilderness.
Here are some droppings to look at. Anyone know what cougar droppings might look like? I think they are closer to the ones on the left. If we had lions expelling the size of dropping on the right I think we'd have horse-sized lions on our hands. Big problem!

A. B.

Next I have collected footprints. The fist I believe are from a horse. Well, of course they are, but since this is to be a complete analysis I am going to include them for consideration and observation.



At one point about 3 miles into the hike...the furthest point from anything, we saw the print below. I froze. The eerie silence and rustling dead sage brush made me tingle and freak out. For a couple of miles Patrick and I speculated on the footprint before deciding that the print would have come from an animal that had been de-clawed. Not likely in the wilderness, so we think it was the pattern on the bottom of a mountain biker's shoe.



Next we have a deer print.



Patrick stopped mid sentence. Dead still, dead silent, and grabbed my arm while staring straight ahead. My adrenaline shot up, but all he did was show me the print below. Finally we may have the cougar print. Do you think Cougar prints would be bigger though? What else has padded feet? A coyote?




It was quite the adventure. We sweat and panted, and surged with adrenaline. Look at the scenery that is the real Orange County- before all of the sprinkler systems and flower beds.






We visually depicted an upside down bell curve. Observe Patrick. Excited to begin, miserable-hot-and-sweaty, excited to almost be done. We accidentally hiked 5 miles in our church clothes.



Finally I would like to give attention to my trail climbing shoes. Because we came from church they were all that I had and they did an excellent job!