Yesteryday, around 6:00 pm I was charged by a mountain lion while riding my bike.

This is my second week in Montana, too.


There isn't much to the story. I was riding some trails just outside of town and had just tourned around to head back. I was going pretty fast downhill, when all of a sudden somehting crashes out of the bushes on my left, but slows down a few feet from my calf. Yes, a few feet. I see a flash of brown and at first thin it's a dog, though that lasted less than a second. I put on the brakes and stop about thirty feet downhill from the lion, which is now standing in the trail, looking at me.


This is where I'm pretty proud of myself. I remembered that with cougars you're supposed to act big and yell at them, which is what I did, shouting at the top of my lungs, hissing, etcetera. After a couple of seconds it darts back into the bushes on the other sid eof the trail.

Wow.

I also remember one of my first thoughts being that it wasn't very big. Definately a young lion, under 100 pounds.

Yes, I did report this to Fish and Wildlife. What I've learned (and I had thought of it myself too) is that the young ones are most likely to be involved in "incidents." because not only are they inexperienced and may mistake cyclists for deer, but because they aren't as adept hunters and are thus more desperate.

In this case I think it was the former reason, though, because as I said it put on the brake as it got (really) close. I think it was startled to see that I wasn't a deer or elk.