RE: Weekend Story

["Kerry Dykes" <KDykes@cpes.com>]

Yeeow Garrett -- and you encouraged me to ride this trail??????  Think I'm
nuts or something -- it's all yours now!

Kerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Garrett Ford [mailto:gford@easyboot.com]
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 10:45 AM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Weekend Story


Do I have a story for you!

Well my horses are in good shape, we did a 50 last week.  This weekend was
their time to rest and relax.  I decided it was time for me to do one of my
long runs and start getting myself in shape for Tevis.  I decided I would
run from home (2,500 ft) to the Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley (9,500 ft).  I asked
my wife to pick me up at the top at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  I wanted
to get done early so we could fit in some other activities during the
afternoon.

I pushed off from home about 5:00 a.m. and started my long accent.  This
training run/ride is a doozy.  It climbs from 2,500 ft. to 6,000 ft. then
goes back to 2,500 ft. before climbing back to 9,500 ft.  The trail has
10,500 ft. of gain in 16 miles, Tevis has about the same gain over 100
miles.  We have a wonderful training area but that’s another story.

About 30 minutes after pushing off I was rounding a long right hand turn in
the trail when I caught something out of the corner of my eye two feet off
the trail to my right.  It one motion I chucked my hat at the object and
jumped back.  I found myself face to face with a large mountain lion.  It
was lying on its stomach ready to pounce, ever muscle in its body was
twitching as it slinked toward me.  Our eyes were locked three feet apart.
I yelled at the cat as if I was scolding a bad dog "GET OUT OF HERE".  The
cat penned his ears to his head like a horse that’s getting ready to kick or
bit.  The black tuft at the end his tail was swaying side to side.  As I
would inch back the cat would slide forward.

I started to slowly take off my camel back to use as a weapon if needed.  I
got it off without the cat making any movement and slowing held it in front
of me to shield the coming collusion.  The cat slowing came to his feet and
walked to my right, I turned with him to maintain eye contact.  He went to
the other side of the trail and crouched near a bush.

My body eased and I began to look at the cat in amazement.  The front limbs
were strong and powerful.  The body was long, and lean but muscled.  The
detail in the face was incredible, a combination of tans, grays and black.
His nose kept sniffing for my scent.  The picture that will remain with me
for my lifetime will be the tail.  As I watched the cat face to face, the
last four inches of the very long tail slowing swayed from side to side.
The black tuft on the end kept attracting my attention.  It was amazing.

Well after a minute of watching the cat and memorizing all his features, I
decide not to push my luck and get going.

I slowly turned to get my hat.  To my amazement the cat rushed toward me
from the bushes and I quickly turned back to face him.  I now knew this
wasn't an encounter to make me feel good; this guy was stocking me and was
still carrying out the kill.  I decided I better get aggressive and change
his mind.  I started to yell again.  The yelling just made him angry as he
pinned his black and tan ears to his head.  I crouched slowly and picked up
two fist size rocks.  The cat retreated back to his bush after I threw the
rocks.

As I slowly eased down the trail backward the cat slinked through the bashes
at the same pace.  I moved, he moved.  It was incredible.

I picked up two more large rocks.  In one quick motion, I threw the rocks,
yelled, waved my arms and ran toward the cat.  He turned and slipped through
the brush 20-30 feet.  I quickly retreated and decided to put some distance
between us.

On my way to the top I had four hours to think about the experience.  It was
truly the most awesome thing that has ever happened to me.  I honestly
believe that if I would of taken one more step before catching him out of
the corner of my eye, I would be dead or badly hurt.  I don't know if I did
the correct thing with eye contact and facing him but it did make him think
about attacking.

The truly scary issue is that I run this same trail 4 days a week early in
the a.m. before light.  It's probably not the first time he's watched me.

I've run and ridden the same trail over 100 times.  The thought of running
into the cat on horseback does not scare me.  Running the trail again
Tuesday a.m. has me a little nervous.

The whole experience lasted about 5 minutes.  I could fill a short story
with the details

garrett



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