Here’s a map from the Sacramento Bee of where a man was attacked by a mountain lion. The article (not behind a “paywall”) is here.
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Map of where man was attacked by a mountain lion near Nevada City
Posted on July 3, 2012 by jeffpelline
Here is the story I got about this encounter from my wife. She heard it on the radio. A guy was sleeping and the mountain lion was checking him out (sniffing). He woke up and startled the lion. They tussled and then had a stare off. The lion then ran off and left him alone. That’s life in the foothills, human beings moving into the homes of animals has its moments.
Just the other day, I slept under the stars while my wife, son and dog slept in the tent while camping near Sierra City. I may think twice about that the next time.
Jeff,
I lived in a tent in the Uncompahgre national forest for years and never had an issue with wild animals. They were there but never an issue. Now the idiots who would cook bacon and leave garbage around would have problems all the time. Humans are feared by wild animals and we don’t taste very good either.
Side story. Before my wife and I got together she had to chase bears off of her deck with a broom. Here is an image of where my eventual home in Telluride would be, Wilson Mesa.
Why the bears on her deck. Smells from the kitchen and the bear proof garbage bin on the back deck.
Here is the link
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/POD/w/wilson-mesa-207767-sw.jpg&imgrefurl=http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/enlarge/wilson-mesa_pod_image.html&h=600&w=800&sz=100&tbnid=BC_ZWFsZ_wZ4aM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=122&prev=/search%3Fq%3DWilson%2BMesa%2Bimages%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=Wilson+Mesa+images&usg=__ZtqN9PDG79lRMpg67AizzzHrX70=&docid=7jYjATInkYZvlM&sa=X&ei=jAvzT6m6FIXArQHD0dmJCQ&ved=0CEUQ9QEwAQ&dur=38
I’m guessing either Rush Creek or Rock Creek. Lots of mountain lions historically in those areas. We live out near the beginning of Upper Rush Creek and just this morning we had to chase off a bobcat that was about to eat our cat. We have a family of them living in our swale and usually our cat and the bobcats just ignore each other. But at around 5 am we were awakened by the big daddy bobcat chasing our tabby across the deck. It took off, with the tabby on its heals, once we appeared in the window.
As Ben said, that “life in the foothills.”
Several years back our dog club has an “event” at the French Meadows campgrounds that taught us all the safety and usefulness of Bear-Boxes.
We had about 40 campers there, and there were people in everything from tents to 48′ motor homes. We all “warned” people about using the Bear-Boxes and to make sure their food were put in these containers.
One woman decided that she was going to keep her cooler inside her newer Volvo and camp alongside her car…..
About 1:30 am there was some rutting sounds coming from outside and the bears had decided that her Volvo must have had some “yummy” stuff inside. The first bear reached up and opened the door by pealing the door frame downward and climbed right inside where he decided the shred the complete interior. A second bear joined him and they found the package of bacon inside her metal cooler.
The lid on the cooler was no match as the managed to open that cooler faster than teenagers opening cans of beer. The bears broke every window in this car and the door window frame section was bent (sticking out) @3′. I bet she got some looks driving thru the bay-bridge toll plaza.
This woman ended up driving her car back to SF, where the insurance company quickly totaled it, but the only good part of this story is that she was not harmed (physically) but I would not have wanted to be in the flimsy tent right next to this “bear party”, and the most amusing part of this story was that there were 50+ Bernese Mountain Dogs there, and not one of them made a sound!
Our Volvo V70 was totaled by an idiot bear in Carnelian Bay in the fall of 2010. Same thing, punched out both the front driver and passenger side windows and peeled down the door frames like a sardine tin. I say “idiot” bear because there wasn’t any food in the car [which is why he didn't destroy the interior], just kid crumbs, but I guess that was enough for a bear trying to get ready for hibernation.
We ended up buying the car back from the insurance company and fixing it up, and I still drive it today. But we can no longer get comprehensive insurance since it is a totaled vehicle, so I’m still unhappy I might someday lose this valuable asset to another “idiot” bear and be totally out of luck.
The good news is, I don’t have to drive back and forth across the Bay Bridge every day, where the behavior of “idiot” humans make some silly bears pale in comparison (-:
One of the articles stated that this was the 15th confirmed report since 1890.
The lesson of the story is don’t try and bring your home and all its amenities along with you where wild animals still roam and all will be fine.