One of the most terrifying primal fears any human could have is to be eaten by a wild animal, and one duo of hikers in Oregon was quite close to being the prey of a mountain lion. One of the hikers, who goes by StarSpangledGator on Reddit, claimed that they had quite the frightening encounter during the first night of their camping trip. After some stargazing, the two began down a road, and by chance, realized they were being closely followed.
“No sound, no eerie feeling of being watched, just us turning on the spotlight at the right time by dumb luck,” StarSpangledGator recalled on r/wildlifephotography. Surprisingly, the hiker was more fascinated than scared, claiming it was “one of the coolest wildlife encounters” they’ve ever experienced. The mountain cat allegedly followed them all the way to their car before they took off.
“Terrifying. You’re so lucky you turned on the light when you did,” remarked a commenter. “Not to be dramatic but bro if you were unlucky, you could have been prey,” expressed another. “Glad you’re alive to post this,” added a third.
The Oregon Mountain Lion Allegedly Followed the Hikers Back to Their Car
Despite being intrigued, StarSpangledGato says he was also still rather wary that the cat was on their tail. “The rest of our trip had us on edge every time we were in some remote area for stargazing,” StarSpangledGator wrote in a seemingly nervous tone.
In the sister post he made on r/CampingandHiking, he claimed that he and his friend didn’t bring any bear spray with them, as a friend of a friend told them the area was free of bears and cougars. “Imagine our thoughts when we saw the cougar on our first night,” OP remarked.
Fortunately, the Oregon mountain lion was allegedly 20 to 30 yards away when OP took photos of it. So it wasn’t desperately hungry or aggressive enough to attack. “I made a loud bluff charge to scare it off to no effect,” StarSpangledGato wrote.
One Redditor asked, “But did you try ‘pspsps’?” to which OP replied, “The temptation was there.” Though, perhaps it was for the best that the duo didn’t mess around in the mountain lion’s territory any further.
