Cougar in the headlights

Quite often we cruise through life with little change in our daily routine. We habitually wake up day after day knowing the tasks and challenges we expect to face, though sometimes we are fortunate to experience the unexpected.

For a couple months now, I have been welcomed into a core group of riders who hit up the local trail networks in the Santa Cruz area. If you were to call my cell on a Wednesday night you will most likely reach my voicemail as I will be hitting the trails, riding with these folks. My typical Wednesday routine consists of waking up at around 7-8am, surfing the internet and responding to emails, followed by a cruise down to Pacific Ave to a coffee stand outside the used bookstore where I am greeted with a smile and my coffee mug gets filled for a dollar. By 11 I am usually back at my house by Natural Bridges and by 11:30 I am dressed and ready to go for my first ride of the day. After 2 or so hours on the bike, I am back to the house by 1-2pm in which I stretch, hydrate and fill my stomach followed by a quick nap before jumping on the S-Works Stumpjumper for ride #2 of the day.

First stop, my buddy Alex's house at around 5:15. Alex is one of the Rock Lobster rockstars who like most riders on their team, lets their legs do the talking. Once ready to roll, we head south on Soquel taking time to catch up on each other's most recent adventures, jumping random obstacles along the way and dodging clueless motorist talking on cell phones. After this 30 minute venture, the Wednesday night riding crew reunites once again with all the usual suspects, Scott, Jeff, Alex and I. Scott happens to be the secret sleeper who may be a bit unassuming due to his Dickies and flannel button up attire though he has the ability to lay down the law at a moment's notice, and Jeff, a talented rider who has been pushing my technical riding to a new level and who despite wearing spandex, rocking a mustache, a halfdome helmet and kneepads, still screams style like no other.

At around 6 the crew takes off up the hill via the Nisene Marks fireroad climb past the West Ridge overlook to the Sandpoint overlook. Settling into the climb, I drop the travel down on the FutureShock and get into the zone as it is an hour long grind in which you pass old, proud redwood trees lining each side of the 10+ mile climb. After regrouping at the Sandpoint overlook and soaking in the panoramic views of a sliver of a moon against the distant Milky Way, we headed back down the hill into Aptos. This is when our ordinary routine becomes anything but ordinary.

While leading the group on our journey down the hill, I nearly ran into three cougars standing in the trail as I rounded a bend in the road at speed, it was literally "deer in the headlights." The first cat took off down the path while a second went uphill to my left behind some redwoods. The last cougar, all 4-5 feet long with a 3+ foot tail, stood unafraid as the other two cats sought refuge. It was 10 or so seconds later before the next rider came up behind me in time to see this 175-200 lbs cat at a distance of 25 feet away. What a humbling experience coming across such a graceful creature that happens to be a finely tuned killing machine; I was no longer at the top of the food chain and that was an eerie feeling.

Afterwards, Alex did a little research and determined the most likely scenario that we encountered the night before. Cougars mating season occurs during the Spring months so competing males pursuing a female was most likely out of the question. We concluded it was most likely a mother out with her cubs, not a good situation to be in. Though the mother showed no sign of fear, no doubt she was dazed from the 4000 lumens of light coming out of all our head lamps. The darkness in the woods due to the cloaking canopy of the redwoods to suddenly being in the spot light must have resulted in sensory overload for the big cat.

Simply put, what an amazing experience. Certainly an event I will never forget, especially while she was walking off into the woods, looking over her shoulder, eyes glowing in the darkness to the reflection of our headlamps.