Fatal cougar attack in Washington State

[Airdale]

I wouldn't bet on someone who just takes off into rugged, unfamiliar terrain without so much as a water bottle and with footwear unsuited for most everything (we called them shower shoes in the Navy and that's as much as I could stand wearing the things for) having the ability to walk a straight line absent a sidewalk. I hope he appreciates how fortunate he is to have survived such ignorance.

[SWWASAS]

I would have said that about his footwear but I got dumped in this Forum for saying that Crocks are unsuitable footwear for field work.    Doing solo hiking without sturdy hiking shoes without ankle support you are subject to potentially devastating injury should you sprain an ankle or worse.   The higher in the mountains the more unfriendly the terrain.  From the news reports, other than dehydration his most serious problems were that his feet were a mess.   You are quite right that he was lucky to have been found.   Most outcomes of someone missing over 3 or 4 days is they are never found because they die and are consumed by scavengers.    He had intended to visit the lahar overlook, which is SE of the Mountain and probably expected just a short hike from his car.   .    How he ended up on the SW side is beyond me.  Could be a case of his cell phone leading him off on logging roads.   I have to say the forest service roads in that area are poorly marked.    In the Gifford Pinchot on the East side they are not only poorly marked but some of the roads have been renumbered and what few signs that are there,  may have the old signage.  Or the signs are all shot up by shooters shooting at them.        You should possess and know how to read a map.   Also in this day and age people have stopped wearing watches because they all have cell phones with the time.     With a watch and the sun,   there is no reason not to know directions.    Even a compass can be a problem in areas with iron deposits.  

 

I had a thought that might help find someone who is lost in a known area.    Usually they are turned around and simply do not know which way to go to find other humans.  The guy said he never saw another person the whole time he was lost.    At night the searches are stopped unless they have cell phone contact with the lost person.   Seems like if searchers could put up a large red weather balloon on a 500 ft tether with a LED light inside, the balloon could be seen day or night and someone could see it for miles.  At least that would give them a direction to travel to find their way out.    

Edited August 18, 2018 by SWWASAS

[Airdale]

Crocs are logging boots compared to flip flops, SW, or thongs to guys like you and I old enough to remember what they were called before the name was co-opted by skimpy undergarments. And don't get me started on watch caps, now called beanies by the nomenkultura; beanies are basically yarmulkes with alternately colored panels and sometimes a propeller on top, and back in the day were required head wear for freshmen on some college campii for the first week of their sojourn in the academy. Those wearing them are occasionally befriended by mythical sea beasts.

 

As a youngster I was taught to head down hill if you are lost. Eventually you will reach a creek, which will lead to a larger waterway and sooner or later to someplace frequented by people. There are places in the world where that could be a long haul, but in this part of the globe it is generally practical. I've never had a problem in the open but get turned around in large buildings with some regularity. Fortunately my wife is the reciprocal in that regard and between us we manage to keep our bearings indoors and out.

 

The balloon idea sounds plausible so long as the lost soul looks up, possibly to pray for divine assistance. That is, of course, it isn't chosen as a target by one of those armed miscreants you mentioned, when they have ventilated all of the signs in sight.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Airdale
Additional infromation

[SWWASAS]

From media reporting he seemed to have gone further up the mountain.     Don't know if that was trying to get a cell signal or not.  There is way too much reliance on cell phones for navigation now.     I was using the GPS map function in mine to get to the Clatsup County Fairgrounds in Astoria.   It directed me to turn off on a road to sort of take a shortcut.   The road was paved and named so I figured the route was good.    But it led us to a gravel road then onto logging roads before I finally found a place wide enough to turn around.   Some might have continued on and gotten stuck.     Happens in the winter when mountain roads are closed for the winter.  Someone died in Southern Oregon Mountains when their family got stuck in the snow on closed roads.   The guy tried to walk out and froze to death.  I have had the phone try to get me to turn off on a road that did not exist.     There was not so much as a trail there.  You really cannot trust them.   

[Airdale]

I prefer to do an aerial survey on Google Earth on my desktop, or Linda's laptop when travelling, before going to an unfamiliar destination, then check it out on street view if available. That way I actually learn the route and know what to look for upon arrival.

[SWWASAS]

Probably a good idea as long as it is current.     The view of my house was several years old at one point.     I had a Chevy Blazer that was parked by my house in the satellite image several years after I had gotten a new truck.   They have two levels of Satellite image data.    Some of the high res stuff is pretty good.   At one point I was looking at an area where some sighting reports had happened.   Darned if I didn't see what looked like a BF in one.   Had the coordinates written down.    It was in the area image for a couple of years until it was updated.   Of course it could have been someone wearing the Patty suit.   

[BigTreeWalker]

Don't know why he went up the mountain. Must have had his reasons. The Lahar is a long way from where he was. There are some mud slides down that side of the mountain. There are trails that criss-cross throughout that area. All he had to do was take a good look at a decent map, even the big forest service maps on the signs would have sufficed, to know that there are roads within walking distance of where he was found. Down the mountain and to the south. It seems he was totally unprepared and bit off more than he could chew. 

[miker]

Grizzlies have a much different mindset than a black bear, I wouldn't expect a bluff. There's a great story online about an Alaskan guide who killed a griz with a 9mm, google on "grizzly 9mm buffalo bore" and you'll find it. He was lucky in that the bear apparently thought something was stinging it and kept spinning in circles rather than attacking him.  Prevailing wisdom seems to be "Spray first, gun is backup".

 

In the Midwest I'm more worried about feral dogs - no hogs or grizzlies here. I've seen a cougar twice, black bear once, moose once, the first two ran away and the moose just ignored me (as I ran away! :).

 

miker

 

[Huntster]

I actually discovered a Kodiak bear doing this in the mid-90’s to our deer hunting party. He was following us around each day fir our gut piles. I figured it out on a hunch because we’d see his sign, but never him. I left a gutpike one evening, and beeline back to it early the next morn8ng to see if he’d been there. He sure had.

 

This can be a pretty spooky thought. We know cats do this, including lions. We assume sasquatches do it. Now there is growing scientific evidence that grizzly bears shadow people (hunters) in hopes of a meal.........and the hunters never know........

 

https://www.adn.com/wildlife/article/alaska-hunters-beware-bears-could-be-following-you/2014/11/27/

 

........The long-debated idea that Kodiak brown bears -- the biggest of North America's grizzlies -- come running to the sounds of gunshots hoping to grab an unlucky Alaska hunter's Sitka blacktail deer could have a new twist based on preliminary results from a study out of Montana.

 

Maybe the bears don't come running at the sound of gunfire. Maybe they are lurking nearby all along, dogging the trails of hunters and hoping for scraps.

 

Montana researchers say they now have evidence grizzly bears in that state follow elk hunters hoping to scavenge their kills. Or at least that's what one bear fitted with a GPS-tracking collar did.........

 

[SWWASAS]

I can think or probably a half dozen reports of BF carrying off deer and elk that hunters have shot and a couple of reports of them seen carrying off recent road kill.       My cougar encounter the deer that ran past could care less about me.   They turned and looked behind them at the cougar who was chasing them before the cougar jumped in front of me.    I have had similar experiences with other deer who were being chased by something running right past me.     So it is not much of a stretch to imagine BF shadowing human hunters waiting to harvest their kill.    I have wondered if the deer run past me to throw off a BF or cougar pursuer.    One report i remember was an exhausted deer coming into a human camp as if it seeking a sanctuary from a pursuing predator.   Of course deer probably would not do that knowing Huntster.  

[Huntster]

On 9/19/2018 at 9:34 AM, SWWASAS said:

.......Of course deer probably would not do that knowing Huntster.  

 

If it’s during hunting season, that deer is fair game. If not, and if he’s behaving like he’s being pursued, I’d be hoping that it’s open season on his pursuer........

[Shooter]

Huntster, I was watching a show on Grizzly changing their attitudes about Denning up your way. It seems some really big males have learned that there is food out there for their getting in the deep snow!! If they eat all year long they'll be HUGE  real fast....

[Huntster]

41 minutes ago, Shooter said:

Huntster, I was watching a show on Grizzly changing their attitudes about Denning up your way. It seems some really big males have learned that there is food out there for their getting in the deep snow!!.........

 

Boars on Kodiak don’t go to bed until after deer hunters stop feeding them gutpiles in December. Sows with cubs, especially if those cubs were born that year, go to bed in early November. North of the Alaska Range, I’m pretty sure they all go to bed pretty early. It gets cold, dark, and slim pickings up there by early November.

 

The cases I’ve heard of people disturbing grizzlies in their winter dens turn out horribly for the people. They come out pissed off.

[Catmandoo]

Hunster, are you followed by Ravens?

[Huntster]

Sometimes. Usually I just say hi and they watch me move on. 

 

They like a particular cottonwood tree in my yard. Sometimes they hang out, watch me, and croak while I do my thing.