Hikers Come Face-to-Face With Mountain Lion

Two hikers, Brian McKinney and Sam Vonderheide, experienced a slight roadblock on one of the first days of their twelve-day hike to the top of California’s Mt. Whitney. They were within the last few miles of their campsite when Vonderheide saw a tail from around a corner on the trail. Assuming it was a bobcat or lynx, McKinney turned on his camera to capture the animal they were about to walk by. When they rounded the corner, they ended up staring right into the face of a fully grown mountain lions, one of the scariest animals to encounter on the trail. After several attempts to make it go away or get past it, the hikers made the smart decision to turn around and backtrack to a previous camp site. When they came back the next day, all they found were a few lion prints in the dust.