Wrong Turn Sends Couple on a Brush with Death

Couple Finds Mountain Lion Habitat During Breakdown on Remote Wilderness Road

The only sounds we could hear were a few birds in the trees and an occasional gentle gust of wind. Otherwise, the environment contained only dead silence. My cell phone screen blinked "Searching for Service," so I turned it off to conserve the battery in case we were stuck here for days.

Brian rifled through our camping supplies looking for ideas or tools that could relate to our situation while I crossed the dusty road looking for a "latrine." To my horror, I found hundreds of mountain lion paw prints in the dust. I walked for several feet, and the paw prints were just as plentiful. Everywhere I walked, I found mountain lion paw prints. The mountain was apparently crawling with lions. Goosebumps formed as I recalled a documentary I had seen on TV where African lions worked in organized groups to kill prey of any size available, including super-large varieties of oxen. I cautiously scanned my surroundings and tinkled as quickly as possible then hurried back to the rental car, this time noticing paw prints all over the road as I walked.

Brian found a small plastic trowel, and advised me that he intended to use it to remove the dirt road from the bottom of the rental car. As ridiculous as this seemed, I did not rob him of our only hope by laughing. I informed him of the mountain lion paw prints I had observed, thus we felt it best to both stick together. So I sat in the grass and watched him dig for about an hour and a half until his knuckles were bloody and sore. As expected, the rental car appeared to be just as stuck as it was before he began.

By this time, the sun was getting low, and I was concerned that even if we were somehow able to dislodge the rental car, that it would be nearly impossible to navigate this Swiss-cheese road in the dark. The alternative was spending the night with mountain lions.

An idea came to me at that time, and Brian stopped to listen. I explained to him that we could jack up the corner of the rental car where the tire was dangling and pile rocks under the tire. Then, when the jack was removed, the tire would be setting on rocks instead of hanging, perhaps enabling our escape from this mountain lion mecca.