The Destination Was the Accident!

by Pat
(Wichita Falls, TX)

When I was a teenager, my scout troop engaged in a lot of informal rock and mountain climbing, mostly freehand without much formal equipment. We lived only about an hour's drive from the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma where we camped and climbed often.

One fine morning two groups of us decided to climb a little mountain near the campsite and my group left first while the others had a more leisurely meal.

About an hour and a half after we left we reached the top and it was an odd looking flattened summit with what looked like a small cave as part of it.

Imagine our surprise when as we looked at the cave, it looked back at us! Two large gold eyes were reflecting the sun and were too far apart for anything but a very big cat. Out walked a full grown mountain lion and we pretty much panicked.

Never have I descended a rock or mountain at anything like that speed or lack of caution, and for all I know, some of our ropes are still up there.

We were moving so fast that when we passed the rest of our group about halfway down we didn't even notice them, but they decided to go back and see why we were coming down like crazy people.

The cougar story was pretty convincing. We told the ranger later in the day about the big cat and he laughed at us, saying there had been no mountain lions in the Wichitas for decades and we learned everyone believed that, everyone except us, of course.

More than twenty years later I happened to see an article about them learning the cats did still exist there.

We only had some bruises and scratches from that insane descent, but we learned one fact: don't climb anything that a mountain lion is still using!