SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City man got up close and personal with a cougar Thursday evening while hiking through Big Cottonwood Canyon, located just outside of the city.
Jared Smith said he was heading through Broads Fork Trail when the cougar suddenly appeared and followed him within 20 to 30 feet.
"I was running back down the trail and was probably about a mile from getting back to the parking lot when I heard something off to the side of the trail," Smith said. "And there was a cougar, oh, probably 15-20 feet away from me. Definitely startled me."
Heeding the advice of wildlife experts, Smith said he acted calmly while backing away and tried to appear "bigger." Despite his actions, the cougar continued to follow him.
"Periodically the cougar would pounce and was baring its teeth and (it) kick(ed) its legs and its tail up, almost like a little sprint right at me," Smith said. "If you watch the full video you can see my voice kind of crack at those points in time because it scared me."
In the video, Smith repeatedly told the cougar, "I'm going away, I promise. I'm not going to bug you," as it followed and hissed at him.
Smith posted about the incident on Facebook, saying he thinks the animal's cubs were nearby.
"Honestly, for me, the thing that’s most important to me is my family. I have a wife and a child and (I was) thinking I need to make sure I make it home from this," Smith said. "I know cougar attacks are very uncommon, but I believe, in this situation, she was probably protecting her cubs, so I know they’ll do just about anything to keep their cubs safe."
After about five minutes, Smith said the cougar left the trail and he was able to get back to his vehicle safely.
"It was about five minutes into the encounter that she just veered off to the side of the trail and I continued to back up for another minute or two, continuing to talk because I couldn’t see where she went off to," he said. "After a couple of minutes of doing that, once I felt like she was no longer close to me, I started running down the trail, trying to distance myself as much as I could."
Smith wrote in a Facebook post that he is a little rattled from the encounter, but doing okay otherwise.
"This definitely shook me more than the hundreds of hours I’ve spent hiking and climbing and other outdoor experiences, just because of the prolonged nature of it," he said.
Despite being rattled, he says the encounter is not going to prohibit him from hitting the trails again soon.
"I definitely will take a few days to process this before I got back, but I love it too much," he said. "I realize this is really uncommon. It’s not something that’s probably going to be happening repeatedly. I’ll be back on the trails before long."
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources recommends that when coming across a cougar, hikers should not run, but instead make themselves look intimidating by keeping eye contact, making themselves appear larger and speaking loudly and firmly. If the cougar attacks, experts recommend protecting the head and neck.
This story was originally published by Melanie Porter on Scripps station KSTU in Salt Lake City.
