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| Backbone Mountain |
I do not
think anything has been as controversial over the years than the presence of
Mountain Lions in the mountain state. It has been pretty much agreed upon over
the years that the last wild cougar was killed on Leatherwood Creek in Webster
County in the year of 1877. The fact that genetically all Mountain Lions (Puma
concolor couguar) that reside north of Nicaragua are one and the same. The
consensus among the Experts who derive their salaries from either the Federal
or State government is that there are no breeding populations of mountain lions
in the East; except for in south Florida and possibly northern Ontario. Studies
have been done and done again. Same results, every time. Still, nearly every
year there are sightings by credible people. I know several who have seen these
big cats. If any one of these witnesses told me that they had just seen Snowy
Owl at Seneca Rocks; I would drop everything I was doing and drive over for a
look. No questions asked.
I am not
going into the so and so said they saw or heard about someone seeing something
stuff. I am going to tell you what I have seen over the years. Some are in WV,
some are not. But, all are in the exact same mountain range that runs through
here. The mountains are the mountains and they are the regions’ highway. It was
late September of 1979; I was bow hunting in the Bear Creek drainage of Garrett
County, MD. I didn't have much sense back then and I didn't come out on the
road I thought I was going to end up on. It was black dark when I hit pavement
and of course I didn't have a light. My truck was probably 2 miles away and I
started hoofing it. Within about 30 minutes; I had a very strong feeling that I
was being followed. I could occasionally hear gravel clicking on the blacktop
behind me. I never saw anything, but I had a real strange feeling. There was
one house on the road and my truck was about a quarter of a mile beyond the
house. I walked by the house, a yellow porch light was on and I could see the
TV on. Everything was quiet. I was probably 200 yards past the house when the
dog started barking. It wasn't happy to see you barking, either. It was very
obvious that something was back behind me in the road that the dog did not want
there. Makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, too, something like
that tends to make you pick up the pace a little; even if you are already about
used up.
I went
back into the same area the following spring, listening for turkeys and digging
some ramps. There was about 2 inches of wet, melting snow on the ground. I
dropped down into the hollow that I came out of that night in September. There
they were two sets of tracks. One really big cat with a smaller big (Bobcat)
sized one walking side by side. There was someone with me that morning and we
followed the tracks down to the stream where they crossed a log. The snow ran
out fairly quick going up the other side. Neither of us had to question the
other upon what we had just seen.
This is my article for the February issue of Two-Lane Livin Part one of three.
(c)2015 High Virginia Outdoors Photos (c) High Virginia Images
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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