About a week ago, I saw a trail of blood drops that I followed for at least half a mile, on the Winiger Ridge trail, near the power line. The drops were associated with a set of tracks that I thought might be coyote tracks.However, yesterday at about 4 PM, I found out who the tracks really belong to - a mountain lion! This is the first time in 15 years that I've seen a mountain lion on Winiger ridge.
But wait, there's more... I also saw two nearly grown mountain lion cubs that where about 50 feet ahead of "mom."I was glad that the animals were at about 100 yards away, because even at that distance it's evident that these are not animals you'd want to get close to. Besides, they can climb trees!
I only had my smart phone along, so the pictures of the mother are unfortunately somewhat grainy. She stopped for about 10 seconds to get a good look at me and then disappeared into the northern wooded slope, following her kids. The paw print was taken where the track crossed over the trail that runs along the top of Winiger Ridge. The tracks crossed the trail about 200 yards east of the power line.
Winiger Ridge runs more or less parallel to Magnolia Road from about mile 5 to mile 9 on the south side.
