After moving back to the area, I had spent most of the first month and a half just catching up with everyone (and riding a lot of bikes). But… I had bought a new ski touring set up and was determined to use it. I was willing to try anything. Even with all of that motivation, we probably could have found something easier than a day hike to Royal Basin. Royal Basin is a permitted camping area in Olympic National Park (ONP), and most people like to spend 3 days to complete the hike. I had heard some good things about skiing in that area and wanted to check it out. Somehow, I convinced Adam to figure it out with me.
It was great getting into the dense forest, that is the ONP. Being surrounded by trees that shoot to the sky and moss that covers the forest floor, is something I had missed while living in the desert. We hit our turning point and got about two turns of skiing in. The descent was hard on the body and especially my knees, the extra weight of the skis had me basically crawling by the time we got to the car, and I couldn’t use stairs for a few days after (to bad I was living in a basement).
About 1.5 miles from the car, as Adam and I are deep in conversation, I think I spot a snapping of a tail out of the corner of my eye. I stopped dead in my tracks, and backed up behind the tree that had just hid the body of the animal. Perched on a log by the river stood a cougar less than 100 yards away. Many profanities exited my mouth and I eventually claimed down enough to tell Adam what I was seeing.
From my limited knowledge of cougars, you only see one when it is already too late. Thankfully, we were hiking through the dense forest by the river, and had somehow snuck up on it. It looked directly at us, jumped off the log and punched out of sight. We picked up a few rocks, put our ice axe adapters back on our hiking poles and gave the animal some space. As we finished the hike out, we split up which area each person should watch and yelled at each other the rest of the way. Adam may or may not have made mention about how he was thankful for my weak knees and how easy it would be to out run me. I love the outdoors and seeing wildlife, and I would die happy if I never saw a cougar in the wild again.
for my friends who are moms 