Sequim hiker Gary Huff has had the nightmare where a wild animal is chasing him in the forest, but on Thursday it almost became reality.
“Two steps up the trail and he would have been behind me,” said, a Bell Hill resident, Huff of his too-close encounter with a fully-grown male cougar.
Huff said the cougar sneaked up on him while he was hiking the trail crossing the saddle between Mount Tyler and Mount Baldy south of Sequim in the Olympic Mountains.
Huff was hiking on a steep part of the trail when he stopped by a tree to rest and also to mark the trail for his return trip.
“The cat had to slink behind it while I was standing there,” Huff said. “When I walked up the trail I could see behind that tree.”
Huff waved his hiking poles and the cougar ran about 40 yards down the trail before stopping.
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The rest of the story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News.