Quote Originally Posted by Canuck of NI View Post
Should I start shopping for a rearview mirror for hiking? A backwards walking dog?
Hiking staff if for whatever reason a stick that goes boom isn't practical; and a good dirk for backup. And hike with a friend who's slower than you are.

We certainly have cougars here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and sightings are on the rise in more urbanised areas. I haven't managed to see one yet; but once on a hike in the Marin Headlands just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco I spent about half an hour watching a bobcat that was so big that when I first glimpsed it I thought it was a young cougar. He was sunning and grooming himself, doing unmentionable and no doubt pleasurable things with his tongue.