1. Not the eastside, bunch of westside elitists who think the state stops at the Cascades.
2. I wonder if they tried to outrun the cougar once they noticed it and it moved off a ways, which would trigger the "fleeing prey" instinct in the cougar?
3. I think the correct response may have been to place the bike between them and the cougar and be more assertive, fleeing (running) is by far and away the wrong thing to do.
4. I always have a cougar tag with me when predator hunting. Using a call for coyotes can also bring in other critters looking for food.
5. Cougars are thin skinned, any caliber is usually good, from 22 Mag to whatever you want to use. I hunt 'yotes with a 22-250 and a 220 Swift and usually carry a 10mm pistol so I don't feel at all undergunned with the critters found in the PNW woods (I guess to be 100% correct it would be the Inland Northwest), except maybe brown bear but those are pretty rare here, if here at all. When mushroom hunting or huckleberry picking I opt for a 12 gauge with slugs. I have yet to have a mushroom attack me after a well placed 12g round.
bob