It had been a typical morning hike for Cortney Rasura on her favorite trail just outside of Ojai, until it got terrifying. Really terrifying.
She had just finished listening to a podcast — which she played out loud to warn wildlife of her presence — and had about two miles left on the eight-mile Gridley trail in the Los Padres National Forest.
As she regained cell service, Rasura said, she checked an email on her phone.
When she looked back up, she found herself face-to-face with a mountain lion.
“I glanced up and that’s when I saw the mountain lion walking toward me,” Rasura, 54, said in an interview with The Times. “And it was right on the path. … In all my years I’ve never seen one.”
She said her instinct was to record it — as an experienced hiker, she knew how rare it was to see such a big cat so close. And though she was hiking alone, she said initially, she didn’t feel threatened.
“It looked curious, as was I,” Rasura said. She estimated the puma was about 15 to 20 yards away.
In two videos shared on Instagram, Rasura captured the first moment she saw the mountain lion on her hiking trail.
“No! Go away!” she yelled. And after a few steps on the path, the cat diverted off the trail. “That’s right,” she said. “Go away.”
But then, the mountain lion circled back down onto the path. This time, it appeared to be headed straight toward her — and from a much closer distance.
“It came back out of the brush and started coming toward me,” she recalled. “Then panic really set in.”
In the second video, she yells louder and more rapidly” “No! No! No!”
Rasura said she made eye contact with the cat, but remembered not to turn, crouch or run. She said she tried to lift her arms to appear big.
Then, after taking several steps toward her, the mountain lion heads off the trail and bounds up the hillside. You can hear Rasura’s relief in the video as she mutters, “thank you!”
“You never know what you’re going to say or do,” Rasura said. “It’s amazing but it’s terrifying.”
Rasura appeared to do almost everything the California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommends if you do encounter a mountain lion. The agency tells people to try and appear larger, if possible, and warns people to remain calm, and never run, approach the big cat or crouch down.
CDFW also encourages people to take steps to avoid mountain lion encounters, such as hiking in groups, not hiking at dawn, dusk or nighttime and keeping food stored properly.
According to the CDFW, there have been a dozen mountain lion attacks on humans in the last decade in California, one fatal. Even still, the agency said such attacks remain quite rare, as humans are 1,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a mountain lion.
Rasura said she was shaken by the encounter, but she is determined to not let it to deter her from hiking. The avid hiker has already gone back to the trail where she had the encounter but slightly later in the day and packing more gear.
“Now I’m carrying bear spray when I go back up there. I’m taking an air horn,” she said. “It just reminds you, always be prepared.”