When I was in college, I worked for the railroad during breaks. One summer we were working in northern CA about 90 miles from where I grew up.
One Friday afternoon at quiting time, the foreman of the tie-gang I was working on, came up and told me I had to assist the mechanic and run a pick-up crew the next day, Saturday. I told him I had a date that night. He suggested not making it too late as I had to be back to work the next morning at 6am. It would not have been that big of a deal, but we would drive to the job site on Sunday nights, spend all week there, then drive home on Friday nights. So it had been a week alone and making a short night of it wasn't all that appealing.
Saturday morning at 4am I was on the hwy doing about 80 mph heading to the job site in my mustang. Moon was out, stars shining, and I was keeping close watch as I was in an area with lots of deer. I didn't want to hit one. Suddenly the hair on the back of my head was standing up. I was shaking! I was scared. Suddenly I hit the brakes and cut the wheel. My car went sideways into the oncoming lane. Back tires on the gravel shoulder. I tried hard to keep from spinning on around. Suddenly on the centerline of the hwy I saw a black angus bull laying down. I was doing about 60mph sideways when I went by it. It must have come onto the hwy in this open range area and layed down on the warm asphalt. I don't remember seeing the bull until I was going by it. Something warned me that is was there.
When I was about 13 or 14, a buddy and I were left in this area of the woods about 15 miles from home to camp for the weekend. We were in scouts and had been camping, with leaders, for several years. Our parents were comfortable in letting us stay alone. We watched the car with our parents leave, put on our backpacks, and headed up stream of the creek. The creek came out of a narrow canyon that I had hunted deer with my dad. I knew where it went, but had never been there by myself. We had gone probably less than a mile when we heard this eerie screeching sound. Almost a wail or a cry. I had the hair stand up on my head at this also. We headed back to the road. We stayed within 50 yards of that road the whole weekend. When our parents picked us up, they dismissed it as a cougar cry, or something similar. We saw nothing, so it was not a big deal. Never heard that again.
I now hunt in eastern WA. Nothing in the woods on the east side have ever bothered me. I have seen deer, elk, etc on the road at all times of the day and night. I have seen what I thought were black bear just disappearing into the trees in my headlights. There have been several times when driving thru Mt Rainier Ntl Park late at night over Cayuse Pass or Chinook Pass, when I have had the hair on my head stand up and have had the urgency to get out of the way. I have sped up and gotten the hett out of there. This has never happened when I saw the deer, elk, etc in the headlights. I have always slowed and checked for horns, etc.
I know my Guardian Angel is with me, and I know God had his hand on me that early morning when my car slid past that black angus bull. I have never heard a cougar in the wild, and can only suppose that is what that was back when I was a teen. I have no explanation for has made my hair stand up late at night when going thru that dense forest near Mt Rainier. It hasn't been deer or elk. It isn't a scared reaction as it has happened when I had people with me, alone, and when armed and unarmed. I can only assume this is my Guardian Angels way of telling me there is danger near.
Steve
