A trail runner stumbled upon a mother mountain lion and her kittens in Provo’s Slate Canyon. What happened next became the longest six minutes of his life.
www.deseret.com
Some viewers criticized him, others commended him for staying relatively calm and not running away. Officials with Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources had nothing but praise for him.
“You did great,” Scott Root, DWR’s conservation outreach manager for central Utah, told Burgess on Monday, where they met at the Slate Canyon trailhead. “You did awesome.”
Root, who first watched Burgess’ video early Monday, said it’s one of the most “emotional” and “terrifying” videos he’s ever seen of a mountain lion encounter.
“Oh man, you have to just stare at this thing,” he said, describing how he “didn’t even blink” while he watched. “Your heart is racing. I could feel myself putting myself in his position and (thinking), ‘What do I do? What would I do?’ And I know the steps, but what would the average person do?”
Root said Burgess did almost everything right. “He backed away. He didn’t go toward the mountain lion or her kittens. He made a lot of noise. ... He stayed large, he stayed loud and he backed away from the area for quite a while. I think he did everything really well.”....
Root said Burgess’ video is unlike anything he’s ever seen in his 30 years of working for DWR — and he said it’s going to be excellent teaching material. He hopes hikers and bikers learn from his experience....