Mountain Lion Sightings Portola Valley, posted by Angela Hey, a resident of the Portola Valley: Central Portola Valley neighborhood, on Jan 3, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I was walking down Alpine Road on Jan 1 and at 4:30 pm saw a jogger with binoculars - looking in the field that is just below Nathorst on the other side of Alpine.
My husband, a biker, the jogger and I all saw the mountain lion as it crept up the hill.
We walked to the Alpine Inn then returned back up Alpine Road. On the way back another animal was seen - I said Miaow - and I've never seen a bobcat run so fast - it was about 15 yards from the fence in the same field where we'd seen the mountain lion.
As we were walking up Alpine we met a man who'd seen a juvenile Mountain Lion on Bear Gulch.
Another Westridge resident that I met at the gym said she'd had a deer head and ribs left in her driveway a couple of months ago.
This is the first time I'd ever seen a Mountain Lion in the wild - it didn't run away fast as I expected - instead it kept staring at us - we saw it for about 10 minutes before it disappeared over the horizon.
So be careful if you have small children or dogs - keep them in your sight.
Posted by Menlo Park resident, a resident of the Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park neighborhood, on Jan 12, 2007 at 4:08 pm
What a moment, to have a face-to-face encounter with a mountain lion who, rather than looking away, studies you, too.
I occasionally imagine a lion watching me from the trees at night as I walk by San Francisquito Creek in Menlo Park, and how I might react if it jumped down onto Creek Drive to confront me.
(Please ... don't tell me what to do in facing a lion; I know what to do. I just like to imagine how I might feel and how that would affect what I might do in the moment.)
Posted by Robin, a resident of another community, on Jan 18, 2007 at 6:40 am
Very glad you broached this topic.
Last September I was hiking in Wunderlich County Park in the early morning, and found a stripped deer leg with hoof on the Alambique trail (just below The Crossroads).
On another occasion last Spring, I hiked within about 6 feet of a *very* hostile-looking bobcat on the Betsy Crowder trail in Windy Hill OSP. I'm pretty sure I caught him by surprise. Perhaps he was unable to detect my approach for some reason (e.g., nerve damage from a virus).
Posted by John Mashey, a resident of the Portola Valley: Central Portola Valley neighborhood, on Feb 4, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Sunday, Feb 4, about 2:40P, at top of Windy Hill.
Four of us had hiked up, and were looking South at the next peak down, saw something brown moving around on that peak. The head/ears were cat-like (not coyote-like), and then it jumped up and showed the long tail, so not a bobcat. After a while, it went out of sight. Shortly thereafter a coyote wandered up teh hill (after hiding from a hiker with dog), and was clearly different in appearance. We've lived here since 1990, never saw a mountain lion, and now have had two clear sightings in a month!
Posted by Ernesto DiSabatino, a resident of the Portola Valley: Woodside Highlands neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2008 at 12:26 am
Saw a young mountain lion today just behind our house in the hayfields open space (top of Santa Maria just next to the water tower). It was fairly large, an obvious cat, all lion yellow, and had a bushy tail with some dark rings at the end. This is like 15 ft. from my back door. Kinda scary!
Posted by Cindy, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Jan 18, 2010 at 1:56 pm
We live off alpine Rd. just east of Webb Farms. Two nites ago around midnite we heard a loud, horrible sound. Sounded like an animal was being attacked. Its moaning didn't last too long, but it felt forever. Hope to never experience that again. Very scarey.
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