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SALT LAKE CITY — Ray Nielsen, 70, was hiking alone Thursday afternoon when he was blindsided by a mountain lion. After a brief struggle, Nielsen threw a rock at the animal and it ran away. The hiker was left with some lacerations but no bites.
"I kind of looked up and out of the corner of my eye, I could see it right there," he told KSL-TV.
Nielsen was in the Diamond Fork area in Spanish Fork Canyon when the cat attacked. He lost his phone somewhere along the way and turned back to find it and ended up having a personal encounter with the puma. He said if he didn't lose his phone, he probably wouldn't have been attacked.
"It could've went way bad," he said. "I'm feeling all right; I'm feeling OK."
That's even with the cuts on his arms.
"That's where the claws got me, on this side."
And his head when it hit him around his ear. He said it wasn't very big, but it was big enough to send him tumbling down a hill where he curled up. Then he grabbed a rock, hit it and it took off.
"I didn't have my high blood pressure pills or anything. I hadn't had breakfast, hadn't had nothing. I was kind of passing out."
But he managed to get back to his truck and drive home.
"My pants was ripped, I was all bloody. I had blood from ... everywhere. I was really bleeding bad."
At a hospital, he was given shots for rabies and tetanus. Meanwhile, Utah's Department of Natural Resources searched for the lion, and by protocol the agency would euthanize a cougar that harms a person, but the animal was never found. Hikers and campers are warned to be extra careful.
The department said it has exhausted the search, but it did find Nielsen's phone.
"Got all my pictures on it," he said. He is expected to fully recover and will likely be hiking the canyon soon.
