Sequoia National Park hikers capture terrifying encounter with mountain lion on video

Saturday, August 12, 2017
FRESNO, California -- Action News viewer Brian McKinney captured video of a terrifying encounter with a mountain lion last week.

McKinney and his hiking partner Sam Vonderheide were backpacking the High Sierra Trail at Sequoia National Park when they came within feet of the mountain lion. They tried scaring it off, but the lion wasn't fazed.
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In the video, the two men freeze upon seeing the animal and one can be heard asking, "What are we supposed to do?"

The two wound up just walking away and the lion didn't give chase. They showed this video to a biologist at the park who speculated the mountain lion just finished hunting and wasn't interested.
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The hikers went home safely but say they didn't sleep much that night.

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