When I first turned around, the cat was probably ten feet away from me. A week after Travis Coffman saved his own life he shared the shock of his mountain lion attack in this interview with Park Rangers. And today for the first time in public, he shared the moment one of his worst fears came true. I ended up hearing some pine needles rustle, a stick break. It just kind of kept running in lunged at me. It was going toward my my face. So I threw up my my hands to kind of block my face. Rangers say Kaufman did everything right, fighting back when it was clear the young lion wasn't scared.
His only defense, using his body to pin then suffocate the forty pound animal. One of my my big fears throughout the whole thing was another cat. I was just very concerned that mom was gonna come out of nowhere and at that point, that fight would be over pretty quickly. But Kaufman survived killing the line before running three miles for help. At a hospital, doctors stitched up his face, wrists and treated wounds all over his body. I feel really fortunate that the situation turned out the way that it did. And I really feel like I made all the right decisions when I had to. And tonight Kaufman stresses he wouldn't have even heard that mountain lion coming had he been running with music. And says the next time he hits the trail he'll have a buddy join him.