Lions in the high Sierra? I have seen tracks once, early in the year when the dear were migrating over the passes. But mostly they stay in the low country. More food. I'm more likely to run into a cat in the outskirts of the coastal town I live in.

Besides they are stalkers. Your chances of ever getting a gun out to protect yourself is pretty small.

Over some 25 years of packing in the Sierra I have never had a bad encounter with a dog - not one. Nor have any of my dogs or my companions' dogs been a big problem. I wish I could say the same for some of the people I run into. Then there are the pack animals....

I keep leashes at hand, but only use them if I think there may be an issue with pack animals. Fortunately, the one dog I have who gets excited about strange encounters habituated to pack animals pretty quickly. He just had to be handled right. The one exception was our first llama encounter. It started out OK but then the llama started acting nervous. That time I had to put on a leash to be safe. But heck, seeing what llamas do to the pastures around here I'm not much inclined to like them myself. They are just another version of John Muir's hoofed locust.