Perhaps the solution to an irrational fear should be an irrational solution - something like wearing a studded collar. Or wearing your shirt backwards so it won't know which way you are turned. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Or maybe you could hike with one of those high-pitched sonic devices they used to sell as dog repellents.

Anyway, the very fact of wearing a pack should baffle a cougar, which normally attacks by leaping on the back of its prey, where, on you, it would find this strange inert mass of backpack. This should slow down the efficiency of any attack and allow you more time to react and fight back. (Which , of course won't be necessary because an attack just isn't going to happen. Period.)