You'd be nuts NOT to have some sense of fear - but there is a massive difference between paralyzing terror and a recognition of risk.

In 'real life' I apply various forms of risk management in the information security realm. What that means in english is I spend a lot of time between various levels of business management and information technology departments 'negotiating' their fear levels below paralysis, and back into productive space. What this means in trail lingo is that a risk unrecognized is something you'll never even know to be prepared for - to me this is the worst kind of situation. In your case you are in the middle ground - you suspect a risk, but your imagination has run away with the possibilities and is causing a fear paralysis response. In fairness to history, this has served us pretty well. But it sucks if all you want to do is enjoy your vacation <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

In your case you have recognized, at quite a visceral level, that you have some fear - which means you perceive a risk but you do not know if you are managing the risk correctly. The concern that you do not know enough about the risk becomes all-consuming, and eventually all-destroying. Yecch! This is fixable!

This is an awesome state of mind, so take advantage of the boosted motivation - because you can now count yourself in the very narrow group that 'knows what they don't know'. You know you are afraid, you know some rational info, but you are still worried. To me this means that your subconcious is telling you 'Hey, this doesn't 100% compute - I don't have enough info - please learn more!'. So lets feed your brain....

With just a little reading - probably most of it via google searches - that you can learn 'what you know you don't know'. Specifically, search out all the US and Canadian parks services sites that deal with cats (use both cougars & mountain lions as search terms), and what to do. You will find that your fear decreases because as you integrate the new information, you get less 'chaff' from your subconcious. Once you learn that one key bit of information that you don't know now, your mind will quiet itself, because it will be satisified that it has that missing bit of info.

For example, check this old page I just found with a quick google:

Banff Wildlife

Once you learn the basic parameters from here, use this info to do more searches of what they are saying - eventually, and in fairly short order, you will be 'book smart' beyond most of us, and should you be lucky enough to see one of these cats in the wild, you'll be among a rare group indeed.

TTFN