Apprentice Lineworker Tim Paulson thought the toughest part of his workday was going to be battling snow. His day took a turn when a full-grown mountain lion decided to face off with him.
During a late spring snowstorm, Paulson was working an outage on the Spanish Peaks’ West Peak. He was chosen to ride a quad through the snow a mile or so up the mountain to visually inspect a line.
“I’m trying to get up the hill. The snow was getting deeper, and I was stuck more than I was moving. I’ll admit, there was some frustration building,” Paulson recalled.
Just after the quad finally started crawling forward, an adult mountain lion ran in front of him. It happened so fast he almost hit it.
“It stopped like it was startled and started crouching like it was gonna jump on me,” Paulson said while arching his back, hissing, and showing his own teeth, as he impersonated the cat showing its fangs.
Experts say mountain lions rarely attack humans, but fast, erratic movement, like the stop-and-go of Paulson on his quad, can spark a predatory response.
Thanks to experience and training, Paulson knew what to do. He made himself look big, jumped up and down, yelled, and used the quad to make noise. The cat eventually ducked back into the woods. Instead of turning back down the mountain, Paulson continued his slow, frustrating trek. He eventually ditched the quad and hiked through the snow up the peak to finish his job to restore power.
When the job was finished, Paulson used the two-way radio to alert the rest of the linecrew of danger possibly lurking in the shadows. “I’m coming down. Just had a cat try to attack me,” he called out on the radio. People working 30 miles away chimed in, ‘Did you just say cat? What did you say?’ Even employees at headquarters in Pueblo West were talking about it,” he said.
Only a few of the longtime journeyman lineworkers have stories of big cats they had seen and heard on the job.
“Reuben always has tall tales of cats and bears. My first thought on the way down the mountain was, I can’t make fun of Reuben anymore,” Paulson said. “We always laugh about him hearing animals or this and that. The first time I saw Reuben afterwards he teased, ‘It’s not so funny anymore, is it?’ And I’m like ‘Nope, nope, I can’t make fun of you.’”
Linework is a lifestyle. It takes grit, courage, and dedication to endure the unpredictable hazards of the job — including close encounters with wildlife. Thanks to San Isabel Electric lineworkers like Paulson, when
the lights go out, we know they’ll come back on.
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