INSIDE: All the crimes that didn’t happen in Chilliwack last year Pg. 8 T H U R S D A Y
August 1, 2013
3 N E W S ,
SPORTS,
WEATHER
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E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Cougar chases Teapot hiker
Flawless summer weather
July was hot, hot, hot, but no records were set in month
BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
A
local hiker escaped a face-to-face confrontation with a cougar on Teapot Hill unharmed but shaken Wednesday. The incident caused conservation officers to evacuate the popular local hiking trail as they searched for the large cat. Gemma Summers told the Times she and her English Springer Spaniel Lilly were most of the way up Teapot Hill when she heard a large animal in the bush. As Summers turned to retreat down the mountain, she said she found herself facing a large cougar. “I made as much noise as I could and I was yelling and the cougar kind of cocked its head a little bit and moved towards the bush,” she said. “I thought I scared it off so I went to turn and run down the hill and as I turned it leapt at me. It was a foot over from me and it was swatting at me and my dog.” Summers said the cougar came up to her chest. “I was yelling as loud as I could and trying to back off slowly,” she said. “I got another five feet away from it and it rushed up and it didn’t want me to leave. I tried to get away like three times and it was not letting me go. I was just screaming and screaming and I thought it wanted my dog.” Summers said she eventually put some distance between herself and the cat. When it turned its head, she said she bolted down the hill. As she ran, she said she could hear the cougar running alongside her and her dog in the bush. A little more than halfway down the trail, she said the cougar seemed to give up the pursuit. Summers kept screaming and eventually came across two other hikers, who called police. On their way down the hill, the three came across a conservation officer who said Summers was fortunate to escape. She said he speculated that the animal could have been protecting a kill in the area.
BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
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Tyler Olsen/TIMES
t might have been the driest July in recent memory, but last month’s string of sunny, hot weather didn’t set any monthly records in Chilliwack. You may have missed it, but Chilliwack did actually get some rain last month— two millimetres (mm) on an otherwise hot and sunny July 17. It wasn’t much, but it was still more than July of 1960, when Chilliwack recorded only trace amounts of precipitation. That’s not to say July wasn’t abnormally sun-soaked, as the average rainfall is 46 mm over six days. And prior to Wednesday, July had seen six days break the 30-degree barrier, three more than the average. One record was set in July, and another was equalled. The 34 C temperature recorded on July 16 equalled the previous record from 1979. That day’s mean of 26.5 C surpassed the previous record mean of 26 C, also from 1979. The average temperature for July was 20.85 C, more than two degrees higher than the average. That makes this July the warmest since 2009, which saw a mean of 20.98 C. The Chilliwack area might see its share of rain in the winter and spring, but the recent summer weather has been almost flawless. Indeed, this July wasn’t even the driest month over the past year. Last August saw just 1.2 millimetres of rain fall—the least in 82 years. That was followed by a September that saw just 6.6 millimetres
Braydon Mills finds relief from the hot weather in the water park at Chilliwack’s Landing Leisure Centre.
See WEATHER, Page 4
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