I misunderstood.
I thought you wanted to hike with other people. I solo all the time !
The main trick about mountain lions is do not look like food.
Do not jog. Joggers elicit a "food response". Mountain lions in the Oakland Hills in California have been shown to stash a dead jogger for eating later. This goes for bears also, usually found stashed under the bank of a stream bed. If you do hike with other people, stay together. No stragglers. Either that, or have a slow group, and a medium fast group. Stragglers look like prey. Mountain Rescue, you hear this stuff.
I have never thrown rocks at a bear, a mountain lion or a wolf. I think this is stupid. Why agitate a predator ? The risk is they become angry. If there is any question of territory, forget it !
Bears feel very proprietary about "their" eating places. If a bear is on the berry patch, or turning over rocks, or otherwise occupied with eating, this is not a good time for photographs, unless you have a very long telephoto lens.
I have a Falcon Guides "scats and tracks" book. I pay attention to my surroundings. I walk with a lightweight backpack, head's up. I talk or sing, if approaching a blind curve in the trail. Likely bear habitat gets a "snack break" while I evaluate the situation. For example, I never go into a huckleberry patch alone. If I smell or "feel" a bear, I either go back down the trail, at a normal pace, or, I ask the nice bear for permission to pass thru, speaking in a normal conversational and respectful tone, and wait for the bear, either to move off, or hunker down and stay quiet in the brush. I will stroll around a campsite for a little sightseeing, but I do not hike too early or too late in the day. Bears like to go up and down steep slopes to get water, at this time.
We are not at the top of the foodchain. This realization is what wilderness experience is. Many people feel threatened, and want to destroy anything natural that makes them know this. I happen to like my place, in nature.
I think the best way to avoid risk, is to stay home in your bed.
I have never had any trouble.
I even talked to a huge timber wolf stalking from thick brush parallel the trail. I said, I saw rabbit tracks on the trail, not far back. The rabbit does not have a gun and I have a gun. The rabbit will make a better lunch. This was not in the park, of course. No guns are allowed in the park. The wolf was surprised, and apparently that interested I knew that the wolf was right there. I had the gun ready, in my hand opposite the wolf, because predators are very, very fast. Fast, like a scarey movie. That wolf didn't jump for me.
I have heard of beating a mountain lion off with sticks, that was dragging a young child by the neck that had stepped into a thicket to pee. That worked. That child is fine. Do not step into a thicket. Often, the predator is hiding, or resting, in a thicket. Pee out in the open.
