Travel: Oregon- Day 2

Today, our day started with coffee and a light breakfast from Bread and Ocean. Then we went back to our room and prepared to hike Neahkahnie Mountain. Now, I have to tell you I woke up around 6am, thinking about mountain lions. It led me to Google them in order to be more prepared for our hike. I don't know the reason for my paranoia, other than I think I had a memory from a Today Show segment about mountain bikers who were attacked in California.
Well, the hike turned out to be quite beautiful. The trail was easy to follow, surrounded by luscious greenery. The towering pine trees were both eerie and stunning. The eeriness came from the paranoia of what else could be out there, mountain lion, bear, etc. I kept telling Brian to make noise, just in case.
We get to the top, and the view was amazing. We were aligned with the tips of the pines, and the ocean was only 1,680 feet below us. Unfortunately, the view wasn't as clear as we hoped. We had about a two second view of the coastline, then the clouds took over and left us only with the sounds of the waves. We looked south and thought, let's check out the view from there.
As we climbed up that part of the mountain I was a little over the experience. The entire hike up, anxiety was high- I kept looking over my shoulder and beyond the forest for any "dangerous, hungry animals," so, yeah, I was ready to hike down and sit in the comfort of our car. As we approached the peak of the other part of the mountain, Brian looks out and stops. He hesitates for about two seconds, then looks at me with a very serious face and says, "um, let's go. I just saw..." and he stops.
At that point I figured out what he wanted to state, so I obeyed his direction. My heart was beating 20 times more than it had already been beating from the earlier paranoia, but now it was real. I turn around and nearly lost it. Brian worked to calm me down, "Don't freak out. Stay focused and work your way down, the same way we came up." I was FREAKING out!!!! To myself I was thinking holy crap, we actually came across a freaking mountain lion. My heart was pounding through my chest, and all I could think was, "Damn, I thought I was just being the usual paranoid person I am in unfamiliar environments. But now it is real."
Thankfully, I had Googled mountain lions and knew what to do: make noise and be big. Brian and I hiked down the trail singing, shaking keys, tapping rocks together, anything to make our presence known. Needless to say, we made it down just fine. Brian finally told me what he saw and how. Apparently, the cat heard us as we approached the top and started his escape. Brian saw his tail about 50 feet below, as he elegantly pranced away from us. We assumed it was a mountain lion, but figured out it must have been a bobcat (Brian saw more spots on his tail), but really what's the difference. Anyway, we were both really shaken. The funny part was as we told a few locals about our experience all said they hadn't ever come across mountain lions, bobcats or even bears. "It's rare," they said. Well, isn't that special?!