I remember when this happened:

"The Humboldt County woods seemed unusually quiet, they said, perhaps a bit spooky that fateful afternoon on Jan. 24, 2007, when Jim heard a "gravelly sound" and looked behind him.

In the air, its claws straight out in front, was a mountain lion flying toward his head. He said he instinctively ducked to his left and the lion flew by, landing on the trail. The cougar quickly turned and gathered itself for another lunge. There he was, face to face with a puma.

"That's when I realized I was going to have to fight this thing," said Hamm, now 75, recalling the attack. "I figured I would fight it like I would fight a dog attacking me."

What happened over the next six minutes is a lesson in survival the Hamms share with other hikers on a regular basis.

Studies show California has more cougars now - an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 - than it did almost a century ago. In 1920, there were about 600. Still, mountain lion attacks on humans are rare. Only 16 verified attacks have occurred in California since 1890. Six were fatal. Jim Hamm's attack is the most recent.

When the puma lunged, Jim Hamm thrust out his arm and the 80-pound female lion grabbed it.

"I was going to try to hit it in the throat with the other arm," he said, but the puma pulled him to the ground by his arm and clamped down on his head, ripping a huge chunk off his scalp.

"It was like somebody hit me with a baseball bat," he said. "I was dazed. Then I heard my wife yelling for me to fight."

'Horrible sound'
Nell Hamm, 71, had been 20 feet in front when she heard her husband shriek in pain.

"It was a desperate, horrible sound like something I've never heard before," she said. "I turned around, and the lion was lying on the ground with Jim's head in its mouth."

She picked up an 8-foot-long tree limb, ran up to the lion, and began pounding its midsection.

"She didn't even flinch, so all I could do was keep hitting and hitting and telling him, 'Fight Jim, fight,' " said Nell, her voice still breaking with emotion when she describes it. "It was horrible. You can't imagine the horror of such a thing."

Her husband, meanwhile, kept his hand in the lion's mouth, holding its tongue, jamming a finger up its nose and pushing back as the lion bit his face and attempted to move its jaws down to his neck. At one point he instructed his wife to dig a pen out of his pocket and jam it in the lion's eye. She got the pen, but it broke when she tried to poke the lion.

Meanwhile, the lion continued holding on, its eyes closed, apparently waiting for Jim to die. Desperate, Nell rammed the limb into the cougar's head, causing it to jump back, apparently aware for the first time that Nell was there. The lion stood, crouching about 8 feet away, its ears down, appearing ready to pounce.

"I knew she was going to attack. I said, 'She's got me Jim,' " Nell said. "That's when I put the limb over my head and screamed as loud as I could. The lion got up then and just walked away."