Trail near Garibaldi Lake closed after hikers have scary cougar encounter [Video]

B.C. Parks has shut down a popular hiking trail in the Sea-to-Sky region after two hikers’ video of a cougar encounter went viral.

Margaux Cohen and her hiking partner Max Stobbe were walking along the Rubble Creek trail on Sunday morning, near the popular Garibaldi Lake about 70 kilometres north of Vancouver, when Cohen realized she was only two or three feet from a large cat.

“I screamed a little bit and I told Max, ‘Oh my God, there’s a cougar right in front of me. Back away,'” she told CBC News.

“So we started to back away. I got pretty scared, so I gave my bear spray to Max.”

WATCH | Stobbe’s video of cougar encounter: In a video posted to TikTok, Max Stobbe and his hiking partner Margaux Cohen encounter a cougar near the popular Garibaldi Lake trail in B.C.’s Sea-to-Sky region. B.C. Parks has since closed the Rubble Creek trail for a week due …