Hikers Nell and Jim Hamm had never seen a mountain lion track, much less an actual lion, in all the years they’d gone hiking in California’s abundant trails.

That changed in a horrifying instant last Wednesday, Jan. 24, when a mountain lion knocked 70-year-old Jim Hamm down and clamped its teeth onto his skull.Nell Hamm, 65, rushed to her husband’s aid and is widely credited with saving his life in the aftermath of Humboldt County’s first ever documented mountain lion attack, the first attack in California since 2004.

Jim faces a long recovery from serious tears to his scalp and lacerations to his ears, nose, lips, hands and body, and was expected to be airlifted from Arcata to San Francisco Sunday morning after his condition deteriorated Saturday night. But he survived the attack, Nell said, because the couple adhered to hiking’s most fundamental rule.

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