Big cat in north country?

[ADKventures]

This past Monday I made a trip to Potsdam to visit a few college buddies and mtn bike some of the trails up there. While I was cutting through a farmer's field on my bike en route to the trails I caught a glimpse of something lifting its head above the surrounding vegetation (tall grass/weeds 2.5' tall) around 75 yds away. The head appeared to be nearly melon sized with erect ears covered by a light brown/very dark gold coat. I applied the brakes so I could get a better look when a brake pad squeaked and the object jolted towards the forest roughly 100 yds away at a furious pace. It then leaped 4'-5' in the air in order to clear the high brush that surrounded the edge of the forest. In stride the object appeared to have a raised or bending of the back/spine much like that of a big cat at full speed. The object was moving with a smooth stride and leaped extremely gracefully. The gate of the object was long, I'm not quite sure how long due to distance observed and speed of the object. The tail was nearly 2/3 the length of the body. I checked for tracks but could not find any within the thick vegetation and I wasn't about to go chasing something in the woods by myself, unarmed.
IMO it was a some kind of big cat either from Canada or northern New England. I've never seen anything move like this through tall grass at such high rate of speed. A few years back there was a Border Patrol video of a large cat-like figure with a long tail caught on surveillance cameras near the Fort Covington area about 40 miles away from Potsdam. I imagine this area of the north country would be particularly inviting for large predatory figures given the abundance of wildlife, livestock, and unoccupied habitat in the area.
Does anyone have an idea, with a reasonable sense of certainty, as to what this object may be or information about large cats/animals in the area?

[redhawk]

There are Cougars, Mountain Lions, Puma, whatever you want to call them in the Adirondacks. They are rarely seen because in general they avoid humans like the plague.

I have seen One personally, as well as a pair of tracks in Mayfield in the Cranberry Cove area.

[sp_nyp]

Yes, it very well could have been a cougar. They are around, but like RH says - they like to stay away from us two legged beasts. The ranger down by us had pictures of a cougar (so I am told). I have never seen one in person though - just bobcats.

I lived in potsdam for 6 years. I did lots of camping/hiking/biking while I was up there. Never saw any rare wildlife though.

Too bad you couldn't get a pic off of it.

Does anyone in here have pics of a cougar in the ADKs ?

I will have to check with the ranger , but from what I was told he had sent his pics to the main office in Albany and he was told it was nothing and never heard anything else on the matter. Again, this is all hearsay but I guess the was a gov't funded (under the radar) project to introduce cougars back into the park. When the ranger was trying to find info out about this they didn't confirm the story, but never denied it either.

[ADKventures]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the info....next time I'll have my camera more accessible for a quick snapshot.

[Sasquatch]

There have been plenty of reports of cougars in the Potsdam area, especially once you get closer to the blueline. I've never seen one up here personally. Plenty of pics though, but none that could prove the cat was around here. We've also had a few... misidentifications. Last year there was an uproar about a "black Panther" that was roaming around Parishville. Turned out to be a rather large fisher.