I work in the woods through out WA and OR and have only seen one cougar and frankly it scared the h*ll out of me. I think bear spray could be a good deterrent.

On an unrelated note I have a funny bear spray story:

Two people I work with were working in grizzly country. On person was terrified of bears and made the other one carry the bear spray in hand and go first. Well, the going got tough and the brush thick. We rarely have the luxury of a trail were we are going. The bearspray got shoved in a pocket so that the brush could be navigated. Couple minutes later and she started to cough and burn. Yelling to the other person to run she bolted for the stream and sat in it. She had to loose the pants and hike a couple miles back to the truck in her underwear and rubber hip boots through the brush. We all have had many good laughs about this and the pants were permanently ruined. She washed them 20+ times and they still stung every time she wore them, which is a bummer for a brand new pair of Carharts.

Adam