Th e Bu l l eTin • Fr iday, a pr il 2, 2021 B9
Steins
TOP PICKS
Continued from B1
It began: “I have the eerie
feeling I’m being watched. I’m
hiking solo, pushing up the
trail toward Steins Pillar, my
senses heightened by the lack
of human discourse and an un-
derlying hunch that I am not
alone out here in the Ochocos.
And, of course, I’m not.”
Gee, thanks, Jim! Along
with the unforgettable lead, I’d
also recently received an email
from a hiker who’d had a close
encounter with a cougar in this
area a few weeks ago.
Our first taste of snow came
as we drove the two miles up
Forest Road 500 to the trail-
head, a fairly rugged 2-mile
stretch, some of it still slick
with packed snow and ice, to
the trailhead. I marveled that,
years ago, we used to do these
kinds of drives in a Toyota Si-
enna, a great van for a family
of five on paved roads, less so
on unpaved and rutted forest
roads miles from the near-
est mechanic. Fortunately, the
RAV we drive now did just
fine.
Expecting the trail to dis-
play summer’s mercy when the
road hadn’t was Pollyannaish,
but proceed we did, Caroline
advising me about what to do
in the event we ran into a cou-
gar. I half-listened as I drove
the last little bit to the trailhead
parking area, where there was
just one other car.
Previous visitors had kindly
left several primitive walking
sticks leaning against a sign at
the trailhead, and I opted to
grab two of them, using them
like poles. Though sunnier
sections were summer-dry, I
don’t think we were more than
a quarter-mile from the trail-
head before we started hitting
little patches of sun-softened
snow.
And then we came to a patch
with some very large, very
fresh-looking paw prints.
“Are those cougar tracks?”
Caroline asked me.
Now let me just say up front
that I was raised in a large
Southeastern city and have ab-
solutely no business rendering
judgment on tracks, although
my high school mascot WAS a
cougar. Other than that, my ex-
perience with them is limited,
and, I wish I’d snapped a photo
but denial has funny affects on
a person.
“It’s just a dog,” I answered,
and noted the sole vehicle we’d
seen parked. “Probably those
people’s dog.” Never mind that
our midsized dog’s prints were
a fraction the size of the ones
we saw.
Then we ran into those peo-
ple, a friendly couple by the
names of Bob and Raven. I
noticed right away We chat-
ted with them for a while a lit-
tle farther down the trail, Bob
warning us of the snow, espe-
cially bad closer to the final de-
scent to the pillar.
“Did you see the cougar
tracks?” he asked.
Caroline was vindicated. I
was chagrined. Paranoia was
transmuted into fear.
Preventing, surviving
an encounter
The Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife notes that
their are some 6,000 cougars
living in Oregon. Though en-
counters are rare, the ODFW
offers tips for preventing a cou-
gar encounter:
— Stay alert, particularly at
dusk and dawn.
— Hike in groups … and be
noisy about it.
— Keep your dog leashed.
Free-roaming pets can draw
cougars to you.
— Don’t feed the wildlife.
(That should be a no-brainer,
but I once witnessed a man
holding out raw chicken to a
very wild alligator at a park in
Miami.)
— Store food in ani-
mal-proof containers.
And in the event you do
WHERE TO EXPLORE
East of Bend
Horse Ridge — The area about 16 miles east of Bend on U.S.
Highway 20 is home to more than 30 miles of trails that criss-cross
over the butte area, climbing about 1,300 feet to the top. Great for
a winter bike ride or a day hike with trails of varying difficulties and
lengths, anyone can find their perfect trail.
Prineville Reservoir — Check out the reservoir 14 miles southeast
of Prineville before it gets too crowded with ski boats for the sum-
mer season. Right now water levels are on the rise and currently are
at about 50% capacity. The lake is great for large and smallmouth
bass, catfish and crappie as the days warm up.
Reynolds Pond — The small 12-acre pond near Alfalfa has a short
and easy trail around the circumference of the water and offers nice
birdwatching, kayaking and fishing. This little oasis on the edge of
the Oregon Badlands also has trails leading into the wilderness area.
— Makenzie Whittle, The Bulletin
Caroline Jasper/For The Bulletin
Stein’s Pillar rises 350 feet above the surrounding forest floor, as seen from the nearby viewpoint.
If You Go
Getting there: From Prineville, travel east 9 miles on U.S. Highway
26 to Mill Creek Road (Forest Road 33). Travel northeast for 6.5 miles.
Turn on Forest Road 3300-500 and continue to signed trailhead.
Difficulty: Moderate
Cost: Free; no trail fees
Contact: 541-416-6500
these things and nonethe-
less encounter a cougar, the
ODFW advises:
— Don’t run. This triggers
their chase response — and no,
you cannot outrun a cougar.
Usain Bolt can’t outrun a cou-
gar, which can sprint 50 mph.
— Make noise. Speak firmly,
yell, clap your hands.
— Pick up your children.
Don’t turn your back on the
cougar, and don’t stoop to do it.
— If the cougar seems ag-
gressive, raise your arms and
try to appear larger. (How
you’re supposed to do that
while holding your child is not
addressed in the ODFW liter-
ature.)
— If a cougar does attack,
fight back. The ODFW recom-
mends you carry bear spray,
but be aggressive and weapon-
ize whatever is at your disposal:
rocks, sticks, tools.
cue dog, Wichita, on March
7. “Rescue dog” is particularly
apt, because in this case, their
dog may have rescued Doer-
fler and her boyfriend, Philip
Aulie.
Doerfler and Aulie were
hiking to nearby Twin Pillars
— half the size but double the
fun of Steins — also in the Mill
Creek Wilderness.
Unlike Jim, Caroline or I,
“We had no idea. We didn’t feel
eyes on us. Neither of us were
paranoid in any way, shape or
form,” Doerfler said. “It’s prob-
ably because we’re huge idi-
ots, because on the trail, we’d
seen tracks, and I was like, ‘Oh,
look, these dog prints are dif-
ferent than our dog Wichita’s.
That’s funny — look how dif-
ferent they are.’ I didn’t even
put it together in my head that
those are cougar tracks.”
Another sign they didn’t
take much notice of: a freshly
gnawed deer leg Wichita found
beside the trail.
And then they came to the
point when Wichita became
stock still, then bolted after a
cougar only 20-25 feet in front
of them, Doerfler said.
“We didn’t even see it until
she was chasing it,” Doerfler
said. “The fact that we didn’t
ever see it until then is just
crazy to me. … She just kind of
froze up on the trail for a
second, and then bolted, kind
of behind a bush and then
started chasing it up the hill.
We didn’t see it until it was
running.”
They dashed up the hill af-
ter Wichita and the cougar,
she said, Aulie getting a ways
ahead of her.
“I didn’t actually see the cou-
gar treed, he did. We were on
the hill screaming at Wichita
to ‘Come back, come back,’ be-
cause she was kind of putting
her paws up on the tree where
the cougar was. Luckily, she
listened and came back, and
then we scrambled back down
the hill.”
They made a great deal of
noise “so it wouldn’t follow us,”
she said. “We were frantically
watching the trees and the trail
trying to get out of there as
quickly as possible.”
Deterred by the snow and
the apt trail conditions warn-
ing we’d heard from Bob and
Raven, Caroline and I made it
no closer than the viewpoint
located above the last descent
to the base of Steins — close,
but no pillar.
Still, it made for a good
lunch and photo spot, even
if I was constantly glancing
around the rocky perches
and nooks. We’ll have to save
reaching Steins Pillar for a re-
turn trip, hopefully sooner
than later — with a large group
of tall, long-armed loud peo-
ple.
For their future hikes, Doer-
fler and Aulie are considering
buying a baton that emits noise
and has an electrified zapper
on one end.
“We’re looking into gadgets,
but I don’t think I’ll be going
out anywhere that remote for a
while,” she said, laughing.
When she does, she’ll have
along Wichita.
“Oh yeah,” Doerfler said.
“She was amazing. We just feel
so lucky that she just bolted
right into action wanting to
protect us. That’s so cool.”
e e
David Jasper: 541-383-0349,
djasper@bendbulletin.com
Central Oregon’s Best
Kept Secret
265 SE Scott St . in Bend!
541-323-9338
It could happen to you
A few days after our hike, I
got in touch with Emily Doer-
fler, the emailer who’d had the
cougar encounter while hiking
at a nearby trail with her res-
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