Be alert sign~Blue Basin trail head
I watched for any tracks along the trail, but saw none. In all my years of hiking and traveling backcountry I have only had the privilege of sighting one cougar in the wild. I have seen their tracks many times but they remain quite elusive to casual sightings. I have great respect but little fear of a bad encounter with a puma. I have both great fear and respect for grizzly bear.
Friday 3 Feb 2012 fog as thick as potato soup hugged the road over Eastern Oregon from Biggs to Spray, Oregon. Then the sun broke through. Great day for a hike!
There are three units of the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument: Sheep Rock; Clarno; and Painted Hills. My wife and I stopped and hiked at the Painted Hills and Clarno unit in December of 2011.
These photos were taken on hikes in the Sheep Rock Unit: First two short walks in the Foree Area; then a 3 mile loop trail in the Blue Basin and a short up and back hike in the middle of the loop of the Blue Basin hike (called The Island in Time hike).
After the hiking it was a quick trip over to the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center to look around and learn there (I learned a lot).
No other hikers were on any of the trails but at the Foree Area there were two scientists down on hands and knees, looking for, finding, carefully removing, and using GPS and other modern methods, listing where each and every fossil is found and what type of strata.
One of the scientists (who turned out to be Joshua X. Samuels), stopped his field work and walked over for a visit. Joshua is the Museum Curator and head paleontologist at John Day. He got his B.S. in Idaho and PHd in L.A.
What a bright articulate man he was to talk to. He fielded every question I came up with and I felt privileged to be able to learn so much standing right in the middle of the area where some of the current field work is being done.
One side note, is that there was a poster placed at the trail head of the Blue Basin hike alerting hikers to the "active presence" of a cougar. I didn't see any track or other signs of a big cat, but it would have been great to have caught sight of him.
I hope you enjoy the photos from this hike. The winter weather was terrific, and if you haven't yet visited all three units of the John Day Fossil Beds, I encourage you to do so.
Note: I had always thought that the blue green colors of the John Day Fossil Beds formations, was a result of copper content (Cu) BUT a helpful lady ranger at the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center was kind enough to correct me, as she say she has done with MANY other (that made me feel better).
The pleasing aqua marine color of the John Day Fossil Beds formation is not because of any copper content but of "Celadonite" ~ pronounced Sell-a-don-ite (al, si,o,h,k, mg,fe,oh) - a high iron content, blue-green clay mineral. Never too old to learn something new
Comments and faves
R. Pahre (4 months ago | reply)
I'm jealous, I still haven't seen one in the wild -- though I've seen tracks, most recently following some tracks and scat in the Guadalupes.
OldDogNewTrick (4 months ago | reply)
Good to see these warning signs. Makes you more alert and aware than usual.
The posted rules are good ones ro follow at all times.
dbushue (4 months ago | reply)
nice to know they post these warnings....although we have always longed to see a cougar in the wild :-)
meadowmom (4 months ago | reply)
I'm told our little forest community is on a lion's circuit now, but I haven't seen it. You do think twice when you're out after dark and all the woodland sounds suddenly go quiet....
jdmuth (4 months ago | reply)
Like the warning says, Do Not Run!!
A few years ago we where on a 20 mile beach hike in Olympia National Park, about 5-6 miles up from Rialto Beach, just north of La Push. My Dad and I had one camp site, and His two cousins had a site about 30 feet away.
In the morning, three of us had started hiking up the beach. Al, one of my dad's cousins was finishing loading his pack. He was bent over the pack, looked up and saw a Lion that was 20 feet away looking at him. He thought we where still in our campsite, so he started running so that there would be four of us. When he saw that we where gone, he ran to the bluff yelling and jumped 15 feet down to the beach.
I was 100 yards up the beach and saw the lion chasing him. When he jumped the cat overshot him, turned and started to go down to the beach toward Al. I started yelling and ran toward the lion and the lion stopped, looked at me, then turned and ran off. Luckly Al was alright.
We continued hiking up the beach and after about 1/4 mile we ran into a dead deer that had just been killed. We figured it could be the same lion, so we got out of there pretty fast. After that episode we stayed paired up the rest of the trip.
oldmantravels (4 months ago | reply)
RP; ODNT; Darlene; and Laurie - - Thanks for your personal experiences and views of "cougar sightings" (the shared desire with me to see them but not to surprise them).
jdmuth: An experience like you describe (I have hiked the section of that beach up to the Chilean Memorial) would give me a scare. Sounds like you all did the right thing in the end and the cougar got his deer kill and none of you were harmed. OMT
manywinters (4 months ago | reply)
I think it is a matter of what you are used to... I probably would have more fear of a mountain lion than a grizzly bear:)
oldmantravels (4 months ago | reply)
Vicky - - You folks in Alaska are use to dealing with lots of wildlife from moose, wolves, and bear to tourists from the lower 48. I sleep better in my backpacking tent when I know grizzly are unlikely to be anywhere near. An unabashed grizzly bear coward...OMT.