Sam Naney, an experienced outdoor recreator, had not seen a cougar in the valley before an encounter during a bicycle ride on May 8.
Runner, biker unharmed after unusual face-offs
A cougar got close enough to touch a runner’s leg with its nose, and chased a mountain bike rider for more than half a mile, in an unusual and unnerving encounter on a Methow Valley trail on May 8.
The Methow Valley is home to cougars, which are typically shy and elusive. Usually, the only evidence of their presence are paw prints or brief glimpses of a cougar running away. The behavior of the cougar in this incident did not follow that typical pattern.
The encounter forced both men to try a variety of tactics to try to scare the cougar away, and to confront the very real possibility of being attacked.
The encounter happened on the Upper Winthrop Trail near Sun Mountain, and prompted Methow Trails to post temporary signs warning trail users of an aggressive cougar in the area. Although the area was subsequently searched by state wildlife officers using dogs, a cougar was not located.
The runner and biker who encountered the cougar shared accounts of their unusual experience with the Methow Valley News.
The runner
Ned Buckingham, 40, of Twisp, was running on the Upper Winthrop Trail below Patterson Lake shortly after 9 a.m. on May 8, and was about 3/4 of a mile from the trail’s junction with Patterson Lake Road when he spotted a cougar.
“This is a route that I run and ski frequently” said Buckingham, who provided his account by email.
Along the trail is an irrigation dam, surrounded by a chain link fence, Buckingham said. “The cougar was standing in the corner on the uphill side of the infrastructure, and I noticed it as I was making my way toward the first turn past the fence.
“When I saw it, I stopped, and very slowly backed away as I shouted out to make sure it knew I was there,” Buckingham said. It was about 9:10 a.m.
The cougar moved forward, but Buckingham said he lost sight of it due to the structure and fencing. “My first thought was that it had bounded uphill into the forest. Very quickly, I noticed it was stalking intently along the backside of the fence in my direction.
“I continued to shout, holding my hands over my head, slowly making my way backward, continuing to face the cat.”
Ned Buckingham with his wife, Emily.
As the cat approached the end of the fencing, Buckingham picked up two rocks. As the cougar continued to move toward him, he threw the first one, then the second one. Both landed within five to 10 feet of the cat, but it was “undeterred,” Buckingham said.
“The cat continued to move toward me in a crouched/stalking position. I continued to shout, clap rocks together over my head, make noise, while facing it and doing my best not to turn away.”
The cat appeared healthy, but not large — although larger than his 55-pound dog, which was not with him on the run, Buckingham said.
Despite his yelling and throwing rocks at the cougar, “it showed no intention of leaving me alone, and my thought process was that I was either going to need to escalate my actions toward the cat, or do my best to calm down,” Buckingham said.
“The thoughts I remember at this point were around reckoning that I was very likely about to be attacked, and what that might mean for me, and for my family. I remember the recognition that I might not see my daughter or wife again. And then wondered what life might entail if I were to survive an attack,” he said.
“At that moment I was working to calm down my adrenaline response, and as I took a few deep breaths, I noticed that the cougar seemed to be relaxing somewhat as well, and when it got to about 15 feet away from me, it stopped.
“It then opened its mouth and hissed at me. I took a few very slow steps back, and it promptly moved forward toward me and hissed again. All this time, I continued talking to the cougar, doing my best to change my tone from threatening, to calming.
“Over the next minute or two, it continued to move a few steps closer, hiss again, move a few steps closer, hiss again, five or so times. The final time it hissed I could have reached down and touched it between the ears,” Buckingham said.
“When it was within 10 feet, I had decided to stop moving, be as still and calm as possible, continuing to talk to it. I had an approximately 10-inch diameter rock in my right hand, and my thoughts circled around the split second I would have to do something to protect myself with the rock if/when it decided to attack.
“Oddly, something made me feel like I was less at threat in this moment than I had been a few minutes before, with the cat seeming to be on edge and scared, but not moving quickly with aggression,” Buckingham said.
“After the final hiss, the cat very slowly edged its nose toward my right leg, at which point it sniffed my knee, and wet the side of my leg with its nose.”
The cougar then slowly backed away and took a few slow steps toward the shrubs on the side of the trail, turned back toward Buckingham and laid down.
“After a long exhale, I once again tried very slowly to step backwards, at which point it stood up, walked back out from behind the bushes, and repeated the same approaching/hissing routine that it had previously done. Again, it finished by sniffing my leg and wetting my leg with its nose.
“The cat circled in front of me, moved about 10 feet off, turned back toward me, and sat down. I remember wondering how I was going to get away when it was showing no interest in leaving me alone,” Buckingham said.
“I then heard a biker coming up the trail and remember thinking that no matter what happened, the dynamic of the situation was about to change.”
Buckingham said he was grateful when he saw the bike rider and realized it was a close friend, Sam Naney. And Buckingham was right, the dynamics did change, because the cougar began focusing on Naney instead of him.
“It moved toward Sam with intent, slinking back into a stalking pose.”
The biker
Sam Naney, 42 of Mazama, had started up toward Sun Mountain from a trailhead on Twin Lakes Road, known locally as “Tiny Town.” He had seen Buckingham’s car at the trailhead and knew he was ahead of him.
“I was going up the Winthrop trail, got to the elevation of the (irrigation ditch) and saw Ned standing in the trail, and subconsciously I saw a dog sitting between him and me — about 8 feet from him and 15 to 20 feet from me,” Naney said in an interview.
“Coasting toward him, I hear him saying ‘mountain lion, mountain lion’ loud, but controlled. I lock up my brakes and spin my tires and fall over,” Naney said.
As he scrambled to his feet, Naney heard Buckingham say something to him about the cougar seeming “confused.”
“They were at kind of a stalemate. The cat had not attacked him but was not letting him move or leave. I get there, and that clearly changed the dynamic. The cougar got up and started moving toward me,” Naney said.
“I picked up my bike over my head and started yelling. It didn’t deter it in the least. It got eight to 10 feet from me. I started taking small, hopefully imperceptible, steps back to maintain that gap. That went on for 10 or 12 seconds. Then it stopped and paused.
“It paced around and looked back at Ned and me. It went to the side of the road and looked over the embankment. We hoped it would dive into the woods,” Naney said.
“But then it changed its demeanor. It slunk, dropped its shoulders and locked eyes. It moved a little quicker toward me.”
At that point, Naney had backed down the trail, moving around a bend, and couldn’t see Buckingham anymore. “We’d gotten a little ways from Ned. I yelled at him, ‘You should move toward Patterson.’”
“After a moment of heavy indecision, I decided to run up the hill, scrambling into the sagebrush to get service to call 911,” Buckingham said. “I got on the phone with 911 at 9:31 a.m.” That was about 20 minutes after he’d first encountered the cougar.
Meanwhile, the cat remained focused and moving toward Naney. “In my mind I felt very clear there was going to be an interaction. My fear was less about getting killed and more about getting mauled.”
Trying to intimidate the cat by holding his bike above him and yelling wasn’t working. “I didn’t have any sense that fighting a mountain lion would end well. I made the decision that I’m going to flee. I have my bike,” Naney said.
“I went to put my bike down and as I slung my leg over the cat ran toward me. I went down the ditch grade toward Tiny Town. I was pedaling and glanced back. It was running at me, probably 8 to 10 feet behind me and I’m pedaling really hard and it’s gaining on me.”
Naney dropped off the ditch grade and rode through a rocky area, pushing as hard as he could. He glanced back again and the cat was still there.
“I stopped looking back. Fortunately the fences are kept open. I rode through into the next long downhill to where it looked over the Sunny M fields and realized the cat was gone,” Naney said.
“One of my first thoughts (after escaping) was almost anger — ‘now I’m going to have some fear’” about being out on the trails, he said.
The cougar pursued him for 2 minutes and 15 seconds, and .52 miles — based on a workout recording that Naney checked later.
When he was sure the cougar was gone, Naney pulled out his cell phone and texted Buckingham “in part to let him know I was safe.” Buckingham had just completed his call to 911. Naney told Buckingham he would drive up and pick him up by Patterson Lake.
They called 911 again together to report the encounter and also contacted Methow Trails so that the organization could get word out. Naney said he and Buckingham put a sign on the gate at Tiny Town to alert trail users.
Follow-up
Later that day, two officers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife came to the area with a dog handler and dogs to search for the cougar. They returned again the next day, May 9, but no cougar was located.
Methow Trails initially posted trail closure signs on gates accessing that portion of the trail system. The closure signs were replaced after three or four days with signs warning of an aggressive cougar, said James DeSalvo, Methow Trails executive director.
Methow Trails also posted information on its Facebook page that recommended “staying off Winthrop trail and surrounding trails (Powers Plunge, Upper Winthrop trail) for the time being.”
“The signs will stay up for a little while. We want to make sure people know there was something there,” DeSalvo said.
Methow Trails grooms hundreds of miles of ski trails throughout the winter, and there are signs of cougars “almost everywhere through our whole system,” DeSalvo said. “We see cougar tracks everywhere in the wintertime on every inch of trail.”
But an encounter like the one earlier this month is very out of the ordinary, DeSalvo said.
Naney and Buckingham are processing the experience, but say their many years of outdoor recreation without incident gives them confidence to continue doing what they love.
“I’m certainly feeling on edge about being out on trails, but doing my best to trust the countless number of times that I, or someone I know, have spent in the natural world, and not had an incident occur. It feels hard to put my finger on exactly how I feel,” Buckingham said.
Naney said that despite initially being worried that he might feel afraid as a result of the cougar encounter, he’s still comfortable in the outdoors.
“This is so statistically uncommon for them to behave this way. We know these animals are all over the valley. I’ve logged thousands of hours all over the valley by myself and I’ve never seen them. But I know they’ve seen me.”
He said people have ideas or opinions about what a person should or should not do if they encounter wildlife.
“I’m very careful about trying to explain what happened,” Naney said. “The only way I can say I did the ‘right’ thing is we both came away unharmed.”
In retrospect, he said, having such a close encounter with a cougar “is a very special thing,” Naney said.
“We are able to recreate and interact in a landscape that is very alive. It’s not sanitized and that continues to be something challenging to us societally. These wild landscapes and the critters in them…we are very much in interaction with those animals, in case we deign to forget.”
Cougar advice from WDFW
If you see a cougar or believe one has been in the area, this is not in general a cause for alarm. Cougars coexist with humans in most parts of the state. If you wish to report your sighting call WDFW at 877-933-9847or or submit an online report: https://wdfw.wa.gov/about/enforcement/report. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
A brochure about cougars is available at: wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/cougar_brochure.pdf.
If you encounter a cougar, WDFW recommends:
• Stop, pick up small children immediately, and don’t run. Running and rapid movements may trigger an attack. Remember, at close range, a cougar’s instinct is to chase.
• Face the cougar. Talk to it firmly while slowly backing away. Always leave the animal an escape route.
• Try to appear larger than the cougar. Get above it (e.g., step up onto a rock or stump). If wearing a jacket, hold it open to further increase your apparent size. If you are in a group, stand shoulder-to-shoulder to appear intimidating.
• Do not take your eyes off the cougar or turn your back. Do not crouch down or try to hide.
• Never approach the cougar, especially if it is near a kill or with kittens, and never offer it food.
• If the cougar does not flee, be more assertive. If it shows signs of aggression (crouches with ears back, teeth bared, hissing, tail twitching, and hind feet pumping in preparation to jump), shout, wave your arms and throw anything you have available (water bottle, book, backpack). The idea is to convince the cougar that you are not prey, but a potential danger.
• If the cougar attacks, fight back. Be aggressive and try to stay on your feet. Cougars have been driven away by people who have fought back using anything within reach, including sticks, rocks, shovels, backpacks, and clothing — even bare hands. If you are aggressive enough, a cougar will flee, realizing it has made a mistake. Pepper spray in the cougar’s face is also effective in the unlikely event of a close encounter with a cougar.
