84-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 31, 1993
a farm
jjj^K
Joyce Bnpp '^'aHßl
-And other
hazards
The cry of a kitten, that’s what
sounded like.
In the shadowy darkness of ear
ly morning, I listened for a repeat
of whatever had wakened me. The
Farmer stirred, also awake.
“Do you think the bobcat’s
back?” I whispered to him.
About 10 yards from where we
slept on the screened sleeping
porch, an injured mule deer fawn
recuperated in a sturdy, wire en
closure. After tumbling over a
high cliff upriver probably es
caping a predator the fawn had
been rescued from a pile of river
rocks by a group of white-water
rafters. Its injured leg and man
gled rump were healing nicely, af
ter examination and treatment by a
later group of rafters six veter
inarians.
Faced with the choice of letting
the spotted fawn die, or bottle feed
it as she had so many calves over
the years, our daughter was raising
the orphan here at the ranch.
In fact, the fawn had become
the major attraction at Kirkwood
Historic Ranch, Idaho, in Hells
Canyon National Recreation Area.
Hells Canyon is the deepest gorge
in North America and incredi
bly isolated. Travel is limited, by
river on tourist jetboats that skip
over the Snake’s dozens of turbu
lent, white-water rapids, or rubber
rafts that plummet through them.
Roads are almost non-existent
in the canyon’s 100-mile wild riv
er stretch. Trails two feet wide
and either blasted from the sides
of sheer rock cliffs or clinging to
steep, brushy slopes are as high
as 400 feet above the waters of the
Snake. They are surpassable by
foot (do not look down!) or by ex
tremely sure-footed horses or
mules. Rattlesnakes, scorpions
and black widow spiders are
among the canyon’s year-round
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Friday 8 a.m. • 9 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
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"residents.”
For the second summer, our
daughter and her husband were
living here, working as rangers for
the U.S. Forest Service at this his- -
toric site. No longer an operating
ranch, Kirkwood is tribute to a
way of life that tough sheep ranch
ers scrabbled from an incredibly
harsh and isolated world unto it
self. Neither the small museum
they tend, nor the snug little house
in which they live, has electricity
or phone.
They love it. So did we in the
few days we’d been here.
And now, on this last night of
our stay, we puzzled at what had
wakened us. Was the bobcat back
that had days before come hungri
ly snooping at the fawn’s cage in
broad daylight? The Farmer
snatched the flashlight kept near
by, eased through the door to the
small porch outside and gasped
one adrenalin-spiked word.
“COUGAR!”
Streaking to the bedroom across
the hall, I hammered on what I
hoped was a door, calling our son
in-law. In split seconds, six of us
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watched, dumbstruck, at the dra
ma unfolding yards away. The
cougar, dead fawn in mouth, was
trying to escape the wire cage. Our
son-in-law breathlessly uttered a
phrase he’d repeat numerous
times; "Man, that’s a BIG cat!”
Though it seemed minutes, the
huge cat fled the pen in probably
30 seconds, easily clearing the
fiye-foot-high garden enclosure
adjoining the fawn’s pen. Hover
ing together we turned the light on
my watch: 3:40 a.m.
No one volunteered to go in
vestigate. Brushy, rocky canyon
walls frame the very edge of the
lawn. Returning to sleep seemed
impossible: The Farmer kept
jumping up every 10 minutes to
spotlight the stretch of lawn.
A bit braver in sunsplashed
daylight, we surveyed the killing
scene. The heavy fencing was
buckled and pushed inward on all
sides, and the top mashed where
the cougar had jumped up on top.
From there, it leaped down into
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the adjoining, fenced garden. An
ally ripping a comer of the wire
loose from the post holding the
fence between the two enclosures.
In the process, it mashed their on
ion patch and left behind paw
prints as wide as The Farmer’s big
hands. Telltale bits of beige fur
clung to numerous spots on the
wire.
Later that day, we had to leave
the canyon to return home. Our
son-in-law accompanied us part
way downriver, having overnight
business to attend to, leaving our
daughter to hold down Kirkwood
Ranch. Alone.
Left behind when the cougar
Aed hours before was the dead
fawn. Though we disposed of its
body, we all knew the probability
of the cat returning again that
night. No one said much about it
but we all knew.
Leaving Kirkwood Historic
Ranch in Hells Canyon was one of
the hardest things I’ve ever had to
do.
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