Appeal Tribune
❚ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 ❚ 1B
Outdoors
DRAMATIC VIEWS
The North Sister is seen behind the South Matthieu Lake. WILLIAM SULLIVAN/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
McKenzie Pass
offers up beautiful
forested vistas
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
It’s a place of fire, ice and lush forest.
And lots of hiking trails.
McKenzie Pass is perhaps the most
dramatic landscape in Oregon, a place
where lava flows and old-growth forest
spread out below towering volcanoes.
Located between Sisters and McKen-
zie Bridge, the pass is usually accessible
from June to November via Scenic High-
way 242 depending on conditions.
The highway makes an ideal place to
launch a hiking or backpacking trip,
with direct access to the Mount Wash-
ington and Three Sisters wilderness
area on either side.
There are countless campgrounds
nearby, but two favorites include Belk-
nap Hot Springs and Scott Lake Camp-
ground.
Here are nine of the best hikes and
trips beginning on McKenzie Pass.
We’re going from the west side, near
McKenzie Bridge, to the east side near
Sisters.
Proxy Falls
Lush forest, lava flows and two spec-
tacular but differing waterfalls highlight
this short and sweet trek on the west
side of McKenzie Pass.
The trailhead is on the side of High-
way 242, between mile markers 64 and
65 at an obvious sign with parking pull-
outs on the side of the road. The trail-
head gets busy during peak season, so
come early or hike midweek. Autumn
colors are bright here in the fall.
The entire trail includes a 1.7 mile
loop to an upper and lower falls. The up-
per falls is a scenic 50-foot fan of a wa-
terfall, while the lower falls is taller at
100 feet.
The hike is easy overall and a good
option for people hiking with kids.
It makes for a fun winter adventure
as well, but you have to start at a gate
and follow snow-covered Highway 242
a total of 7 miles round-trip.
Directions: From Salem or Eugene,
follow Highway 126 to the beginning of
Highway 242. From the junction, drive 9
miles to the obvious trailhead on the
side of the road.
Coordinates:44.1679, -121.9272
Linton Lake
Similar to Proxy Falls, this trail is
easy, pretty and located on the far west
side of McKenzie Pass — the side closest
to the Willamette Valley.
Unlike Proxy Falls, the trail leads to a
mountain lake.
From a small parking area just across
from Alder Springs Campground, follow
signs onto a trail of giant Douglas fir and
hemlock to a lake surrounded by lava,
forest and with creeks rushing in.
The hike is just under 4 miles round-
trip with 250 feet of climb.
The lake is best in autumn, when the
colors really pop. The trail leads to a
small beach, then becomes increasingly
brushy.
A boot and bushwhack leads up Lin-
ton Creek to mythic Linton Falls, a wa-
terfall with numerous tiers that all com-
bined measure close to 600 feet, accord-
ing to Northwest Waterfall Survey.
There’s no single place to view the full
scope of Linton Falls, and it’s very diffi-
cult to access, but there’s no denying its
power.
Note: Beginning in summer 2020, a
permit will likely be required to enter
from Linton Lake Trailhead.
See MCKENZIE PASS , Page 2B
Plan early for next year’s local trout stocking
Fishing
Henry Miller
Guest columnist
This just in …
Or at least it’s the first time that it
came to my attention.
Normally, you have to wait until
around November to find out the Oregon
trout-stocking schedule for the follow-
ing year.
But if you go to the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife’s online fish-
plant listings (https://myodfw.com/
fishing/species/trout/stocking-sched
ule), the planned deliveries are given
through mid-July 2020.
The first loads of rainbow trout to be
dropped at the two venues inside the
Salem city limits during the new year,
Walter Wirth Lake in Cascades Gateway
Park on the east side of Turner Road just
south of Walmart and Walling Pond,
16th and McGilchrist, are set for the
week of Jan. 6.
Wirth is scheduled to get 1,700 legal-
size (8 inches long) and 150 keeper-
plus-size fish; while Walling in due to
get 400 keepers and 50 keeper-plus
trout.
Those, as well as other sites closest to
Salem, are in the Willamette Zone on the
schedules.
As usual, the regular disclaimers ap-
ply, especially when looking that far out:
Trout plants are contingent on the avail-
ability of fish and the vehicles to carry
them as well as weather, road and water
Dates for the stocking of hatchery
brood rainbows won’t be known until
closer to the dates the fish will be
delivered, usually in November.
STATESMAN JOURNAL FILE
conditions.
As an example, I remember that dur-
ing the floods in February 1996, a lot of
fish were lost at state hatcheries, and
deliveries were delayed or canceled
when planting sites were inundated.
Similarly, the epic drought in 2015
meant that a lot of scheduled sites
couldn’t receive trout because of a pro-
longed lack of water, and others were
too hot for trout to survive.
That summer, the annual Free Fish-
ing Weekend event at Detroit Lake in
June was held in a plastic-lined pond on
the high-and-dry North Santiam River
arm of the lake that was known with
gallows humor as “a tank on the bank
event.”
And in between and since there were
years when prolonged cold spells
slowed trout growth, delaying early
stockings.
So by all means pencil in your plans
for the first half of 2020, check as the
date(s) get closer, and have an eraser
handy just in case.
One thing that isn’t listed is the re-
lease of the behemoth “brooders” or
surplus hatchery brood rainbow trout
that are put out to figurative pasture be-
cause they are past the peak of their re-
productive lives.
Broodstock plants normally start at
Willamette Valley ponds around
Thanksgiving.
Stay tuned.
Dog Days of Summer
No, Harry the mostly Jack Russell
terrier isn’t dead.
The road-kill tableau is a picture of
him loafing on the lawn in the shade of
the ironically appropriate dogwood tree
in our back yard during a 90-degree af-
ternoon in South Salem.
I know how he feels.
Sometimes, the only way to get Harry
to move is to say the magic words.
“Harry, dinner.”
Again, I know how he feels, motiva-
tion-wise.
Angry birds, Oregon edition
When Kay and I were in Newport re-
cently, a guy sitting on the balcony of his
bay front condo at the Embarcadero
said, “Look at the bald eagle.”
And there it was, dodging and weav-
ing over the fleet of moored boats while
being pursued and harassed by a group
of screeching seagulls.
Apparently, the gulls were peeved
about America’s national symbol in-
truding on their territory and taking
their lunch.
Gulls also steal from anglers.
I once had a couple of pounds of
salmon roe filched off the cleaning table
at the Embarcadero a couple of years
ago when I walked down the dock to get
a plastic bag to pack it.
Bald eagles are no slackers in the
criminal mischief department, either.
They steal from osprey, as witnessed
during a mid-air theft seen from the
Willamette River trail at Minto-Brown
Island Park a while back.
There’s a great word for these multi-
ple misdemeanors (although the vic-
tims probably consider them felonies).
I learned it as an undergraduate envi-
ronmental biology major in college.
The professor said it’s called kleptop-
arasitism, a parasite by theft.
Great word.
Remember it.
It will come in handy someday.
In certain instances, it applies to hu-
mans as well.
Just so you know.
Henry Miller is a retired Statesman
Journal outdoor columnist and outdoor
writer. You can reach him via email at
HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com