Appeal Tribune
❚ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 ❚ 1B
Outdoors
Three lakes, one day
Fir Lake on the edge of the Mount Jefferson Wilderness. ZACH URNESS /STATESMAN JOURNAL; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL VAN BLANKENSHIP/USA TODAY NETWORK; AND GETTY
Visit Frey, Pika and Fir lakes in one
solitude-filled afternoon near Detroit
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
One of the best things about Oregon’s
vast system of public lands is the num-
ber of places where you can still disap-
pear.
Even though a growing population
and social media make it feel as though
hoards from Portland and Bend have
swarmed every trail, lake and swim-
ming hole in our fine state, that’s not
really true.
Yes, they have trampled across South
Sister and Jefferson Park, Blue Pool and
Opal Creek, but those were well-known
places to begin with. The popular places
have just become more popular.
Meanwhile, there are countless won-
derful but less dramatic spots — ones
you won’t find on Instagram — that have
remained the same quiet places they
ever were.
Such is the case with three nice lakes
nestled in the forest southeast of Detroit
on the edge of the Mount Jefferson Wil-
derness. Fey, Pika and Fir lakes are all
located within 2 or 3 miles of each other
but are each distinct, pretty and sur-
rounded by wildlife.
Visiting all three makes for a fun af-
ternoon, especially with kids.
To reach all three, you’ll need to drive
some rough roads and do some hiking.
But it’s a pleasant and easy experience
set amid sweet-smelling fir forest.
The lakes don’t offer dramatic vistas,
but that’s sort of the point. My kids had
a blast discovering wildlife and tight-
rope walking on the thousands of
downed trees.
If you head out here, make sure to
have a Detroit District Forest Service
map or Adventure Map for the Detroit/
Opal Creek/Mount Jefferson areas.
First stop: Fey Lake
After turning off Highway 22, about
25 miles east of Detroit, you’ll follow a
combination of paved and dirt roads to
Fey Lake, a 6-acre pool surrounded by
forest along remote Forest Service Road
2257.
This is the most visited of the lakes,
and gets a decent bit of use from anglers
in the spring and horseback riders just
up the road at Big Meadows Horse
Camp.
The upside is that you can drive to a
few day-use or dispersed campsites
around the lake and let the kids run
around and explore while you make
lunch or dinner or just sip a beer in the
sunlit forest.
The lake isn’t great for swimming —
all three of the lakes are fairly muddy.
But we brought our trusty inflatable
kayak and had a lot of fun paddling
around the grassy inlets. There’s a ton of
small creatures to find, including a few
million frogs and tadpoles.
Fey Lake makes a nice first or last
stop of the day. Because the next two
lakes require hiking.
Small but pretty: Pika Lake
Just up rough and rutted Forest Ser-
vice Road 2257, you’ll reach the Pika-Fir
Trailhead. The pathway is pretty easy,
running 2 miles out-and-back with
some moderately steep climbs.
The trail is encased by fir trees of all
types. Bring a tree identification book
and see how many types of fir trees you
can find, from grand to noble to Pacific
silver.
My kids had a blast on the seemingly
endless number of “balancers” —
downed trees you can tightrope walk on
— along and just off the trail. It’s one of
the many tricks I employ to keep a 2 and
4-year-old entertained.
The pathway rolls through shaded
See LAKES, Page 2B
‘Almost fall’ is the best time to get outdoors
Fishing
Henry Miller
Guest columnist
Ah, it’s magic time.
The time between when the dust set-
tles from the stampede of last-minute
summer holiday-makers during the La-
bor Day weekend and the onset of the
winter doldrums is a very sweet spot in-
deed in outdoor recreation.
Kids are back in school, midweek
camping spots are open, trails are two-
lane back roads, not rush-hour free-
ways, and mosquitoes are ebbing be-
cause of cooling nights.
For almost a decade, my brother-in-
law, Bob, and I had had standing week-
long road-warrior camping trips the first
full week after the Labor Day weekend.
When we both worked, it was rela-
tively easy to get that week off. Most
people had put away the tents and
camping stoves.
We had no agenda or destinations,
really.
I think the first year the only manda-
tory stop we made was at Crater Lake to
get a picture of his then-new Toyota Ta-
coma on the rim with his Crater Lake li-
cense plate in the foreground.
How’s that for a mission?
My only constant, more a desire than
a demand, was to set up camp where
there was fishing.
During the course of our outings, I
caught everything from cutthroat trout
at the base of Steens Mountain, rainbow
trout at Wallowa Lake and catfish at Pri-
neville Reservoir.
Critters are regular visitors when the
roar of campers dies down after the
Labor Day holiday. HENRY MILLER / SPECIAL
TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Along the way, Bob and I traversed
most of the state from the Steens in the
southwest corner to Wallowa Lake in
the northeast three-state triangle of
Oregon/Washington/Idaho.
We ventured over the Astoria-Megler
Bridge at Astoria to spend a night at
Cape Disappointment State Park in
Washington — and speaking about dis-
appointments, got washed out by one of
the most intense storms I’ve ever seen
at Humbug Mountain State Park near
Port Orford on the southern Oregon
coast.
That turned out OK, though, because
we got into a yurt at South Beach State
Park near Newport, where a seagull that
had stolen a Dungeness crab from
somebody’s bucket dropped it and al-
most brained me while I was walking on
the beach near the south jetty.
Air seafood delivery, you might say.
Weather can be, ahem, unsettled af-
ter Labor Day, as witnessed by a motor-
cycle club spending the night camped
out in the bathrooms during the deluge
at Humbug and the steady drumming
on the tents during a hailstorm at Wal-
lowa Lake.
We woke up to a quarter-inch of
snow and a half-frozen water bottle the
morning after a hot, sunny day at Three
Creeks Lake near Sisters and suffered
sunburns at Prineville Reservoir.
Way we saw both natural wonders
such as the Painted Hills at John Day
Fossil Beds and man-made monuments
such as the massive dredge at Sumpter.
We were stuck in avian traffic when a
flock of wild turkeys moseyed across the
highway en route to John Day, heard a
pack of coyotes yowl all night at Phillips
Reservoir, had packages of instant oat-
meal pilfered at Three Creeks Lake, had
a massive buck deer rummage for corn
cobs in a garbage sack at Wallowa Lake,
where we also watched what looked like
a koi pond as a phalanx of scarlet-and-
green kokanee (a landlocked variety of
sockeye salmon) swim up the Wallowa
River on a spawning run 50 feet from our
campsite.
As I said, the space between the end
of summer and the start of fall is an ex-
ceptional time for an Oregon outback
road trip.
Here’s hoping that you get a chance
to savor the magic.
Post Labor Day bonus: You might call
it “limitless” fishing.
And on a personal note, totally up-
ending my fishing calendar … in a good
way.
If, like me, you’ve circled Oct. 1 on the
calendar, the traditional opening day for
deep-water bottom-fishing, boy is this a
sweet surprise.
On Tuesday, Sept. 3, on the recom-
mendation of biologists, the Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife lifted the
40-fathom (240 feet) depth restriction
for pursuing bottom fish.
Think those deep-water lunker ling-
cod and other tasty whoppers.
As an added incentive, weather and
ocean conditions generally are better in
the early fall.
Not to get too deep into the (sea)
weeds about the reason for the switch,
but catch counts showed that there are
enough yelloweye rockfish left in the
2019 quota to provide for the early open-
er.
You say that you want more?
Because of high winds and lumpy,
bumpy ocean conditions, summer all-
depth halibut fishing was the pits off the
Oregon coast, so there were a lot of
pounds of fish left over in the total al-
lowed catch.
So the department approved a two-
halibut daily limit beginning on Aug. 23,
between Cape Falcon near Manzanita
and Humbug Mountain near Port Orford
with fishing allowed on Fridays, Satur-
days and Sundays until the total allowed
catch of 54,409 pounds (as of Aug. 26) is
landed, or Oct. 27, whichever comes
first.
Captain’s platter, anyone?
Also, near-shore halibut is open daily
off the central coast with a two-fish dai-
ly limit until the rest of that catch quota
is landed.
Henry Miller is a retired Statesman
Journal outdoor columnist and outdoor
writer. You can reach him via email at
HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com