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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2020)
Appeal Tribune | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2020 | 1B OUTDOORS TOP SHELF Beautiful Ice Lake sits at 7,800 feet the Wallowa Mountains' Eagle Cap Wilderness in northeastern Oregon. ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL See state’s largest wilderness from above on the Matterhorn Zach Urness Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK Oregon’s outdoors is slowly reopening from closures related to COVID-19. Until things get back to normal, we’re featur- ing the “greatest hits” from SJ outdoors writer Zach Urness for armchair travel- ing purposes and future planning. h This story was originally published in August of 2014, but has been revised. EAGLE CAP WILDERNESS – As we stood on the top of Oregon’s largest wil- derness area, looking down upon mountains spread across the horizon like rows of jagged teeth, we decided the only way to celebrate was swimming in a lake partly covered by snow and ice. From the moment we’d entered the backcountry of the Wallowa Mountains it had been hot, and during the 3,400- foot climb to our campsite at Ice Lake — and the even steeper trek to the 9,826 foot summit of the Matterhorn that morning — we’d been marinating in a cocktail of sweat, sunscreen and bug dope. And so, when we saw the tiny blue pool sitting in an alpine meadow just The climb up the Matterhorn, the second-tallest peak in the Wallowa Mountains at 9,826 feet, takes climbers into the alpine county of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. PHOTOS BY ZACH URNESS/STATESMAN JOURNAL Home to 17 mountains that eclipse 9,000 feet and derived from the Nez Perce word for “land of running waters,” the Wallowas of northeastern Oregon offer what many consider the state’s best backpacking experience. The sheer size of the backcounty means exploring the entire thing — or even a fraction of the entire thing — is impossible during a single trip. Instead we decided on one of the area’s best adventures, the difficult but rewarding trek to Ice Lake and up the Matterhorn, a dramatic summit of white limestone and marble that at 9,826 feet is the Wallowa’s second-highest peak. It required 20.4 miles and 5,517 feet of climb over three days and two nights, but brought us through an area of wild rivers, waterfalls, wildflowers, multi- colored mountains and yes, tiny lakes as cold as ice cubes. The best part? We were saved from a treacherous storm by a bottle of locally distilled rye whiskey. The Oregon Alps below the summit, still frozen around the edges, surrounded by wildflowers with mountain views in every direction, we decided hypothermia was a perfectly acceptable risk for such deep refresh- ment. “Aghhhh! Crap! Holy (expletive)!” shouted my friend Andy Gonerka as he dived into the water and quickly began sprinting out. “That doesn’t even feel like water — that’s like swimming in ice cubes.” The discovery of Ice Cube Lake (our name for it) was one of those happy ac- cidents of Eagle Cap Wilderness, a 359,991-acre landscape of alpine peaks, meadows and lakes in the heart of what’s known as the Oregon Alps. A trip to the Wallowa Mountains be- gins with a long drive — six and a half hours from Salem — through the Colum- bia River Gorge and into the splendid desolation of Eastern Oregon. The scenery ramps up east of La See MATTERHORN, Page 2B Hunting for the opportunity to spot turtles Fishing Henry Miller Guest columnist Why did the turtle cross the road? One of the great things about spring/ early summer in the Willamette Valley is watching female-turtle migration from the water to set up nesting sites and lay eggs on land. And with the warming weather, it’s common to see the shellbacks haul out of local ponds on to downed trees and logs, or on to the banks to bask in the sun like Memorial Day coronavirus cra- zies. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued a caution for motor- ists and cyclists, joggers and hikers, to watch out for turtles crossing roads and trails near water. So now you know. During a session at the YMCA a cou- ple of years ago, a fellow gym rat said he had pulled over his truck on his way to the debris dump site off of Homestead Road next to Minto Brown Island Park because of a turtle in the road. A native Oregon turtle suns on a log in a slough at Minto Brown Island Park. HENRY MILLER/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL I told him the same thing I had been taught by a Fish and Wildlife biologist about proper turtle-relocation eti- quette. Use the direction of turtle travel to place it on the destination side of the road off the shoulder pointed the direc- tion it was chugging. Turtle-spotting is right up there with bird-watching as one of the great treats of hiking or biking near water. That is once you get the hang of tell- ing the difference between an aquatic reptile and that large knot on a floating log that got you so excited. If you’re hiking with kids, keeping score makes for some friendly family fun. Especially if the kid(s) are small, and you cheat by spotting one and pretend- ing you don’t, saying something like, “there should be some around here. Why don’t you check out that big tree that fell into the water. “Oh, wait … it’s a big knot. My bad.” And because there are lots of ponds and sloughs with adjacent trails, you can spread out for social distancing while on your turtle hunt. Oregon has two natives, the western pond and the western painted turtles. But there also are several nasty non- native invasives such as the red-eared slider, the most common, as well as snapping turtles. Both of those got to the Beaver State via the pet trade. On a personal note, since confession is good for the soul, and in the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit to a wildlife offense that I committed in the full flush of youth. At about age 12, at a school carnival I won a small red-eared slider along with a shallow, flat clear plastic turtle enclo- sure with a cheesy ersatz palm tree, along with a stinky can of dried brine shrimp turtle food. Tiring of it after a year or so, I turned it loose at Lake Los Carneros near our house in Goleta, Calif., where I used to bicycle with my brother, Jim, to fish for largemouth bass. And where I occasionally spotted Walter, as I dubbed the reptile, during the next couple years grow to the size of a salad plate. Here’s hoping the statute of limita- tions has run out on that one. Don’t be that person. I digress. Fish and Wildlife has identification information as well as excellent photos of Oregon’s native and non-native tur- tles on its website at https:// myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/spe- cies/turtles If you get lucky, and you will, you can report your sightings at https:// www.oregonturtles.com/ Or you can report from the field via an app that you can download to your cell phone at iNaturalist or HerpMapper. Happy turtle-hunting. See MILLER, Page 2B