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WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
Crescent
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years, they feature dense forests and
rich minerals — like the Opal Creek area.
But as you move closer to the young
“High Cascades” — today’s active volca-
noes — the rock gets somewhat younger
and less eroded.
That brings us to the Tombstone and
Santiam Junction area, which is home
to a cluster of peaks often called the Old
Cascades. They're taller — often 5,000
feet or more — and are made up of volca-
noes that are slightly less eroded and
younger. Iron Mountain, for example,
has rock between 7 and 14 million years
old.
“They’re like a young part of the Old
or Western Cascades, which is why
they’re better preserved,” said Adam
Kent, a geology professor at Oregon
State University. “They’re right on the
border between the Old Cascades —
that were volcanoes at one point — and
the young or ‘modern Cascades,’ which
are active volcanoes now.”
The combination leaves a nice mix.
The ancient volcanoes still make tower-
ing mountains 5,000 to 6,000 feet tall,
but they’ve also had millions of years of
erosion that provides for a richer and
more biodiverse forest, including the
wildflower meadows and trees such as
the rare and beautiful Alaska yellow ce-
dar.
For me, the Old Cascades provide the
best of both worlds: climbing high while
appreciating a more intricate forest.
A hike of three parts
The reason I enjoy the hike up Cres-
cent Mountain so much is that it’s a hike
with three very distinct phases.
From the trailhead, the trail travels
though beautiful old-growth forest,
across a bridge over Maude Creek — a
great place to soak your feet on the re-
turn — and then begins climbing, steep-
ly, for about three miles.
Just as you’re feeling exhausted and
grumpy, the reward comes.
In the second phase of the hike, the
forest opens and wildflowers begin to
emerge, before breaking out into an ex-
tended, spectacular alpine meadow
filled with purple lupine, red paintbrush
and columbine, white beargrass and
blue larskpur, plus knockout views of
the Three Sisters and Mount Washing-
ton.
Crescent Mountain's high meadow is
among the best in the Northwest, rival-
ing Dog Mountain, Silver Star and Jef-
ferson Park.
But the hike isn’t finished.
Crescent Mountain Trailhead.
The trail re-enters the forest for a fi-
nal push to the summit. Make sure to
take the right-hand trail at a junction, as
the other trail drops down to an alter-
nate northern trailhead at Forest Road
840.
The summit, home to a former look-
out tower, features views of Mount
Hood to Diamond Peak, with everything
in between right in front of you. Mount
Jefferson is the real highlight, but it’s
fun to test yourself on how many of the
peaks you can name, from Black Butte to
Three Fingered Jack. Another fun activ-
ity at the top is exploring the extended,
crescent-shaped summit that tight-
ropes on a high ridge for quite a dis-
tance.
On the way down, you get to travel
through the meadow one more time be-
fore a shady hike back to your car.
The Old Cascades put on quite a
show in July, and the one on Crescent
Mountain is among the best.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors re-
porter, photographer and videographer
in Oregon for 12 years. To support his
work, subscribe to the Statesman
Journal.
Urness is the author of “Best Hikes
with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking South-
ern Oregon.” He can be reached at zur-
ness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503)
399-6801. Find him on Twitter at
@ZachsORoutdoors.
Obituaries
Sherri Diane Slater
SILVERTON -
Sherri Diane (Owen) Slater, 64, went to join the
Savior she deeply loved on July 13, 2020, after an
eight-month journey with cancer.
Diane was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the sec-
ond child of Jack and Barbara Owen. They moved
to Portland, Oregon, when Diane was a baby. There
she attended Beaumont Elementary School and
graduated from Grant High School. Diane later
studied at Whitworth University in Spokane and
Good Samaritan School of Nursing in Portland. She
was volunteering as a camp nurse for the Salvation
Army’s summer camps when she fell in love with her future husband, Gra-
ham Slater, an Englishman on a summer student exchange program and
working at those same summer camps. Diane and Graham met 40 years
ago last month and would have celebrated 39 years of marriage on July 31.
Diane loved beautiful landscapes, beautiful sunsets, and beautiful music.
She enjoyed many years of singing and playing guitar and piano. She had
a lifetime love of literature, which she passed on to her children alongside
beautiful editions of favorites by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot,
and many others.
Diane was a dedicated homemaker and loved to sew, bake, cook, and offer
orderly hospitality to her guests. In midlife, she taught herself subjects she’d
never learned in high school in order to give her three children an excellent
home education. She was an attentive wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt,
and grandmother, always remembering to call and send cards for birthdays
and anniversaries, even in the weeks right before her passing. She loved
good stories and could be counted on to share knee-slapping laughter over
a good cup of tea. Several of her friends said they laughed more with Diane
than with anyone else.
Everywhere she lived, Diane brought a strong sense of humor, a desire for
connection, and deep faith. She invested deeply in local churches, attended
Nurses Christian Fellowship while in nursing school, and participated in
Bible Study Fellowship groups for many years after her 11-year homeschool
teaching job came to an end. She built delightful friendships with those
around her—including her local post office clerks, grocery store cashiers,
UPS delivery driver, car repairmen, and neighbors. In her later years, Diane
struggled with a variety of health challenges that limited her activities but
drove passionate interests in nutrition and naturopathic medicine, interests
which benefitted others who shared similar challenges. She was known far
and wide as a powerful “prayer warrior.” Her friends and family loved receiv-
ing emails or texts from her, asking, “How can I be praying for you?” Diane
spent time every day in prayer and Scripture reading, even in her final days.
Diane is survived by her husband Graham of Silverton; her mother Barbara
Owen; her children and their spouses, Keith (and Katelyn) Slater, Ian (and
Rachel) Slater, and Emily (and Josiah) Carminati; her seven grandchildren;
her brothers, Steve and Mark Owen, and her sister, Melinda Lewis, and their
spouses; and her eleven nieces and nephews and their families. Her father Jack
Owen preceded her to heaven, and she joyously anticipated their reunion.
The family wishes to extend our enormous gratitude to Willamette Valley
Hospice.
Memorial contributions may be made to Hope Pregnancy Clinic of Sa-
lem, Oregon, at https://hopeforsalem.org/, or to Emmanuel Bible Church
(Building Fund) of Salem, Oregon, at https://www.ebcsalem.com/. Assisting
the family is Unger Funeral Chapel - Silverton, Oregon.
The
meadows of
Crescent
Mountain
feature
stunning
wildflower
displays.
PHOROS BY
ZACH URNESS /
STATESMAN
JOURNAL
Miller
Continued from Page 1B
In addition to the watery nostalgia
factor, the other motivation is that
along with a soft heart, there also is a
hard head. After all, I paid $20 for the
two used reels in the first place.
Pay $16.95 for a dust cap when you
don’t need the handle?
What kind of profligate wastrel do
you take me for?
Ditto for the replacement reel at
twice the price.
After all, the reasoning goes, you’ve
got the time. Plus, how hard could it
be?
Two-plus
hours
rummaging
through the parts drawers, (leftover
TV feet screws, chain-link fence bolts
and nuts) and you realize that the
closest thing you have to the micro-
scopic threads on the dust cover screw
are those 4-inch-long vinyl-coated
decking screws from building planter
boxes.
Local hardware store to the rescue!
In case you ever need one, it’s
something called a M3X30 metric, at a
whopping 40 cents each for the
screws.
Shoot the moon; I’ll take three.
Because, after all, it is a Henry pro-
ject, and you never know.
Who am I kidding? You do.
Next up is the cap itself.
Could use plastic, like the top from
a water or soda bottle.
But I think I’ll make it out of wood.
Add some class while shortening the
broom handle.
Should only take another couple of
hours with a saw, drill and sander,
along with a couple of trips to the
It still works, if you don’t mind the
reel handle constantly falling out.
There’s a fix for that (maybe). HENRY
MILLER/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
hardward store and one, maybe two
more Band-Aids.
My guess is that the total for parts
will be less than $10, $15 tops, and the
rate for the labor, travel expenses etc.
will be about 27 cents an hour.
At the current pace, that reel
should be ready to go about the time
they come up with a coronavirus vac-
cine.
Parkinson was right.
Then again, so was Mencken.
Stay safe. Mask-up.
Fishing quote of the week: If you
are what you eat, and trout eat worms
and bugs, what does that make you if
you fish? - Henry
Contact Henry via email at Henry-
MillerSJ@gmail.com
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