Appeal Tribune
| WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2021 | 1B
OUTDOORS
Volunteers with the Salem Area Trail Alliance put countless hours into creating the new Catamount Trail. PHOTOS BY ZACH URNESS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
‘Building trail
and community’
Zach Urness Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The first time I heard about the Salem
Area Trail Alliance, it was because its
founder, a Linfield University professor
named Jeff McNamee, wanted to build a
70-mile bike trail through West Salem to
the vineyards of the West Hills.
It was an ambitious plan, but McNa-
mee had passion and drive, and his cre-
ation of the nonprofit sparked some-
thing new in the capital city.
Salem has, after all, been long viewed
as a sub-par outdoors town, especially
compared to Bend, Corvallis, Eugene
and Portland.
But SATA showed that Salem wasn’t
that far behind, it just needed some-
thing to rally around — a gravitational
force to pull in the trail fanatics of the
Mid-Willamette Valley.
The group never made much head-
way on that original 70-mile trail in
West Salem, instead pivoting to a num-
ber of other projects that are almost
more impressive. They transformed the
Salem Trail Alliance president
talks new bike parks, trails
A group of volunteers organized by the Salem Area Trail Alliance works on
completing a new mountain bike trail at Silver Falls State Park.
backcountry of Silver Falls State Park
into a mountain bike destination and
created an urban bike park in east Sa-
lem. They also created smaller “pocket
trail” systems, including at Spring Val-
ley State Park on the Willamette Green-
way in West Salem and the Croisan
Creek/Skyline Trails in South Salem.
And they’re just getting started.
McNamee eventually ceded the reins
of the trail advocacy group to Beth Day-
ton, a retired surgeon and one of the
most dedicated trail fanatics around.
Dayton has been president of SATA
since 2017. She joined me last month on
the Explore Oregon Podcast to talk
about the past and future of SATA, along
with bike trails and parks in the Salem
area.
Here’s some highlights from our con-
versation. You can listen to the entire
episode — and over 50 episodes about
Oregon’s most beautiful and interesting
places — at StatesmanJournal.com/
explore.
See TRAIL, Page 2B
Hatchery brood rainbow trout headed to Willamette Valley ponds
Fishing
Henry Miller
Guest columnist
They’re BAAACK!
The first stocking of hatchery brood
rainbow trout – about 125 7- to 10-poun-
ders — was delivered the first week of
November and released into Junction
City Pond.
The planting of the eye-popping lun-
kers is a highlight of the year for a lot of
Willamette Valley anglers that generally
occurs weekly at scattered ponds week-
ly through December.
For current information, call the
hatchery at (503) 394-3155, and then
press 2.
The trout, colloquially known as
“brooders” by those in the know, are fish
that have passed the peak reproductive
years at the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s Roaring River Hatchery
near Scio.
True story No. 1: When she was little
and came to Salem for custody visits,
my daughter, Meghan, and I used to
pursue them.
Daddy fishing fib No. 1: I used to tell
Meggie that they were steelhead if she
caught one.
No harm, no foul.
True story No. 2: When I started cov-
ering the release of the rainbow behe-
moths a couple of decades ago, the
then-hatchery manager at Roaring Riv-
er said a guy from the Midwest always
called to check.
He then would schedule his holiday
vacation plans to visit relatives in Salem
around the time of the trout plants, pre-
sumably to use the photographic money
shot on his Christmas cards.
As a bonus, 1,400 smaller, though re-
spectable, rainbow trout also were
stocked the past week at Junction City
Pond.
The pond is about 2 miles south of its
namesake town on the west side of
Highway 99.
Reminder No. 1: While the daily trout
limit is 5 fish 8 inches or longer, only one
of those can be over 20 inches long,
which applies to most of the brood trout.
More trout talk: Along with Junction
City Pond, Detroit Lake east of Salem on
Highway 22 also was stocked the past
week with 3,700 1-pound rainbows.
Also stocked with legal-size trout
were Timber Linn and Waverly lakes,
both in Albany.
Timber Linn got 1,000 rainbows, and
Waverly was stocked with 525 trout.
About Detroit
According to the past week’s Weekly
Recreation Report from Fish and Wild-
life, the lake level is more than 10 feet
below the bottom of the main boat ramp
at Mongold, and there is real potential
that you could become a literal stick in
the mud trying to launch a boat.
Rafts, kayaks, canoes, pontoon,
float-tube and other pack-in, pack-out
craft are your best alternative options.
Just sayin’
I’m no expert and a long time out, but
I once served a stint as a firing-range
safety officer at the rifle and pistol range
at the Naval Air Station in Kingsville,
Texas.
It mostly involved certifying security
guards, overseeing competitive and rec-
reational target shooters as well as help-
ing base personnel who wanted some
target practice, to sight-in a new gun or
to earn marksman classifications.
On rare occasions we would teach pi-
lots’ wives how to load, unload and
shoot handguns for home protection
while their husbands were on deploy-
ments.
I’ll state up front that I don’t know
other than what I’ve read about the fatal
Oct. 21 shooting during the filming of
“Rust” in New Mexico where actor Alec
Baldwin fired a live round from a revolv-
er killing cinematographer Halyna
Hutchins and wounding director Joel
Souza.
All I can tell you is what I’ve heard
several times during decades as a re-
porter who has covered both the cop
and outdoor beats.
The most depressingly regrettable
words in the English language are “I
didn’t know the gun was loaded.”
And the most important thing I
learned on the Texas gun range is that
it’s a lot safer to teach the ignorant and
inexperienced about firearms than the
confident and cocky.
Now if someone can help me down
off this soap box …
Thought for the week: Every gun is
loaded until proven otherwise.
HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com