Appeal Tribune
| WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2022 | 1B
OUTDOORS
Wahclella Falls Trail in the Columbia River Gorge has recovered nicely after the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire. PHOTOS BY ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
Overflowing
with beauty
Reborn Wahclella Falls Trail offers Columbia Gorge’s best easy hike
Zach Urness Salem Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
A
bout one year after the Eagle Creek Fire burned across Wahclella Falls Trail, Josh Durham was working on a crew
clearing the waterfall-filled pathway when they started to hear the sound of falling rocks. h It was October 2018 and
the goal was to put the finishing touches on a lower section of the trail so it could reopen and allow visitors to return to
one of the most beautiful spots in the Columbia River Gorge. h The canyon had other ideas.
“As we were working, we could hear rocks
falling and moving, but we felt like it was mostly
on the other side of the creek,” said Durham, a
stewardship coordinator for the Trailkeepers of
Oregon, a nonprofit that helps maintain trails.
“But then a dishwasher-sized boulder fell off
the cliff and landed right between two of the
crews. We hightailed it out and then more rock-
fall dropped, again, luckily right between the
crews as we hiked out.”
Wahclella Falls would stay closed more than
another year before another crew even went in.
“When that fire went through, even if it’s a
low intensity fire, it burned all the moss and
ground vegetation that held that rock in place,”
said Stan Hinatsu, recreation staff officer for
the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
“That’s why we saw so many landslides and so
much falling rock and it was a big reason it took
such a long time for those trails to be safe
See WAHCLELLA, Page 2B
Wahclella
begins at a
trailhead
just outside
Cascade
Locks and
follows an
access road
along
Tanner
Creek.
Politicians could learn something from fishing
Fishing
Henry Miller
Guest columnist
Let’s talk fishing and politics, both
potentially rancorous and toxic topics.
If you turn to Page 16 in your fishing
bible, the “2022 Oregon Sport Fishing
Regulations,” the yellow highlighted
section denoting updates and changes
from previous versions, under qualifica-
tions for a resident license and tags is
someone who “physically resided in
Oregon for not less than six consecutive
months.”
Doesn’t matter if you own property
here, or pay property taxes on it.
I once worked with an editor in
Northern California who did the two-
state fishing-license two-step thanks to
an Oregon “residence,” a shack, no,
make that a glorified storage shed,
where an Oregon fishing buddy picked
up his mail.
He’d probably still be pulling that fi-
nagle if he wasn’t taking an eternal dirt
nap, and if the residency requirements
hadn’t been cinched up.
Which brings us to politics in general
and Nick Kristof, a retired New York
Times columnist, in particular.
I’ve read him and admired him for
years, especially when he writes about
his natal and formative years in Oregon
and his lifelong love for Yamhill, where
he has kept a home his whole life.
The problem is that he wants to run
See MILLER, Page 2B
A planned stocking of rainbow trout was rescheduled for this week at Junction
City Pond. HENRY MILLER / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL