2B
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
A panorama of Mount Washington as seen from East Saddle to Bob Thumb with Mount Jefferson on the horizon in April 2021. WILLIAM SULLIVAN/FOR THE REGISTER-GUARD
Hike
Continued from Page 1B
Since then, I had begun to wonder if it might in fact
be easier to reach that pass in winter. Snow would cov-
er up the boulders and brush that had made Bob so
hard to approach.
Lured by this logic, I set out last April with an expe-
rienced snowshoer (Scott Hovis), a blizzard-proof tent
and survival gear on a three-day expedition, The Quest
for Bob.
A complicated legal rationale
At this point I should pause to explain why this peak
has no official name. Even its famous neighbor has had
name troubles. Originally known to pioneers as
Squawtit Butte, Mount Washington won its current
handle as part of a promotional scheme to turn the
Cascades into a Presidential Range like the one in New
Hampshire. After Mount Adams and Mount Jefferson,
Obituaries
Marsha L. Polzel
Mary Winford
McCarty
SILVERTON -
On Wednesday, Jan-
uary 26, 2022, Mary
passed away peaceful-
ly at the age of 81. She
was preceded in death
by her husband Elmer
Ray McCarty, survived
by her children Tina
Stadeli, & Ray McCarty
as well as many grand-
children, and numerous
great – grandchildren.
Mary was a loving, and
caring women that
loved her family very
much.
A graveside service
will be held at Valley
View Cemetery on
Thursday, February 3,
2022 at 2:00 pm.
Arrangements made
by Unger Funeral Chap-
el
Frankie B. Roberts
SILVERTON - Dec. 2,
1933 – Dec. 18, 2021
Frankie B. Roberts
was born in Topeka,
Kansas on December
2, 1933. He worked at
Brackett Stripping, In-
dustrial Chrome, Boat
Factory, last worked at
Neilsen Metal in Sa-
lem, Oregon. He was a
professional horseshoe
pitcher & received many
awards.
Frankie is survived by
his wife Betty Roberts
of 53 years, David Rob-
erts of Lawrence, Kan-
sas, Lee Ann Roberts
of Albuquerque, New
Mexico, Karlene Allan
of Lawrence, Kansas,
Tina Smith of Deltona,
Florida, Nancy King
of Lawrence, Kansas.
Siblings; Kay Roscoe
of Lebanon, Oregon,
Don Roberts of Tope-
ka, Kansas, Bob Roberts
of Napa, Idaho, & Jim
Roberts of Tecumseh,
Kansas.
Frankie is preceded
in death by his parents
Frank & Vella Rob-
erts. Dixie Bradhurst,
Herb Roberts & two
step-sons Ellis & tom
Bryant with numer-
ous grandchildren and
great-grandchildren,
nieces, & nephews.
SILVERTON - Born to
Roy and Velda Joyce in
Thousand Oaks, Ca, she
spent most of her early
years growing up as one
of 6 siblings, near Port
Hueneme. They spent
their time camping and
enjoying time outdoors
doing family activities.
She Graduated from
Thousand Oaks HS
and spent some time in
Ventura before settling
into Oakview to raise
her family. She was a
stay-at-home mom,
to her two boys, while
her husband was away
in the oil fields. When
the boys were teens they
decided as a family to
move to Oregon, trying
out several locations be-
fore finally settling into
Silverton Or. She later
divorced but continued
to be an active part of
her son’s lives, as well
as her grandchildren’s
lives. She met her part-
ner Terry whom she
enjoyed spending time
together and watching
football with him.
She is survived by her
sisters Annie and Becky.
Her kids Eric and Bri-
an. Grandkids Patrick,
Drake, and Isabelle, as
well as 3 great grand-
kids.
Arrangement’s by
Unger funeral Chapel
enthusiasm for this idea flagged, so Bob never became
Mount McKinley.
Instead, in 1964, Bob became part of the Mount
Washington Wilderness. That congressional act stip-
ulates that Wilderness should remain largely free of
the marks of man. The Forest Service now issues lim-
ited permits for some day hikes and all overnight trips
at Mount Washington in summer in order to prevent
damage from overuse. Whenever a new trail is built, an
old one must be demolished to make sure the Wilder-
ness stays wild.
Similarly, no new names are allowed on features
within an official Wilderness. Names are a mark of
man and should not clutter the blank spots on the map.
I agree with this policy. Still, it has caused me some
difficulty as a guidebook author. How am I supposed to
describe a hike to a destination with no name?
When I added a hike to a nameless but very scenic
lake in the crater of Broken Tip, I was careful to stress
that the pool had no name. Hikers in the Bend area now
routinely call it “No Name Lake.” But the Oregon Board
of Geographic Names will never condone that title,
both because of the Wilderness rule and because I’m
pretty sure Oregon already has a No Name Lake. I think
we also have a Nameless Lake and a dozen Lost Lakes,
so those suggestions won’t get much traction either.
The case for Bob is even weaker. And no, my wife
and I didn’t pick the name in honor of her sister’s dog,
or a radio station, or even Bumstead, the ski patroller.
We have no rational excuse for our choice.
Friends have snickered at my obsession with Bob,
an overlooked crag. But I am here to tell you that Bob is
one of the most spectacular winter destinations in
Oregon.
Bob stands 6 miles from the Ray Benson Sno-Park, a
huge and popular winter recreation center at Santiam
Pass. Admittedly, the trek to Bob is not for the unpre-
pared. The last 4 miles are trailless, gaining 1,800 feet
of elevation. That’s a long way through the snow in one
day, so my snowshoeing colleague and I carried our
packs in two-thirds of the way and set up a base camp
at a nameless lake at the foot of Mount Washington.
The lake where we camped has a great view, but it
really has no name, and it’s not even always a lake. It’s
a circular meadow that fills with water during the
snowmelt of May and June. When covered with winter
snow, it’s hard to tell if there’s a lake underneath or not.
Because this sometimes-lake is in an old wildfire
burn area, it would be less fun to visit in summer. In
winter the fallen, charred logs are covered with snow
and the standing snags cast shadows that look like
barcodes. Unlike live trees, snags do not hamper snow-
shoers by blocking views and pitting the terrain with
tree wells.
Still, the landscape here is so confusingly repetitive
that you will probably need a GPS app on your phone to
find your way to the lake. If you go, the location is
44.3578 -122.838.
After camping a night on the snow — staying warm
in thick down sleeping bags atop inflatable backpack-
ing mattresses — we set out with lighter packs on the
second day of our quest, snowshoeing straight toward
Bob.
As we approached, I could tell that Bob originally
was part of the Mount Washington stratovolcano. The
tilted lava layer that caps Bob must once have been a
flow on the larger mountain, before erosion stripped
Mount Washington to a stump with its old lava pug as a
spire. An orange layer of welded cinders on Bob match-
es an orange stripe on Mount Washington’s east cliff.
The steeper exposure there has eroded out a couple of
interesting rock arches.
The last part of the climb to Bob should only be at-
tempted when avalanche danger is nil. It was, but we
still chose a route amid alpine Christmas trees, assum-
ing that avalanches had not mowed through those
areas in recent years.
No need for labels
Two ravens circled Bob, eyeing us at each circuit,
croaking like strangled crows.
Wind blew plumes of smoke-like snow from ridge-
top cornices — dangerous, overhanging curls of ice
that looked like frozen waves about to crash.
Near the pass, ladybugs crawled through the grainy
snow. Ladybugs? We counted 20. Apparently these ti-
ny beetles huddle together under mountain rocks to
survive the winter and crawl out when the sun shines.
Finally we crested the pass between Bob and Mount
Washington only to discover that it is a false pass. We
had merely reached the lip of an old cirque. An Ice Age
glacier must have scoured out this bowl, about the size
of a baseball diamond, amputating Bob from the volca-
no.
Beyond the cirque another steep climb brought us to
the actual pass, with a 200-foot sheer drop ahead. To
the left, Bob’s orange wall rose to a tilted snowcap, as
jaunty as a white beret. To the right, the powdered sug-
ar of rime frost clung to the 1,000-foot cliff of Mount
Washington’s summit. To the north and south our view
stretched from Mount Jefferson to the Three Sisters.
Icy winds whipped about us at that vertiginous
pass. But when we retreated down to the hollow of the
secret cirque, we were able to spread out our lunch in a
sunny calm.
Protected on either side by cathedrals of stone, I de-
cided that my Quest for Bob had been wrong from the
start. The greatest treasures of Wilderness should not
be labeled.
Such places need no names.
William Sulllivan is the author of 22 books, includ-
ing “The Ship in the Woods” and the updated “100
Hikes” series for Oregon. Learn more at oregonhiking-
.com.
Miller
Continued from Page 1B
vegetables,” which would replace the loss of the pro-
duction of meat.
There are exceptions, though.
“After an animal dies of natural causes, such as old
age, IP13 would not prohibit someone in Oregon from
processing their body into meat, leather, or fur for use
or consumption,” again quoting the FAQ section.
Picture it.
“What are you guys doing?”
“Keeping an eye on old Bessie over there by the barn.
She’s looking a might poorly.”
“Yea. I thought I heard her cough.”
One wag on an anti-IP 13 web posting summed it up
this way: “Talk about aged beef.”
Another exception is the importation into Oregon of
“meat, leather, or fur” from out of state.
Along with lines of refrigerated semis coming into
the Beaver State, one can envision mega-mall meat
palaces springing up in Vancouver, Wash., and at Hilt,
Calif., home of the first non-state-run liquor store
south of the border.
A non-starter for me is that under the provisions of
IP 13, activities such as fishing, hunting and trapping
would be criminalized.
Don’t cast a line if you can’t do the time.
Needless to say, organizations such as the Oregon
Farm Bureau and the Oregon Hunters Association are
vehemently opposed to the initiative.
All of the organizations do have one thing in com-
mon, from the Farm Bureau and OHA to Yes on IP 13, a
“click to donate” button on their web sites.
In one sense, IP 13 is what’s referred to as mobilizing
information, or to overuse the already threadbare ex-
pression, it fires up the base.
And it swells the coffers as well as inflaming the
passions of those on both sides.
As I said in the introduction, there’s a faint whiff of
the ersatz pants-on-poodles Society for Indecency to
Naked Animals in the current ballot efforts.
But in searching for information online about the
lark, there was a story about a woman who wanted to
donate $4,000 to SINA to put clothes on critters.
So stay tuned.
E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area Pond north of Corvallis is
scheduled to be stocked the week of Feb. 7-11. A
parking permit, which must be purchased in
advanced, is required. HENRY MILLER / SPECIAL TO THE
STATESMAN JOURNAL
ELSEWHERE
Trout stocking next week (Feb. 7-11): Walling
Pond, 16th and McGilchrist in Salem (1,400 keeper-
size); Timber Linn Lake (900 keepers) and Waverly
Lake (900 keepers) both in Albany; E.E. Wilson Wild-
life Area Pond north of Corvallis (1,000 keepers; park-
ing permit required); Alton Baker Canoe Canal in Eu-
gene (1,000 keepers); Junction City Pond south of
Junction City (1,200 keepers).
Online halibut meeting: Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife will hold an online meeting at 6 p.m.
Feb. 8 to talk about and take angler ideas for 2022 all-
depth halibut fishing seasons offshore between Cape
Falcon and Humbug Mountain. Information and links
to the meeting are online at ODFW to hold Public Meet-
ing Feb 8: Central Oregon Coast Recreational Spring
All-Depth Halibut Season
Thought for the week: “Life is like a merry-go-
round. They both have horses.” – line from the “Bob
Newhart Show”
Contact Henry
lerSJ@gmail.com
via
email
at
HenryMil-