OUTDOORS & REC
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019
Clever concept: Headlamps — for your boots
I
recently met with Jim and
Annette Manroe, the owners
of SneakyHunter bootlamps, and
am excited about testing out their
new bootlamps. They are a unique
invention and believe it or not, they
produce them right here in the
Pacifi c Northwest. So if you like
supporting homegrown businesses,
look no further.
As an outdoor writer I get to test
literally hundreds of products each
year, and 99.9% of the new products
are a slight variation or improve-
ment of an already existing one. Not
so with SneakyHunter bootlamps. It
is a new concept altogether.
Think of them as a headlamp for
your feet. Why did I not think about
that? Headlamps are great, but if
you hear a bear while hiking down
the trail you have to focus the light
on the bear and hopefully not stum-
ble over a rock or go off the side of a
mountain when you shift the focus of
the light off the trail. The bootlamp
will always be focused right on the
trail in front of you.
But actually, the reason that Jim
and Annette invented them was
because he got tired of sneaking
into his favorite hunting spot before
daylight and spooking the elk and
deer with his wildly swinging fl ash-
BASE CAMP
TOM CLAYCOMB
light. If he hit them in the eyes or
inadvertently swept over them, they
spooked.
With the advent of SneakyHunter
bootlamps, you no longer have to
worry about the above scenario’s oc-
curring. Especially since it has three
sight settings.
• White light for walking.
• Red light for walking AND as we
know, a red light doesn’t spook game.
• The violet light is used to track.
This light illuminates a blood trail
better than the popular UV lights.
Operating and setting them up is
easy. Both units operate off of three
AAA batteries. I’d recommend put-
ting the buckle on the outside of your
foot. Your buckle is on the outside on
your spurs isn’t it? But if you can’t
bend over very good it may be easier
for you to tighten them up if the
buckle is on the inside.
After deciding which route you go,
you might even want to use a magic
marker to write an “L” on one and an
“R” on the other one so in the future
you know which foot to put it on in
case you’re OCD and absolutely have
sandals for wading in and out of the
water while fi shing. But will they
work on my Chacos? No problemo.
I just tested it and the prongs fi t
under the strap and holds tightly in
place.
To turn on the unit there is a
button on top. One click turns on the
white light, two clicks turns on the
red light and three clicks turns on
the violet light. But hold on, what
about walking through grass in the
morning damp with dew? It has a
hard foam compression pad on the
lid that while it doesn’t rate it as
water proof, it does rate it as water
resistant.
Katy and I are headed over this
weekend to Colorado to fl yfi sh,
ride horses and hike at the Wild
Skies Flat Tops Cabin in Northwest
Colorado. We got us a pair of Sneaky
Photo by Tom Claycomb Hunter bootlamps just in time. Bring
Bootlamps have an alternate red light setting to not only light the
on the adventures.
way, but keep from spooking game.
They also make hiker bootlamps.
These are different in that they offer
to have the buckle on which side you is mounted in the proper position
white, red and green lights. Many
consider proper position. Normal
and the light will shine where it is
hikers face depth perception issues
people will probably care less.
needed.
when using a light source above the
Adjust the placement so that the
While backpacking and fl yfi shing waist. This problem is eliminated by
Velcro strap is under your instep.
I love to hit the evening hatch, which the bootlamps since the light source
There are two prongs on the front of means that there is a good chance
is low to the ground. It also prevents
the unit. Slip these under the boot
that I may be down the river a good blinding approaching hikers since it
strings. The unit is made so that it
ways hitting it at dark. I wear Chaco won’t hit them in the eyes.
Pacific fishermen report best king salmon season in years
By Terence Chea
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Trolling off the California
coast, Sarah Bates leans over
the side of her boat and pulls
out a long, silvery fi sh prized
by anglers and seafood lovers:
wild king salmon.
Reeling in a fi sh “feels good
every time,” but this year has
been surprisingly good, said
Bates, a commercial troller
based in San Francisco.
She and other California
fi shermen are reporting one
of the best salmon fi shing sea-
sons in years, thanks to heavy
rain and snow that ended the
state’s historic drought.
It’s a sharp reversal for
chinook salmon, also known
as king salmon, an iconic spe-
cies that helps sustain many
Pacifi c Coast fi shing commu-
nities.
FIR
Continued from Page 1B
The oldest Coast Doug-fi rs
often develop corky, fl aky,
reddish-brown bark, while
that of our centuries-old trees
tends to stay dark—nearly
black — and harder, a look
the Coast variety has in
middle age.
It’s impressive how big
our Doug-fi rs can grow on
dry ridges and spurs, even if
they don’t attain the gargan-
tuan dimensions of coastal
trees. They may or may not
be particularly tall — often
they’re pretty squat, given
the whipping they take from
the elements in these ex-
posed sites across centuries.
But many become massively
fat and gnarled, with huge
arcing limbs and elephantine
rootholds. Woolly with lichen,
knobby with heavyweight
burls, topped maybe with a
bleached lightning-rod spire
or a jagged, broken crown,
these are truly ancient-look-
ing, wild-looking trees: just
as worthy of respect as those
soaring west-side titans.
Sometimes the lengthier,
quieter timetable of these
long-lived evergreens syncs
up with our more sped-up
human one. A hulking Doug-
fi r I pass by regularly on the
western rim of the Wallowas
lost its spar-top — which it’d
brandished for who knows
how long — since last fall.
The toppled summit, prob-
ably a victim of a winter gale,
has now joined the littered
deadwood debris around the
trunk base. It must have
been quite the crack and
quite the crash — and just
another war wound earned
by that big fella.
Commercial salmon catches
have surpassed official pre-
season forecasts by about 50%,
said Kandice Morgenstern,
a marine scientist with the
California Department of Fish
and Wildlife. Harvests have
been particularly strong in
Morro Bay, Monterey and San
Francisco, but weaker along
California’s northern coast.
“We’re really surprised to
be seeing this many fi sh being
landed so far this season,”
Morgenstern said.
The salmon rebound comes
after three years of extremely
low catches that resulted from
poor ocean conditions and
California’s fi ve-year drought,
which drained the state’s riv-
ers and reservoirs.
Over the past several years,
regulators imposed severe
fi shing restrictions to protect
chinook salmon, and offi cials
declared federal fi shery disas-
ters in 2018 to assist fi shing
communities in California,
Oregon and Washington.
This year’s adult salmon
are the fi rst class to benefi t
from record rainfall that fi lled
California rivers and streams
in early 2017, making it easier
for juvenile chinook to migrate
to the Pacifi c Ocean, where
they grow into full-size fi sh.
Chinook salmon are also
being helped by improved
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ocean conditions that have
produced an abundance of
anchovies, krill and other
feed. Several years ago, an El
Nino event brought unusu-
ally warm water to the Pacifi c
Coast and disrupted the
marine ecosystem.
“For the salmon fi shermen
who’ve been dealing with
disaster for so long, this is
an incredible boon to their
livelihoods,” said Noah Oppen-
heim, who heads the Pacifi c
Coast Federation of Fisher-
men’s Associations.
The strong salmon season,
which typically runs from
May to October, is positive en-
vironmental news at a time of
growing anxiety about climate
change. A United Nations
report released this month
warns that global warm-
ing threatens food supplies
worldwide.
Morgenstern says climate
change is creating greater
fl uctuations in ocean and river
conditions, making chinook
fi sheries “less stable, less pre-
dictable and more challenging
for fi shery managers.”
Most of the chinook salmon
now being caught come from
the Sacramento River and its
tributaries, where they spawn.
Many were raised in state-run
hatcheries then released into
rivers to swim to the ocean.
Harvests of chinook from
rivers farther north have not
been strong.
For consumers, the bounti-
ful harvest has driven down
wild salmon prices to $15 to
$20 per pound, compared with
$30 to $35 per pound in recent
years. Fishermen are making
up for the difference by catch-
ing more fi sh.
The Eastern Oregon Cancer Network invites you to help
commission the walls of the new cancer center in Pendleton!
Written in
STONE
Messages from the heart: for hope and healing
SATURDAY, SEPT. 7
NOON TO 3 P.M. • CEREMONY AT 2 P.M.
1701 SW 24TH STREET • PENDLETON, OREGON
The “Written in Stone” event is an
opportunity to cover the walls of the
treatment room at the new Eastern Oregon
Cancer Center at Pendleton with messages
of hope, healing and encouragement. These
words of inspiration will be embedded
into the very foundation of the new center
and will surround patients with the loving,
supportive thoughts of the entire community.
Cancer patients, survivors, and family
members, please join us and share your
stories of healing and hope!
Hosted by Eastern Oregon Cancer Network, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization
committed to reducing the financial burden of local cancer patients
by providing local housing during treatment, assistance with
transportation and other patient needs.
All donations stay in the Pendleton, Oregon
area to help local cancer patients.
2018 Gold Sponsors:
1701 SW 24th St. • Pendleton, OR 97801
PendletonCancer.com