B
Friday, October 11, 2019
The Observer & Baker City Herald
RECREATION
REPORT
Discounted
camping at
some state
parks in Octo-
ber, November
The Oregon Parks
and Recreation
Department (OPRD)
will offer discounted
rates for electrical
and full-hookup
RV campsites at
selected state parks
during October and
November. Camp-
ers can use the
code FallFun19 at
oregonstateparks.re-
serveamerica.com to
receive a $7 discount
off the nightly RV
campsite rate, bring-
ing the current rate
from $24-34 down to
$17-27.
The discount is
available at:
• Bullards Beach
• Champoeg State
Heritage Area
• Detroit Lake State
Recreation Area
• Emigrant Springs
State Heritage Area
• Farewell Bend
State Recreation
Area
• Fort Stevens
State Park
• Humbug Moun-
tain State Park
• Joseph H. Stew-
art State Recreation
Area
• L.L. Stub Stewart
Memorial State Park
• Prineville Reser-
voir State Park
• South Beach
State Park
FISHING
FORECAST
ANTHONY LAKE
Received a fall
stocking of rainbow
trout the last week of
September. Fishing
has been good with
fi shing from fl oating
devices most pro-
ductive.
HAINES POND
Will receive a fall
stocking of rainbow
trout in mid October.
THIEF VALLEY
RESERVOIR
The reservoir is at
6 percent of capacity.
To allow anglers to
make use of fi sh that
will be lost due to
low water level, bag
and size limits have
been lifted and fi sh
may be captured
by hand, dip net
or angling. These
temporary rules
are in effect Sept.
11 through Oct. 15,
2019. Best fi shing
access is near the
dam.
GRANDE RONDE
RIVER
With cooler
weather trout fi shing
has picked up. Biolo-
gists have received
recent reports of
success with large
stonefl y patterns.
WALLOWA LAKE
The crowds have
left, but trout and
kokanee are still
available to the
determined angler.
Expect natural baits
to be successful as
stocked trout have
been in the lake long
enough to key in on
food items in the
lake.
Submitted photo
Fischer Schluessler with the billy goat he killed in September in the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City. Schluessler, 14, traveled from his home
near Detroit, Michigan, for the once-in-a-lifetime hunt.
M ICHIGAN & M OUNTAIN G OATS
■ Fischer Schluessler traveled from his home near Detroit to hunt goats in the Elkhorns near Baker City
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
Fischer Schluessler trav-
eled most of the way across
America to hunt mountain
goats in Baker County.
And that was the easy part
of the journey.
Airplanes were involved.
No rocky ridges to climb.
Fischer, who’s 14, lives in
Sterling Heights, Michigan,
about 40 miles north of
Detroit.
He’s hunted whitetail deer
in the comparatively gentle
terrain of his home state.
But going after cliff-dwell-
ing goats in a towering range
such as the Elkhorns, home
to Oregon’s largest goat herd
— well that is quite another
matter.
“It’s a lot different from
here,” said Fischer, who had
a memorable, and successful,
goat hunt in the Elkhorns in
September. “I was surprised
by how steep it was.”
Michigan’s highest point,
Mount Arvon, is 1,979 above
sea level.
Only a sliver of Baker
County — in the northeast
corner along the Snake River
— is lower.
Baker City is at about
3,400 feet.
And the prime goat habitat
Submitted photo
Fischer Schluessler, right, scans the steep slopes of the Elkhorn Mountains for goats along with one of his guides,
Dusty McGrorty.
mainly lies above 7,000 feet.
Fischer wasn’t devoid of
experience among the great
peaks of the West, however.
A family vacation this
summer to the Tetons of
Wyoming served as a sort of
training trip.
The relative scarcity of
oxygen in Baker County’s
high country in no way de-
tracted from the experience,
said Fischer’s father, John
Schluessler.
“It was beautiful,” John
said of the hunt that culmi-
nated with Fischer bagging
a trophy billy. “We just had a
blast.”
The “we” in this case
included not just father and
son. Fischer’s sister, Sage,
who’s 13, came along. And so
did Harvey Schluessler —
John’s father and Fischer and
Sage’s grandpa.
“It was a great, positive
experience for my family,”
John said in a phone in-
terview from Michigan. “It
was everything I could have
hoped for.”
Like other mountain goat
hunters in Oregon, Fischer
bucked considerable odds in
drawing a once-in-a-lifetime
tag. The state issued just 24
goat tags this year.
Two of those were for non-
Oregonians — and only one
of those was for a hunt in the
Elkhorns, where more than
350 goats gambol.
In 2018, the last year for
which statistics are available,
834 non-residents applied for
the hunt for which Fischer
drew the tag this year.
See Goats/Page 2B
Submitted photo
Fischer Schluessler’s mountain goat hunt was a
family affair. He traveled to Baker County with his
sister, Sage, and their father, John. John’s father,
Harvey, also accompanied the group.