2B
Friday, November 1, 2019
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BAXTER
Continued from Page 1B
“I’m really lucky to have
had a dad who was actually
building these things,” Baxter
said.
These are the connections
— to a special place and to his
father — that prompted Bax-
ter to write “Trails, Bridges &
Blizzards” in 2018.
As its title implies, the
148-page book chronicles
Reynold’s Forest Service
career. But it’s also a memoir
of Farel’s experiences on the
same trails and at the same
peaks, passes and lakes
where his father worked and
played.
Baxter was able to as-
semble this collection of
anecdotes largely because of
his affi nity, dating to his boy-
hood, of keeping every scrap
of paper that might later be of
interest.
When he was 4 or 5 his
mother, Oreta, brought him
a box of documents related to
family history.
Baxter not only saved the
box. He added to its burden.
“I started saving every-
thing that came along,” he
said during a recent inter-
view in the front room of his
Baker City home. “I always
thought I would put all that
stuff together some day and
write a book.”
He ended up writing more
than one.
Baxter has also compiled
an extensive family history,
as well as a collection of short
stories of his experiences in
the mountains, titled “The
Worthy Hat.”
His master’s thesis at the
University of Oregon exam-
ines settlements of North-
eastern Oregon.
But as useful as the docu-
ments in that old box turned
out to be, much of “Trails,
Bridges & Blizzards” derives
from a type of history as old
as verbal language.
The book might not have
been written but for Baxter,
as a boy, badgering his father
on dozens of evenings in front
of the family’s fi replace.
Not that Reynolds was
bothered by his son’s interest
in his work.
“Every day when he came
home from work I was all
over him, asking about what
he had done,” Baxter said.
“He’d fi ll me in and I’d take
out my maps to follow along
where he had been.”
(In the author’s note for
“Trails, Bridges & Blizzards,”
Baxter wrote that he could in-
terpret contour maps, which
show the lay of the land,
before he could read.)
SHARP
Photo courtesy of Farel Baxter
This photo was taken in 1957 while Farel Baxter’s father, Reynolds, was building a
bridge over Eagle Creek north of Boulder Park. The logs are heavy green tamaracks,
Farel Baxter wrote in his book, “Trails, Bridges & Blizzards.”
“The wilderness teaches you lessons whether you
want to learn them or not.”
— Farel Baxter
least one of our local farmers
for a year.”
Farel Baxter attributes his affi nity for writing to his
But in 2010 Baxter’s group
mother, Oreta, who he said had a gift for writing.
hiked, and they carried their
stuff in backpacks.
“I remember these things
for late July.
In the book Baxter writes
vividly,” he said. “I guess I was
Baxter’s group avoided a
that he usually had access to
supposed to.”
blizzard, but their trip wasn’t a horse to pack some items
As a boy Baxter was
without inclement weather.
during wilderness trips when
enthralled not only by his
They had to hunker down
he was a teenager, but he
father’s work in the Eagle
on the 8,400-foot plateau
hiked with a pack strapped to
Cap Wilderness, but also by
above Swamp Lake while a
his back.
tales from the pack trips his thunderstorm pelted them
But only in name did those
father helped lead, guiding
with rain, and lightning bolts contraptions have anything
groups of Boy Scouts on 50-
illuminated the gray sky.
in common with modern
mile, multi-day treks through
“While we dallied here for a packs constructed of light but
one of the most scenic places bit I refl ected again upon the sturdy alloys and fabrics.
in the West.
passing here of my father’s
“As teenagers our back-
The fi rst of these was in
group in 1948,” Baxter wrote. packs were made out of
July 1948 and Baxter, just 5, “It was at about this point
boards and cord, with heavy
was too young to go along.
that they began to get snowed canvas sacks,” Baxter said
That trip, which included
on. With the warm tempera- with a rueful chuckle that
20 youths and seven adults,
tures we were experiencing
suggests his shoulders don’t
also inspired the “Blizzards” there was no danger we
think the memories of their
part of Baxter’s book title.
would get snow and I was
old burdens are especially
His dad’s group endured a
really thankful for that.”
amusing. “They were the best
midsummer snowstorm while
On July 29, 2010, Baxter’s we had.”
camped at Swamp Lake.
group, which like his father’s
And it wasn’t only the
Several years later Baxter included several teenagers,
packs that pressed heavily
started accompanying his
sheltered from a torrential
on Baxter and his buddies —
dad on summer trips into the downpour at Long Lake, the so did the food they stuffed
wilderness.
same place, and the same
inside.
“My cousin Don Baxter
date, where his father had
“We took cans of peas,” he
and I were packing into the
camped in 1948 while 6
said, remembering in particu-
wilderness area by ourselves inches of snow fell.
lar one trip when his mother
by our 13th summer,” he
“We too found ourselves
insisted that he haul at least
writes in “Trails, Bridges &
at the mercy of nature and
nine cans of peas.
Blizzards.”
made the best of our situa-
The little green morsels
More than half a century
tion,” Baxter wrote.
were at least tasty — “we ate
later Baxter still relishes
One major difference
them all,” Baxter said — but
every journey into those
between the two trips, he
modern dehydrated, freeze-
mountains.
said — besides the passage
dried meals, which weigh a
He describes many back-
of 62 years — is that the
small fraction of canned veg-
packing adventures in his
1948 group both rode horses etables, are much less taxing.
book, including one in 2010
and relied on the animals to
“Those were heavy packs
when he, along with several
haul their gear and food. The and we were scrawny kids,”
companions, retraced much
latter category, according to a he said. “We were tougher
of the route of the 1948,
narration by Reynolds that’s than we thought we were.”
blizzard-marred excursion his featured in “Trails, Bridges &
Decades later, Baxter re-
father guided. As his father
Blizzards,” included “enough mains dedicated to staying fi t.
had, Baxter planned his trip pancake fl our to support at
As he sits in a recliner he
question. How do I obtain the
correct angle? Good ques-
Continued from Page 1A
tion. Here’s a trick that will
So how many times should help you. Get a semi-fi ne tip
you stroke the knife on each Sharpie. Mark along the edge
side? It doesn’t matter but
of the knife. Now grind on
everyone does three times
each side once and look at the
so just do that or you’ll freak edge. If only half of the mark
everyone out. You will tend to is gone, that tells you that you
have a smaller angle as you
need to drop the spine down
get into the curvature of the
a little. If the mark is gone
blade. You may be starting
— perfect! If there are grind
out on the hilt at 25 degrees
marks on hollow grind above
but as you get into the curva- the edge, then you have the
ture of the blade you’re at 15 knife laid too far down.
degrees. You want to use the
More than likely you will
same angle all the way down fi nd out that you are not con-
the blade. To eliminate end-
sistent at all. You will start
ing up with multiple angles I out OK near the hilt, then by
recommend lifting your elbow the end of the tip all of the
when you start into the cur-
mark is gone plus some. And
vature. Watch the YouTube
in between there will be spots
video (the link is at the end of that you somehow totally
the column) to comprehend
missed. The mark will tell
what I mean.
you what you are doing right
If the edge is really dinged or wrong.
up and mushroomed, I’ll
To put on a fi ner edge, after
slide the blade backward the using a diamond stone ad-
fi rst four revolutions to get
vance to an Arkansas stone.
the metal lined back up and
When using an Arkansas
then I’ll start cutting into the stone apply a few drops of
stone.
honing oil before you start.
Now, the million-dollar
Use the same procedures as
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald
looks like nothing so much
as a venerable alpinist, thin
and wiry, the sort of man you
might fi nd nursing a beer in
an Alpine hut after complet-
ing a tough route on Mont
Blanc, a coil of rope slung
over one shoulder.
A humidifi er puffs mois-
ture into the air in Baxter’s
living room to compensate for
the woodstove that chases the
chill on this bright morning in
mid-October.
The stove is burning a few
of the tens of thousands of
chunks that Baxter stacks
every year. Retired from
teaching, he spends much
of his time — when he’s not
hiking — cutting and selling
fi rewood. He puts up about 70
cords per year.
The combination of tromp-
ing around the Eagle Cap
Wilderness and bringing in
wood keeps Baxter in fi ne
fettle.
It also helps him control his
diabetes.
“I do it because I can, and
it’s fun,” he said of his wood-
cutting.
Although the Eagle Cap
Wilderness fi gures promi-
nently in many of Baxter’s
own memories, some of his
favorite stories aren’t really
about him, or his father, but
about youngsters he intro-
duced to the mountains on
long backpacking trips much
like those his father guided.
“It’s life-changing, I think,”
Baxter said of these treks.
He talks of youths who
kept hiking despite nasty
blisters that left their feet
bloody, of older kids who
helped their younger compan-
ions, of the musical laughter
How To Get A
Copy Of Farel
Baxter’s Book
Baxter can be reached
at 541-519-8640, or by
mail at 3095 B St., Baker
City, OR 97814. He said
he also plans to make
copies available at Betty’s
Books in Baker City.
around many campfi res.
“Those kids still talk about
those trips,” Baxter said. “And
I don’t forget. I think kids are
hungering for that experi-
ence, if they just get a little
taste.”
He remembers most vividly
a teenage boy from Idaho who
lived on the streets with his
mother. This boy, Baxter said,
arrived for his fi rst backpack-
ing trip with a “chip on his
shoulder.”
“He was growling at people,
very sullen,” Baxter said. “Not
a very happy boy.”
But the fi rst night in camp,
Baxter managed to coax a
laugh from the boy.
The next morning the boy
smiled — “he started feeling
good,” Baxter said.
By the time the trip ended
six days later, “that kid was
100% changed,” Baxter said.
“It was the most amazing
change I’ve ever seen.”
Baxter said he never did
fi nd out how the boy fared
when he returned to Idaho.
But he wouldn’t be sur-
prised if that week in the
Eagle Cap Wilderness had a
lasting, and profound, effect
on the teenager’s troubled life.
Baxter has seen it happen.
“The wilderness teaches
you lessons whether you
want to learn them or not,”
he said.
Knife-sharpening
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and a rag.
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