B
Saturday, March 7, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
RECREATION
REPORT
FIVE DEER HUNTS
CANCELED DUE
TO DISEASE IN
WHITE-TAILED
DEER LAST YEAR
SALEM — The
Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife
is canceling fi ve 600
Series deer hunts,
meaning hunters will
not be able to apply
or draw the tag for
them for the upcom-
ing fall 2020 season.
The cancellations
are in an area of the
Blue Mountains from
Milton-Freewater to
Pilot Rock where an
outbreak of Epizootic
hemorrhagic disease
(EHD) is estimated
to have killed 2,000
white-tailed deer late
last year. The hunt
cancellations for
these 227 tags are
needed to protect
does and allow
the white-tailed
deer population to
rebound.
The hunts can-
celled are on private
land, where antler-
less deer hunting
addresses damage
to agriculture. The
hunt numbers are
649A (N Ukiah), 654A
(Rawhide), 655A (Or-
chards), 655B1 and
655B2 (Walla Walla
Valley No. 1 and
No. 2). While some
of the bag limits for
these hunts allow an
antlerless mule deer
or white-tail to be
harvested, most of
the harvest is white-
tailed deer in these
hunts.
These hunts will
no longer be avail-
able for application
through ODFW’s
licensing system.
ODFW License Sales
Service staff will be
contacting hunters
who have already
applied for these
hunts and asking
them to adjust their
application through
their online account
(applications can be
edited online under
Recreational Portfo-
lio/Controlled Hunts;
see how-to online).
While EHD typi-
cally does not have
long-term impacts
on white-tailed deer
populations, cancel-
lation of these hunts
should help the
population rebound
faster.
ODOT ALLOCATES
MONEY TO PLOW
SNO-PARKS
The Oregon De-
partment of Transpor-
tation allocated an
extra $11,910 recently
to plow snow from
three sno-parks —
Catherine Creek,
Clear Creek (north
of Halfway) and Salt
Creek Summit.
ODOT initially bud-
geted $34,500 for the
three sno-parks, but
higher-than-average
snowfall necessi-
tated the additional
money.
ODOT partners
with the Wallowa-
Whitman National
Forest and local con-
tractors to keep the
sno-parks accessible.
The money comes
from the sale of sno-
park passes, required
to park at the sites.
EARLY SEASON HIKING
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
A Wallowa Mountains vista from the Virtue Flat OHV Area east of Baker City includes Red Mountain (red arrow), the highest peak in Baker County
at 9,555 feet.
S CRATCHING A S PRING I TCH
I was driving through the
sage, hoping to fi nd a mild
spring breeze and the early
buttercup, when I glanced in
the rear-view mirror and saw
a cloud of dust roiling in my
wake.
In summer this would be
a gritty, cornea-scratching
annoyance.
But on the cusp of spring, I
take the dust as a promising
omen — a sign that I might
get in some miles without
having to lug around a couple
pounds of mud on each boot.
This purgatorial period,
with the snow receding and
the temperature on some
afternoons fl irting with 60,
can frustrate hikers.
We yearn to tromp around
without having to lace up
heavy winter boots and, like
as not, snowshoes or skis.
Yet the mountain
trails, no matter how
warmly the sun falls
across the face, will
remain snowbound
for months.
Hells Canyon,
the lowest place around here,
beckons with its promise of
snow-free slopes. But the
great canyon of the Snake
River is too far from my home
in Baker City for a quick
jaunt.
Not so with Virtue Flat.
This 5,000-acre swath of
public land is just a 10-min-
ute drive from Baker City —
maybe 15 if, as I typically do,
you go to the eastern end of
the area.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Expanses of sagebrush and grass predominate in the Virtue Flat OHV Area.
It’s my favorite spot early
in
the season not only due
ON THE TRAIL
to its proximity, but also
JAYSON JACOBY
because I relish the scent
of sun-warmed sage after
Virtue Flat is best known
months marked by frigid
as a playground for off-
winds and frequent snow
highway vehicles. The area,
fl urries.
which is overseen by the
The herbaceous harbingers
BLM, has a network of more of spring — buttercups and
than 30 miles of signed roads grass widows and desert
and trails, ranging from
parsley, among others — also
relatively smooth two-tracks tend to blossom earlier at Vir-
to narrow, boulder-strewn dry tue Flat than in most other
washes where drivers like to places nearby.
challenge their purpose-built
rock-crawling rigs.
But Virtue Flat is also open
to hikers, mountain bikers
and horseback riders.
But sometimes I’m overea-
ger, lured into the sagelands
by a particularly balmy day,
only to fi nd the ground still
squishy with the remnants of
winter frost.
Virtue Flat is no place for
hiking during the thaw. The
saturated desert soil makes a
type of mud that clings with
a tenacity that would impress
the chemists who create
powerful glues.
This glutinous interlude,
fortunately, tends to be brief,
spanning perhaps a few
weeks after the last snowdrift
has surrendered its moisture
to the ground.
As I drove along Ruckles
Creek Road on a recent morn-
ing, the southern boundary
of Virtue Flat, the dust cloud
behind me suggested that the
ground was likely to be dry
enough for hiking.
And generally speaking
that was the case.
See Hiking/Page 3B
Chow Time
Photo and caption by Jim Ward
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Mountains rise in every direction from Virtue Flat. To the
southeast the snowy slopes of Little Lookout Mountain,
which tops out at 6,676 feet, dominate the view.
Ron Coleman, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, fi lls a deer
feeder at the Elkhorn Wildlife Area west of Baker City. A specially formulated,
high-protein pellet is offered to mule deer coming to the feeding sites. As with
most areas of the West, mule deer numbers are down on the Wildlife Area, from
over 1,000 animals in the mid-1980s to 250 animals currently.