Outdoors
RECREATION
REPORT
Grant pays to
repair road to
North Powder
Pond
A $4,250 grant from
the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wild-
life’s Restoration and
Enhancement program
will pay to repair the
road leading to the
North Powder Pond
this month.
Vehicle access
won’t be open to the
Pond, about a mile
southwest of North
Powder just west of
Highway 30, during
repairs, which are
scheduled to continue
through March 30.
Due to irrigation
water that collects
along the access road,
a fairly deep depres-
sion has developed in
the road that fills with
water making access
difficult in the spring
to all but high-clear-
ance vehicles.
The grant money
will allow ODFW
crews to repair
the depression by
rebuilding the road
prism with various
sizes of rock material.
Anglers wishing to
get out and do some
early spring fishing
should visit other
ponds in the area
including Highway 203
Pond, just east of Inter-
state 84 at Exit 298, six
miles north of Baker
City, and Haines Pond,
along Highway 30 just
north of Haines.
Aside from weath-
er-related delays, the
road work should be
completed in time
for the stocking of
rainbow trout in the
North Powder Pond by
mid-April.
Repair work
starts on Forest
Service Road
47 in Tucannon
Watershed
PENDLETON
— Contractors have
begun work on Forest
Service Road 47 in the
Tucannon watershed,
which will continue
over the next several
weeks following the
widespread damage
caused by flooding
on Feb. 6, the Uma-
tilla National Forest
announced.
The planned work
includes debris slide
removal, temporary
repair of damaged
pavement, and resto-
ration of drainage fea-
tures. The main objec-
tive of this work is to
provide safe adminis-
trative access for land
management agencies
to continue to develop
repair plans. However,
once the work is com-
pleted, Forest staff
will determine if it is
safe to allow public
access on specific sec-
tions of the road. The
Forest will notify the
public of the eval-
uation results upon
completion.
Hunter education
classes canceled
All hunter educa-
tion classes/field days,
skills workshops,
volunteer trainings,
Family Fishing events
and other volunteer-led
activities are canceled
until at least April 13,
the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wild-
life has announced.
All state-owned hatch-
eries are closed to the
public. Trout stocking
will continue for now.
Rec
B
Saturday, March 21, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Getting outdoors during the coronavirus crisis
Sure cures for cabin fever
By Mavis Hartz
For the Observer
The coronavirus, or
COVID-19, is the con-
stant topic of conversation
for the last few weeks and
will continue to be for an
unknown time.
Like many, I am left
with a feeling of being all
dressed up with nowhere
to go as the country tries
to devise a plan to slow
and treat the predicted
onslaught of infirmed indi-
viduals. The most recent
round of directives call
for social distancing and
the halt of all social and
sporting events. Public
places like pubs, libraries
and schools are closed.
As our everyday lives
are shifted to reflect these
changes it is important to
remember that taking care
of your mental and physical
health, as well as the people
around you, should reign
supreme.
To that end, social dis-
tancing is not the same as
quarantine or isolation. It
means trying to limit the
number of humans, out-
side of those you are living
with, to swap germs with.
Social engagements and
the everyday rat race has
been slowed to a crawl.
This means more time for
home projects, hobbies,
game nights and life sports
to rule. Fortunately, the
number of life sport adven-
tures available in Eastern
Oregon that leave at least
a six-foot buffer between
individuals is indefinite.
The local and distant
ski hills have closed for the
health of all but the snow is
still there. This is the per-
fect year to explore a little
backcountry Nordic or Ran-
donnée in the Elkhorn,
Wallowa or Blue Moun-
tains. Those wishing for
a groomed surface should
like the Facebooks of the
Anthony Lakes Mountain
Resort and the Blue Moun-
tain Nordic Club as both
have expressed the plan to
Photo courtesy of Mavis Hartz
Mavis Hartz gets in some miles on her mountain bike in the Blue Mountains in a previous year.
Photo by Mavis Hartz
Trails in the Mount Emily Recreation Area near La Grande.
continue posting updates
and grooming Nordic trails
as long as weather and well-
ness permit.
If more adventure is
called for, I personally
think Eastern Oregon is
overdue for an Olympic
duathlon team that sweeps
the world of Nordic skiing
and target practicing.
Mount Emily Recre-
ation Area, PATRA, and
Sno Road of Union County,
Pendleton and Echo respec-
tively all have trails that are
ready for mountain biking,
running and hiking. If you
are looking to explore new
trails, I suggest the free
downloadable app Trail-
forks. For those wishing
to battle it out in cyber-
space, the app Strava has
local routes with king of
the mountain times to be
beaten.
The weather is still tem-
peramental with spring and
the trails always change
with moisture. Remember,
if the trail sticks to your
shoes, tires or hooves, take
a different route or come
back another day to pre-
serve the trail for later rides.
Gravel and road biking
are also calling. Look to
places like Ride with GPS,
also a downloadable app,
for suggested rides and
classic routes. This time of
year, the gravel surfaces
have been polished by the
wind, rain and snow to a
smooth, glassy perfection
that will be lost later in the
year as dust and washboard
emerge as the water content
abates.
This year of the coro-
navirus may be the reboot
road riding has been
waiting for. With the
number of commuters and
errand runners significantly
down, it might be the per-
fect time to ride that busier
road that is beautiful but a
bit scary due to traffic.
However you chose
to make lemonade out of
lemons, stay safe and strive
to be the healthiest pos-
sible version of yourself.
Eat right, sleep eight hours
a night and get out in the
fresh air and work your
body.
With any luck this pan-
demic will result in an
explosion of art, technology,
scientific theories, close
families, tidy homes, honed
bodies and the occasional
treasured baby.
Choose from town and country paths in Baker County
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
I don’t consider myself
a heavy breather, but until
recently I didn’t think it
necessary to try to sup-
press all evidence that I’m
exhaling.
Which is not particularly
easy to pull of, at least when
you’re alive.
And harder still when
you’re exercising at a mod-
erate level.
Such is life in the era
of coronavirus, when
thoughtful people, at least
when they’re out in public,
have to consider such issues
as droplet spread that they
were heretofore able to com-
fortably ignore.
I have walked sections
of Baker City’s Leo Adler
Memorial Parkway many
dozens of times but it hadn’t
occurred to me before this
week that in most places
you can see what’s ahead for
at least a few hundred feet.
More to the point you
can see who’s ahead, should
you be sharing that sec-
tion of the paved path
with another pedestrian
or bicylist. This is enough
space to allow even less
than nimble walkers — me,
for instance — ample time
to prepare for the social dis-
tancing do-si-do that I sus-
pect will rapidly become a
social custom as common as
a man doffing his fedora to
a lady once was.
The Adler Parkway,
which follows the Powder
River for about 2 miles
through Baker City, needed
no other attributes to earn
my endorsement, but in
these troubled times I have
decided to accept with grat-
itude even the smallest of
favors.
Nor is the Parkway the
only convenient option for
people who, even as they try
to help limit the spread of
the virus, feel compelled to
get out in the clean spring
air and make a few miles.
Two public sites within
a 10-minute drive of Baker
City are well-suited for
hiking this time of year.
The Bureau of Land
Management oversees both
the Oregon Trail Interpre-
tive Center, just north of
Highway 86 about 5 miles
east of Baker City, and the
Virtue Flat Off-Highway
Vehicle Area south of
Highway 86 and a couple
miles east of the Interpretive
Center.
The Interpretive Center
sits atop Flagstaff Hill,
above the route of the
Oregon Trail. Below the
Center the BLM maintains
about 4 miles of trails —
about 1 mile paved and the
rest gravel and dirt.
Although the Center
itself is closed, hikers can
access the trails by parking
at a pullout on the north
side of Highway 86 near
Milepost 7. There is an
“Oregon History” sign here,
and a trail leads north to
the Oregon Trail ruts, then
northwest to connect with
the Interpretive Center
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald file photo
About 4 miles of trails, some paved, wind along Flagstaff Hill below the Oregon Trail In-
terpretive Center near Baker City.
trails. The parking area is
just west of a “Keep Oregon
Green: Prevent Wildfires”
sign beside the highway.
The main paved trail
descends from the Center
to the Oregon Trail itself.
A short spur leads to Pan-
orama Point’s view of the
Baker Valley and the snow-
decked Elkhorn Mountains
dominating the western
skyline.
Hikers can follow two
short (0.4 of a mile) loops,
one of which parallels the
Oregon Trail, and return
to the Center either on the
paved trail or the unpaved,
rocky and aptly named
Ascent Trail.
The terrain at Virtue
Flat, despite its name, is
similar to Flagstaff Hill. So
is the flora — sagebrush and
grass, with only a handful
of isolated juniper trees.
But the hiking is quite
different.
As you probably deduced
from the name — Off-
Highway Vehicle Area —
there’s not so much as a
square foot of asphalt at
Virtue Flat.
But although the 5,000-
acre area is popular among
ATV riders, the trails are
also open to hikers, moun-
tain bikers and horseback
riders.
The routes, most of
which are marked by
signs, range from relatively
smooth two-track that most
SUVs can negotiate, to
paths that basically follow
the boulder-choked bed of
an ephemeral stream.
A small section of Virtue
Flat — 250 acres — is
closed to public entry until
June 30 to protect natural
resources. Maps, which
are available at the main
parking area along Ruckles
Creek Road (the turnoff
is adjacent to the entrance
road to the Interpretive
Center) and at https://www.
blm.gov/visit/virtue-flat-
ohv-area, show the closure
area.