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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2021)
COFFEE BREAK B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD SATURDAY, JULY 17, 2021 Single woman fears she may never be a wife and mother because no one has ever wanted to marry me. I have wanted kids my entire life and thought I would have three before I was 30. Now I cry every day thinking how I may never be in a relationship with anyone who will love me enough to marry me, or have kids with me because marriage never happened. I have a college fund set up for my “future” children and have done everything in my life to pre- pare to be a mom. I paid off my student loans early, got a car that was perfect for car seats and a dog that’s a good breed for kids. I just don’t know where to turn next. — Yearns To Be Wife/Mom Dear Abby: I am a 31-year-old woman who has been in many relationships since high school. No engagements, however, although four of the men men- tioned they wanted to marry me. I lived with three of them. I’m a former model, have almost completed my second mas- ter’s degree and hold a steady government job. I don’t under- stand why I feel so depressed just CADDIS Continued from Page B1 turned up around 1922. Little did Troth know that his caddis pat- tern would go on to imitate virtu- ally any species of caddis, as well as some stonefl ies. A truly revolu- tionary fl y. Dry-fl y fi shing — fi shing fl ies on the water surface — is thought to be the pinnacle of trout angling. Norman McClean’s “A River Runs Through It,” centered in Missoula, Montana, sensational- ized fl y-fi shing, invigorating the GREENHORNS Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo A glorious pool prime for drifting a fl uff y, high-fl oating caddis for wild trout. Dear Yearns: You seem to be a nice, accomplished woman with traditional values. Could it be possible that you are so focused on getting married that you have chased away your suitors? From what you have written, you may have put the cart before the horse. Allow a relationship to play out naturally before focusing on a rush to the altar. Although you yearn for mar- riage before maternity, it’s important you don’t forget there may be other options. Marriage isn’t in the cards for everyone. Some single women focus on their careers and/or adopt children who need loving homes. You could be one of them if you expand your horizons. Dear Abby: I am currently struggling with a diffi cult parent. Actually, I have struggled with this relationship as far back as I can remember. My parent can be extremely hurtful and nasty at times, and when it happens, I feel stripped naked. I become almost paralyzed with pain and can barely stomach being in the same room with this person. Please help me fi nd a way to handle these epi- sodes appropriately with some level of functionality. I’m in my 50s now and in menopause, which is making everything more diffi - cult. — Sad Beyond Words Dear Sad: This isn’t a new problem; it’s a very old one. Ask yourself what this person has to off er you other than more abuse. Warn your parent that you will no longer tolerate being treated the way you have been, and the moment it starts, leave the prem- ises or hang up the phone. Repeat your message if/when it hap- pens again, and do not go back for more abuse. This is called drawing the line (better late than never) and protecting yourself. If apologies are off ered, fi ne. If not, you are free. fi shing world to take up the sport. McClean’s wit suggested purity in fi shing dry fl ies through bib- lical reference, saying “Our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fl y-fi sherman who tied his own fl ies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fi shermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all fi rst-class fi shermen on the Sea of Galilee were fl y-fi shermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fl y fi sherman.” While anyone can fi sh dry- fl ies, sans the pretention, there are arguably few other fl ies or fl y- fi shing methods that compare to charming wild trout with an elk hair caddis. A creamy puff of elk rump bobs on a dead-drift, cascading into the head of a mountain stream pool. Unable to resist the temptation, a muscly rainbow with a cotton-candy pink lat- eral stripe rockets to the sur- face, engulfi ng the fl y in an eager splash as it drifts over the emerald depths. A quick fl ip of the wrist sets the hook, and the fi ght ensures. Admiring the remarkable hues of salmonid perfection from the clear, cold cascades is what dreams are made of. Dreams that can be reality for anyone willing to chase them with an elk hair caddis, July being a fi ne month on streams like the Wallowa River, Umatilla and Walla Walla. ——— Brad Trumbo is a fi sh and wild- life biologist and outdoor writer in Waitsburg, Washington, where he also actively serves the Walla Walla-based Blue Mountain Pheasants Forever chapter. For tips and tales of outdoor pur- suits and conservation, visit www. bradtrumbo.com. Continued from Page B1 Start by driving Highway 7 south of Baker City for 49 miles to the Middle Fork John Day Road (Grant County Road 20), turning right at a sign for Bates State Park. Drive west on Road 20 for a little more than eight miles, then turn right on Forest Service Road 4550 (there’s a black mailbox on the left side of Road 20 at the intersection). Drive Road 4550, which passes beneath cliff s of a conglomerate formation, for 1.6 miles to a junction, where Road 4550 heads left and crosses Granite Boulder Creek. Continue straight on Road 4559 for 1.9 miles. Just before the road crosses the creek, there’s a pullout on the left, and a green gate with a sign noting that the route is closed to motor vehicles. Yet though the Green- horns lack the sort of sig- nature precipitous peak or limpid lake that distin- guishes other parts of the Blues, the range is, at least to my eye, not so dissimilar from its nearest neighbor, the Elkhorns. The area around Vinegar Hill, for instance, with its slopes of fl eecefl ower and sage, its clumps of white- bark pines and subalpine fi rs, could adequately fi ll in for places in the Elkhorns as the backdrop for a fi lm. The Greenhorns are geo- logic siblings to the Elk- horns as well, a mixture of ancient sedimentary rocks and granitic outcrops. In both ranges the boundary between these strata were prime places to dig for gold, and the Greenhorns, like the Elkhorns, were scoured thoroughly by miners. One exception to this kinship of stone is also the source of the Greenhorns’ name. Serpentine, a rock with a distinctive green shade and smooth, almost greasy, tex- ture, is rare in the Elkhorns but prevalent in the east part of the Greenhorns. A prominent knob made mostly of serpentine — a feature just east of Vin- egar Hill that 19th cen- tury miners christened as the Green Horn — lent its name both to the sur- rounding mountains and to its largest mining commu- nity, Greenhorn. My wife, Lisa and I, accompanied by our kids, Olivia and Max, spent the weekend of July 10 and 11 camped at Deerhorn campground, on the banks of the Middle Fork about fi ve miles downriver from Highway 7. On Sunday morning, July 11, we hiked a route I’ve wanted to try for more than 30 years, since I fi rst read about it in William L. Sullivan’s classic “Listening For Coyote,” the account of his 1,300-mile solo back- pack trip across Oregon in 1985. In the book, Sullivan describes ascending the Greenhorns by way of the Tempest mine. He writes about the 4,000 feet of ele- vation he gained — a chal- lenge that tapped his daily allotment of 15 pieces of hard candy — but we sam- pled only a 2.5-mile sec- tion that doesn’t include the steep grades Sullivan climbed. The “trail” is in fact the remnants of the road that leads to the Tempest mine, following Granite Boulder Creek most of the way. We started hiking around 10 a.m., in deference to the infernal heat that has marked this summer. Although major wildfi res denuded much of the for- ests on the southern slopes of the Greenhorns over the past quarter century or so, the canyon of Granite Boulder Creek is unscathed. weather | Go to AccuWeather.com feet around. I can scarcely imagine the toil involved in felling them, and then hacking out the notches, all without gas-powered equipment. Just beyond the cabin the road crosses Granite Boulder Creek on a bridge. Or, rather, the remnants of a bridge. There are two logs, butting against each other, and one has been cut fl at to make for surer footing. We continued up the canyon, on slightly steeper grades, for about half a mile to the crossing of Blackeye Creek, another chilly stream about the The mature forest of ponderosa pine, tamarack, Douglas-fi r, lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce cast shade across the road, and it was pleasantly cool. It’s a relatively easy hike. Besides being much wider than a typical trail — four people could walk abreast in most places — it’s also well-maintained. We walked between the cut ends of several freshly sawed logs that, had they been intact, would have posed considerable obstacles. About half a mile from the trailhead — actually it’s just a wide spot in the access road — the road crosses Lemon Creek. There’s no bridge, but we had no trouble get- ting across the diminutive stream with dry feet. (Keeping our feet out of the piles of fresh cattle dung was a bit more of a challenge.) Our main goal was Lemon Cabin, about 1.9 miles from the trailhead. It’s a typical miners shack, although rather larger than most I’ve seen, with two connected sections, one slightly lower than the other. The logs are large, too — some better than two IF YOU GO FAMILY OWNED 215 Elm Street La Grande (541) 963-5440 northwestfurnitureandmattress.com AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 53/67 Kennewick 53/78 St. Helens 56/83 Hood River 59/86 63/94 57/85 52/85 Condon SUN MON TUE WED A thunderstorm around Mostly sunny Sunny and nice 90 54 93 53 Baker City 51 98 55 Comfort Index™ La Grande 4 59 96 60 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 4 6 55 96 60 Comfort Index™ 4 Eugene 91 61 90 56 89 55 5 6 8 89 55 93 53 5 3 5 THURSDAY EXTREMES ALMANAC TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High Thursday Low Thursday High: 119° Low: 33° Wettest: 3.36” 90° 54° 92° 68° 94° 53° PRECIPITATION (inches) Thursday 0.00 Month to date Trace Normal month to date 0.36 Year to date 2.44 Normal year to date 6.07 0.00 0.00 0.40 5.93 9.74 0.00 0.29 0.41 15.27 14.08 HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY 20% NNW at 6 to 12 mph 9.8 0.30 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir 9% of capacity 58% of capacity 33% of capacity 66% of capacity 23% of capacity 39% of capacity OREGON High: 101° Low: 41° Wettest: Trace Ontario Sunriver Astoria Excessive rain hit north-central Pennsylva- nia in the early morning hours of July 17, 1942. Smethport received 30.8 inches in 4.5 hours, a state record. SUN & MOON SAT. Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset SUN. 5:21 a.m. 5:22 a.m. 8:36 p.m. 8:35 p.m. 1:46 p.m. 3:03 p.m. 12:19 a.m. 12:43 a.m. MOON PHASES STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday) Grande Ronde at Troy Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder Burnt River near Unity Umatilla River near Gibbon Minam River at Minam Powder River near Richland Death Valley, Calif. Leadville, Colo. Manhattan, Kan. WEATHER HISTORY AGRICULTURAL INFO. Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 52/79 583 cfs 115 cfs 92 cfs 41 cfs 163 cfs 26 cfs First Jul 17 Full Jul 23 Last Jul 31 New Aug 8 50/95 Beaver Marsh 48/89 Roseburg Powers Brothers 54/86 Coos Bay 57/90 Jordan Valley 59/99 Paisley 51/95 Frenchglen 57/100 Hi/Lo/W 68/56/s 93/56/pc 96/73/pc 63/51/s 92/58/pc 64/53/s 85/53/s 92/61/pc 90/59/pc 88/53/s 98/73/pc 88/65/s 98/68/pc 93/61/t 90/61/pc 97/71/pc 92/52/pc 89/54/pc Grand View Arock 57/102 62/107 61/103 Klamath Falls 50/94 Lakeview 48/94 McDermitt 58/99 RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY REGIONAL CITIES City Hi/Lo/W Astoria 67/52/pc Bend 94/58/s Boise 105/77/pc Brookings 63/52/s Burns 98/58/pc Coos Bay 64/50/s Corvallis 85/52/s Council 102/66/pc Elgin 97/57/pc Eugene 89/52/s Hermiston 98/70/s Hood River 86/63/s Imnaha 102/69/pc John Day 100/64/pc Joseph 97/62/pc Kennewick 99/65/s Klamath Falls 94/52/pc Lakeview 94/53/pc Diamond 57/99 Fields 63/98 MON. Boise 70/105 Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs. SUN. 59/104 Silver Lake 50/91 Medford Brookings Juntura 52/98 58/94 50/63 Ontario 68/106 Burns 50/96 Chiloquin Grants Pass Huntington 52/96 55/94 Oakridge Council 63/102 71/104 Seneca Bend Elkton 50/64 Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable. 56/100 53/94 52/83 90 62 58/98 51/98 John Day 52/97 Sisters Florence 50/64 Halfway Granite 52/89 Baker City 52/89 6 3 52/85 55/89 Redmond 94 50 4 4 Corvallis 57/100 53/85 Newport Enterprise 55/96 59/96 Monument 58/91 Idanha Salem 49/61 9 56/97 La Grande 58/89 Maupin Hazy sun and very warm Elgin Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg Lewiston 67/100 66/97 61/95 50/68 Clear Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 Walla Walla 64/99 Vancouver 56/84 TIllamook TONIGHT same size as Lemon Creek. From Blackeye Creek it’s another 3.5 miles or so — and more than 1,500 feet of elevation — to the Tempest mine. We had neither the time nor the energy to go that far. Which is not to say we were in a rush. We were quite happy to stop occasionally to pick huckleberries. Most had yet to ripen, but in a few weeks there should be a bounty. Which makes it possible to take a Blue Mountains hike in the Greenhorns with purple fi ngers. SUN. MON. City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W Lewiston 100/71/pc 96/72/pc Longview 78/51/s 78/54/s Meacham 94/57/pc 90/59/pc Medford 98/64/s 94/62/pc Newport 61/49/s 61/52/pc Olympia 80/48/s 80/52/s Ontario 106/75/pc 97/73/pc Pasco 100/63/s 98/68/pc Pendleton 95/65/s 92/68/pc Portland 85/56/s 84/57/s Powers 79/54/s 78/54/pc Redmond 97/55/s 94/55/pc Roseburg 90/57/s 89/57/s Salem 89/54/s 87/55/s Spokane 95/67/pc 93/69/pc The Dalles 94/66/s 92/68/pc Ukiah 91/53/pc 85/49/t Walla Walla 97/70/pc 93/71/pc Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice ANTHONY LAKES PHILLIPS LAKE Hazy sun Hot with hazy sun 67 50 93 54 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Hazy sun Hot with hazy sun 83 59 103 71 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Warm with hazy sun Hazy sunshine 78 51 86 44 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Hazy sun and hot Plenty of sunshine 97 62 94 65 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Hazy sun; very hot Warm with hazy sun 98 55 96 60