Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, January 29, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Into the
lair of the
snowshoe
HARE
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Twin Mountain seen between the trees near the Anthony Lakes Highway on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022.
Winter hike turns up lots of snowshoe
hare tracks, and three of the critters
JAYSON
JACOBY
ON THE TRAIL
W
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Snowshoe hare tracks in the Elkhorn Mountains on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022.
e drove to the mountains on a
recent Sunday, seeking sun-
shine and snow that isn’t
crusted with ice that clatters underfoot
with an unpleasant cacophony.
We found both.
We also found a few things that
greatly desired not to be found and that
are quite cunning at concealment —
snowshoe hares.
Going up the mountains in search
of fair weather reverses the normal
sequence of things, of course.
Elevated ground is more likely in
all seasons to be cloaked in cloud, even
when the valleys below bask in the
beneficent rays.
But occasionally the atmosphere gets
mixed up.
Although in reality it’s the lack of
mixing that results in what meteorol-
ogists call an “inversion” — and for
which the rest of us tend to reserve more
piquant, and possibly profane, terms.
This temporary confounding of the
common weather conditions — that is,
the temperature drops the higher you
climb — comes about most often during
winter, and the explanation lies, in part,
with the nature of cold air.
It’s heavy — heavier, at any rate, than
a parcel of warmer air.
And just as water will inundate low
ground, so will chilly air, left to its own
devices, pool in a valley (although we
tend to think of air as a gas and thus
notably different from water, in fact air,
in the way it flows and is affected by
topography and gravity, behaves much as
a liquid does).
This is why it’s better — or at least
warmer — to pitch your tent on a hum-
mock than in a hollow.
Most of the time the atmosphere is
sufficiently roiled that air doesn’t have
a chance to settle in, like an unwanted
houseguest who is blithely unaware of
how obnoxious his presence is.
A persistent wind can keep air
moving along in most cases.
But even when winds are gentle, air
tends to move vertically so long as air
near the ground is comparatively warm
and thus buoyant.
(This same phenomenon, known
generally as “instability,” also can fuel
thunderstorms. A parcel of air will con-
tinue to rise so long it’s warmer than
the surrounding air, and if it goes high
enough it’s likely to condense into
clouds, since cooler air can hold less
moisture in suspension, and poten-
tially congeal into electrically charged
thunderheads.)
The initial ingredients for an inver-
sion include clear skies and light winds.
In winter, this combination in our
region’s valleys usually causes tempera-
tures to plunge. Clouds act as a sort of
blanket, holding the heat that the ground
absorbs from sunlight. When clouds
disperse, that heat can more readily rise,
leaving a relatively thin layer of chilly
air near the ground.
The second key factor is somewhat
warmer air moving in higher in the
atmosphere. This warmer air acts as a
lid, trapping the cold air in the valleys.
And an immensely effective lid it is,
one that’s essentially leakproof.
The captured cold air has no physical
means by which to rise, since it will col-
lide with a layer of air above that’s warmer
and, more to the point, less dense.
See, Hares/Page B2
Getting started with snowshoeing
TOM
CLAYCOMB
BASE CAMP
I
f you’ve never snowshoed,
you ought to try it. In the
old days, when I bought my
first pair of snowshoes, all they
had were the old wood-framed
ones which had rawhide web-
bing. I still think that they’re the
coolest.
In the old days the trappers
and Indians made them out of
branches and used rawhide strips
to make the webbing. Out on
open prairies and grasslands they
used longer, narrower shoes. In
brush and mountains everyone
uses wider, shorter ones nick-
named bear claws.
But let’s back up to the begin-
ning. Why would someone use
snowshoes? Because in deep
snow you’ll sink up to your waist
and get buried. It is impossible
to walk. And even in shallower
snow it is a major pain if it is just
slightly crusted over. You take a
step and right when you’re put-
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
A pair of ski poles are also nice to have when snowshoeing.
ting weight on that foot your
break through the crust and slam
down into the snow a foot or
more. Snowshoes are the only
way to go in snow other than if
you’re a cross country skier.
The bindings on snowshoes
are different than used on down-
hill skiing. When downhill
skiing, your foot is tied in firm
to the ski. When snowshoeing,
your toe is in constant contact
with the shoe but with every step
your heel rises up. The bindings
resemble a thick piece of rubber
that your toe slips into. Of
course, there are varying types
of bindings but the original ones
40 years ago were all like this.
A few years ago ... I don’t
remember, maybe 20 or 30 years
ago, you started seeing alumi-
num-framed snowshoes hit the
market. They’re lightweight and
relatively cheap. I still like the
old wood/rawhide snowshoes the
best but mine finally rotted out.
It was cheaper to buy a pair of
aluminum ones than to repair my
old ones. So that’s what Katy and
I use now.
Where should you go?
You don’t want to just ran-
domly pick a mountain to hike
up. You’ll want to pick a trail
or old logging road to hike on.
Think back to where you elk
hunted last fall. Where were
some good logging roads for
hiking? Or you can hike across
a meadow. Or maybe even use
them if you’re going ice fishing
and the snow is deep on the ice.
I’ve seen a couple of back-
country yurts advertised as fun
to hike to and spend the night in.
I’ve never done that. When Katy
and I go snowshoeing we just
go up in the mountains and hit a
trail. It’s a fun excuse to get up
in the mountains and get a little
exercise. We don’t have a big
agenda. We’re just going hiking.
To have a carrot at the end of
the hike I like to throw a coffee
pot in my backpack. After a
couple of hours of hiking we’ll
build a fire and heat up a pot of
hot water to make hot choco-
late. You’ll want to throw a jug
of water in your pack. Sure, you
can melt snow but remember, 10
inches of snow melts down to
1 inch of water. By the time it
heats and sizzles you don’t have
much water left so you’ll use a
lot of snow. But yes, I use snow.
I’ll put water in the pot and sup-
plement it with snow so I don’t
have to pack as much water.
So, with the above said,
heat up a pot of water and pour
everyone a cup of hot water. Pull
out the packets of hot chocolate
and everyone is ready for a treat.
It’s a big treat for everyone to
warm up around the fire with a
cup of hot chocolate.
A lot of the newer shoes are
not quite wide enough so with
some of them you’ll sink down
in the snow if it is too pow-
dery, soft and deep. I haven’t
researched all of the makers so
I can’t recommend which is the
best shoes to buy.
So in closing, don’t set around
the house and get fat and lazy.
Grab a pair of snowshoes and hit
the trails.