OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
HARES
when any passing coyote or
bobcat would surely relish
making a meal of one.
Or lynx, the predator for
whom the snowshoe hare
is the most common prey.
Lynx haven’t been offi -
cially confi rmed around
here for decades, but if any
of these big cats wanders
through the area where we
snowshoed I doubt it would
suff er hunger pangs.
I saw two hares, and
Max one.
In each case the ani-
mals were betrayed only
by their movement. Two
of the three sprinted away
and were gone within a
couple seconds, reminding
me, with their great
graceful leaps and instan-
taneous changing of direc-
tion, of their cousins, the
jackrabbits.
The third was hunkered
in a hollow beneath a log.
I noticed its slight shift,
presumably to get farther
below the snow-burdened
log. Once it went still I
had trouble fi nding it again
even though I knew essen-
tially where it was.
After 10 seconds or so,
just long enough for all of
us to have a look, the hare
Continued from Page B1
leaped out of its dubious
shelter — at least I imagine
it would be dubious in
the face of a determined
coyote — and disappeared
between the lodgepole
pines and tamaracks and
grand fi rs and Douglas-fi rs
in this classic Blue Moun-
tains mixed-conifer forest.
It was the sort of day
when snowshoeing seems
the perfect mode of winter
transportation rather
than the lung- and heart-
straining slog it can be
when the snow lies deep
and soft.
Our shoes sank in just
a few inches, enough to
ensure we were warm but
not drenched in sweat.
Max and Lisa noticed
a curious tree that I had
missed — probably dis-
tracted by another set of
hare tracks.
It was a short and
slender tree, not much
taller than Max, but the
snow, which no doubt came
down fast and thickly here
earlier in the month, had
congealed around its crown
in a nearly perfect, and
quite wide, circular mound.
Lisa called it the “cake
pop tree,” and indeed it
quite resembled those
confections.
Where we turned
around, on a road that
parallels the power line
leading to the ski area,
I noticed a scattering
of Douglas-fi r cones,
maybe three dozen in all,
reminding me of nothing
so much as the smattering
of fl otsam that marks the
margin of a fl ood tide.
I noticed that there was
scarcely a square inch
of snow not trodden by
the tracks of squirrels. I
looked up and saw a big
fi r on the slope, maybe
100 feet above. I suppose
a heavy wind had depos-
ited this nutritious litter.
I imagined the squirrels
that must have felt such joy
as squirrels can feel when
they came upon this trea-
sure, so accessible, with no
climbing required.
I guess it could have
been a trap, a ruse devised
by the ever-cunning coyote.
But the tracks were
fresh, made since the last
snowfall, and I saw no
blood, so perhaps this was
indeed the scene of a feast
for squirrels, but not of
them.
Featuring the
EOU Chamber Choir & EOU Music Department
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Max Jacoby mimes taking a lick from a “cake pop tree” in the Elkhorn
Mountains on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022.
OU
W
R NUMBER
Da
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a few days earlier — that
absorbed most of the shock
from each stride.
More pleasantly, the
scrim of fresh snow pre-
vented our steps from
making the horrifi c racket
that plastic snowshoes are
capable of when clattering
against ice.
We had walked just a
hundred feet or so into the
forest when we noticed the
distinctive tracks of snow-
shoe hares — two larger
prints, side by side, in front,
and two smaller marks at
the rear, sometimes parallel,
sometimes beside each
other.
The snow was imprinted
with veritable hare
highways.
We spotted three of these
furry forest dwellers in the
hour or so we hiked.
Snowshoe hares — the
name inspired by their large
and fuzzy rear feet, which
have a similar fl otation eff ect
as snowshoes do — swap
their reddish brown summer
coat for the fi ne winter cam-
oufl age of white hair.
(Mostly white, anyway
— the tips of their ears are
black year round.)
They are of course dif-
fi cult to spot when they’re
standing still atop the
snow. And the hares are
quite adept being motion-
less, as well they should be
g
Son
driving past the Gorham
Butte Road, just a few miles
up from the valley.
Our destination was a
couple miles farther, where
the highway describes a
half circle just before the
turnoff to the Anthony
Creek Road. There’s a large
parking area on the south
side of the highway here.
We were above the over-
cast but, at about 5,100 feet,
we hadn’t gone high enough
to get out of the chilly layer.
It was 21 degrees when we
started.
I thought about driving
farther, maybe to the Van
Patten Lake trail, which
starts at about 6,300 feet,
but my wife, Lisa, fi gured
we would warm up easily
enough once we started
into the woods on our
snowshoes.
Our kids, Olivia, 14,
and Max, 10, were with us,
and I had picked this place
because the terrain is rela-
tively gentle.
The conditions, Lisa and
I agreed, were nearly ideal
for snowshoeing.
Although we pegged the
snow depth at around 30
inches, it had consolidated
quite a lot over the previous
two, mainly dry, weeks.
There was a thin crust
but it was covered with
an inch or two of powder
— from the minor storm
G
E
O
V
’
TY
E
Popular
Imagine standing at the
bottom of the deep end of a
swimming pool and trying
to throw a baseball, which
is more dense than the sur-
rounding water, so that it
breaches the surface with
much velocity.
Northeastern Oregon’s
dramatic topography exac-
erbates the inversion eff ect.
On New Year’s Eve, which
was both clear and nearly
windless, I watched the
exterior thermometer on my
Toyota drop from 2 degrees
to 6 below zero in just a
mile or so of driving in the
middle of Baker Valley,
a vertical distance of less
than 100 feet.
I don’t particularly mind
this aspect of inversions.
But I abhor another
common eff ect which, I
think, is largely responsible
for the inversion’s sordid
reputation — clouds.
The skim of frigid air, if
it’s stranded for more than
a couple days in valleys,
tends to become damp, in
part because its moisture,
which it acquires from a
variety of sources, ranging
from our exhalations to
snow on the ground, has no
place to go. And because
the air is cold it can’t hold
much water vapor, so
clouds, and in many cases
fog, quickly form.
Baker Valley went
through this progression
last week.
The morning of Jan. 22
was bright and beautiful, if
seasonably chilly, in Baker
Valley. Keating Valley, by
contrast, was socked in with
fog much of the day.
But the next morning,
Jan. 23, the fog also envel-
oped Baker Valley.
I checked tempera-
tures that morning and the
inversion was unusually
intense. At 7 a.m. the tem-
perature at the Baker City
Airport, elevation 3,373
feet, was 23 degrees. At
the same time at the top
of the chairlift at Anthony
Lakes, elevation 8,000
feet, it was 40 degrees.
In more typical atmo-
spheric conditions, the tem-
perature at 8,000 feet could
be expected to be from 16
to 23 degrees colder — not
17 degrees warmer — than
at 3,373 feet.
(As a general rule, the
temperature drops from 3.5
degrees to 5 degrees for
every 1,000 feet of altitude
gained.)
The overcast layer
during an inversion rarely
extends higher than about
5,000 feet, so I fi gured we
could fi nd sunshine some-
where along the road to
Anthony Lakes Ski Area.
We saw the fi rst wedge
of blue sky gleaming amidst
the muck while we were
SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2022
n ce
Show
McKenzie Theatre
Fri., Feb. 4 - 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 5 - 3:00 and 7:30 p.m.
Masks required for all audience members
Adults $8.00 Seniors/Students $7.00
Group tickets are $6 each when you purchase 10 or more. Group tickets must be
purchased in person only.
Presented by:
Tickets available at Red Cross Drug, The EOU Bookstore and online at eou.edu/music
Advanced ticket purchase is highly recommended.
For more information,
contact Peter Wordelman at 541-962-3352
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110 Announcements
110 Announcements
by Stella Wilder
SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2022
YOUR BIRTHDAY by Stella Wilder
Born today, you are never far from where
the action is, and though you may not be front
and center, playing a leading role in the spot-
light, you can certainly be counted on to do all
that is possible from where you stand to pro-
mote the best ideas and achieve what may
sometimes be labeled the “impossible.” You
have no shortage of imagination, and you can
visualize much that is far beyond the capacity
of most individuals to see in their mind’s eye.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 30
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- Giving up
is not an option today, not that you were seri-
ously considering it anyway! You know what
must be done -- and how to do it.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Events seem
to be stacked against you at this time, but you
have a clever way of easing the burden -- at
least for now. Make a solid plan!
ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- You may be
tempted to avoid what is suggested by another
today, but that would be doing yourself and
others a disservice. Get involved!
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- It’s a good
time to study something new in order to add
it to your list of serious interests. A related
opportunity may arise very soon.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- You may be
faced with a problem that is too much for you
to handle on your own, even though you
know precisely how it must be solved.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- You must
give some thought to how you are affected by
budgets -- at home and at the workplace too.
You may have a little bit of wiggle room.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- The more cavalier
you are about a major undertaking, the less
others will value it when all is said and done.
You must take it seriously!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- You may
benefit today from someone’s daring, though
you cannot expect to repeat this soon. What
can you use that others cannot?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- You may see
the obvious for precisely what it is, while oth-
ers are still somewhat in the dark. While an
advantage, this requires some care.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- You have
news to send to another today, and you must
do it in a way that doesn’t warrant any kind of
overreaction. Stick to what you know.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- You
are in a rather serious frame of mind right
now, and it’s the perfect time to present an
idea you’ve been formulating for a while.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- You
may not be able to meet with others in person,
but you should be well-versed in all kinds of
alternatives. Make connections today.
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