OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
GULCH
Continued from Page B1
We stopped there so my son,
Max, who’s 11, could soak the towel
he recently acquired. The fabric,
or so the package it came in prom-
ised, would, once saturated, remain
cool for many hours. Max draped
the clammy brown thing around
his neck, a sort of summer scarf
designed to cool rather than warm.
There is nothing outstanding
about Buck Gulch, as I mentioned.
It is not notably diff erent from
any of many dozens of streams that
drain the Blue Mountains, its fringe
of alder and red osier dogwood
instantly familiar.
The road, which is open to vehi-
cles, although better suited to four-
wheel drives or ATVs, is typical
of its type as well — narrow, but
without deep ruts or boulders or
other signifi cant impediments.
We hiked about a mile and a
half, gaining around 500 feet of ele-
vation. It was, as I had hoped, a fi ne
place for a walk on a hot and sunny
day. Buck Gulch is narrow enough,
and the forest dense enough, that
sunlight is, if not blocked alto-
gether, then at least nicely fi ltered
in most places.
And although it was warm even
in the shade, the road never strays
far from the stream — the topog-
raphy doesn’t allow otherwise —
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2022
“Yet even though Buck Gulch almost certainly will
never grace the cover of a calendar or the pages of a
coff ee table book, it is a pretty wonderful place.”
and we paused a few times to let
Max refresh his nifty new towel.
I wrapped it around my neck for
a while and it was as advertised,
blessedly chilly.
For almost the entire hike we
saw no one.
Although the road is never more
than half a mile or so from the com-
paratively well-traveled highway,
once we had gone a quarter mile or
so I never heard the hum of engines
on the pavement above.
We turned around at the Buck
Gulch mine, where a travel trailer
was parked and a pickup truck,
laden with fi rewood, was just
leaving.
(The truck took a diff erent route,
a wider road that connects to the
highway near Blue Springs, on the
divide at the boundary between
Baker and Grant counties.)
As with every gulch around
Sumpter, gold miners, dating to the
19th century, gave Buck Gulch a
thorough going over.
We passed the remains of a log
cabin and another structure, pos-
sibly a small mill. Although all
the land along the road and in the
gulch is public, part of the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest,
there are active mining claims
throughout, so it’s illegal to pan
for gold or do any other sort of
prospecting.
I must have driven past Buck
Gulch close to a hundred times
over the past 30 years or so — you
can’t avoid it if you’re driving from
Sumpter to Granite and points
beyond.
Yet it wasn’t until August 2022
that I actually visited the gulch and
hiked its road.
I fi nd this rather amazing, and
deeply gratifying.
Not every hike can be an epic,
multi-day backpacking trip through
the Eagle Cap Wilderness or some
other landscape that, unlike Buck
Gulch, leads photographers to use
their memory card’s every mega-
byte and prompts visitors with no
literary pretensions to discover a
latent affi nity for poetry.
But Buck Gulch, and the dozens
of places like it in the Blues, enrich
our region too.
I hope never to become so com-
placent, so accustomed to the gran-
deur around us, that I fail to appre-
ciate the simple pleasure of a shady
road beside a cool mountain stream.
█
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the Baker City
Herald.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Forest Road 7300-990 in Buck Gulch, near Sumpter.
C lassifieds
Published by The Observer & Baker City Herald - Serving Wallowa, Union and Baker Counties
PLACING YOUR AD IS EASY...Union, Wallowa, and Baker Counties
Phone La
Grande - 541-963-3161 • Baker City - 541-523-3673
On-Line:
www.lagrandeobserver.com
www.bakercityherald.com
Email:
Classifieds@lagrandeobserver.com
Classifieds@bakercityherald.com
ck
i
P
r
You
e
k
a
T
e ripe with
r
a
s
d
e
i
f
i
s
s
The cla
k at
o
o
l
a
e
v
a
y. H
t
i
n
u
t
r
o
p
ay.
p
d
o
o
t
s
g
n
i
t
s
t li
n
e
m
y
o
l
p
m
the e
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2022
103 Announcements
103 Announcements
WAGNERS MOVING
INTO TOWN AUCTION!!
Saturday, August 20th:
11am, preview 9am
79509 Stage Gulch
Echo, OR 97826
PULL TABS
ACCEPTED
AT THE FOLLOWING
BAKER CITY LOCATIONS
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Baker City Herald
Dollar Tree
Black’s Distributing
Ryder Bros
VFW
Baker Elk’s Lodge
Main Event
Baker City Fire Dept.
Haines Sell-Rite
Idle Hour
Salvation Army
CALL
or
visit
Only two items have reserves:
an 18’ Caterman full setup and
10” new cabinet table stop saw
with vacuum system brand
new. Everything else will be
sold. Many new and slightly
used tools almost all items in
sale are in great condition.
580C Case loader, Polaris
ranger w/ full cab snow tracks
and tires, 2006 aluminum
trailer, Morgan gooseneck 24ft
trailer, 2003 Zieman 3 unit 4
wheeler trailer, 18ft catamaran
raft fully setup, two horse
trailer, 250lb anvil, small travel
trailer, fifth wheel hitches, post
hole digger, box scraper, pallet
forks, hay forks, back blade,
discs, plow, John Deere auger,
John Deere drill, two grain
silos, 16ft hill meat refer box, 30
old Moore theater seats, ranch
& farm supplies, double combi-
nation vault door from bank w/
combo, two fridges, three glass
door commercial cooler, large
amount of data center trays
new, reload hunting and fishing
gear, hog feeders, pipe thread-
ers and benders, various
household items, sausage
grinder, rock polishing and cut-
ting machine, old cleaver, buck
saws and knives, commercial
pipe and steel cutting machine,
workout equipment, two fat tire
bikes, two saddles, two roll
away tool boxes, hotdog and
popcorn machine, new air
compressor 80gal, Kirby vac-
uum, banquet chairs and tables
in excellent condition, two large
polar swamp coolers, three
large shop
fans, assorted telephone poles,
100’s of decoys geese and
ducks, Denver Bronco signed
helmets Payton manning, vault
door out of bank, new sawstop
with vac system, lots of new
tools battery and corded.
Check for pictures at
www.facebook.com/
FordsAuction
Bid online at hibid.com
Contact us for estate sales
and consignments.
Licensed and bonded in
Washington.
541-561-5798 Ford
or 541-314-3153 Colby
The Observer
Call
541-963-3161
541-963-3161
or
TheObserver.com
541-523-3673
or
to place your ad.
Baker City
Herald
541-523-3673
BakerCityHerald.com
A yard sale is a great way to get
people to pay you to move all the
items you no longer need. And
an ad in The Observer classifieds
is a great way to get yard sale
shoppers to your address. Call us
today at 541-963-3161!
Have a special skill? Let people
know in the Service Directory.
DEADLINES:
LINE ADS:
Tuesday: 10:30am Monday
Thursday: 10:30 am Wednesday
Saturday: 10:30 am Friday
DISPLAY ADS:
2 Days Prior to
Publication Date
104 Community
Calendar
VFW POST 460
Every 1st and 3rd Thursday
of the month at 7pm.
Corner of Main at Birch in Union
LA GRANDE LIONS CLUB
Meets 2nd & 4th Monday
of each month @ 12 PM
Union County Senior Center
1504 N. Albany St., La Grande
PINOCHLE
Fridays at 6:30 p.m.
Senior Center
2810 Cedar St., Baker City
Public is welcome
Baker County United
“freedom rallies”
3rd Thursday each month
6 p.m. at the Sunridge
1 Sunridge Lane.
The public is invited
ROTARY CLUB
of Baker City
Meets every Monday
Noon - 1 PM
Baker Towers
Meeting Room
POWDER RIVER
SPORTSMAN’S CLUB
Meets 1st Tuesday
of every month
8th & Broadway, Baker City
6 PM - Pistolettes
7 PM - Regular Membership
114 Group Meetings
NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS
541-805-2229
neo-na.org
AA MEETINGS - La Grande
Wednesday Nights, 7-8:15pm.
Fort Union Grange Hall, corner of
McAlister & Gekeler Lanes. For
more info, call 541-786-1222
AL-ANON
Keep Coming Back Family
Group
Mondays, 7 pm
at NKWest, 1208 Adams,
La Grande, OR
CELEBRATE RECOVERY
Calvary Baptist Church
Third & Broadway
Baker City, OR
EVERY THURSDAY
6:15 - 8:00 PM
DO YOU HAVE....HURTS,
HABITS and/or HANG UPS?
12 Step Biblical Support
Harvest Church
3720 Birch St. Baker City
Thurs., 6:30 - 8:30 PM
LA GRANDE
GAMBLERS ANONYMOUS
Every Friday Night @ 5pm, 2107
Gekeler Ln, LG, Church of Christ
basement. For more info please
call 971-219-8411
Someone’s
drinking a problem?
AL-ANON Meetings
are available by phone
Info for Baker City Meetings
Call: 541-239-7323
WHEN THE SEARCH
IS SERIOUS
rely on the
classified to locate
what you need.