Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, August 27, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
MEMORABLE MEMORIAL
Couple’s legacy preserved at Silver Butte
JAYSON
JACOBY
ON THE TRAIL
I
came to the mountain hoping to earn a view,
one which refreshed my aﬃ nity for the wild
places where people rarely go, places where
I’m more likely to see a bear track than a Snickers
wrapper.
Indeed I couldn’t see a soul.
(Or a Snickers wrapper.)
But as I stood atop Silver Butte, at the edge of
the North Fork John Day Wilderness, it was not
the expanse of untamed country that captivated
me, stretching to the hazy horizon of August.
It was something at my feet, an ode not to the
forests or the mountains or the river for which this
place is known, but a tribute to two people.
In a place distinguished by the absence of
humanity, it was this small slab of granite, a
wholly human gesture, that deﬁ ned my ﬁ rst visit.
And it is, I suspect, what I will remember
long after the details of Silver Butte’s vista have
dissipated.
I hope I can someday honor the memory of
my parents in a manner as poignant as the three
sons of Hugh S. McKenzie and Helen J. Raymond
managed.
The memorial to the Pendleton couple lies atop
one of the foundation piers for the ﬁ re lookout that
once stood on this 6,191-foot summit.
According to the engravings, it was laid here in
1998. The memorial honors Hugh and Helen, who
were married in Pendleton in 1920. Hugh died in
1973, Helen in 1984.
Besides that biographical information the
marker bears these inscriptions as a brief history
of this region:
“Gold Mining 1862-1954.”
“Fire Lookout 1935-1979.”
“NFJD Wilderness 1984.”
See, Memorial/Page B6
IF YOU GO....
If you’re coming from the La Grande area, take Highway 244,
the Ukiah-Hilgard Highway, to the Grande Ronde River Road,
Forest Road 51. Follow the paved road through Starkey and to
the junction with Road 52, the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway.
From Baker City, drive through Sumpter and Granite, then
continue north from Granite on Road 73, the Elkhorn Scenic
Byway, to the North Fork John Day River. Continue north, now
on Road 52.
From the intersection of Roads 52 and 51, head west on Road
52 (it was chip sealed earlier this summer, so beware of loose
gravel) for 15 miles to the junction with Road 5225, which
heads south (left). Follow Road 5225, which is well-maintained
gravel in places but rocky and rough closer to Silver Butte. The
road runs about 9.5 miles, passing multiple trailheads, all of
which lead into the North Fork John Day Wilderness, and sev-
eral undeveloped campsites.
A granite marker was placed on Silver Butte in 1998 as a
memorial to a Pendleton couple, Hugh S. McKenzie and
Helen J. Raymond.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
The memorial to Hugh S. McKenzie and Helen J. Raymond,
on the summit of Silver Butte, has an expansive view of the
North Fork John Day Wilderness.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Tackling the angler’s dilemma: when to upgrade?
How a new tackle box
can simplify your life
his article will be geared
toward old timers with old
school tackle boxes or new-
bies who want to get into ﬁ shing.
Benjamin Franklin is credited
with saying: “Don’t be the ﬁ rst to
embrace the new nor the last to
discard the old.” The latter would
be me. I’d still be using a ﬂ ip
phone if my dead battery hadn’t
been discontinued. And then my
daughter gave me an iPhone. Now
of course I love iPhones due to
their awesome ﬁ lming abilities.
So it goes without saying, it’s hard
for me to upgrade gear unless it
ﬂ at out breaks or wears out.
I remember decades ago,
Cotton Ward wrote an article on
replacing his old ﬂ yﬁ shing vest.
I forget all of the gory details but
the gist of it was that it was tough
to get rid of his old worn-out vest
and replace it with a new one. He
knew where everything was in it,
plus it held a lot of memories.
So with the above said, I under-
stand how we ﬁ shermen can get
emotionally tied to our tradi-
tional gear. But come on, even
Huckleberry Finn and Jim would
have ditched their cane poles and
evolved to using a modern rod and
reel by now if they were still alive!
Today we’re going to talk about
upgrading your tackle box. When
I was a kid the old ﬂ ip top boxes
T
TOM
CLAYCOMB
BASE CAMP
were the only option. Then the ﬂ at
ones with little compartments that
had a see through top emerged.
They were nice because you could
see where your lures were.
Then a few years ago canvas
tackle boxes that held plastic
trays became popular — and
for good reason. You can com-
partmentalize your lures. Carry
your jigs in one tray, plastics in
another. Plugs in one and weights
in another. This allows you to be
more organized, which provides
for faster access.
Another big advantage is that
instead of needing 10 tackle
boxes you have trays desig-
nated for crappie ﬁ shing, bass,
yellow perch, walleye, catﬁ sh
and whatever else you want to
ﬁ sh for. Let’s say you’re going
crappie ﬁ shing this afternoon. All
you have to do is to throw your
crappie trays into your canvas
tackle box and oﬀ you go. That’s
a lot better than years ago when
you had to carry three or four on
every trip to be covered.
My old tackle box is getting
threadbare after many years of
ﬁ shing so I’ve been in the market
for a new box. I’ve been looking
around for the last 2 years but
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
The ultimate tackle box is like this
Evolution Outdoor LargeMouth Tackle
Box.
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
The author didn’t realize how many tackle boxes he had until he laid them all out.
And this doesn’t even include all of his ﬂ yﬁ shing gear.
hadn’t found what I wanted. A
couple of weeks ago I found what
would ﬁ t my needs. It is the Large
Mouth Tackle Bag made by Evo-
lution Outdoor. I got the 3600
which is what I’d classify as a
smaller/medium sized bag. If you
have a big boat, you may want a
bigger bag but there’s not a lot of
extra room in the Black Pearl so
the 3600 is the perfect size for me.
Also, I’ve been doing a deal
over in South Dakota. I’m doing
mainly bank ﬁ shing and wading
there so I thought a backpack
tackle box would work better
there so I ordered an Evolution
Outdoor Large Mouth Double
Decker Backpack. It uses the
same size trays as the Largemouth
Tackle Bag so I can interchange
trays between both boxes.
As stated above, I got both
bags but I also ordered nine extra
trays. I can throw my specialty
ﬁ shing gear in those trays and
grab them if going on a walleye,
catﬁ shing, bass or gar ﬁ shing trip.
Or if I’m going crappie ﬁ shing
and there’s a chance I might want
to catch a few bass, I can take
along 1-2 of the bass plug trays,
which won’t take up much room.
So if you’re one of the last to
embrace the new, make the switch
and grab a new style of tackle
box like the Large Mouth Tackle
box and get rid of your old grand-
pa-style ﬂ ip top tackle boxes and
be a pace setter.
When I started writing this
article, I thought I’d have it done
in 1 or 2 hours but then I spread
all of my tackle boxes out in the
front yard. Wow, I had way more
than I thought. I had to set up a
card table to work on so I could
consolidate my lures into the
trays. Gee, I had enough lures and
jigs ratholed to last me until I’m
99 years old!
Suddenly a 1- to 2-hour article
turned into a 6- to 8-hour project
and I’m still not totally organized.
I left my salmon gear in my old
green tackle box but I am a lot
more organized now. I have all
crappie gear in trays in the new
Large Mouth Tackle Box, my
striper jigs/plugs in plastic trays
which I can grab next time I ﬂ y to
Texas for a striper ﬁ shing trip.
I may start a new career and
become a tackle box organizing
consultant! You can pay me for
my services in cash or lures.