COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATuRDAY, SEpTEmBER 3, 2022
Husband and father tired of being ignored at home
attention once in a while. We will
be in the middle of a conversa-
tion, and if one of them walks into
the room, texts or calls, she stops
midsentence and totally ignores
me. Sometimes I talk to her, and
she doesn’t even hear me if they
are in the room. She and the kids
laugh and joke about it, but I don’t
think it’s funny.
I have worked hard to support
them, 60-hour weeks and week-
ends to make ends meet, and I feel
like I’m an afterthought to all of
them. I spoil them on birthdays,
Mother’s Day and Christmas.
One year not one of them remem-
bered my birthday. Am I overre-
acting? — INVISIBLE MAN IN
PENNSYLVANIA
DEAR INVISIBLE: What
DEAR ABBY: I have been with
my wife for 25 years, married for
22 of them. I love her very much,
but sometimes I feel it isn’t mutual.
We have three children, all girls,
ranging in age from early teens to
mid-20s. My wife also has an older
son from a previous marriage.
My complaint for years has
been that I am the least important
person in the world to her. The
kids, work and friends always
come first. I understand that kids
have needs, but I should get some
POLE CREEK
tination despite the verte-
brae-rattling access roads.
The ridge juts from the
Elkhorns rather like a flying
buttress on a Gothic cathe-
dral. This spine of high
ground separates its name-
sake creek to the east, and
Wind Creek, another trib-
utary to Cracker Creek, to
the west.
Although I’ve prob-
ably plied the trail a dozen
times or so, I either hadn’t
noticed before, or had since
forgotten, that the ridge
boasts an unusual wealth
of conifer species in a rela-
tively small area.
We noted grand firs,
Douglas-firs, lodgepole
pines, whitebark pines, sub-
alpine firs, tamaracks and,
on a particularly exposed
spot, a lone ponderosa pine.
The ponderosa in partic-
ular surprised me, since the
species doesn’t often range
above 6,500 feet in North-
eastern Oregon, and this
one, according to the altim-
eter app on my phone, was
at about 7,200.
I’m no ecologist (or any
other sort of ologist) but I
have been fortunate to share
a trail with several scien-
tists who can deduce much
from the lay of the land and
its flora, notably the late
Charles Johnson, a Forest
Service ecologist for whom
the Blue Mountains was a
vast laboratory.
I suspect that ponderosa
was taking advantage of
its southern exposure. The
longer period of daily sun-
light creates a microclimate
that is, in effect, hundreds
of feet lower. And ponder-
osas thrive in sunny places.
I noticed too, even
higher on the ridge, that a
few Douglas-firs were inter-
spersed among the sub-
alpine firs and whitebark
pines, the latter two typ-
ically the dominant, and
often only, trees at these rel-
Continued from Page B1
How far you go before
abandoning internal com-
bustion for leg and lung
power depends on your
own, and your rig’s, toler-
ance for steep, narrow and
boulder-strewn roads.
There are, it scarcely
needs to be said, no
guardrails.
The 5536 and 150 roads
aren’t terrible. I wouldn’t
drive a low-slung sedan on
either, but anything with
decent clearance should go
unscathed. The 160 and 170
roads are notably bumpier.
The final “road” — there’s
a sign with a number, at
any rate — is the 200 road,
and it begins with a pitch so
steep I was seeing mainly
the Cruiser’s hood through
the windshield.
If you park at the
170/200 junction it’s about
2.6 miles to the point where
the Pole Creek Ridge trail
ends at an intersection with
the Elkhorn Crest National
Recreation Trail.
That modest distance
belies the physical chal-
lenge, though.
Pole Creek Ridge trail
climbs relentlessly, and
often steeply (albeit perhaps
not quite as steeply as that
aforementioned section of
the 200 road.)
The route gains about
1,200 feet of elevation,
reaching about 8,100 feet at
the Crest trail junction.
As Lisa and I started the
hike it occurred to me that
we hadn’t been here for 14
years.
I didn’t feel quite so cha-
grined at taking the wrong
turn down the ridge when
I realized how much time
had elapsed.
Too much time, I
thought, because Pole Creek
Ridge is a tempting des-
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
atively lofty elevations.
The Douglas-firs, like
that lone ponderosa, were
growing on south-facing
slopes, and I imagine
they were taking advan-
tage of the same beneficent
conditions.
Besides being a hos-
pitable place for certain
conifers, Pole Creek Ridge
marks the general boundary
of a Forest Service grazing
allotment. A recently recon-
structed fence meanders
along the ridge, and you’ll
have to go through three
gates (one along the 170
Road). Remember to close
any gates you have to open.
As the trail ascends, the
forest thins until, over the
final half mile or so, only
the whitebarks and the sub-
alpine firs persist, all but
oblivious to deep snow and
polar temperatures.
About 0.7 of a mile from
the Crest trail, the route
narrows and becomes a
proper footpath (albeit one
that is open to motorcycles,
the tracks of which we saw.)
The trail, Lisa and I mut-
tered to each other as we
plodded ever upward, has
the torturous design typical
of trails in the Elkhorns.
Which is to say, it takes a
direct route in defiance of
the topography.
The difference between
the type of trail represented
by Pole Creek Ridge, and
the many paths in the Wal-
lowas, is so dramatic that
I find it ever fascinating.
Most trails in the Wallowas
were built to accommodate
horses, and as such they
attack the terrain obliquely,
with ample use of switch-
Astoria
Longview
56/70
Kennewick
55/81
St. Helens
57/84
57/87
Portland
Condon
58/91
MON
TUE
WED
Mainly clear
Sunshine and
very warm
Sunny and very
warm
Sunny and hot
Sunshine
89 47
95 48
89 45
Eugene
6
5
7
52/88
86 49
94 54
83 45
7
5
7
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
8
7
49 87 47
Comfort Index™
6
85 46
8
4
6
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 124°
Low: 30°
Wettest: 2.10”
91°
44°
95°
48°
100°
49°
0.00
0.00
0.01
4.73
6.43
0.00
0.00
0.02
9.22
11.35
0.00
0.00
0.03
18.21
15.94
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
20%
NW at 6 to 12 mph
8.0
0.24
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
4% of capacity
37% of capacity
16% of capacity
67% of capacity
3% of capacity
9% of capacity
Medford
Lakeview
Brookings
Denver’s earliest snow on record occurred
Sept. 3, 1961. City accumulations reached
4 inches. The foothills west of town were
buried by wind-whipped snow more than
2 feet deep.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
6:16 a.m.
7:26 p.m.
2:38 p.m.
11:09 p.m.
SUN.
6:17 a.m.
7:25 p.m.
3:51 p.m.
none
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
OREGON
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Death Valley, Calif.
Bodie State Park, Calif.
Terrell, Texas
High: 102°
Low: 35°
Wettest: Trace
546 cfs
65 cfs
92 cfs
45 cfs
87 cfs
21 cfs
First
Sep 3
Full
Sep 10
Last
Sep 17
49/91
New
Sep 25
Brothers
47/89
Beaver Marsh
41/87
Roseburg
56/88
Jordan Valley
55/95
Paisley
46/94
Frenchglen
53/98
Diamond
Grand View
Arock
51/97
59/99
51/99
Fields
58/95
51/100
Klamath Falls
43/91
Lakeview
40/93
McDermitt
53/99
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
City
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
Astoria
70/56/c 70/54/pc
Bend
90/49/s 84/53/s
Boise
97/64/s 97/65/s
Brookings
69/54/pc 71/54/s
Burns
94/48/s 94/50/s
Coos Bay
70/58/pc 72/53/pc
Corvallis
84/56/s 83/53/s
Council
95/55/s 95/57/s
Elgin
89/51/s 86/51/s
Eugene
88/57/s 84/52/s
Hermiston
93/63/s 90/55/s
Hood River
87/64/s 84/56/s
Imnaha
93/59/s 92/61/s
John Day
93/51/s 91/52/s
Joseph
87/50/s 86/50/s
Kennewick
91/61/s 89/53/s
Klamath Falls 91/45/s 93/51/s
Lakeview
93/44/s 94/47/s
Boise
64/97
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
54/97
Silver Lake
44/87
Medford
Brookings
Juntura
45/94
56/92
53/69
Ontario
60/97
Burns
42/92
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
48/92
52/87
Coos Bay
55/95
62/97
Seneca
51/90
Oakridge
Council
43/90
51/93
Bend
56/78
50/94
46/85
John Day
46/91
Sisters
Elkton
Powers
Halfway
Granite
Baker City
Florence
54/67
THURSDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
53/92
Redmond
54/70
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.
Monument
52/84
Newport
Enterprise
49/87
49/89
51/82
54/85
53/83
91 55
6
Corvallis
54/65
85 50
49/89
La Grande
54/84
54/90
Idanha
Salem
SUN
49 89 51
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
59/85
54/84
TONIGHT
La Grande
62/90
59/90
Newberg
Lewiston
60/91
Hood River
Maupin
5
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
59/91
Vancouver
55/83
TIllamook
8
Mountain and Castle Rock,
Strawberry Mountain and
Dixie Butte and Vinegar
Hill and, close to the west,
Windy Creek Peak and
Mount Ireland.
To the north, the Crest
trail was visible cutting
through patches of alpine
fleeceflower turning rusty
red in the waning days of
this torrid late summer (we
were there on Sunday, Aug.
28.)
We could also see how
dramatically the geologic
character of the Elkhorns
changes, the generally
brown sedimentary stone
of the southern part of the
range — primarily argillite,
a type of compacted mud-
stone, and chert — giving
way to the white granitic
rocks that dominate the
northern half of the range.
I haven’t found any-
thing of the history of the
Pole Creek Ridge trail, but
I suspect it predates the
Crest trail by some decades,
starting as a route pioneered
by miners, perhaps with an
assist from sheepherders
who once drove their flocks
along the Elkhorns.
The Crest trail was
extended to Pole Creek
Ridge in the 1970s, and
in 1981 the 7 miles from
there to Marble Creek Pass
were blasted and gouged
from slopes that range from
merely steep to vertical.
Lisa and I lamented that
we hadn’t time to indulge
in the Crest trail’s pleasant
flatness.
We started the steep,
muscle-straining descent,
pausing only to chuckle
at the single, half-hearted
switchback just below the
Crest trail junction, a sort of
desultory dirty trick played
by a trail builder who’s
probably long in the grave
but whose joke, if that’s
how it was intended, lives
on.
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
54/74
Comfort Index™
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren,
also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was
founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips.
Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com
or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
backs to make the ascent
of even a steep slope a
gentle, albeit much longer,
undertaking.
Lisa and I mused that
the final 0.7 of a mile, had
the trail been constructed
to the standards of the Wal-
lowas, would have been at
least half again as long, but
accomplished with much
fewer gasps in the thin
alpine air.
Eventually we got to the
Crest trail.
It’s not much like other
trails in the Elkhorns, nor
does it resemble most routes
in the Wallowas.
The Crest trail is com-
paratively flat but it
achieves this not by incor-
porating switchbacks but by
staying stubbornly, as befits
its name, near the top of the
ridge.
The trail, which spans
24 miles from its southern
terminus at Marble Creek
Pass to the northern trail-
head near Anthony Lake,
is one of the grand paths in
Oregon. The views from
almost every one of those
miles is expansive. But I
find the vantage point of
the Pole Creek Ridge trail
among the more fetching.
As we sat on the trail
(me clumsily coming
down on a patch of sand-
wort, a particularly prickly
variety of groundcover
that left spines scattered in
my shorts), we could see,
arrayed as in a diorama,
peaks spanning left to right
(or, rather, from south to
west) that included Ironside
A whitebark pine snag along the Elkhorn Crest trail on Pole Creek
Ridge.
weather
43 90 48
█
Pole Creek Ridge
is a tempting
destination despite
the vertebrae-
rattling access
roads.
| Go to AccuWeather.com
Baker City
DEAR BAFFLED: I don’t
think anyone intended to give
your daughter short shrift. The
rules of etiquette state that wed-
ding gifts are required if someone
is attending a wedding. While it
would have been nice of these rel-
atives to have sent a gift or at least
a card, they were not required to.
I see no reason why you shouldn’t
inform these relatives that your
daughter was deeply hurt that no
one was inclined to send her and
her husband so much as a con-
gratulatory card.
wedding, he was showered with
gifts from the family. My daughter,
in contrast, had a private cere-
mony because of COVID concerns
and sent a wedding announcement
to the family. To the shock and
amazement of my husband, my
daughter and myself, not a single
person in the family thought to
send her a gift or even a card.
There’s no bad blood in the
family. Everyone appears to love
her. She is disappointed and dev-
astated. Should I just get over
this, or should I say something
to the family? She and her hus-
band live 2,000 miles away, and
at this point, I can’t envision them
making the effort to fly home and
see the family ever again.
— BAFFLED IN TEXAS
has been going on under your roof
is no laughing matter. But your
passivity may be partly respon-
sible for it. You should have told
your wife years ago how you felt,
but it isn’t too late to do it now.
Tell her you feel ignored and
unappreciated by her and the chil-
dren. Tell her you are unhappy,
and if she wants the marriage to
last, she will join you in marital
counseling because you are tired
of being low man on the totem
pole. I don’t think doing that
would be overreacting. In fact, I
think it’s overdue.
DEAR ABBY: Our daughter
and her cousin are the same age.
Both are medical school gradu-
ates. Eight months ago, when this
cousin got married at an in-person
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
Hi/Lo/W
91/62/s
81/57/s
87/45/s
95/59/s
65/55/c
78/55/s
97/60/s
93/60/s
90/60/s
85/62/s
78/58/s
91/48/s
88/59/s
85/58/s
86/58/s
91/64/s
85/45/s
90/63/s
Hi/Lo/W
89/61/s
78/54/pc
82/47/s
95/60/s
66/51/pc
77/49/pc
97/58/s
91/53/s
87/58/s
80/58/pc
77/51/s
86/51/s
86/58/s
83/54/pc
83/54/s
89/57/s
82/48/s
85/58/s
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
Plenty of sunshine
Sunny; very warm
70
44
87
46
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Sunshine
Sunshine and hot
77
48
96
55
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Warm with sunshine
Plenty of sunshine
75
39
81
42
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Very warm
Plenty of sunshine
87
50
88
59
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Sunshine and warm
Sunny; very warm
90
48
89
51