Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Page A-9
Winding Trails: by Al Hobart
August 24, 1967
Illinois Valley News,
Young’s Valley
Campout
with Gardners
For those who
love the uncontaminated
air to breathe, invigorating
exercise and an appetite that
makes anything edible a
luxury, there’s nothing quite
like forgathering in a high
mountain meadow for 2 or
3 days of clambering about
in the adjoining mountains,
studying and enjoying the
things that live and grow all
about us and the marvelous
contours and intricate
structure of the earth that
gives us all – plant and animal
alike – a toe-hold in space.
Youngs Valley is
a super mountain meadow,
one of the largest and most
magnificent in our whole
Illinois Valley area, just
beyond the head of the East
Fork and tipping over into
the Indian Creek-Klamath
drainage. Overshadowed by
beautiful El Capitan mountain
and entirely surrounded
by impressive peaks it is a
camper’s delight – if you like
mile-high atmosphere and
rugged mountain scenery.
Among other things,
Youngs Valley is a natural
flower garden, where colorful
species march continuously
through the long season,
following in each other’s
footsteps from the time of
the earliest snow-melt until
the end of summer. Then
as the receding snow line
backs up the sides of the
high mountains rare and
fascinating alpine species
come quickly into bloom, and
lie waiting in their hidden
crevices, restricted moist
areas and on sunny ledges for
the few lucky botanists and
their eager amateur satellites
to climb to their lofty perches
and pay them homage.
I was recently invited
by Ben and Lola Gardner, my
beachcombing Pistol River
friends whom I first met in
our favorite botanizing nook
a number of years ago, to join
them for a 2 or 3 day sojourn
in Youngs Valley. Any other
projects I might have had
in mind were immediately
advanced to other rectangles
on the calendar. Gardner’s,
with Veva Stansell, another
enthusiastic amateur botanist
and her young niece Chrissie
who live in Gold Beach,
were to show up in our alpine
meeting place on Sunday.
But, being all hopped up
about the coming funfest, I
couldn’t wait. So on Saturday
morning I loaded my camping
equipment on Little Toot and
took to the winding, climbing
road up Bearcamp Ridge, past
Sanger and Young’s Peaks and
on into Youngs Valley.
develop into the many single-
seeded fruits or achenes, each
of these produces a feathery
appendage an inch or two
long, and eventually, before
dispersal by the wind, the
‘feathers’ collectively form a
large silvery, globular head.
This attractive phenomenon
gives rise to another apt name
for this plant – Old Man of the
Mountain.
We found the lovely
little pink and white mountain
heathers, each belonging to a
different genus, growing side
by side, and other exciting
species too numerous to
describe here, scattered about
in this high wild garden.
The mountain sorrel, alpine
end of the day, and in the
final stages of starvation,
we almost foundered on the
unbelievable campfire feast
that Lola and Veva whipped
up for the gang. I made the
rounds of the bubbling kettles
and steaming dishes and the
big coffee pot so many times
that I barely had room left
for a piece each of Lola’s
delicious blackberry and
huckleberry pie.
Next morning, after a
light breakfast of ham, eggs,
hotcakes, syrup, jam and
coffee, all of us but Gordon,
who had to get back to the
flatlands, climbed up the trail
to Twin Lakes at the north
base of El Capita, and then
took to the very steep side of
the mountain itself. We spent
several hours climbing and
botanizing the mountainside,
and in all of my wildplant
hunting in our mountains I’ve
never once come across such
a profusion and varied alpine
flower display.
At the higher
elevations a few plants of
the rare yellow-flowered
Howell’s Draba were found
mingling with the spectacular
Mountain Pasque-flower.
This largest and showiest of
the anemones, with its stout
hairy stem and soft-hairy
finely divided foliage, has
attractive white flowers 2
inches or more across with a
central large group of bright
yellow pistils and stamens.
When the pistils at maturity
After setting up camp
in the lower end of the long,
flower-bedecked meadow,
with camera and lunch in my
small packsack I hiked up the
steep Poker Flat trail a couple
of miles to where the Lewisias
put on a beautiful display
when their blooming season
rolls around. One flower I
found on a high rocky ridge
up there earlier this month
was so strange I sent it to
the University of California
for identification and was
informed that it could be a
new variety. There’s always
that thrill to look forward to in
wildplant exploring.
Sunday morning my
gang showed up, accompanied
by Roy, a visiting botanist
from Seattle, and Gordon,
a geology instructor, who
is camped temporarily on
Pistol River with a bevy of
geology students from the U
of Wisconsin.
Shortly after their
arrival Ben, Gordon and I
struck out for Cyclone Gap,
hiking the 2 or 3 miles up
the old washed-out chrome
road from Bell Echo. When
Ben and Gordon had checked
over the various rocks in the
neighborhood of the old mine
up there to their satisfaction,
Gordon went charging on to
Preston Peak while Ben and
I botanized the south side of
El Capitan, continuing on to
the very peak, first time on the
summit for either of us.
Back in camp at the
willow-herb and diminutive
spreading stonecrop were new
ones for my collection.
Finally, much too
soon, the time came to come
down out of the mountains
and leave our little Youngs
Valley world in the care of the
lucky wild things that live up
there.
But nothing short
of universal calamity will
prevent us from meeting again
in the same old mountain-
hemmed flower garden and
carrying on from where we
were reluctantly forced by
time and other demands to
cease and desist for the time
being.
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