E AST O REGONIAN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022
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A11
Appreciating snowshoes
— by not wearing them
TigerScots make
HoF inductions
IF YOU GO
To get to Phillips Reser-
voir, drive south from
Baker City on Highway 7,
toward Sumpter. Between
mileposts 35 and 34 (the
numbers get lower the
farther from Baker City), and
just at the top of the grade
next to Mason Dam, turn
left onto the access road for
the Mason Dam boat ramp.
There’s ample parking. The
shoreline trail starts just
above the restroom. There
is no fee to park or to use
the trail.
JAYSON
JACOBY
ON THE TRAIL
T
he best way to appre-
ciate snowshoes is to
leave them in the car.
Best, of course, is not
always synonymous with
smartest.
In this particular episode,
in fact, the words were much
closer to antonyms.
The second Sunday of
2022 — the ninth day of the
year, to be more precise —
came on sunny and cold. This
was the pleasant part of the
month, before the tempera-
ture inversion, a not uncom-
mon phenomenon hereabouts
in January, left some of our
region’s valleys to marinate in
a dank miasma.
My wife Lisa and I, with
our kids, Olivia and Max,
drove the 17 miles or so up the
Powder River along Highway
7 to Phillips Reservoir.
Olivia, who’s 14, indulges
Lisa’s and my affi nity for
hiking in all seasons with vari-
ous degrees of acceptance.
But she’s unequivocal in
describing her favorite sort of
route.
Flat.
The word is inevitable in
every pre-trip conversation,
most often in the form of a
question: “Is it fl at?”
Our part of the globe, of
course, is quite often decid-
edly not fl at.
But among the nearby
options, the shoreline trails at
Phillips come nearest to satis-
fying Olivia’s chief criterion.
Fortunately the short road
leading from Highway 7 to the
boat ramp on the north side
of the reservoir, near Mason
Dam, is plowed, aff ording
access for people hoping to
pull some rainbow trout or
yellow perch through a hole in
the ice.
Or, in our case, people
interested in fl oundering
through the snow.
That wasn’t my goal, of
course.
Our four pairs of snowshoes
were scattered helter-skelter
in their customary place, the
back of our Toyota FJ Cruiser.
They spend most of the winter
there, dripping meltwater onto
the thick rubber fl oormat.
As we parked, Olivia asked
whether we were going to put
on the snowshoes.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Black Mountain rises above the southeast corner of Phillips Res-
ervoir on Jan. 9, 2022.
Although her disdain for
strapping on a couple square
feet of plastic to her boots isn’t
as palpable as her feelings
about steep trails or roads,
suffi ce it to say that her ideal
hike does not involve snow-
shoes.
I noticed, as I looked at the
slope where the shoreline trail
winds between the ponderosa
pines, that there was suffi cient
snow for snowshoes.
But neither was it espe-
cially deep.
I was in that fateful moment
rendered insensible by a
combination of two powerful
forces — naive optimism and
the desire to grant the wishes
of a teenager.
Individually, either of these
can potentially lead to blun-
ders.
Combine them and it’s
certain.
I agreed that we could have
a go without snowshoes.
I convinced myself that,
after several days of dry
weather, the snow that fell
the fi rst week of the new year
likely would have solidifi ed
somewhat. I mustered quite
an internal argument in favor
of this proposition, based on
the idea that because the trail
mainly follows south-facing
slopes, the snow would have
melted a bit each afternoon in
the weak winter sunshine, and
then refrozen each night, facil-
itating the fi rming process that
would render snowshoes, if not
superfl uous than at least not
mandatory.
As we strode away to the
west, toward Union Creek
Campground, this concept
didn’t seem wholly fantastical.
The snow was indeed
compacted in places, so
much so that my boots barely
breached the icy surface.
But snow is treacherous. It
can’t be trusted.
We hadn’t hiked more
than a couple tenths of a mile
before we started occasion-
ally to plunge into snow up to
mid-calf (or nearer the knee in
Max’s case; at 10, he’s both the
youngest and shortest member
of our quartet).
But this wallowing didn’t
even have the dubious advan-
tage of being consistent, and
thus predictable.
The vagaries of terrain and
trees and exposure to sunlight
had conspired to create a sort
of minefi eld eff ect. Some-
times we would take a dozen
steps without sinking in. Then
we would hit a patch of softer
snow and slog for several
paces. More often, though,
there was no regularity, no
rhythm. One boot would stay
on top while the other thrust
through clear to the frozen
ground, creating an unfortu-
nate and awkward stance that
my aging hips don’t cotton to
at all.
I understand the obvious
question here.
Why didn’t we just go back
and get the snowshoes?
I have no answer — not a
cogent one, anyway.
All I can off er by way
of explanation is the same
pathetic plea that people tend
to give when they put them-
selves in a position over which
they had total control.
By the time it got annoying
it just seemed too onerous to
turn around.
Olivia, who is savvy
enough to not complain
in such a situation, in fact
declared the hike a success.
She also off ered the clever,
albeit obnoxious to her
parents, suggestion that since
we didn’t wear snowshoes we
got more exercise.
I couldn’t deny this claim
on purely cardiovascular
grounds.
But I pointed out that
had we worn snowshoes we
could have gone consider-
ably farther, getting even
better views of the spectacular
winter scenery and ultimately
burning a comparable number
of calories.
On the way back we
detoured down to the reser-
voir. It’s a much longer detour
than usual, since the drought
dropped Phillips to its lowest
level since it fi rst fi lled in
1968.
The ice, based on the
remnants of a few ice-fi sh-
ing holes, was several inches
thick.
I thought, as I inevita-
bly do on the rare occasions
when I’m standing on a frozen
body of water, of the scenes
in “Grumpy Old Men” of the
temporary towns of ice fi sh-
ing shanties that spring up
each winter in the frigid Great
Lakes region.
Our ice-fi shing culture isn’t
quite so formal, but Phillips
is a fi ne spot to pursue the
pastime.
As we trudged back along a
well-trodden path to the park-
ing lot, Lisa and I agreed that it
was a beautiful place to spend
a couple hours of a January
day.
And that we would never do
it again.
Not without snowshoes.
———
Jayson Jacoby is the editor
of the Baker City Herald,
part of the EO Media Group
along with East Oregonian
and others. He also is an avid
outdoors enthusiast.
ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL &
OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY
WEDNESDAYS
11AM TO 2PM
ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL
2801 ST ANTHONY WAY - PENDLETON
NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED
ESTIMATED RESULT TIME 2-4 DAYS
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
ATHENA — Weston-McEwen inducted its
2021 Hall of Fame members between the Tiger-
Scots’ girls and boys games on Friday, Jan. 28.
John Huntsman, Deborah Glover and the 1973-
74 and 1974-75 W-M girls basketball teams joined
the ranks of other TigerScots sports elite.
Huntsman was a coach and teacher in Athena
for 40 years, both at the junior high and high school
levels, where he taught Spanish, algebra, driver’s
education, physical education and health, and
coached football, basketball and track.
He already had been inducted into the Athletic
Hall of Fame at both Ricks College, which he
attended after graduating from La Grande High in
1965, and then-Eastern Oregon College, which he
attended after returning from a two-year mission
in Argentina for The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Glover attended Oregon State University after
graduating high school in Hillsboro in 1967 before
transferring to then Eastern Oregon College, La
Grande.
She participated in crew for the Beavers, and
fi eld hockey, basketball and track at Eastern.
Glover joined the Weston School District after
graduation in 1972, and became Weston-McEwen’s
fi rst girls basketball coach.
She also coached volleyball and track during her
tenure, and has been the Athena-Weston Middle
School volleyball coach since 1982.
The Weston-McEwen 1973-74 and 1974-75 girls
basketball teams were the fi rst for the school.
The 1973-74 team was undefeated and won
district, though there was not yet a state basketball
tournament for girls. Glover led the team, which
included senior Kathy Jackson; juniors Tammy
Sams, Jodi Salter, Georgiann Licht, Susan Hesketh
and Denise Snider; sophomore Lori King; and
freshmen Liz Cahill, Paula Newbold and Susan
Warren.
The 1974-75 team again won district, and then
placed fourth at the state tournament. The team
included the 10 members of the previous season’s
team, along with Karla Hooker and Teresa Kaup.
Pat Campbell stepped in as head coach with
Glover on maternity leave.
ON THE SLATE
TUESDAY, FEB. 1
FRIDAY, FEB. 4
Prep girls basketball
Umatilla at Vale, 3 p.m.
Bickleton at Echo, 5 p.m.
Pendleton at The Dalles,
5:30 p.m.
Enterprise at Stanfi eld, 5:30 p.m.
Hermiston at Kennewick,
5:45 p.m.
Nixyaawii at McLoughlin, 6 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Weston-McEwen,
6 p.m.
Prep girls basketball
Stanfi eld at Union, 5:30 p.m.
Chiawana at Hermiston,
5:45 p.m.
Echo at Sherman, 6 p.m.
Heppner at Enterprise, 6 p.m.
Griswold at Elgin, 6 p.m.
Burns at Irrigon, 6 p.m.
Nixyaawii at Wallowa, 6 p.m.
Weston-McEwen at Pilot Rock,
6 p.m.
Vale at Riverside, 6 p.m.
Nyssa at Umatilla, 6 p.m.
Hood River Valley at Pendle-
ton, 7 p.m.
Prep boys basketball
Umatilla at Vale, 4:30 p.m.
Bickleton at Echo, 6:30 p.m.
Pendleton at The Dalles, 7 p.m.
Hermiston at Kennewick,
7:30 p.m.
Nixyaawii at McLoughlin,
7:30 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Weston-McEwen,
7:30 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 2
Prep girls basketball
Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler at Echo,
6 p.m.
Prep boys wrestling
Pendleton at The Dalles/Dufur,
6 p.m.
THURSDAY, FEB. 3
Prep girls basketball
Joseph at Griswold, 6 p.m.
Nixyaawii vs. Crane, Baker High
School, 6 p.m.
Prep boys basketball
Joseph at Griswold, 7:30 p.m.
Nixyawii vs. Crane, Baker High
School, 7:30 p.m.
FREE
C OVID
D RIVE -T HRU
T ESTING
(S ELF A DMINISTERED )
OPEN TO ALL
Prep boys basketball
Hood River Valley at Pendleton,
5:30 p.m.
Stanfi eld at Union, 7 p.m.
Echo at Sherman, 7:30 p.m.
Chiawana at Hermiston,
7:30 p.m.
Heppner at Enterprise, 7:30 p.m.
Griswold at Elgin, 7:30 p.m.
Burns at Irrigon, 7:30 p.m.
McLoughlin at Baker, 7:30 p.m.
Nixyaawii at Wallowa, 7:30 p.m.
Weston-McEwen at Pilot Rock,
7:30 p.m.
Vale at Riverside, 7:30 p.m.
College women’s basketball
Eastern Oregon at Walla Walla,
noon
College men’s basketball
Eastern Oregon at Walla Walla,
2 p.m.
College baseball
Eastern Oregon at Linfi eld,
2 p.m.