B
Saturday, May 23, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
RECREATION
REPORT
GEOCACHING
Oregon state
parks to
offer limited
camping
starting June 9
SALEM — The
Oregon Parks and
Recreation Depart-
ment (OPRD) will
offer limited camp-
ing at many state
park campgrounds
starting June 9.
State park camping
closed statewide
March 23 in an ef-
fort to contain the
spread of coronavi-
rus and limit travel,
especially to smaller
communities and
rural areas.
A list of which
campgrounds will
open June 9 is still
being fi nalized. That
list will be published
on oregonstate
parks.org by the
end of May. Not
all parks and all
services will be
available. Most of
the campgrounds
opening accept
reservations, but
some fi rst come,
fi rst served state
park campgrounds
may open as staff
and funding are
available.
Those camp-
grounds that do
open will honor
existing tent and
RV reservations
starting June 9,
and will accept new
reservations from
one day to two
weeks in advance,
instead of the usual
nine months in ad-
vance. Reservations
will still be made
through OPRD’s
contracted vendor,
Reserve America at
https://oregonstate-
parks.reserveameri-
ca.com/ RV and tent
campers without
reservations will be
welcome at open
campgrounds as
space and staffi ng
permit.
Reservations
for most yurts and
cabins, and group
camping and group
day-use, are still
subject to cancella-
tion. Visitors holding
those reservations
will be contacted
if a cancellation is
required.
Two main forces
determine when a
state park camp-
ground can open.
Some communities,
such as the north
coast, are not yet
ready for overnight
visitors from out-
side their area.
A more wide-
spread factor
relates to funding.
The Oregon State
Park system is not
funded by taxes,
but by revenue
from park visitors,
a small share of the
Oregon Lottery, and
a portion of state
recreational vehicle
registrations. The
revenue needed to
operate state parks
has fallen drasti-
cally since March,
meaning one of the
most popular state
park systems in the
country is being op-
erated by about half
the usual staff.
The Thrill
of the Hunt
■ The search for a geocache isn’t
always successful, but wildflowers
and vistas are fine consolation prizes
I don’t think I’m especially
gullible but recently I spent the
better part of an hour nosing
into the nooks and crannies on
a lonely mountaintop, search-
ing for something based solely on
advice I read on the internet.
Searching, and not fi nding.
Not fi nding what was sup-
posed to be there according to my
online advisers, anyway.
We did fi nd a couple of morels.
And many clumps of colorful
wildfl owers.
And I found a fi re-blackened
branch set at just the right
elevation to slash a pair of paral-
lel gashes in my right calf as I
blundered past.
(Another symptom of my
gullibility is that I wear shorts
when hiking through fi re-scarred
forests in mid-May.)
What we didn’t fi nd is the item
that lured me, along with my
wife, Lisa, and our kids, Max and
Olivia, to Stump Spring Butte
on the divide between the Burnt
and Powder rivers southeast of
Baker City.
A geocache.
Or as I prefer to call it, the al-
leged geocache.
Max is the lone holdout, and
I believe he would, if given the
chance, be up there yet, peering
ON THE TRAIL
JAYSON JACOBY
into the recesses between the
jumbled boulders that make up
the top of the butte, which is
more of a plateau than a pin-
nacle.
Max, who is 9, certainly is the
most enthusiastic geocacher in
our family.
Indeed he introduced the rest
of us to the hobby.
We were all aware of geocach-
ing, to be sure, and understood
the basic concept of using GPS
— the Global Positioning System,
an extremely accurate way of
navigating by signals from orbit-
ing satellites — to fi nd hidden
caches of small, often whimsical,
items.
Basically it’s a high-tech trea-
sure hunt in which fi nders are
encouraged to swap one small
treasure for another — a marble
for a tiny stuffed animal, maybe.
But it wasn’t until Max became
entranced by geocaching that we
incorporated searches into our
regular weekend hiking excur-
sions.
Lisa Britton/For the EO Media Group
Once you’ve found a geocache you need to sign the register to prove you
were actually there.
Lisa Britton/For the EO
Media Group
The blooming
bitterroot looks
delicate, but the
plant is hardy,
usually growing
in rocky areas
with little soil.
This one was
blossoming in
the middle of a
road.
See Geocaching/Page 3B
Lisa Britton/For the EO Media
Group
The view south from
Stump Spring Butte
takes in tens of thou-
sands of acres scarred
by wildfi res over the
past 30 years or so.
The dead trees in
the foreground were
scorched during the
Cornet-Windy Ridge
fi re in August 2015.
Some areas farther
south were burned in
the Dooley Mountain
fi re of 1989. The two
fi res’ boundaries also
overlapped in places.
Don’t defile morels — cook in cast iron
In the midst of
the COVID-19 scare
there is one spring
highlight that didn’t
fail to occur. Morel
mushrooms! Morels are the
best food that nature has to
offer and now is the primo
season. I have been out of
state and dying to get back
home to go mushroom pick-
ing. Katy had to teach the
fi rst day back but she was off
on a recent Friday so we took
off for my secret spot.
We didn’t fi nd as many as
we would have wished but
still got enough for a good
mess. They were all nice and
fi rm and in good shape. So if
you are reading this article
you need to hurry up, fi nish
reading this article and jump
in the truck and head for the
mountains. It is primo time.
Pour some fl our on a plate.
Roll
the mushrooms in the
BASE CAMP
fl our. On the stove be pre-
TOM CLAYCOMB
heating a skillet with about
½-inch of grease to medium
To prepare the mushrooms, heat. When hot (sizzles a drop
gently rinse and then slice
of water) lay mushrooms cut
in half lengthwise. Put in a
side down in the skillet. Fry
bowl with salt water to kill
to a golden brown and fl ip.
any bugs and refrigerate
OK, I have to digress for
overnight.
a minute. If you have a thin-
Last week I covered how
walled skillet anywhere in
to hunt them, today let’s go
your kitchen gingerly pick it
over my favorite recipe. You
up with two fi ngers so as not
can make mushroom gravy,
to defi le yourself. Walk out
scramble with eggs and use
to the trash can and throw it
them in other ways, but fry-
away. Buy a cast iron Lodge
ing them is the ultimate. Beat skillet. They are the best for
two to three eggs with about frying and evenly disperse
a ½ cup of milk in a bowl.
heat while cooking.
Photo by Tom Claycomb
Drain the water off the rinsed
When golden brown (not
A cast iron skillet is the proper way to prepare morels.
mushrooms an hour before-
too brown) remove and lay
hand. Throw the drained/
on a paper towel-lined plate.
sliced mushrooms in the egg I lightly sprinkle with salt
not too much. Let everyone
Tony Chachere’s original
batter and cover with batter. and pepper when frying but
season to their tastes. I use
seasoning.