SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
Baker City, Oregon
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EDITORIAL
Balancing
protection
The coronavirus pandemic has forced Baker Coun-
ty Sheriff Travis Ash and other administrators at the
County Jail to make diffi cult decisions since March.
Ash, along with Lt. Ben Wray, who supervises the
Jail, and Undersheriff Jef Van Arsdall, have to use
discretion when deciding which suspects stay in
custody and which are released after being arrested.
Generally, people accused of serious crimes against
people remain in jail. Since the pandemic began, the
Jail, which has a capacity of 45 inmates, has gener-
ally incarcerated 15 or fewer. Having fewer inmates
makes it easier to reduce the risk of spreading
COVID-19 in the building, which was constructed in
1991 and also houses the sheriff’s offi ce and emer-
gency dispatch center.
A situation earlier this week illustrates the dilem-
ma that offi cials face.
Forrest Lee Entermille, 41, of Baker City, was ar-
rested Sunday night in Haines after allegedly break-
ing beer bottles during an argument and throwing an
object at a pickup truck. Baker County Circuit Court
Judge Matt Shirtcliff granted Entermille a condition-
al release from the Jail the next day, Monday.
Later that day Entermille was arrested for alleged-
ly entering a Baker City man’s home, hitting him in
the head and, accompanied by Margaret Samantha
Lacey, 33, stealing the man’s wallet and two phones.
Shirtcliff revoked the release agreement, and Enter-
mille remained in jail Friday.
The precautions at the Jail are reasonable, to be
sure. And only with the benefi t of hindsight does
the release of Entermille clearly seem a mistake.
But county offi cials, and judges, need to consider the
potential benefi ts in protecting the public by holding
inmates such as Entermille, even though that might
slightly increase the risk inside the Jail. Entermille
has a criminal history in Baker County dating to
2013, including convictions for fourth-degree assault
and disorderly conduct. That background, combined
with his arrest on Sunday in Haines, justifi ed keep-
ing him in custody.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
OTHER VIEWS
Rethinking Edward Snowden pardon
Editorial from The Pittsburgh Post-
Gazette:
President Donald Trump has put
Edward Snowden back in the news.
Asked if he would consider pardoning
the former National Security Agency
contractor, Trump said “I am going to
take a very good look at it.”
Snowden faces criminal charges after
he leaked classifi ed documents reveal-
ing the scope of the NSA’s surveillance
apparatus in 2013. He has been living in
exile in Russia ever since.
From the beginning, most young
Americans believed Snowden acted
with the public’s interest in mind. The
passage of time has revealed a broader
shift in sympathy for Snowden, includ-
ing from Trump, who once called the
exiled American a “spy who should
be executed.” His leaks are now being
seen for what they were intended: a
much-needed reckoning of government
overreach.
Trump loves cutting deals, and it’s
time to cut one with Snowden. Short of
a pardon, Snowden can admit wrongdo-
ing in exchange for a probation sentence.
Seven years in exile has been enough;
he should be allowed to return home
without going to prison.
Snowden revealed that under the
auspices of the Patriot Act, the NSA
secretly and indiscriminately collected
the telephone records of tens of millions
of Americans. Also exposed were the
lies that came from the very top of the
U.S. national security establishment.
The Obama administration’s director of
national intelligence, James Clapper, lied
to Congress in denying the collection of
data.
There are competing interpretations
of Snowden’s actions. For his critics, it
is simple and straightforward. Rep. Liz
Cheney, R-Wyo., daughter of former Vice
President Dick Cheney — a vociferous
defender of the NSA spying that he
helped facilitate — called Snowden a
“traitor,” adding that a pardon would be
“unconscionable.” This was echoed by
Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Mac
Thornberry, R-Texas, who said it would
be a “serious mistake” to consider clem-
ency.
On the other hand, Sen. Rand Paul,
Letters to the editor
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R-Ky., and Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.,
and Justin Amash, I-Mich., all support
a presidential pardon. Sen. Paul, who
called Snowden’s leak “an act of civil
disobedience” said, “Mr. Clapper lied in
Congress in the name of security. Mr.
Snowden told the truth in the name of
privacy.” The former committed perjury
and got a sweet book deal; the latter told
the truth and potentially faces life in
prison.
Snowden was not selling secrets to
the Russians or the Chinese. He simply
revealed that the privacy of American
citizens was being violated on a massive
scale, with no demonstrable gain in secu-
rity. Furthermore, members of Congress
knew almost nothing about what the
NSA was really doing, and this included
members of the committees who were in
oversight of intelligence gathering.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder called Snowden’s act a “public
service” for good reason. There has
always been a robust debate in America
about the balance between security and
liberty, and the extent to which govern-
ment should be spying on its citizens, but
regardless of anyone’s views on surveil-
lance and privacy, who among us would
say that we are better off remaining
ignorant about all the things our govern-
ment is doing to us?
Following in the boots of a legendary hiker
I probably wouldn’t have de-
toured from the trail except that
my son, Max, insisted.
I’m glad his power to persuade
is considerable for a kid who’s
celebrated just nine birthdays.
Because without Max’s cajoling
I likely would have plodded ahead,
as though I were on a schedule, and
in my stubbornness I would have
missed one of those serendipitous
and joyful moments that happily
interrupt the humdrum passage of
our days.
But that’s not quite what hap-
pened.
We were, it turned out, two days
too late for what would have been
a memorable encounter for me and
for my wife, Lisa.
Max would have remembered it,
too, albeit for different reasons.
The person we missed meeting
is not a celebrity on the level of, say,
Paul McCartney.
But William L. Sullivan is, I
daresay, famous among many of us
who think one of the better ways
to appreciate Oregon’s beauty and
variety of landscapes is to get our
boots dusty tramping its trails (or
muddy, or snowy, as the season and
the situation dictate).
Sullivan is to Oregon hiking
guidebooks what Stephen King is
to horror novels.
Not that I mean to typecast
either of these fi ne writers.
King, as anyone knows who is
more than slightly familiar with
his work, has authored many
compelling tales which feature no
monsters and carry nary a whiff of
JAYSON
JACOBY
the supernatural.
Sullivan, though he is best
known for his series of “100 Hikes”
books that divide Oregon into fi ve
regions, has also penned many
other books. These include “Cabin
Fever,” a memoir about building
a log cabin with his wife near the
Oregon Coast, a history of the
state’s greatest natural disasters,
and six novels, including ones that
feature such iconic (and real) Or-
egon characters as skyjacker D.B.
Cooper and guru Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh.
But Sullivan’s fi rst book has
always been my favorite, and I
suspect it will retain that title no
matter what subject he turns his
prodigious talent to.
“Listening For Coyote” is Sul-
livan’s story about the 1,361-mile
solo backpacking trip he made in
1985 from Oregon’s westernmost
point, at Cape Blanco, to its east-
erly extremity in Hells Canyon.
As someone who relishes hiking
but rarely stays out for more than
a couple nights in a row, or covers
more than 30 miles in one excur-
sion, I have long been drawn to
accounts of truly epic journeys such
as Sullivan’s.
I own several books describing
hikes on long-distance routes such
as the Pacifi c Crest and Appala-
chian trails, and I can while away
hours following in the authors’
bootsteps while I relax on a sofa
or a reclining lounge chair in the
backyard.
But none of these accounts has
ever endured itself so thoroughly as
“Listening For Coyote.”
I suspect this is due in some small
part to my age when I fi rst read it.
I was in high school, an era when I
think many of us are susceptible to
the lure of an adventure story in a
way that we never are later, as our
own experiences accumulate and
our sense of wonder at new things
atrophies. It’s a sad, but I think also
inevitable, transition.
But for me the most powerful
attraction of “Listening For Coyote”
is that it’s simply a cracking good
story, and Sullivan tells it with deft
and piquant prose. I have probably
read the book a dozen times, and
never does the scent of Sullivan’s
campfi res fail to reach my nose,
never do I not shiver when he’s
trudging through snow after an
early blizzard in the Blue Moun-
tains.
That snowbound trail where Sul-
livan left his tracks is the very one
that Max, Lisa and I walked earlier
this summer, the path that follows
the North Fork John Day River
through its wilderness canyon west
of Baker City.
The conditions could scarcely
have been different on the day of our
trip. The mid-July afternoon was
that rare sort when the old chestnut
about there not being a cloud in the
sky happened to be true.
We couldn’t, at any rate, see so
much as a scrap of cumulus or ten-
dril of cirrus in the somewhat ab-
breviated scope of sky visible from
our vantage point in the depths of
the densely forested canyon.
We bought Max his fi rst real
backpack a couple of years ago and
just lately he’s been nudging us,
like a frisky horse too long stabled,
to get out in the woods. Lisa and I
picked the North Fork trail, which
we had hiked before, albeit without
children in tow. We chose the path
largely because, as riverside routes
often are, it lacks the lung-straining
climbs that can quickly sap a young
hiker’s enthusiasm.
(And, if I must be honest, a some-
what older hiker’s.)
When Max spied the cabin’s met-
al roof glinting among the lodgepole
pines he darted onto the spur path
leading toward the structure.
Guy Hafer of Cove, who died in
2007, built the cabin on his mining
claim. It stands on public land and
the cabin is left unlocked. There
were a few rodent droppings inside
but it appears the people who use
the cabin respect it, and Hafer’s
legacy, and try to ensure it remains
usable.
I noticed a notebook ensconced
in a plastic bag on a table. It looked
to be a sort of guest book. I pulled
it out and was shocked by the most
recent entry. It was signed “William
L. Sullivan.” The date was July 16,
just two days earlier. He was doing
research for an updated version of
his “100 Hikes In Eastern Oregon”
book.
I hollered at Lisa, who was
outside.
We were both thrilled, albeit a
trifl e disappointed to have come so
close to having met Sullivan.
I interviewed him in 2006 when
he made a presentation at the Or-
egon Trail Interpretive Center.
But meeting him on the North
Fork trail would be another mat-
ter altogether. And the reason is
that one of the most memorable
chapters in “Listening For Coyote”
is the one in which Sullivan, hiking
through a rainstorm that soon
turned to snow, was spared from
having to pitch his tent in inclem-
ent weather when he came across
another old mining cabin about a
mile or so downriver from Hafer’s.
This other cabin, nicknamed
the “Bigfoot Hilton” by someone
who visited it before Sullivan, has
become something of a shrine for
hikers due to its inclusion in “Lis-
tening For Coyote.”
Not to belabor my earlier refer-
ence to Paul McCartney, but for me,
coming across Bill Sullivan in a
cabin on the North Fork John Day
would be comparable to bumping
into the ex-Beatle while taking the
requisite photo in the most famous
crosswalk on London’s Abbey Road.
It was not to be.
But I was pleased just the same
to have shared a trail, in a man-
ner of speaking, with the man who
must be Oregon’s most famous
hiker.
Jayson Jacoby is editor
of the Baker City Herald.