COMMUNITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
Shanda McDonald/Contributed
Shanda McDonald and Sean Belknap.
RESCUED
Continued from Page 1A
Belknap and McDonald,
in addition to their camping
gear, had brought along a
Garmin GPS unit equipped
with an inReach satellite con-
nection. By pressing a button
on the device, they sent a
signal, via a network of orbit-
ing satellites, that alerted law
enforcement that they needed
help. The signal also pinpoint-
ed their location.
There is no cell service in
that area.
Belknap said he pushed
the button at 2:50 p.m.
Within two minutes they
received a text message on
the device, from the Garmin
dispatch center, acknowledg-
ing their request for help.
“It was pretty nice to know
the technology worked,”
said Belknap, who had not
deployed the service before.
McDonald said it took some
time for text messages to be
relayed.
Baker County Sheriff
Travis Ash said the initial
message went to the Grant
County Sheriff’s Offi ce, as the
location is in that county.
Ash said the Grant County
Sheriff’s Offi ce asked him to
coordinate the rescue because
the place where the couple
was stuck is closer to Baker
City than it is to Canyon City,
where the Grant County
offi ce is.
That request came about
3:52 p.m., slightly more than
an hour after Belknap sent
the alert.
Ash said he contacted
the company that monitors
the emergency network for
Garmin devices. He was able
to have a text message sent
to Belknap and McDonald,
telling them to stay with their
pickup and that rescuers
would likely arrive before 7
p.m.
Ash said Belknap and
McDonald responded with a
text message that they were
in their truck.
“They told me they were
watching movies,” Ash said.
McDonald said she was
immensely relieved to learn,
little more than an hour after
they sent the request, that
rescuers would soon be en
route and that they wouldn’t
be stranded overnight.
“I honestly don’t know
what we would have done,”
she said Tuesday. “They so
generously volunteer their
time to help those in need,
and we could not be more
“I honestly don’t know what we would have done.
They so generously volunteer their time to help those
in need, and we could not be more thankful to them.”
— Shanda McDonald, talking about Baker County
Sheriff’s Offi ce Search and Rescue members
thankful to them.”
The couple’s pickup was
stranded about 6 miles
southwest of Anthony Lakes
Mountain Resort. The
Elkhorn Drive Byway is not
plowed of snow or otherwise
maintained during the winter
between the ski area and
Granite, a distance of about
23 miles.
The couple were near
Badger Butte, at an elevation
of about 6,600 feet.
Ash said he and three
Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce
Search and Rescue volunteers
set up a command post at the
Grande Ronde Sno Park just
west of Anthony Lakes.
Volunteers in three side-
by-side ATVs, equipped with
tracks rather than tires, left
the command post at 5:47
p.m., arriving at the stuck
truck at 6:16 p.m. They picked
up Belknap, McDonald and
their dog, Maisy, a 6-year-old
shepherd mix that McDonald,
who works in a veterinary
hospital, adopted.
All were fi ne.
“The crew was fast-acting,
kind, and did not make us
feel even more stupid than we
already did!” McDonald wrote
in a text message to the Her-
ald on Wednesday morning.
Belknap, who works as a
Toyota repair technician, said
he and McDonald have taken
many previous road trips.
They usually camp in seclud-
ed forests and are accustomed
to traveling in remote areas.
During their fi rst visit to
Oregon, the couple were using
as a guide a book describing
the state’s scenic byways.
On Sunday, Dec. 6, they
embarked on the Blue
Mountains Scenic Byway,
which runs from Interstate
84 through Heppner, Ukiah
and on to its end at the North
Fork John Day River. There
the byway connects to the
Elkhorn Drive Byway.
Belknap said they camped
Sunday night between Hep-
pner and Ukiah.
“It was really cold,” he said.
On Monday the couple
continued driving east on the
Blue Mountains Byway, pass-
ing through Ukiah.
Belknap said he saw a
sign east of Ukiah, where the
byway begins climbing into
the Blue Mountains, noting
that the paved, two-lane route
is not maintained for winter
travel.
But he said the snow wasn’t
deep and there were vehicle
tracks. He said he fi gured that
although the route wasn’t
maintained, neither was it
closed.
The problem, he concedes
now with the benefi t of hind-
sight, started at the junction
of the two byways.
He had two choices.
If he continued straight,
Granite, the nearest town,
was about 9 miles away, and
Sumpter about 24 miles.
If he turned left he would
have to climb almost 2,000
vertical feet to Elkhorn Sum-
mit. At 7,392 feet, it’s the
second-highest point reached
by a paved road in Oregon,
surpassed only by the Rim
Drive in Crater Lake National
Park, which tops out at about
7,900 feet.
Belknap said he turned
left because, based on the
scenic byways book, the route
past Anthony Lakes was the
shorter path to Baker City.
(The junction is actually
almost at the midpoint of
the 106-mile Elkhorn Drive
Byway.)
Belknap said he was wor-
ried at that point about his
gas supply, as he had burned
more than he expected
driving through snow for 40
miles between Ukiah and the
byways junction.
What he didn’t know is how
much elevation the Elkhorn
Drive Byway gains between
the junction and Anthony
Lakes. Or how deep the snow
would be.
Still, Belknap said he felt
well-prepared for the situa-
tion.
He said he lived in Colorado
for eight years and has con-
siderable experience driving
four-wheel drive rigs in deep
snow.
“I’ve been off-roading since
I got my fi rst Tacoma 11 years
ago,” Belknap said.
His current truck is
equipped with 35-inch-tall
tires — about 4 inches taller
than stock tires — and he
said he reduced the tires’ air
pressure to about 5 psi when
the snow deepened. That’s
Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce
Volunteers from the Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce Search and Rescue team arrived at
6:16 p.m. Monday to rescue a San Diego couple whose pickup became mired in snow.
at Anthony Lakes Mountain
Resort, and the resort had its
snow groomer, snowmobiles
and other equipment avail-
able if it was needed.
“We have a really good
relationship with Anthony
Lakes,” Ash said.
Ash said Belknap and
McDonald told him they
had planned to continue
their trip by driving to Hells
Canyon and then taking the
Hells Canyon Scenic Byway
through the mountains to
Joseph.
Ash had an immediate
response to that idea.
“No, you’re not,” he told the
Shanda McDonald/Contributed couple.
Maisy is a 6-year-old shepherd mix. Shanda McDonald,
Ash’s insistence was based
who works in a veterinary hospital, adopted the dog.
on a recent experience.
On Thanksgiving Day he
a common tactic to improve
to freeze-and-thaw cycles and rescued a man whose car got
traction, as tires with less air from the passage of snowmo- stuck in snow on the Hells
spread out and have a wider biles.
Canyon Byway. He didn’t
footprint, which increases
Ash said that even the
want Belknap and McDonald
their surface area and helps
track-equipped rescue ATVs
to have to deploy their satel-
them “fl oat” on snow or sand. were sinking slightly in the
lite device again so soon.
Belknap said he was some- relatively soft snow.
As it turned out, Belknap
what hesitant to continue.
McDonald said Belknap
said he and McDonald won’t
There were no fresh tire
couldn’t get enough traction to be able to visit Hells Canyon
tracks — only snowmobile
free the truck even when us- anyway.
tracks — and as the grade
ing the winch. McDonald said
Belknap said he talked
steepened, he said, “it was
they eventually decided to
with Superior Towing in
more of a challenge” to main- stop trying so as to save gas
Baker City on Tuesday, but
tain momentum.
in case they were stranded
too late to head into the
He also became more con-
for a long period and needed mountains to recover his
cerned about gas, as he was
to run the engine to heat the pickup that day.
driving in fi rst gear and with cab.
He planned to do that on
the transfer case in low range,
Ash said the rescue effort
Wednesday.
a combination that, though
came together quickly in part
“We’re running low on
helpful in low-traction driving, because he knew, through
time” for their vacation,
also causes gas mileage to
the text messages relayed by Belknap said.
plummet.
the satellites, that the couple
They planned to leave Bak-
Belknap said he’s sure he
were not hurt.
er City on Thursday morning
could have made it through
That meant he didn’t have for the thousand-mile drive
had the snow been fresh, light to bring the sled-like “snow
back to San Diego.
powder.
ambulances” that can be
Despite the unexpected
But most of the snow in the towed by ATVs or snowmo-
interruption, Belknap said he
Elkhorns fell a few weeks ago. biles.
and McDonald have enjoyed
During the ensuing dry spell
Ash said he talked to Peter their vacation.
the snow has consolidated due Johnson, general manager
“It was a good trip,” he said.
Wishing You A Merry Christmas
& Happy New Year
ONLINE TICKET SALES STARTED MONDAY, DEC. 7
Anthony Lakes Mountain
Resort selling daily tickets
and do not need to buy one online.
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Anthony Lakes is also offering guaranteed
Season pass holders have made tracks in the daily tickets, for $15, for all Baker School Dis-
snow at Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort the
trict students who show their student ID at the
past two weekends, and now other skiers and
resort, Judy said. They don’t need to buy a ticket
boarders will get their chance.
online.
The ski area in the Elkhorn Mountains
The offer is intended in part to replace the
northwest of Baker City opened Saturday and annual Ski for the Health of It program for
Sunday, Nov. 28 and 29, and the following week- students, which won’t happen this year due to
end, for people who bought season passes.
the COVID-19 pandemic.
But starting on Monday, Dec. 7, Anthony
And Anthony Lakes is setting aside 20 tickets
Lakes began selling daily tickets through its
each day, at a 50% discount, for people who have
website, www.anthonylakes.com
a receipt, from within seven days of buying a
A limited number of tickets is available — the ticket, from any locally owned restaurant or
resort isn’t setting a specifi c number for any
retail shop in Baker, Union, Grant or Wallowa
particular day — for this coming weekend, Dec. counties.
12 and 13, and then for every day, except Christ-
Judy said the fi rst two weekends were limited
mas, from Dec. 19 through Jan. 3, said Chelsea to season pass holders to give resort operators a
Judy, Anthony Lakes marketing director.
chance to gauge the challenges of maintaining
People who are staying with one of the re-
social distancing.
sort’s lodging partners — a list is posted on the
See Skiing/Page 5A
website — will qualify for a discounted lift ticket
By Jayson Jacoby
Designed by Ella Kessinger of Lewiston, ID.
She was the winner of our annual Holiday Design Contest.
Donate by Drive-Up This Holiday Season in Our Annual
Charity Drive
To Suppor t the
Food Banks
in each area
Community Bank will match your donations
DOLLAR for DOLLAR up to a max match of
$1,000 in each town through Dec. 18th!
La Grande: 2313 Adams Ave & 904 Adams Ave
Baker City: 1190 Campbell St
Elgin: 109 S 8th St
Wallowa: 202 N Storie St
Enterprise: 300 NW 1st St
Joseph: 609 N Main St
800-472-4292
www.communitybanknet.com
Member FDIC