B
Saturday, April 24, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
April 17, 2021: 1.6 inches (water content in snow) April 19, 2020: 1.8 inches
April 21, 2019: 9.5 inches
April 21, 2018: 0 inches
IF YOU GO....
From the railroad tracks
in Haines:
• Drive west on Anthony
Lakes Highway for 1.7
miles to the fi rst major
corner. Turn left onto
Pocahontas Road, then
stay right, after about
two-tenths of a mile, on
South Rock Creek Lane.
• Follow paved South
Rock Creek Lane for
about 3.7 miles, then
continue into the
mountains when the
road turns to well-
graded gravel.
• Continue on gravel
for about 2 miles
to a Forest Service
sign for Killamacue
trailhead and Rock
Creek Lake trailhead.
The road becomes
a dirt track here,
suitable for four-wheel
drive, high-clearance
vehicles. Snowdrifts
likely will continue to
block the road, at some
point below Eilertson
Meadow, for at least a
few more weeks.
A N A PRIL P ILGRIMAGE
■ Replicating the photograph of a snow-measuring station April 22, 2017: 3.1 inches
in the Elkhorn Mountains for the fifth consecutive spring
T
he split-rail fence
replicate the photograph
near Eilertson
took here on April 22,
ON THE TRAIL I 2017,
Meadow is my
the purpose being
JAYSON JACOBY
favorite enclosure.
to compare the snowpack.
Not that it’s likely to
I’m fascinated by “repeat
impede anything that wants to get in.
photography” — using pictures, taken from
The higher of the two rails is only three
the same spot, to illustrate changes over
feet or so above the ground, a height that a
time. The technique typically catalogs peri-
deer or elk would scarcely notice.
ods measured in decades rather than years,
The fence is the sort more typically
but when the subject is not, say, a glacier, but
used for decorative rather than protective
rather snow that melts every spring, even a
purposes. Except this fence isn’t in some-
modest span yields interesting results.
body’s backyard. It’s in a remote spot in the
This April the snowpack looked quite simi-
Elkhorn Mountains, a place that for much of lar to the 2017 version. I was a bit surprised,
the year is rarely visited by people.
though, that according to records from the
Which is to say that it’s sort of jarring to
measuring station, the water content in the
come across this structure, which would be
snow in 2017 was almost twice as much as
appropriate in an upscale subdivision, in a
this year.
spot far closer to wilderness than to subur-
I don’t know whether a couple of trees
bia.
could account for the difference, but the
My affi nity for this fence, as with many
scenes from those two years on this page
types of affection, was fostered by familiarity. suggest a possible factor.
The fence surrounds an automated
In 2017, as the photo at right shows at the
snow-measuring station that I’ve hiked to,
left side of the fence, were two trees. But by
during the same week in April, for the past
the next April the two trees, as seen in the
fi ve years. My goal, beside getting out in the 2018 photo, were gone.
clean air and relishing the inimitable scent
See Pilgrimage/Page 6B
of sun-warmed pines, fi rs and spruces, is to
• From the Forest Service
sign, the Killamacue
Lake trailhead is 2 miles,
and Eilertson Meadow
3.5 miles. The Snotel is
just east of the meadow,
on the south side of the
road
“Snotels,” like this one near Eilertson Meadow, measure
the water content in the snow by calculating the weight
of the snow pressing on a “pillow” fi lled with an anti-
freeze liquid.
• The Rock Creek Road is
a public route. However,
it passes through private
land near the Killamacue
Lake trailhead, and at
Eilertson Meadow, so
stick to the road. Oregon
Trail Electric Cooperative
owns the property at
Eilertson Meadow,
including the cabin at
the meadow’s eastern
edge.
Perusing pellet possibilities: air guns, part 3
As hunters, we all know that we
have to experiment to fi nd which
ammo shoots the most accurately
in our big game rifl es, right? We
check different manufacturers,
grains of bullets, and designs.
A while back I was setting up a
Mossberg Patriot Revere .30-06.
I mounted on a Riton RT-S MOD
5 4-16x50 WIDE FOV scope. I
planned on this setup to be a
shooter.
But after testing several brands
of ammo I still couldn’t get the
results that I wanted. Finally, after
testing 13 different manufacturers
and grains of bullets, I got what I
wanted. We know this on our fi re-
arms but something that surprised
me was that it is just as important
to test various manufacturers,
BASE CAMP
TOM CLAYCOMB
shapes and weights of pellets if you
want your air gun to shoot accu-
rately.
Like I said in the fi rst article in
this four-part series (published in
the March 27 issue), in the begin-
ning I could not get better than a
1½-inch group at 15 yards. Finally
I got some good air guns and my
groups improved immensely, but
my quest for accuracy was not yet
complete.
With air guns we’re hunting small
game that have small kill zones so
it’s imperative that we get superb
Ron Spomer Outdoors/Contributed Photo
Pellets come in multiple shapes. Some are more profi cient for hunting but the most accurate are the
Diabolo shaped or dome-shaped Diabolo pellets.
accuracy out of our air guns. In my
quest for accuracy, I then learned
that which pellet you choose is as
important as buying an accurate
air rifl e. You just cannot get a good
group with substandard pellets.
As an outdoor writer I get to test
a lot of pellets. Luckily I met the
JSB crew at the SHOT Show and
everything fell in place. From what
I’ve tested, JSB hands down makes
the most accurate pellets. Sig Sauer
splits the 2/3 place with Crosman.
See Pellets/Page 6B