OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TRAIL
Continued from Page B1
The trail in places more
resembled a gap between
hedgerows — the sort of
place where G.I.’s would
creep through in June
1944, M1s at ready, lis-
tening for the clattering of
German tanks.
Then we saw Victoria
herself, chopping away at
what seemed a Sisyphean
task.
We stopped for a few
minutes to chat, and to
thank her for making the
hike possible. I didn’t
understand the actual scale
of the endeavor until a few
days later, when I saw a
photo of the trail before
Victoria started beating
back the snowbrush. But
even without photographic
proof it was obvious, from
a brief glance at the dozens
of freshly cut limbs scat-
tered beside the trail as
we hiked, that prior to the
pruning, walking this way
would have been an exer-
cise in frustration.
But now it was just
exercise.
And strenuous exer-
cise, given the grade of the
Cunningham Cove trail,
which varies from mod-
erately steep to an incline
that might give you reason
to wonder whether a
person designed the route
or whether it just follows
the paths made by elk and
other animals that are much
more agile than we are.
Besides battling snow-
brush, Victoria had sawed
through more than 40 trees
that had tumbled across the
trail.
This, too, is an inev-
itable eff ect following a
major fi re. The dead trees,
deprived of their former
roothold, are easy prey for
winter winds.
Victoria told us she had
cleared about a mile and a
half of the trail.
And indeed the
boundary was blatant —
we went rather suddenly
from an obvious path to
a route much less distinct
due to the fallen trees and
encroaching vegetation
(lodgepoles, mainly; for-
tunately the snowbrush
is mainly confi ned to the
lower sections of the trail).
We had to pause a few
times to fi nd the way.
Some previous hiker or
trail worker built sev-
eral rock cairns, but there
aren’t enough to serve as
guides in places where
the tread becomes all but
indistinguishable.
Another useful tactic
is to stop and look for
logs that have been sawed
through. These are usually
reliable evidence that the
trail is near.
We kept at it, though,
and eventually made it to
the Elkhorn Crest Trail. It
was worth the toil to hike a
hundred feet or so north on
the Crest Trail for the view
down to Crawfi sh Meadow
with its inimitable shade of
sylvan green. The breeze
was fresh and the air pleas-
antly cool in the shade of
the whitebark pines.
We had another brief
conversation with Victoria
on the way down, where
she was having a go at the
juvenile lodgepoles that
crowd the trail in places.
It was an illuminating
experience.
We hadn’t hiked Cun-
ningham Cove since the
early autumn of 2012,
when Max, just a toddler,
made the trip riding on my
shoulders in a backpack
carrier.
I was not a little dis-
mayed by how terribly the
trail had deteriorated in a
little less than nine years.
Had the route been then
as it is now we certainly
wouldn’t have made it to
the end.
But I was simultane-
ously gratifi ed that some-
thing’s being done to
improve the situation, that
SATURDAY, JULY 3, 2021
Victoria is on the job, res-
urrecting, as it were, a
public path that might well
have been lost to the rav-
ages of wildfi re and the
unrelenting alpine climate.
She has quite a lot yet
to do.
Based on what we saw
on June 26, I wouldn’t rec-
ommend the Cunningham
Cove trail for hikers who
aren’t accustomed to dif-
fi cult terrain and confi -
dent in their route-fi nding
abilities.
But the improvements
Victoria has made are
noteworthy.
Updates about her prog-
ress, and the Trailhead
Stewardship Project, are
available online at www.
thetrailheadbakercity.com.
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YOUR BIRTHDAY by Stella Wilder
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take action as well, so that you never have to
engage in any kind of fight on your own.
SUNDAY, JULY 4
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to say until you are sure the reaction will be
temperate. Can that be guaranteed?
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approach to a certain situation doesn’t pre-
clude the possibility that you will also get a
great deal done as well. You can do both!
AT THE FOLLOWING
BAKER CITY LOCATIONS
episode is worth some study today as you try
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- You are set
in your ways, certainly -- or so you thought,
until a chance encounter today has you mak-
ing changes that seem out of character.
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UNION COUNTY
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901 Penn Ave
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1308 Washington Ave.
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901 Penn Ave
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10801 Walton Rd.
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901 Penn Ave
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70564 Valley View Rd
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7 - 8:00 pm
Presbyterian Church
1308 Washington Ave.
(entry 6th & Spring St.)
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