Outdoors
Rec
B1
Saturday, July 31, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Seeking a river’s source
Shady hike follows an abandoned road along the Grande Ronde River’s east fork
IF YOU GO
JAYSON
JACOBY
From Interstate 84 at the Hilgard/Ukiah
exit, drive Highway 244 for about 11
miles, turning right at a sign for Starkey.
Drive south on the paved two-lane road,
which becomes Forest Road 51 after it
enters the Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest. About 12.6 miles from Highway
244, after the road enters the broad
expanse of Vey Meadows, turn left onto
gravel Road 5125. The road immediately
crosses the Grande Ronde River.
Drive Road 5125, which is suitable for
passenger cars, for 6.5 miles and turn
right onto Road 5138, which is a bit
rougher but still passable to regular
cars. Follow Road 5138 through piles of
mining tailings for about a half a mile,
where the road ends at a tank trap.
ON THE TRAIL
A
lthough I have on occasion
been asked, while hiking
in the mountains, where
I’m heading, I have never been
confused with Dr. Livingstone,
the Scottish physician whose
name is forever linked to the
interrogative, “I presume?”
But I share with the 19th cen-
tury missionary a curiosity about
where rivers come from, even
though I’ve never sought the
source of a waterway so great as
the Nile and even though, unlike
the famous explorer, I have access
to Google Earth.
Among hiking destinations,
only the summit of a prominent
peak exerts on my legs a similar
magnetic pull.
Not every part of our corner of
Oregon, richly endowed though it
is in mountains, is distinguished
by the sorts of precipices that
dominate the surrounding terrain
and all but beg to be ascended and
stood upon in triumph.
Streams, by contrast, are plen-
tiful pretty much everywhere.
Many are middling in volume,
to be sure — the innumerable
creeks that might briefly turn
into a torrent when swollen with
spring snowmelt but by mid-
summer are brooks barely big
enough to babble.
But our region’s major rivers
are a different matter.
Each has multiple forks, and
most of those are themselves fed
by tributaries. I find it an end-
lessly fascinating exercise —
physically and otherwise — to
track these streams, to see if I
can find their precise birthplaces,
whether that’s a lake or a pond or
a spring where frigid water, fresh
from an aquifer, gurgles to the
surface and surrenders to gravity.
These excursions seem to me
especially compelling when I’m
able to sample several reaches of
a river and so get a sense of its
various, and often quite distinct,
personalities.
I had occasion to do so on a
recent weekend along a river that
I’m not particularly familiar with
despite its proximity: the Grande
Ronde.
I feel a trifle guilty about this,
given that the Grande Ronde is
one of the great rivers of North-
eastern Oregon, and certainly the
longest, spanning about 182 miles
from Grande Ronde Lake, high in
the Elkhorns, to its mouth at the
Snake River.
(The John Day River is about
100 miles longer but I’m not
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
A blossom of grass of Parnassus grow-
ing beside the east fork of the Grande
Ronde River on July 25, 2021.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
The east fork of the Grande Ronde River flows through a remote, heavily forested canyon.
counting it here because although
it begins in Northeastern Oregon,
many of its miles are actually in
Central Oregon.)
We spent the nights of July 23
and 24 at Spool Cart, the Forest
Service campground on the
Grande Ronde’s east bank south
of Starkey. But we had our first
look at the Grande Ronde many
miles downriver, where it passes
below Interstate 84 on the north
side of La Grande. The freeway
generally mirrors the river’s
meanders for the next eight miles
or so, and although the Grande
Ronde’s flow varies dramatically
through the year, I don’t recall
ever seeing the river look quite so
sluggish.
This of course is the fate of
many rivers during this summer
of drought and persistent heat.
As we exited the freeway onto
state Highway 244, tracing the
Grande Ronde’s course into its
modest canyon (modest compared
with the lower river, anyway,
where the Elbow Creek fire has
been burning, aided by the treach-
erous topography), the river con-
tinued to be conspicuous more for
the dry, smoothly sculpted stones
in its bed than for the water desul-
torily flowing between them.
Our campsite was just 20 feet
or so from the Grande Ronde,
and there too the river was placid.
When I stepped into the water
there was the initial chilly shock
— inevitable when the air tem-
perature is in the low 90s — but
the sensation was brief. After sit-
ting on a boulder for five min-
utes in water up to mid-calf, it felt
tepid and scarcely cool.
Our destination on Sunday
morning, July 25, was what a
topographic map depicted as a
road — albeit the lowest standard
road — that followed the Grande
Ronde’s east fork for a couple
miles upstream from its conflu-
ence with the mainstem.
That intersection is in the
Camp Carson mining district area
east of Vey Meadows.
The road — 5138-010,
according to the map — was
blocked to vehicles, and thor-
oughly, by a tank trap and sev-
eral multi-ton boulders that might
cause the driver of an Abrams
tank to brake.
But I could see what seemed
to be a well-beaten trail on one
side of the old road bed. More
promisingly, I noticed several
logs that had been sawed, evi-
dence that someone thought this
route important enough to spend
time keeping it somewhat clear
of the obstacles that can quickly
turn an enjoyable hike into a skin-
slashing ordeal.
The day was turning hot even
at 10 a.m. — which day during
this summer has not? — but the
See, River/Page B6
Youth pheasant hunts planned this fall
Hunt locations
include Ladd
Marsh, Irrigon,
John Day Valley
EO Media Group
SALEM — Hunters 17
and younger can sign up for
free pheasant hunts hap-
pening around the state this
fall, including events near
La Grande, Irrigon, Ontario
and the John Day Valley.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wild-
life (ODFW) and its part-
ners stock pheasants at
these special hunts that
give youth a head start on
regular pheasant seasons,
which start in October.
Most hunts are at ODFW
wildlife areas in September,
with some scheduled for
October.
Register by logging in
Rick Swart/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Hunters 17 and younger can sign up for free pheasant hunts happening around the state this fall.
to the youth’s account at
MyODFW’s Licensing
page. Then go to “Purchase
from the Catalog” and look
under the Category/ Class/
Workshop / Outdoor Skills.
Hunts are listed alphabeti-
cally by city name. Regis-
tration is only online; it is
not available at license sale
agents.
These events are open
only to youth who have
passed hunter education.
Volunteers bring their
trained hunting dogs to
some events to hunt with
participants. Some events
also host a shooting skills
session before the hunt.
The hunts are free,
though participants need a
valid hunting license ($10
for youth 12 and older, free
for age 11 and under) to
hunt.
Youth hunters age 12-17
also need an upland game
bird validation ($4). Pur-
chase before the event,
online or at a license sales
agent (reminder that ODFW
offices remain closed to
public access until Sept. 1,
2021.) Licenses and valida-
tions will not be sold at the
events.
Some areas will host the
event both Saturday and
Sunday. Youth who register
for one day may hunt stand
by on the other day.
“Youth pheasant hunts
are a great chance for
young hunters to find early
success and put the les-
sons learned in hunter
education to work in the
field,” said Jered Goodwin,
ODFW hunter education
coordinator.
For help signing up, con-
tact Myrna Britton at 503-
947-6028 or by email, Myr-
na.B.Britton@odfw.oregon.
gov.
Event dates and
locations:
• Irrigon Wildlife Area
(between Irrigon and Uma-
tilla), Sept. 25 and Sept. 26.
Sign up for morning or eve-
ning hunt (morning only on
Sunday).
• John Day Valley, Sept.
18 and Sept. 19.
• La Grande, Ladd
Marsh Wildlife Area, Sept.
18 and Sept. 19. No advance
registration required.
• Ontario (on city prop-
erty), Oct. 16 and 17.