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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 2021)
Outdoors Rec B Saturday, September 11, 2021 The Observer & Baker City Herald A mixed bag of forest grouse Gary Lewis/Contributed Photo A ruff ed grouse counts on stillness and its camoufl age for concealment. James Flaherty/Contributed Photo This ruff ed grouse from the Imnaha Unit fl ushed from a tangle of vine maple in a brushy creek bottom. GARY LEWIS ON THE TRAIL D own into the dry canyon and past the spring where the little stream began. Liesl, my pudelpointer, quar- tered back and forth. She crashed down through the alders, through a patch of brush then burst out into the open. When her tail began to fl ag, I closed the gun. She was close to a bird and it likely wouldn’t hold. Like a rocket, it fl ushed out of the tangle of vine maple, straight down the canyon. My gun was up, my cheek on the wood and I saw the bird crumple as it reached the line of the pines. I waded into the brush, calling the dog, feathers fl oating down out of the limbs above me. What had been a September scouting trip for mule deer high in the Imnaha Unit had turned into a grouse hunt. That evening, back at the cabin, I cooked up seven grouse over a Camp Chef back- pack stove, the skinless, boneless meat sautéed with spinach, mush- rooms and mozzarella. Gary Lewis/Contributed Photo A September scouting trip for mule deer or elk can turn into a grouse hunt in the Imnaha Unit. In the morning after glassing for deer, we hunted blue grouse on the ridge top. The birds were beneath tall pine trees where they were picking for nuts in the duff . Grouse hunts are not insignifi - cant in my life. The fi rst time my dad allowed me to tag along on a hunt, it was for grouse. The fi rst game I cooked was grouse. And if I live my life right, maybe my last hunt will be for grouse with an old dog just ahead of me, holding the birds with a rock solid point till I can catch up. We fi nd two types of forest grouse in Eastern Oregon — ruff ed grouse and blues — and it is easy to get a mixed bag for the hunter that knows where to look. Ruff ed grouse are most often found in canyons with a lot of cover — aspens, alders, wil- lows, vine maple, pines and fi r trees. They like a bit of eleva- tion change. A little bench over a spring or a swamp can pay off with looks at a bird or two or three. They fl ash through the timber, off ering brief glimpses and a rush of wings like a heart attack. Blue grouse are found closer Rejoice! It’s hunting season to the tops of the ridges. They seek out patches of berry bushes and peck out the greenery under the spruces, the hemlock and the tall pines. The season for forest grouse runs from Sept. 1 through Jan. 31. Hunters should pack No. 7-1/2s for ruff ed grouse and No. 6s for blue grouse. The daily bag limit is three of each species and nine of each species in possession. Hunters must leave head or one wing attached while in the fi eld and in transit. Grouse hunting access is avail- able on some private lands. Click on https://myodfw.com/articles/ hunting-private-lands-access-hab- itat-program for a list of private lands. Each listing includes man- agement unit, location, huntable species and the access period. Special regulations are listed for each property and can range from walk-in-only to motorized travel on roads posted as open; leave the gates like you found them. ——— Gary Lewis is the author of Bob Nosler Born Ballistic and Fishing Central Oregon and other titles. Gary’s podcast is called Ballistic Chronicles. To contact Gary, visit www.garylewisoutdoors.com TOM CLAYCOMB BASE CAMP F or a lot of people out there it is all doom and gloom. School started back up. Sleepy headed kids who have been staying up until midnight are sud- denly getting jerked out of bed at ungodly hours, thrown into a car and dumped out in front of some strange establishment called school. If they daydream and their thoughts drift off to their summer backpacking and fi shing adventures, suddenly they’re snapped back to reality by the sharp crack of a ruler on their knuckles. And a lot of adults didn’t escape this tribulation transition either. Some of them are the cruel ogres that infl ict such pain upon the kids. Their schedules have been disrupted, too. They’re the teachers. They’ve cruelly been snapped out of a lull, as well. I have fi rsthand experience with the above. I watch it on a daily basis. My wife is a school teacher and my daughter is a college kid and works part-time as a teach- er’s aide. You’d think every year they were 18-year-old kids getting jerked out of a peaceful life and thrown into Marine boot camp. Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo Hunting gives you a good excuse to get in the backcountry and see the prettiest country in the world, including awesome sunsets. See, Hunting/Page B2