OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2021
STRAWBERRY
Continued from Page B1
Here the highway briefl y veers
from west to south, and the moun-
tain suddenly looms in the wind-
shield. I have seen it from here,
whizzing along at 55 mph, dozens
of times, mantled in snow and
barren in summer, and it never
fails to impress, as a proper
mountain should.
Strawberry Mountain’s prom-
inence has much to do with its
singularity.
Unlike its taller neighboring
ranges, the Elkhorns and the
Wallowas, Strawberry Moun-
tain is isolated, aloof. Although
the peak is part of a larger chunk
of elevated ground — the Straw-
berry Range — no other summit
approaches its lofty position.
By contrast the Elkhorns, and
even more so the Wallowas, con-
stitute a series of major ridges,
each capped with multiple high
points.
Both ranges are indubitably
impressive.
But the sheer expanse of their
topography, the multitude of sum-
mits, denies any individual peak
the prominence that distinguishes
Strawberry Mountain.
A man who’s seven feet tall
doesn’t exactly stand out when
he’s mingling with an NBA team.
But put the same man on the
court with a bunch of middle
schoolers and his height will be
magnifi ed.
So it is with Strawberry
Mountain.
In this sense the peak has more
in common with Mount Hood,
Mount Jeff erson and the other
great volcanoes of the Cascades
than it does with the Elkhorns and
the Wallowas.
Nor is this the only kind of
kinship.
Strawberry Mountain’s origin,
as mentioned, is volcanic, unlike
many of the rocks in the Elk-
horns and Wallowas, which are
sedimentary.
The rock that became Straw-
berry Mountain belched out of
volcanic vents about 15 million
years ago, according to geologists.
This would have been an
unpleasant time to be living in
proto-Oregon.
During that era, part of the
Miocene geologic epoch (24 mil-
lion to 5 million years ago), lava
in volumes unimaginable spewed
forth in many parts of what would
become our state.
The biggest of these, contem-
poraneous but unrelated geolog-
ically to the Strawberry volca-
noes, were the “fl ood” basalts
that fl owed, like hot soup, down
what would become the Columbia
River Gorge.
Many millions of years later,
Ice Age glaciers gouged at the
mountains, grinding away vol-
canic and sedimentary rocks with
equal aplomb, forming the great
U-shaped canyons so conspicuous
in the Elkhorns and Wallowas and
at Steens Mountain.
Glacial ice sculpted the Straw-
berry Range as well.
Among the most notable gla-
cial features is the valley of
Strawberry Creek, a bit east of
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Strawberry Lake was formed when moraines from an Ice Age glacier blocked Strawberry Creek.
Strawberry Mountain itself.
This is also the site of the most
popular trail in the 68,700-acre
Strawberry Mountain Wilderness,
Strawberry Basin.
This is, among much else, the
route to the top of Strawberry
Mountain, an ambitious goal
involving about 13 miles of hiking
and, more notably, an elevation
gain of about 3,300 feet.
But you needn’t invest nearly
so much time, or toil, to appre-
ciate the Strawberry Mountain
Wilderness.
On the last Saturday in Sep-
tember, my wife, Lisa, and I, and
our kids, Olivia, 14, and Max,
10, hiked the trail to two of its
standout spots — Strawberry
Lake and Strawberry Falls.
We covered a little more than
six miles, round trip, and gained
about 1,200 feet of elevation.
It was the quintessential day
during that period when neither
summer nor autumn is completely
in charge.
There were no clouds. In
full sunshine the air might have
been mistaken for July, but at
the instant we reached a patch of
shade cast by a tall trailside tam-
arack, the illusion was gone and
the coolness carried the essence
of October.
If you’ve hiked much in the
Elkhorns or the Wallowas (or
the Greenhorns, for that matter),
the Strawberry Range will seem
familiar.
The forests are the typical
mixture of lodgepole pine and
Douglas-fi r and tamarack, with
copses of willow in the wet spots
and aspen groves, some bur-
nished orange, brightening the
rockslides.
Spring-spawned brooks trickle
across the trail in places, their
water having the customary chill
of high places.
Strawberry Lake, about 1.4
miles from the trailhead, is a
classic alpine lake, fringed by
forest, its blue surface rippled
by the breeze and by the leaps of
brook trout.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Autumn-tinted huckleberry bushes brighten the Strawberry Basin trail.
A trail encircles the lake. We
took the more heavily traveled
east fork, which climbs gradually
through mostly lodgepole pines
to Strawberry Falls, about a mile
past the head of the lake.
The 70-foot falls splash onto
mossy boulders just to the right of
the trail.
From there the trail climbs
more steeply, with a few switch-
backs, to a bridge across Straw-
berry Creek just above the top of
the falls. We hiked a bit farther,
passing the junction with the trail
that leads about a third of a mile
to Little Strawberry Lake.
You have to hike another
half a mile or so, on an increas-
ingly steep grade, to get a view of
Strawberry Mountain itself.
We headed back down. A
little ways below the falls, Max
exclaimed as the bright red head
of a bird zipped across the trail.
It was a pileated woodpecker,
the fi rst I’ve seen in the wild. We
all watched the bird for a few min-
utes as it hopped along logs and
sampled a few lodgepoles, appar-
ently not fi nding any easily acces-
sible insects to make up its lunch.
We, on the other hand, had
beef chunks and Sour Patch Kids.
Which, if I may be so bold, are
tastier than bugs.
Although probably not as
nutritious.
ELEPHANT
Continued from Page B1
Refusing to be seduced
by the sight of the fi rst pool
I encounter, I wade shock-
cold water in old tennis
shoes and jeans, favoring
a fl annel shirt to ward off
the chill. New-spun spider
webs and overhanging
alder restricts casting yet I
remain hopeful for a chance
at one last trout before the
season closes.
The author-naturalist
Roderick Haig-Brown
wrote, “Fall fi shing is a
revival after the quieter
times of summer.” This
change in season leads
to aggressive feeding in
response to declining
water temperature. As if
sensing the need to load up
on high-calorie morsels,
rainbow trout are attracted
to oversize fl y patterns
that resemble the fl opping
action of October caddis-
fl ies. Showcasing vivid parr
marks on silvery fl anks
that fl ash iridescent purple,
native trout are too beau-
tiful to remove from the
water. I carefully release
them so that others might
also thrill to their aggres-
sive strike.
Light is fading after a
brief sojourn up the North
Fork Wilderness trail. I
motor down River Road,
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
Declining water temperatures make trout hungry for oversized fl y patterns.
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
A rustic Adirondack chair sits empty when maple leaves yellow and
begin to fall.
park my truck on a narrow
shoulder, and clamber up
the steep slope to where
Elephant Rock stands tall
on a narrow grassy bench.
Its presence provides per-
manence in a world where
seasons change in response
to an evolving space-time
continuum. The purple fruit
of elderberry hangs like
clusters of stunted Con-
cord grapes from tangles of
brush crowding the roadside
ditch. An upriver breeze
tugs at tired leaves that
cling tenaciously to stream-
side alder; their stored-up
chlorophyll has long since
faded to unmask pigments
of yellow and orange. Fur-
ther upslope, sumac glows
blood red in low light.
Leaning into the hillside
to maintain my balance, I
work up a slanted deer trail
lined with lichen-scarred
rocks. Elephant Rock
appears much larger when
viewed up close, stretching
nearly 10 paces long and
towering twice as high as
this 6-footer (in cowboy
boots, anyway) can reach.
Closing my eyes as if in
silent prayer, I run my hand
across the craggy surface
of its rounded rump and
take delight in the hush of a
river trapped in the narrow
canyon below.
This column is an
excerpt from Dennis
Dauble’s newest book,
“Chasing Ghost Trout,” to
be available in November
from Amazon.com, Keokee-
Books.com, and the website
DennisDaubleBooks.com.
La Grande’s
Certified Master Arborist
Upgraded certification striving
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Starting a list for
Dormant Pruning
Season
M ICHAEL
Master Certified Tree Care
Planting • Pruning • Removal
M. Curtiss PN-7077A
541-786-8463
CCB# 200613
michaeltcurtiss@yahoo.com