OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2021
DAUBLE
JACOBY
Continued from Page B1
Continued from Page B1
the list down to 43. Of that
group, rainbow trout were
tagged with a total of 25
diff erent scientifi c names!
Attributing a new species
name to a locale or a person
helped keep them straight.
Early taxonomic methods
focused on visual character-
istics such as body size, the
counting of fi n rays and gill
rakers, and color, including
spotting patterns. Male and
female salmon (what anglers
term a “buck” and a “hen”)
were sometimes thought to
be diff erent species, as were
juvenile forms and fi sh that
changed their color or size
of jaw at spawning time.
Consider another journal
entry from Lewis and Clark:
“in this neighborhood we
have met with another spe-
cies which does not diff er
from the other in any par-
ticular except in the point of
colour.”
Fast forward to 1989
when a committee of fi sh-
eries scientists took advan-
tage of newly discovered
genetic evidence to recom-
mend the seven species of
Pacifi c salmon and trout we
know today be combined
into a single genus, Onco-
rhynchus. Genetic evidence
emphasizes evolutionary
relationships rather than
physical appearance. Con-
currently with this fi nding,
Oncorhynchus mykiss was
chosen as the scientifi c
name for both the North
American and the Asian, or
mikizha, form of steelhead/
rainbow trout.
Interestingly, the cur-
rent classifi cation scheme
ignores a pronounced dif-
ference between Pacifi c
salmon and Pacifi c trout.
For example, all fi ve species
of Pacifi c salmon (chinook,
coho, sockeye, pink, chum)
die after they return from
the sea to spawn, while the
two species of Pacifi c trout
(rainbow and cutthroat),
hybridize with each other,
may or may not migrate
to the sea, and can spawn
The forests include
both younger tamaracks
that sprouted after the
fi re, as well as pockets of
older trees that escaped
the fl ames.
With my wife, Lisa,
and our kids, Olivia and
Max, I picked a route on
roads on High Mountain,
which rises between the
main and north forks of
Anthony Creek.
The mountain, not-
withstanding its regret-
tably uncreative name, is
not especially high.
Nor is it a single peak.
There are several
minor summits along the
ridgeline and the tallest,
at 6,629 feet, is almost
400 feet below the base
elevation at Anthony
Lakes Mountain Resort.
But dull name and
modest elevation aside,
the slopes of High Moun-
tain are a fi ne place to see
the extent of tamaracks in
this part of the Elkhorns.
We started from the
main road on High Moun-
tain. A network of old
fi re roads branches off the
4380 road, and we fash-
ioned a loop of about
three miles.
About half a mile
from where we parked, at
the junction of the 4380
and 4380-700 roads, we
heard the snarl of what
sounded like several
chain saws.
A four-wheel drive
van was parked along
the road, its roof rack
loaded with plastic gas
containers. On the steep
slope below, a crew of
about 10 workers was cut-
ting and piling the young
trees, mostly white fi rs.
This is part of the East
Face project, a multiyear
eff ort to thin crowded for-
ests. Much of the work is
happening along roads,
where the crews are cre-
ating fuelbreaks — zones
where a summer wild-
fi re, deprived of a dense
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
Adult steelhead exhibit a wide range of colors and spotting patterns
when they enter the freshwater spawning phase of life. A silvery
ocean-caught steelhead would likely be described as a diff erent spe-
cies in the mid-19th century.
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
Juvenile steelhead lose their distinct oval-shaped parr marks when
they swim to the ocean as bright shiny “smolts.” Two centuries ago,
the two life history forms might be considered diff erent species.
more than once (i.e., are
iteroparous).
The logic behind Lewis
and Clark’s moniker
“salmon trout” for steel-
head is easy to reconstruct.
After all, isn’t a steelhead
a large trout that acts like
a salmon? What about the
“white salmon trout?” At
the time of Lewis and Clark,
coho salmon were abundant
throughout the Columbia
River Basin. Coho spawn
rear in tributary streams
and juveniles remain in
fresh water for one or two
years. These attributes
mimic the life history and
behavior of steelhead where
the two species overlap. My
best guess is the charac-
teristic white gum line of
coho salmon triggered the
thought to these explorers.
Not to be forgotten is
the “salmon” of Lewis
and Clark, no doubt the
most important fi sh they
encountered. The Canadian
explorer David Thompson
also used the term to
describe chinook salmon
when he traveled through
the mid-Columbia region in
1812, often adding “small
salmon” to his notes as a
distinction.
Science advances when
new ways of thinking and
innovative techniques are
applied to age old prob-
lems. Consider the words
of the French biologist
Charles Girard, “the method
I follow is the natural, the
true method, that which has
superseded the artifi cial
method of the last century.”
Not the case, it seems,
150 or so years later.
Dennis Dauble is a
retired fi shery scientist,
outdoor writer, presenter
and educator who lives in
Richland, Washington. For
more stories about fi sh and
fi shing in area waters, see
DennisDaubleBooks.com.
IF YOU GO
To get to High Mountain, drive the Anthony Lakes Highway toward the
ski area. About 2.3 miles beyond the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
boundary sign, and just past a sweeping left turn, turn right onto Road
7312, which is marked by a sign reading “Anthony Creek 7.” Drive four
miles and continue straight on Road 4380, which heads steeply uphill.
Follow Road 4380 for about 2.8 miles to a junction with Road 4380-700,
which bears off to the right. There is a brown sign reading “Leaving Area
of Regulated Use.”
Hike Road 4380-700 for about three quarters of a mile, climbing
steadily but gradually. Just after the road levels and makes a sharp right
turn, continue left, and uphill, at an intersection. (The road heading
downslope is 4380-710.) Road 4380-700, which had been relatively
well-maintained to this point, is much less so, but it’s an easy hike. The
road makes one switchback to the left and then rounds a ridge to a
clearing with a fi ne view to the south of slopes rich in tamaracks, and of
the snow-covered peaks of the Elkhorns beyond. There are a few piles
of slash from a forest-thinning operation in the road here, but continue
to the west and the road becomes clear again. It descends for half a
mile or so to another intersection. Head left, and continuing downhill.
This is Road 4380-100, and it connects with the 4380 Road. Turn left and
hike downhill for less than a quarter-mile to the end of the loop at the
4380/4380-700 junction.
fuel load, would be more
likely to slow, giving fi re
crews a chance to douse
the fl ames.
As we climbed higher,
branching onto a diff erent
road, we left the saw-
yers behind. The road
crossed an open slope of
the sort common in this
area — granitic boulders,
part of the massive intru-
sion of the igneous rock
that forms the backbone
of the northern half of the
Elkhorns, and clumps of
chaparral-like snowbrush.
The gap in the trees
also revealed a grand
view south.
In the foreground,
the slopes on the south
side of Anthony Creek
were dotted with bril-
liant tamaracks. Beyond,
the snowy face of Van
Patten Butte rose, and to
its right, looking curious
from this angle and dis-
tance, the stripes of a
few ski runs at Anthony
Lakes.
The viewpoint was
also the high point of our
hike, about 100 feet below
the 6,554-foot knob that
forms one of the central
summits of High Moun-
tain (its apex is about half
a mile to the west).
We descended through
thick forest to another
intersection. Not long
after I noticed, while
scanning the ground for
interesting animal tracks,
an unusually long and
slender pine cone.
It clearly wasn’t the
seed bearer from a pon-
derosa or a lodgepole, the
two most common pines
at this elevation.
I looked around and
saw, growing beside the
road, what I took to be a
white pine — a relatively
rare sight in the Blue
Mountains.
I checked a needle
bundle and was pleased to
count fi ve, confi rming my
identifi cation.
(Whitebark pines
also have fi ve needles
per bundle, but white-
barks rarely grow so low
as this site, about 6,000
feet. Whitebarks are also
distinctive, with thicker
needles than a white
pine has, among other
diff erences.)
I noticed quite a few
juvenile white pines,
interspersed with lodge-
poles, as we continued
our route back to the rig.
The tamaracks were
the highlight of the hike,
to be sure.
But I was pleased to
come across a diff erent
sort of tree that I rarely
see. It was the kind of
happy coincidence that
tends to happen in the
woods.
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