Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, April 9, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Playing the
angles
Don’t wait around
to try fly-fishing
GARY
LEWIS
ON THE TRAIL
I
met a guy once, one of the best casters
I ever saw. He could put a fly in your
pocket at 65 feet and then put the fly
in his own pocket on the next cast without
stripping any line. He had learned to fly-cast
at a city-owned casting pond, then perfected
his craft in the backyard. It was 15 years, he
told me, from when he first picked up a fly
rod to when he decided he was good enough
to go fishing. It was some time after that he
caught his first fish. Hey, it worked for him.
Last spring a friend of mine that I started in
fl y-fi shing came out from Alabama to fi sh with
me again. He brought his son along and it was
fun to watch the 25-year-old putting his southern
fl y-fi shing skills to work in Oregon. They
worked on their presentations and their attitude
toward the water and they started to catch fi sh —
rainbows and brown trout.
See, Fishing/Page B2
Brian R. Smith/Contributed Photo
Releasing a fl y-caught brown
trout. Brian R. Smith traveled
from Birmingham, Alabama, to
fi sh several waters in central and
eastern Oregon last May.
Brian R. Smith/Contributed Photo
A brown trout taken on the middle
Deschutes River last spring.
Section of popular road reopens on Umatilla National Forest
Road 32 leads to
Umatilla Forks
campground
EO Media Group
PENDLETON — The
Umatilla National Forest has
reopened a one-mile sec-
tion of a popular road along
the Umatilla River that was
damaged by fl ooding in
February 2020.
The reopened section of
Forest Road 32 runs from
the national forest boundary
near Corporation Guard Sta-
tion, about eight miles east
of Gibbon, to the bridge near
Umatilla Forks campground.
With the road reopened,
Umatilla National Forest
offi cials plan to reopen
part of the campground,
including nine campsites, in
late spring or early summer.
The rest of the campground
will remain closed pending
additional repair work.
Workers fi nished
repairing fl ood damage to
the road in the fall of 2021.
They cleared debris slides
from the road, cleaned
and repaired culverts and
ditches, and removed haz-
ardous trees.
The February 2020
fl ooding, caused by rain
falling on a deep snow-
pack, caused signifi -
cant damage to 14 roads
and trails near the Uma-
tilla, South Fork Walla
Walla and Little Tucannon
rivers on the Umatilla
National Forest.
Road 32 sustained
some of the worst damage,
including fi ve areas where
the road was obliterated.
Crews have been
repairing the road in seg-
ments. Road 32 remains
closed from the bridge
near Umatilla Forks camp-
ground to where the road
turns south toward Ruckel
Junction. Detailed closure
maps are available at http://
www.fs.usda.gov/umatilla
and at all forest offi ces, and
closure signs and barriers
are posted on the ground.
Umatilla National Forest
offi cials urged visitors to
be careful during spring,
when weather and road
conditions can change rap-
idly. Many parts of the
forest lack cell service, and
travelers should be pre-
pared to spend the night by
bringing warm clothing,
food and water. Conditions
are updated on the forest’s
website and Facebook page.
Umatilla National Forest/Contributed Photo
A section of Road 32 on the Umatilla National Forest near Umatilla
Forks campground has reopened following repairs to sections
damaged by fl ooding in February 2020.