OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
PEARL
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022
FALLS
Continued from Page B1
According to the scoff ers, of which there
are many, they’ve come up with derogatory
names such as “The Coffi n,” “Carp 1” or
“The Edmond Fitz Terror.”
One time while walleye fi shing we’d
barely gotten out of the sheltered bay
where the boat launch was and encoun-
tered some gale like winds and 2 to 3 foot
waves. My buddy told me to take him
back. He said he’d seen a pay phone. He’d
call his wife to come get him and I was
free to keep fi shing.
Another time my buddy Ron Spomer
and I were bowfi shing on Lake Lowell.
Well, the winds blew up and we had a good
mile to go to get back to the truck. Ron
was up in the bow singing the Edmond
Fitzgerald song while changing the words
to Edmond Fitz Terror and freelanced in
a few other words. He swears there were
5-foot waves but I think they were only
3½-footers. But it is a little disconcerting
when you only have 2-inches of clearance
in the back.
And then a couple of times the electric
motor died right when I got within 50 feet
of the dock and I’ve blown off into oblivion.
One time on Lake Lowell, luckily there
were two fi remen watching who fi shed me
OVGARD
Continued from Page B1
I still fi sh for pumpkin-
seed regularly, and when
crappie fi shing, I always
know I have a pumpkin-
seed when the panfi sh on
the other end of my line
is actually fi ghting. Since
they’re invasive in more
of their current range than
not, pumpkinseed are vir-
tually unregulated and not
subject to limits in most
areas. Though small, they
are tasty when gutted and
pan-fried, and if scaled
thoroughly, their skin
crisps up nicely. Now, is
it smart to catch and eat
every pumpkinseed in your
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
The author’s buddies may disparage the Black
Pearl, but he has caught a lot of fi sh from the vessel.
out when I fl oated up in the logs and almost
lost everything.
Then multiple times I’ve coasted on
shore with a boat full of water which even
in a little Jon boat can be tough to fl ip over
to dump.
Yes, there are a couple of minor incon-
veniences with operating a little Jon boat
on the high seas. So if someday you’re zip-
ping to the dock trying to beat an incoming
storm and see a semi-fl oating Jon boat,
please stop and rescue the women and kids
off the sinking craft. Don’t worry about me,
I’ve driven it submarine style numerous
times. I’ll be OK.
local pond? Of course not.
If you do this, the bass
will look elsewhere for
dinner while you gorge
yourself, but you shouldn’t
feel guilty for sampling a
few. Roasted and salted,
pumpkin seeds are one of
my favorite snacks, but
pumpkinseeds (the fi sh
is spelled with one word
while the snack has two)
certainly aren’t bad, either.
Best of all, pumpkin-
seed are all over the place
and likely not targeted by
other anglers. So if you
really want to catch fi sh
but don’t like the combat
fi shing of a salmon river,
the bass spawn or a day
trolling for trout, give
pumpkinseeds a try.
In the rapidly warming
waters of late spring,
pumpkinseed just might
become one of your
favorite fi sh. If not, you’re
still utilizing an underap-
preciated fi sh that deserves
the same level of ingenuity
and respect as the humble
cottonseed before it.
█
For similar stories, read the
author’s book, “Fishing Across
America” which is available
for preorder now at https://
bit.ly/3MKucLp. Sign up for
every single CaughtOvgard
column at www.patreon.com/
CaughtOvgard. Read more for free
at caughtovgard.com; contact
luke.ovgard@gmail.com. Thank
you for your continued support of
local journalism.
I can’t help but wonder
way down than it had been
what it would feel like to
less than an hour earlier.
Continued from Page B1
But it wasn’t unpleasant.
be standing on a slippery
rock, knowing that one slip There were teenagers, and
We had stayed overnight would be my last.
a few dogs, but they all
in Troutdale, just a dozen
Rather than hike straight behaved themselves.
or so miles away, and we
It struck me that the
back to the parking lot we
got to the parking lot early
walked up the Larch Moun- factors which have con-
enough — about 7:30 a.m.
vinced me to avoid Mult-
tain trail for half a mile or
— that we almost had our
so. The trail followed Mult- nomah Falls — the
pick of spaces although it
nomah Creek upstream. It’s teeming masses, the wide,
was a sunny Sunday.
a fetching stream, one that blacktopped trail that
We walked the paved
would be a major waterway is a freeway compared
trail to the Benson Bridge,
in arid Eastern Oregon but with the typical mountain
the stone structure that
is merely one of many that path, the familiar vista of
spans Multnomah Creek
have carved channels in the plunging water — ought
to be celebrated rather
between the upper and
immense fl ows of basalt
lower falls. As I stood on
that make up the Columbia than demeaned.
I’m glad there are places
the bridge and felt the chilly River Gorge.
of great natural beauty that
spray from the upper falls
That basalt, interest-
attract people who in most
on my cheeks, I gained a
ingly, is not local.
cases have no interest in
fresh appreciation for the
Rather than erupting
exploring untrammeled
place. Waterfalls might be
from the volcanoes that
wilderness but merely want
commonplace, but then
comprise the Cascade
to see a big waterfall and
so are mountains (at least
Mountains, the basalts in
don’t mind hiking in fl ip-
in the jumbled topog-
the Gorge poured from
fl ops to get there.
raphy of Oregon). Yet out-
vents in Northeastern
I doubt I’ll ever make
standing examples of either Oregon and fl owed west,
Multnomah Falls a reg-
can hardly fail to impress.
a molten river. The rem-
ular stop. But I think I’ll be
Mount Hood is the volcanic nants of those vents
more inclined to pull off the
equivalent to Multnomah
remain as dikes and sills
Falls, both being the subject — swathes of brown stone freeway, to take advantage
of what is in eff ect a rest
of countless photographs,
conspicuous as they slice
area that happens to have
but the view of the moun-
through the white lime-
tain from, say, Timberline
stone and granitic rocks of a 620-foot waterfall, rather
than a copse of trees or a
Lodge inspires a certain
the Wallowas.
fi eld of grass, as its main
awe no matter how often
The trail was consider-
attraction.
you see it.
ably more crowded on the
We continued up the
steep, but paved, trail,
which makes 11 switch-
backs and gains about 800
feet of elevation in a little
more than a mile.
Besides the occasional
Call Us for your
glimpse of the falls, there
is an expansive view of the
Summer
great Columbia River.
Trimming Needs
We had the obliga-
tory stomach-fl uttering
look over the railing of the
observation platform at the
top of the falls. There is
Certified Tree Care
something uniquely com-
Planting • Pruning • Removal
pelling, and frightening,
M. Curtiss PN-7077A
about the short reach of
541-786-8463 CCB# 200613
a stream just before it
michaeltcurtiss@yahoo.com
plunges into the abyss.
La Grande’s
Certified Master Arborist
M ICHAEL
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