OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
BLM to replace toilets at two rec sites
EO Media Group
VALE — Workers will replace
toilets at two recreation sites man-
aged by the Bureau of Land Man-
agement’s Vale District later this
month.
Crews will install new vault toi-
lets at Oasis Recreation Site, along
Highway 201 east of Farewell Bend,
and in the north half of the Bob
Creek Recreation Site on the Oregon
side of Hells Canyon Reservoir
north of Oxbow.
Workers will empty and then
demolish the existing toilets at both
sites.
Work will start at Oasis
on Monday, July 18, and on
Wednesday, July 20 at Bob Creek.
The toilet areas at both sites will
be closed through Sunday, July 24,
although the rest of the sites will be
open.
Both Oasis and the north side of
Bob Creek will be closed entirely on
Monday, July 25 while the new toi-
lets are installed.
Both sites will reopen on
Tuesday, July 26.
To check the status of either
site, or for more information, call
541-523-1256.
TRAILS
Continued from Page B1
It was no coincidence
that Cunningham Cove
was her fi rst major task.
Peter Johnson, gen-
eral manager of Anthony
Lakes Outdoor Recre-
ation Association, came
up with the stewardship
project idea while trying
to navigate the long-ne-
glected trail, which starts
near Peavy Cabin, along
the North Fork of the John
Day River, and climbs
through meadows and
along Cunningham Creek
to a junction with the Elk-
horn Crest National Rec-
reation Trail.
This summer’s work
was delayed by lingering
snow, Keating said.
But over the past
couple weeks, Mitts has
cleared the Killamacue
Lake trail, a 3.5-mile route
in the Rock Creek Canyon
west of Haines, on the east
slopes of the Elkhorns.
Mitts has also started
removing logs from the
Baldy Creek trail, in the
North Fork John Day Wil-
derness on the west side of
the Elkhorns.
That will be a major
project, as there are many
logs across the trail,
Keating said.
Other priorities for this
summer include:
• Elkhorn Crest Trail.
Keating said staff
from The Trailhead has
heard from many hikers
about problems along this
24-mile National Recre-
Victoria Mitts/Contributed Photo
A large log lies across the Baldy Creek trail in the North Fork John Day Wilderness southwest of
Anthony Lakes.
ation Trail, which runs
between the Anthony
Lakes Highway on the
north end and Marble
Creek Pass on the south.
Those include fallen
logs as well as missing
signs, Keating said.
The goal this summer
is to clear logs from the
trail and, with infor-
mation from the Wal-
lowa-Whitman, compile a
list of missing signs.
• Martin Bridge trail.
This trail, in the
southern Wallowas, fol-
lows Eagle Creek between
Eagle Forks campground,
north of Richland, and
Martin Bridge.
Last summer The
Trailhead crew cleared
about fi ve miles of the
trail, to a point where
the tread basically
disappeared.
This summer the plan
is to clear brush and trees
from the southern part of
the trail.
• Assisting the Wal-
lowa-Whitman as needed
with trails in the Eagle
Cap Wilderness.
How hikers can help
Keating encourages
hikers to visit the
project’s website —
thetrailheadbakercity.com/
trailhead-stewardship-
project/
The site has updates
about recent trail work,
directions and other
information about
trails, and perhaps most
important, Keating said,
it’s a portal for people to
report what they’ve found
on trails in the Elkhorns
and Wallowas.
Hiker reports help
the staff plan projects
for future years, Keating
said.
SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2022
MOUNTAINS
Continued from Page B1
The butte is the highest point between Baker Valley to the
east and the Elkhorns — not a foothill, exactly, but sort of
an intermediate summit. It’s also a hydrologic divide, with
the Antone Creek drainage to the south and Anthony Creek
to the west and north. The latter stream, which drains from
its namesake alpine lake, follows a glacier-carved canyon
that runs nearly due east until it reaches the base of Gorham
Butte, which forces the stream to fl ow northwest for a few
miles before it resumes its easterly course.
I picked Gorham Butte for the hike mainly because the
route, along a road I didn’t recall ever traveling, was on the
east side of the ridge, and I reasoned, or so I told my wife,
Lisa, and our son, Max, that there would be more cooling
shade.
Which it was.
What I didn’t anticipate was the fresh perspective the road
lent to the familiar peaks of the Elkhorns.
But fi rst we had to climb about 350 vertical feet, on some-
times steep grades, along Forest Road 7320-050. Once the
road reaches the aforementioned saddle, though, it’s either
fl at or slightly downhill.
Just north of the saddle the trees thinned slightly and
the views opened to the west and south. We stopped, and I
needed a few seconds to fi gure out what I was looking at.
The view of Twin Mountain, in particular, was so diff erent
from what I’m used to that I didn’t recognize it right off .
The granitic peaks around Anthony Lakes, sculpted into
horns and pinnacles by Ice Age glaciers, are a reliable land-
mark, but even those familiar peaks weren’t in quite the right
order, so to speak. Once I had picked out Gunsight Mountain
the rest fell into position, as it were.
Yet each summit seemed just strange enough from our
vantage point that I felt as though I were seeing each anew.
Van Patten Butte was broader than I was used to.
Most notably for me, though, was Angell Peak, the spire
that looms above Angell Pass on the Elkhorn Crest Trail
about two miles south of Anthony Lake. The scree slopes on
the peak’s east side were almost completely snow-covered,
and as I processed the scene I realized that I was looking
directly at the spot where the Crest Trail was hacked through
the granitic outcrops and boulders on the climb to the pass.
I knew, even more than several miles away, that the trail
was largely, if not completely, covered by snow that has per-
sisted longer than usual due to the chilly spring.
It was a curious sensation.
But also a pleasant one, rather like encountering a favorite
old friend in an unfamiliar city.
Besides the surprising vista of the Elkhorns, the road is
also a fi ne place to get an overview of the Anthony Burn. In
July and August 1960, a lightning-sparked fi re burned about
20,000 acres between Gorham Butte and the Ladd Canyon
Road. It was one of the larger blazes in Northeastern Oregon
during the 20th century, and in the fi re’s wake much of the
land was colonized by lodgepole pines that, more than a half
a century later, form all but impenetrable thickets over much
of the area.
We could hear the roar of Anthony Creek, still swollen
with snowmelt, several hundred feet below.
It was a beautiful July day — a few harmless cumulus,
pleasantly warm but refreshingly cool in the shade.
I was reminded that although I prefer trails, hiking on
roads — even roads that, like 7320-050, are open to vehicles
— can be rewarding as well.
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