SPORTS & OUTDOORS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
A9
To Patagonia and back
By ANN BLOOM
For the Wallowa County Chieftain
Contributed Photo
Jake Reynolds takes aim with one of his custom rifl es.
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
Scratch your
shooting itch with
a custom-built rifl e
ou have been using the ing a wood stock to skeleton-
same old off -the-shelf
izing your bolt or laser engrav-
rifl e for years. It works ing. For a complete list of his
all right, but you just have the
services, check out his website,
itch for something new. A cus- www.reynoldsrifl eworks.com.
tom rifl e that not only looks
One of the services he provides
good but performs better than
is loading custom ammunition
what you have in the closet.
to work with the rifl e he builds
Well, you are in luck.
for you or the pet rifl e
Owned and oper-
you have. Jake cau-
ated by Jake Reyn-
tions, though, that it
olds, Reynolds Rifl e-
is a little more expen-
works is located right
sive than off -the-shelf
here in Grant County
ammo.
and can likely make
While Jake can do
all your rifl e dreams
some truly impressive
come true.
work on an existing
Rod
Growing up with a
rifl e, what he really
Carpenter
dad who was an avid
likes to do is build
hunter and military marksman, super-accurate custom bolt-ac-
Jake was exposed at an early
tion and semiauto rifl es. I had
age to quality rifl es. When he
the pleasure of handling a 6.5
was old enough to hold it up,
PRC he put together. With a
Jake was allowed to use his
carbon fi ber barrel and stock, it
dad’s very own custom rifl e to was nice and light, but smooth
compete in 4-H shooting com- to handle, and shot well. I may
petitions. Jake’s love of shoot-
have coveted just a little bit.
ing fueled his desire to create
If you are looking for
next level rifl es.
something a cut above what
In 2018, Jake decided he
you can fi nd on the gun rack,
needed something special for
it is worth your time to get
elk hunting. With the help of a in touch with Jake. He can
gunsmith friend he put together be reached either through his
his fi rst rifl e, a .300 Ultra Mag
website or by phone or text at
on a Remington 700 action. He 541-620-4256. Let him know
is still waiting on that elk tag,
what you are thinking of, what
but says it worked like a charm components you want to marry
on antelope.
together, and he will work to
He enjoyed building rifl es
make your dream a reality.
so much that in 2020, he took
What is your dream rifl e?
the leap and started Reynolds
Let us know at shootingthe-
Rifl eworks LLC here in Grant
breezebme@gmail.com.
Rod Carpenter is a hus-
County. Jake can do a variety
band, father and huntin’ fool.
of rifl e work, from refurbish-
Y
Blue Mountains
Trail workshops set
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — The
Greater Hells Canyon Coun-
cil is planning a series of
free community engage-
ment workshops to talk with
local residents about the Blue
Mountains Trail, the fi rst
two scheduled in late May in
Sumpter and La Grande.
That’s the 566-mile route
that runs between John Day
and Wallowa Lake State
Park. In between the trail,
which includes existing
trails and roads, along with
short sections of cross-coun-
try travel, passes through all
seven of the federal wilder-
ness areas in Northeast Ore-
gon — Eagle Cap, Hells
Canyon,
Wenaha-Tucan-
non, North Fork Umatilla,
North Fork John Day, Mon-
ument Rock and Strawberry
Mountain.
In the summer and fall of
2020, Renee Patrick, an expe-
rienced long-distance hiker
from Bend, became the fi rst
person to complete a solo
hike of the Blue Mountains
Trail.
In September of that year,
three other hikers — Whitney
La Ruff a, Naomi Hudetz and
Mike Unger — also followed
the entire route.
Jared Kennedy, the devel-
opment director for the
Greater Hells Canyon Coun-
cil and project lead for the
Blue Mountains Trail, is
scheduling the workshops.
The fi rst is set for Wednes-
day, May 25, at the Sumpter
Community Hall, 275 N.
Mill St., from 8:30 a.m. to
12:30 p.m. Light refresh-
ments will be served.
The second workshop will
take place Thursday, May
26, at the Cook Memorial
Library, 2006 Fourth St. in La
Grande, also from 8:30 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m.
To register for either
workshop, go to https://www.
hellscanyon.org/events.
TOM CHRISTENSEN
CHRISTENSEN
TOM
CONSTRUCTION
(541) 410-0557 • (541) 575-0192
CCB# 106077
REMODELS • NEW CONSTRUCTION • POLE BUILDINGS
CONCRETE EXCAVATION • SHEET ROCK • SIDING
ROOFING • FENCES • DECKS • TELESCOPING FORKLIFT SERVICES
ENTERPRISE — It’s called “the great-
est test of horsemanship and wilderness skills
on earth” for a reason. The Gaucho Derby, a
500-kilometer horse race done in 10 days in
Patagonia, is a test of endurance and determi-
nation on the part of both horse and rider.
Brenda Johnson, whose participation in
the race was fi rst reported in the Chieftain in
February, qualifi ed for the race and left for
Argentine Patagonia, in South America, in late
February for the race, which was run in early
March.
Johnson described her experience as
“epic.” She said that was the only word she
could think of to describe it. “It was literally
epic. It is the best word to use,” she said.
She described the terrain as very much
resembling Wallowa County.
“Our mountains are big and beautiful,” she
said. “But those mountains were on a whole
other level. So much wilder. It was humbling.”
One thing she said that surprised her, in
addition to the scope and scale of the scenery,
was how important the other riders were.
“It was impossible to do it alone because of
the intensity of the course and the terrain,” she
said. “Friendships were forged out of necessity
and love.”
Of the 34 original riders who started the
competition, 28 riders crossed the fi nish line.
Six competitors dropped out or were withheld
during the race because of injury or other med-
ical reasons.
“It was nothing like I thought it would be. I
thought I’d pit myself against nature,” she said.
“In addition to navigating the terrain I was
navigating a multicultural social landscape —
it was an amazing human experience.”
However, she did have an opportunity to
test herself against the ravages of nature when,
during a severe windstorm, her tent collapsed,
and she spent the night trying to keep it from
blowing away. It was a night of little sleep.
“It was 3 a.m. and the wind was so bad, my
tent poles snapped like twigs right through my
rainfl y,” she said.
Thankfully, there was no rain, just wind,
she added.
Brenda Johnson/Contributed Photo
Brenda Johnson competed in the endur-
ance horse race called the Gaucho Derby
in South America’s Patagonia from March
3-13, 2022.
Those riders and friendships became even
more vital when Johnson was injured halfway
through the ride. She was dismounting her
horse, a mount she described as challenging,
when the horse bucked. “(I) faceplanted on a
rock and I broke my nose,” she said.
She said there was quite a bit of blood due
to the fact she sustained a laceration in a vein
in her nose and blood was pumping out.
“My race was over,” she said.
She could not continue without being
checked and cleared by a medic.
There were medic and vet checkpoints at
various stages along the race, which was for-
tunate, because within 20 minutes of Johnson
reaching a medic at a vet checkpoint, a more
serious accident occurred when another rider
was kicked in the head by a horse. If it had not
been for his helmet, the accident would have
proven fatal. A medic had already been called
to ride out with her, but due to the seriousness
of the other rider’s injuries (he was knocked
unconscious), a helicopter was called. Between
the medic, a veterinarian, Johnson and some of
the other riders, they provided fi rst aid to the
injured rider during the two hours they waited
for the helicopter to arrive. Both Johnson and
the injured rider were taken to El Calafate,
Argentina, to a waiting ambulance.
Johnson was cleared by the doctor and the
medic on the tarmac and “the doctor sent me
on my way.”
The next morning, the Argentine Army
helicopter crew fl ew the medic and John-
son into Sierra Nevada, a beautiful estancia
(ranch) and one of the horse-change stations.
She stayed in Sierra Nevada for a little over 24
hours and then reunited with the other riders.
She said she was honored to cross the fi nish
line with Kirsteen Thain, the rider from Hong
Kong, whom she had ridden the entire race
with prior to her accident, as well as a group
of riders from Africa, Mexico and France. The
Gaucho Derby has participants from all over
the world.
Johnson said that travel to the start-
ing line went smoothly. Most people spoke
English, and none of her fl ights were canceled,
although she admits there was a moment of
complete panic when the bag containing her
stirrups, leathers and helmet was the very last
bag coming off the plane when she landed in
Patagonia.
“It was the one bag that could not be
replaced,” she said.
Besides the riders, there were about 50
crew members (medics, vets, etc.) and about
50 gauchos (Argentine cowboys) who han-
dled the horses used in the ride. There were
over 300 horses needed from start to fi nish.
Although the riders used maps and GPS
trackers, there were times when they lost their
way due to the terrain, lack of sleep and the
emotional intensity of the ride.
“Oh, yeah. We go so lost,” Johnson said.
Recovering lost ground was time- and
labor-intensive.
After the ride was over, she and a couple
of riders spent several days traveling around
Argentina sight-seeing, but more importantly
using the time to process their experience and
decompress from such an exhausting and
intense experience. She still maintains contact
with the people she met on the trip through
social media.
Finally, given everything she experienced,
would she do it again?
“If I could aff ord it? If someone paid for it?
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat,” she said.
ON THE TRAIL
Hunting the best mayfl y hatches east of the Cascades
few of the big yellow mayfl ies
began to show, struggling at the sur-
face of the dark water then, drying
their wings, breaking free and fl ying.
I switched to a graphite rod on which
I had tied a 3X leader and a big yellow
parachute Hex imitation. My friend Craig
Schuhmann handed me a Floating Hex
Nymph originated by
the late Klamath tyer
Dick Winter. I knotted a
length of tippet material
and fi shed the two fl ies in
tandem.
Late June and early
July mark one of the great
bug events on the Wil-
Gary
liamson River when that
Lewis
largest of the mayfl ies,
the Hexegenia, throw their shadows on the
water. If the Hex hatch happens at all, it hap-
pens at dusk.
A tributary of Upper Klamath Lake, the
Williamson River drains about 3,000 square
miles of southeast Oregon. Connected to the
food-rich lake, the trout migrate out to feed
and then back to cool off in summer.
A 5-mile fl oat off ers time for refl ec-
tion. We watched trains pass, the cars
fl ashing by on the tracks, mirrored in the
river. One image in my mind is a four-
pound rainbow three feet above the sur-
face, its red-banded body refl ected in
the water it has just burst out of at the
moment the fl y came out of its lip. In the
last hour, trout boiled along each bank.
We cast to rise rings. In a summer evening
punctuated by 21 grabs and a dozen bat-
tles and fi ve fi sh brought to my hand, the
hatch was a frantic moment between dusk
and full dark when we measured casts,
lost track of our fl ies and struck at sounds
and splashes.
A
Fishing the hex hatch
The hexegenia hatch on the Williamson
River might be the most well known, but in
June and July, the big bugs can pop on Clear
Lake, Lost Lake, Timothy Lake and Harri-
ett Lake on the slopes of Mount Hood. The
biggest hex hatch I ever witnessed was on
a summer evening on Clear Lake when the
rocks were yellow with bugs and the fi sh
plucked dries lazily off the surface.
Carry two rods, one loaded with a fl oat-
ing line and the other with a sinking line
and a 3X tippet. The dry is best matched by
a No. 10-12 yellow Hex Paradrake or an
Extended Body Hexagenia.
The best fi shing can be on substantial
nymphs like the Red Fox Squirrel Nymph,
Beadhead Wet Hare’s Ear Wet or Dick
Winter’s Floating Hex Nymph. Fish two
nymphs in tandem at fi rst, then switch over
to a dry with a fl oating nymph in tandem.
Green drake
Look at the calendar. If it says May at
the top, an angler should be ready to match
a green drake hatch at any moment. It’s a
short window of opportunity, but it’s the
most important thing happening that week
in the eyes of Drunella grandis and Onco-
rhynchus mykiss gairdneri (the redband
rainbow).
Coincident with the more well publi-
cized salmonfl y hatch on the Deschutes
River, green drake mayfl ies start to appear
in May. By June some trout will pass up a
bigger stonefl y to chase down a green drake.
Green drakes may be more prevalent on the
Metolius River in May and June and a sec-
ond hatch happens on the Metolius in Sep-
tember and October.
The green drake is a sporadic hatch on
most western streams, but it can be abun-
dant on the Metolius and a few others. It is a
good idea to carry dries to match this mayfl y
when the adults could show up any time.
Best bets include the Loop Wing Green
Drake, Electric Green Drake and the CDC
Green Drake Emerger.
Callibaetis
The most reliable mayfl y hatch to follow
is the Callibaetis which shows up in May on
rivers like the Owyhee and the Powder and
is important in the mountains from Anthony
Lakes to East Lake and Paulina through the
end of August.
Once I saw so many callibaetis in Dia-
mond Lake, I thought they would hold me
up if I fell out of the boat. The trout as fat as
footballs were so sated we had to switch to
diff erent fl ies to get them to eat.
One morning in July at Anthony Lake, I
caught 23 trout in two hours on a Callibae-
tis Nymph in tandem with a Rubber-legged
Hare’s Ear. Some of my favorite imitations
include Dexter’s Callibaetis (tied with wood
duck and red fox) and Dexter’s Pheasant
Callibaetis tied with natural pheasant, red
Flashabou and rockchuck fur. One of my
new favorite dries is Mason’s Mighty Mor-
sel Mayfl y (from Rainy’s Flies) which takes
a traditional design and adds a foam sad-
dle for buoyancy, a poly wing and a short
sub tail imitative of a nymphal shuck. The
fl y comes in six diff erent variations: Adams,
blue-winged olive, pale morning dun, pur-
ple, March brown and Callibaetis.
May, June, July and August, these are the
months of the mayfl y. If we are honest, this
is why we fl y fi sh, for the moments when
the trout crash through the surface tension to
eat the fl y. And the refl ections in between.
Gary Lewis is the author of “Fishing
Central Oregon,” “Oregon Lake Maps and
Fishing Guide” and other titles. To contact
Gary, visit www.garylewisoutdoors.com.
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